What You Should Know:

• Magenta Medical, the developer of the world’s smallest heart pump, announced today a $55M financing round led by global healthcare investment manager OrbiMed, with participation from existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Pitango VC, and ALIVE – Israel HealthTech Fund.
• The financing will be used, among other things, to advance the clinical programs of the company’s product in the United States toward its first FDA approval.

Furthering Magenta’s Clinical Programs in Support of FDA Approval For World’s Smallest Heart Pump

Temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is one of the fastest growing markets in interventional cardiology, encompassing devices that aim to augment the output of a failing heart, in the setting of dangerously low blood pressure, while resting the heart and providing a bridge to recovery over a period of hours or days. Existing temporary MCS devices provide limited flow, require an invasive surgical procedure, or both.

Magenta’s percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Device (pLVAD) is a powerful heart pump that is initially folded, inserted through the groin using a small puncture, and expanded for activation inside the left ventricle. The flow of the pump is adjusted based on the clinical circumstances of the patient, up to the entire cardiac output, allowing the heart to rest and the patient to recover. Once the Magenta technology is approved, physicians will be able to rely on a single device to treat the full range of MCS patients, thus eliminating the need to escalate therapy to a new device and subject the patient to unnecessary and invasive replacement procedures.

“Magenta is proud to add OrbiMed to its growing roster of leading MedTech investors as a highly reputable partner for innovative medical device companies,” said Dr. David Israeli, CEO of Magenta Medical. “I am confident that together we can build an organization well-equipped to bring to the market high-impact technology that can potentially address multiple unmet needs in the general cardiology patient population, as well as in many under-served patient groups.”

The potential advantages of Magenta’s high-flow, low-profile device were recognized by the US FDA, resulting in Breakthrough Device Designation for two indications: high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (HR-PCI) and cardiogenic shock (CS). Magenta successfully completed a HR-PCI first-in-human (FIH) study in Tbilisi, Georgia, the results of which were presented at the recent 2022 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in Boston, MA, by Dr. Duane Pinto of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. Building on this experience, Magenta is now preparing to launch its clinical programs in the US, starting with an imminent HR-PCI Early Feasibility Study.

Unpaid caregivers are the backbone of society, providing an essential service, yet often feel invisible and without support. In recent years, that backbone is starting to break with research showing that 70% of caregivers, including parents and caregivers of adults, have at least one significant mental health impact. Even more worrisome, the same study indicated that more than half (52%) of those considered part of the sandwich generation – caring for an aging parent and a child at the same time – have had suicidal thoughts. 

Caring for each other is a foundational part of our humanity – it can be both beautiful and incredibly intense, impacting our work, our relationships, and our health. Now is the time for employers, healthcare organizations, and governments to invest in supporting unpaid caregivers in a sustainable way. That starts with validating a caregiver’s reality, understanding what is driving the intensity around their caregiving, and connecting them to resources for support. Then, using data and analytics, we have the ability to zero in on individual and population-level needs, take purposeful action with broad impact, and intervene before it is too late. 

It’s hard to stay healthy in a sick system

The financial burden of having an illness is often longer lasting than the illness itself. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study, more than half of American adults reported going into debt in the last five years because of medical or dental bills. A quarter of adults with healthcare debt owe more than $5,000. Similarly, new research finds over the last year, cost concerns are the top reasons patients choose to defer or delay care. 

Financial toxicity not only blocks patients from care, but because sick people may be denied access or choose not to seek care due to financial constraints, it also creates worry and stress for family members or caregivers who help pay the bills. Unpaid caregivers may take on debt or work extra jobs to pay for healthcare expenses, all while taking time out of their schedules to go to doctor’s appointments, pick up prescriptions, make meals, and provide other assistance. Monetary costs and lack of time prevent Americans from saving for retirement, investing in their children’s educations, or buying a home. 

However, the impacts of caring for an ill loved one, especially in the case of chronic conditions, are not just financial. The mental and emotional intensity of caregiving also takes an undeniable toll. Where the needs of caregivers are multifaceted and complex, we need experience data to lead us to solutions. 

