GE Healthcare's ‘careful’ move into AI, not all consumer data is HIPAA-protected, and more top health care news

As tech firms like Amazon and IBM push further into health care, where does that leave legacy industry players like GE Healthcare?

For a company like GE, which markets health care technology like imaging equipment and electronic medical records, it is aiming to make its approach to artificial intelligence in health care more cautious than that of the major tech giants. (Separately, GE last year filed to spin off its health care business, but those plans are no longer “in the forecast” for 2019, GE CEO Larry Culp told investors last month.)

“We’re very careful to ensure that this is done in the right way,” GE Healthcare CEO Kieran Murphy told me this week. “People have a natural suspicion of AI.”

That’s why GE created a set of ethics around how it will and won’t use AI in the health care industry. The ethics focus on four issues: ensuring the safety and privacy of the patient, being a trusted steward of data, creating transparency and guarding against bias. “It’s really to reduce nervousness in the system, particularly in the areas around data privacy and data ownership,” Murphy said.

GE believes it is one of the first health care companies to do this, a spokeswoman said.

In a 2018 perspective published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Stanford University raised a handful of concerns about AI in medicine, arguing that algorithms often contain bias, which can negatively impact patient care, and that physicians shouldn’t become too dependant on using AI decision making, in part because of how it may affect the doctor-patient relationship.

What’s your take? Are ethics principles the right approach to protecting patients in this new era of data?

News I’m Watching

1. Not all health data is protected by HIPAA. That includes health data from wearables, social media or mobile health apps, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Federal Trade Commission regulates information gathered by tech firms directly from consumers. That hasn’t stopped tech firms from considering compliance with HIPAA, which is regulated by HHS. Amazon said its voice assistant Alexa is now HIPAA-compliant. Of the full-time workers at seven Big Tech firms in the U.S., one of the top health care skills they cite on their LinkedIn profiles is HIPAA.

“I'm also sensing a perceived difference in the sensitivity of privacy/information between granting Apple access to your daily health data - heart rate, sleep, steps, exercise patterns, etc. - and granting access to your medical records (lab results, etc.)...Will you confidently grant access to both in the name of convenience?” - Paloma Vazquez, Luna Brand Consulting

2. As the number of male nurses grows, so does the gender pay gap. Research has found that women in all industries are less likely to negotiate than men, and that’s true in nursing as well. A 2018 Nurse.com report found male nurses make roughly $6,000 more per year than female nurses. In addition, male nurses tend to pursue higher paying roles in the emergency room or intensive care unit, according to Fast Company.

“My mom is a retired nurse and she told me that when male nurses were hired it was totally different. THIS is what we don't talk about when we talk about how women just "choose" lower paying fields.” - Kathleen Davis, Fast Company

3. Are health tech startups marketing lifestyle drugs off-label? Hims and Kick Health are reportedly marketing medications off-label for conditions like anxiety and premature ejaculation, according to Bloomberg and The New York Times. Doctors can prescribe drugs off-label; however, drugmakers cannot promote their therapies for uses not approved by the FDA. The startups’ new business models raise questions about regulation of these ads as well as the prescribing relationship between the patients and doctors who use these platforms.

“A business model contingent on high volume of prescription drug sales. Medical consultations in modalities and using technologies not feasible even a few years ago. Billion-dollar valuations. Doctors losing medical licenses. Is this a story of expanded access to care? Or a tale of greed?” - Marc Goldsand, Goldsand Law

What’s your take on this week’s stories? Share your thoughts in the comments, using #TheCheckup.