The power of listening to the people around the patient 

Every time caregivers interact with an organization, whether it be checking in at the hospital, picking up a prescription, or helping a family member apply for disability insurance, organizations have the opportunity to not only identify them as a caregiver but thank them for the role they play in supporting the health of their loved one, but also listen, and provide support. Unfortunately, all too often, organizations limit their listening to the patient only, and in some cases, actually, discard surveys that come from patient caregivers. 

With digital feedback tools and automated listening across channels like social media and online reviews, there is a massive opportunity to hear what caregivers are saying about their experiences. And importantly, many of those caregivers are also healthcare employees. The right analytics technology allows organizations to identify key insights about what caregivers value and need most to keep themselves – and their loved ones – healthy. 

Caring for our caregiving community 

When organizations consistently show that they know and care about those they are serving, trust builds and health outcomes improve. Information about respite care is often lacking, leaving caregivers to feel like they have to do everything themselves. Caregivers stay overwhelmed and resources are underutilized. Today’s healthcare experience conversation is often about patients and employees. As we think about the people behind the scenes holding it all together, who are faced with a multitude of overwhelming tasks, including navigating financial and legal counsel about medical bills, insurance, and options for elderly living arrangements, we can expand our capacity for empathy and, therefore, our ability to act. 

The good news is that change is coming. In recent years, we’ve seen more organizations acting on experience data, creating access to mental health support, delivering food to homes, offering child care services, and investing in caregiver well-being. The number of healthcare startups focused on unpaid caregiving has surged, including platforms that engage caregivers, validate their experiences, connect them with resources, and peer support from those who have been there and made it through. Healthcare surveys or self-service portals are integrated with community services that match individuals to services they need, like housing, counseling, food, employment, grief support, etc. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) even has a Caregiver Support Group, which acknowledges the impact of caregiving on one’s own well-being. 

Understanding what’s driving the intensity around caregiving, and then acting on feedback is the best way to drive empathy at scale and build trust. Collective humanity and the health of our communities will thrive when we take care of each other and ourselves. By thinking more expansively about who healthcare serves, we can make the invisible, unpaid caregiver…seen, honored, and ultimately supported. 

About Dr. Adrienne Boissy

Dr. Adrienne Boissy is the Chief Medical Officer at Qualtrics as well as a practicing neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, where she was formerly the Chief Experience Officer. A healthcare industry pioneer, Adrienne envisions an integrated patient and employee experience in healthcare powered by empathy, technology, co-design and evidence-based research. She publishes extensively on the future of experience design and metrics that matter in human experiences of health.

About Alexandra Drane

Alexandra Drane is co-founder and CEO of ARCHANGELS. She co-founded Eliza Corporation (acquired by HMS Holdings Corp: HMSY), Engage with Grace, and three other companies (all boot-strapped) and has served as a Wellness Expert for Prudential Financial in a film series called “The State of US” that was turned into a national ad campaign. Alexandra serves in several board leadership roles including RAND Health Board of Advisors, the Leadership Council for Rosalynn Carter Institute, the Entrepreneurs Council for The United States of Care, Harvard Medical School’s Executive Council of the Division of Sleep Medicine, C-TAC Board of Advisors, the Trustee Advisory Board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Board of Directors for Open Notes. She believes communities are the front line of health, that caregivers are our country’s greatest asset, and that we need to expand the definition of health to include life.  

The material cost of COVID-19 has been at the center of public discourse since the early days of the pandemic. In 2020, growth in federal government spending on healthcare increased 36 percent, compared to the 5.9 percent bump in 2019. While the distribution of vaccines has allowed for a version of pre-pandemic life to resume, hospitals are still not recovered from the high rates of hospitalizations that occurred in March 2020, and the indirect costs of the pandemic continue to loom over the American population as a result of strained health systems. 

During the early days, the cost of hospitalizing a patient seemed obvious: the sheer volume of long stays, expensive ventilators, a lack of one-size-fits-all treatment solutions, and the pause of elective surgeries. Now, Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on our health systems, but in a more covert way. With only 4% of Americans fully boosted as we move into this winter’s ‘triple-demic’ – and long covid impacting the lives of as many as 16 million people on a daily basis – it’s clear that public health officials need to do more in order to support the American population and our struggling health systems. 

The Cost of Healthcare Provider Burnout 

Across the country, healthcare providers are reporting extreme rates of burnout. It is important to underscore that healthcare providers and hospital systems were stressed prior to Covid-19, but the pandemic has exacerbated it. Employment across healthcare is down 1.3 percent, or 223,000 jobs, from pre-pandemic levels. Over 90 percent of nurses said they are considering quitting their jobs by the end of 2022 in a survey, with 72 percent of nurses stating they had already experienced burnout before March 2020. In addition, the increased stress that doctors have experienced is resulting in worse patient care – with 28% of doctors who reported burnout sharing that the quality of care they are providing has significantly declined. 

We are amid a mass healthcare provider exodus, and, according to estimates, each instance of physician turnover costs healthcare organizations at least $500,000, and each instance of staff registered nurse (RN) turnover costs $46,100. Without proper staffing, hospitals are at risk of closure and patients’ health is at risk of worsening. 

The Cost of Hospital Closures 

Before the pandemic, hospitals closed for several reasons, including insufficient staffing, lack of funding, and/or having a large uninsured patient population. Since March 2020, 21 hospitals across the United States, predominantly in rural areas, have closed. Health systems are still recovering from the significant loss of revenue from canceled appointments – according to a report from The Chartis Center for Rural Health, 82 percent of the rural hospitals surveyed said suspension of outpatient services resulted in a loss of at least $5 million per month. 

So, what happens when hospitals and health systems close? 

Rural areas experience more Covid-19-related deaths than urban communities and public health experts attribute these deaths to the rampant hospital closures, as well as a general lack of healthcare providers. It is a vicious cycle: Covid-19 strains hospital systems, healthcare professionals leave, hospitals close, and more patients will die from infectious diseases like Covid-19, the flu or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – not to mention the other reverberating public health complications that come as a result of these closures. Vaccinations have helped these hospitals stabilize, but to keep up with covid fatigue and the ever-evolving variants we need a variety of treatments in our arsenal. 

More Covid-19 Treatments Will Bolster Struggling Health Systems  

Increasing the number of vaccinated individuals around the world, in addition to broadening access to effective non-vaccine treatments, such as antivirals and monoclonal antibody therapies, will significantly lessen the impact of the disease on individuals and lessen the burden on the healthcare system. Antiviral treatments have proven to reduce hospitalization, but diversity in treatments is essential to keep up with the ever-evolving Covid-19 variants. Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health, was quoted on the effectiveness of antivirals: “If there is anything we know about viruses and antiviral drugs is that eventually, we will see some sort of resistance.” For the time being, antivirals are effective – this is not a call to leverage one type of therapy over another – this is a call to help patients and our health systems survive by equipping healthcare professionals with as many treatments as possible. 

One such treatment that has proven highly effective when applied properly are neutralizing monoclonal antibody therapies. Like antivirals, monoclonal antibodies reduce hospitalization, the risk of death, and shorten the length of the infection – resulting in better patient outcomes and stronger health systems. 

According to Yale Medicine, it is estimated that about three percent of the United States population, or up to 25 million individuals, is considered moderately-to-severely immunocompromised, making them more at risk for serious illness if they contract Covid-19, or other viruses. Monoclonal antibodies are a highly safe and efficacious treatment, which is extremely important for this vulnerable population, especially as a complement to vaccines for prevention. An infusion can reduce the risk of hospitalization by 80 percent or more in a high-risk person, and unlike antivirals, monoclonal antibodies target specific parts of the virus spike protein leading to fewer side effects and interactions with other drugs. 

Collaboration between the government and the biotech industry will be essential for creating a portfolio of therapies to treat a variety of patient profiles who experience a range of Covid-19-related health issues. With our healthcare systems in such a precarious state, investing resources in the development of these treatments will prepare hospitals for future variants that threaten the health of our nation. The hope is that by bulking up our Covid-19 hospital response strategy, our already volatile health system will have a chance to recover, increase individuals’ access to quality healthcare, and ensure a healthier population. 

About Eugene Y. Chan, MD 

Dr. Chan is a physician-inventor. He is currently Chairman, Co-Founder of Abpro, CEO of rHEALTH, and President, CSO of DNA Medicine Institute, a medical innovation laboratory.  He has been honored as Esquire magazine’s Best and Brightest, one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 100 Innovators, and an XPRIZE winner. His work has contributed to the birth of next-generation sequencing, health monitoring in remote environments, and therapeutics. Dr. Chan holds over 60 patents and publications, with work funded by the NIH, NASA, and USAF.  Dr. Chan received an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College summa cum laude in 1996, received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School with honors in 2007, and trained in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He is one of few individuals who has been in zero gravity. 

What You Should Know:

– SURGE Therapeutics (SURGE) recently announced the completion of a $26 million Series A financing led by Camford Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Intuitive Ventures, Pitango HealthTech, 8VC, Alumni Ventures, and the Cancer Research Institute.

– The funds will be used to accelerate the development of the SURGE™ intraoperative immunotherapy approach, expand the team, and initiate clinical trials for its injectable biodegradable hydrogel.

Using Intraoperative Immunotherapy to Expand Horizons in Surgery

SURGE Therapeutics (The Intraoperative Immunotherapy Company™) seeks to dramatically improve cancer patient survival by disrupting how, when, and where cancer immunotherapy is deployed. 

While surgery is the standard of care for patients with solid tumors, surgery can lead to the return and spread of the cancer. Such recurrence and metastasis are very challenging to treat, so the ability to prevent them from manifesting would be highly desirable. To this end, SURGE is developing immunotherapies that can be injected directly into the site of tumor resection (intraoperative immunotherapy), to improve cancer patient survival and, ultimately, the standard of care.

Built upon groundbreaking research conducted in founder and CEO Dr. Michael Goldberg’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School, the SURGE Therapeutics™ injectable biodegradable hydrogel enables extended, localized release of cancer immunotherapy at the site of surgical tumor resection. In multiple aggressive murine models of metastasizing cancer, intraoperative immunotherapy vastly improved survival benefit relative to traditional routes of administration, whether systemic or local. Dr. Goldberg completed his PhD and post-doctoral training at MIT under the mentorship of Robert Langer and Phillip Sharp, respectively.

The proprietary hydrogel has been shown to reduce post-surgical recurrence and metastasis, which account for 90 percent of cancer-related deaths and have been linked to the immune suppression caused by surgery. Reprogramming the body’s response to surgery from immunosuppressive to immunostimulatory can trigger the patient’s immune system to destroy both local and distal residual cancer cells, reducing recurrence and improving survival.  “SURGE seeks to radically redefine the process of care for cancer patients, creating a simple and effective treatment that could potentially be administered during any surgical oncology procedure. SURGE’s novel approach has the potential to usher in a new pillar of cancer immunotherapy that could markedly enhance survival outcomes,” said Robert Langer, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, SURGE Therapeutics.

“Even after a tumor has been removed, it is common for a small number of cancer cells to remain behind, whether at the site of the primary tumor or elsewhere in the body. Indeed, 40% of cancer patients who undergo surgery relapse within five years, so this is a major unmet medical need,” said Dr. Michael Goldberg, CEO & Founder of SURGE Therapeutics. “I left my faculty position at Harvard to focus full-time on developing this innovation, which we believe will improve the standard of care for cancer patients. The Series A financing enables us to advance our proprietary intraoperative immunotherapies into clinical trials so that nobody has to grieve the loss of a loved one owing to cancer recurrence after surgery.”

“At Intuitive Ventures, we look for companies taking minimally invasive care to the next level – SURGE is in the process of putting powerful immunotherapies into the hands of surgeons at a moment of great potential impact for cancer patients,” said Dr. Oliver Keown, M.D., Managing Director of Intuitive Ventures. “We are excited to work alongside Michael and his world-class team as they pioneer the field of localized therapeutics strategically placed and timed to enhance treatment for cancer patients.”

The SURGERx™ platform is designed to improve the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy treatment, concentrating 100 percent of the effective dose where and when it can yield tremendous impact. It also increases the number of addressable patients for highly potent molecules that are currently limited to treatment of accessible lesions via intratumoral injection.

There are differing views on the value of cognitive screening of older adults in a primary care setting. Many providers point to the lack of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s Dementia and related dementias (ADRD) as a reason to not universally screen older adults for cognitive deficits. If I don’t have anything to give my patients to get better, what’s the point in revealing they might be at risk of dementia, or that they have early disease? Is dementia a ‘normal’ or ‘expected’ part of reaching older age? The answers to these questions are complex, but importantly, much more hopeful than we may realize. It is true that age is the strongest risk factor for an Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) diagnosis, the most common form of dementia; 10% of people in their 60s will be diagnosed with AD, but upon reaching their 80s, as much as 40% are diagnosed with AD (leading to approximately half a million cases every year). After age, genetics and family history play a large role in determining our dementia risk. But after that, who we are and how we lead our lives have the greatest impact on our likelihood of developing dementia. Thus, it is a misconception that without disease-modifying treatments, there is not much we can do to fight this terrible disease that robs us of our most valuable possession: our own identities.

Current scientific evidence demonstrates that there are in fact many things we can do to ward off dementia. A study led by a panel of international experts, commissioned by the Lancet, uncovered 12 potentially modifiable risk factors that are responsible for up to 40% of dementia cases worldwide. Perhaps surprisingly, these are related to seemingly simple changes, many of which are already on our ‘radar’ like being more physically active; controlling our weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure; getting treatment for depression; nurturing meaningful social connections; addressing hearing loss; and stopping smoking. If we all took these actions today, we would slash over a third of dementia cases next year. This means that just by taking better care of our own health we could spare 175,000 people in the next year from the pain and suffering that follows an AD diagnosis.

While these numbers are powerful, the most important statistics to us concern our loved ones, and our families. How much can we change about our and their future? Turns out that taking care of our health and lifestyle is the single most important thing we can do to prevent an encounter with dementia down the road, and the time necessary to reap the benefits may surprise you. In 2015, researchers in Finland conducted a now groundbreaking clinical trial, called the FINGER study, with more than 2,500 older adults and demonstrated that engaging in an intensive multi-domain lifestyle intervention (one that included physical exercise, nutritional counseling, brain training and management of vascular risk factors) for two years reduced dementia risk (or prevented dementia) by as much as 30% when compared to good old-fashioned health advice. This decrease in dementia risk is more powerful than any other therapeutic currently approved. 

And even in the presence of cognitive deficits, pursuing such healthy behaviors can reduce the severity of disability. Maintaining healthy behaviors can help, among other things, to ward off frailty, a condition affecting about 40 in every 1000 older adults. Frailty presents as a vulnerability and decline in function across multiple organs. Frail adults struggle with weakness and exhaustion and have a harder time fighting back against common stressors, ranging from a cold to a sprained ankle. Being frail predisposes us to poorer health outcomes and falls, and importantly, robs us of our memory significantly faster. A recent study reported that older adults with cognitive impairment and frailty develop dementia two times faster than those who are not frail. The good news is that following brain-healthy habits like those already discussed, like being more physically active and getting better nutrition, can combat some of the hallmark signs of frailty (weakness, slowness, exhaustion, weight loss, and low physical activity).

But how can we practically prioritize our health and lifestyle in the hectic lives we lead today, and encourage patients to do the same? While lifestyle interventions are powerful and broadly accessible to most people, they also require sustained effort and dedication. Take exercise for example – there is ample evidence on the brain health benefits of walking, a cost-effective and safe option for most, yet many people remain sedentary. Another important lesson from the FINGER study that likely contributed to its success was that the intervention was personalized to the individual. Participant adherence to the 2-year intervention was very high (above 85%), and a broader implication of these findings is that we need to develop frameworks to systematically increase access to these multi-domain personalized lifestyle interventions. 

A promising option in this scenario is to empower primary care providers (PCPs) more, given that they are the first point of contact for many individuals in health systems, and they remain in continuous contact with those who have multiple morbidities. In a time of considerable burnout of the healthcare force, the last thing we need is additional responsibilities for our PCPs. But an important consideration is that PCPs know their patients and are well-positioned to support behavior change in the most effective way and at the earliest point. For example, a systematic review of 48 randomized controlled trials concluded that self-management support interventions in primary care effectively improved various health outcomes for a wide range of lifestyle-related chronic diseases, when compared to usual standard of care. Importantly, the authors identified the ‘active ingredients’ that drove the positive outcomes: knowledge enhancement, independent monitoring of symptoms, a personalized action plan, coping/stress management, monitoring of progress, tailored feedback, and enhanced problem-solving/decision-making. This highlights a unique opportunity to translate learned lessons from other chronic conditions (like hypertension, diabetes and obesity) to the care of ADRDs, which as aforementioned, are also lifestyle-related chronic diseases, although we do not routinely think of them as such. 

Encouragingly, a recent Global Brain Health Survey shows an appetite among individuals to care for their brain health with better lifestyle-related habits. A total of 70% of respondents indicated that memory problems would be a key motivator for them to improve their lifestyle on two conditions: 1) that the changes would be effective and 2) that this advice came from their care team, further strengthening the argument made above. Thus, while the general notion of the importance of healthier lifestyles might not be enough to spur meaningful behavior change, individuals appear more likely to pursue changes if they have a greater awareness of the direct link to their brain health. Critical to this argument is that people’s motivation was directly tied to their awareness of their own brain health, and this requires routine brain health evaluations. More proactive screening of cognitive performance empowers individuals and their care teams and enables a faster translation of great science into better actions and healthier lives. 

A truly transformative impact on a given individual’s dementia risk will require a societal and public health transformation that emphasizes brain health promotion throughout the lifespan and breaks from the somewhat simplistic disease model. Ultimately, the focus has to be on helping individuals, not on treating diseases. An important part of this is to empower PCPs in their work to help their patients help themselves with proactive steps to protect brain health. At the same time, support will be needed through public health policies and incentives to ensure adoption and adherence that include personalized coaching, and a strong social support network. 

On an individual level, we must realize that we – and our loved ones – do not need to do a laundry list of things to protect our brain health, but rather recognize the transformative power that is committing to a healthier life. Furthermore, being an ‘influencer’ is not just something limited to social media platforms; there is scientific evidence that healthy behaviors are infectious, and have the capacity to spread through our communities. In essence, for meaningful change to happen, we need to be both individual and collective brain health ambassadors. 

About Joyce Gomes-Osman,

Joyce Gomes-Osman, PT, Ph.D. is Vice President of Interventional Therapy at Linus Health and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. 

About Alvaro Pascual-Leone

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, Ph.D. is the Chief Medical Officer of Linus Health, a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, a Senior Scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, and the Medical Director of the Deanna and Sidney Wolk Center for Memory Health at Hebrew SeniorLife.

What You Should Know:

– Seven Bridges, a bioinformatics ecosystem provider, announced it is collaborating with the University of São Paulo (USP) and Google Cloud, as well as the Associação Genomas Brasil (Brazil Genome Association), to assist the DNA do Brasil (DNABr) project in building a reference genome that represents the genetic diversity of the Brazilian population.

– The joint effort will advance unbiased precision medicine for underrepresented populations in Brazil through the construction of a representative and accurate genome graph reference. 

DNABr Project Details

Currently, the human reference genome is based primarily on sequencing data acquired from people of European ancestry, making it challenging to identify and treat diseases in the Brazilian population, whose genome is an admixture of Native Americans, Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans. DNABr will use the Seven Bridges GRAF™ Suite to construct an accurate and representative genome graph reference to identify the genetic variations across this heterogeneous and admixed population. Google Cloud will provide significant computational and storage resources to process the vast amounts of whole-genome sequencing data needed to build this ancestry-aware reference.

The DNABr project, led by Lygia da Veiga Pereira, Ph.D., Tábita Hünemeier, Ph.D., Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biosciences at USP, and Alexandre Pereira, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, plans to sequence the genomes of 15,000 Brazilians utilizing blood samples from several longitudinal studies in the country. To date, the first batch of 3,000 genomes have been processed and stored using Google Cloud. “Using standard computational tools, we are already finding a large number of novel variants of African and Native American ancestries within the Brazilian genomes. We want to use the graph-based approach in order to capture the full value of our genomes,” said Dr. Pereira.

GRAF™ re-envisions the human reference genome as a graph instead of a linear haploid DNA sequence. This helps researchers better interrogate DNA sequencing data from diverse populations by overcoming the bias in the reference genome and enabling OR facilitating new genomic variant discovery. This first-of-its-kind, graph-based bioinformatics solution is available globally and supports large human population studies, enables research on multiple underrepresented populations and aids in the development of personalized references for more precise analysis. GRAF™ is able to construct ancestry-aware genome graph references that encompass the genetic architecture of the population of interest, thus making it more accurate than both linear and all-encompassing OR all-inclusive pan-genome approaches.

“With our collective expertise in computational, bioinformatic and genomic sciences, Seven Bridges, along with USP and Google Cloud, aim to advance unbiased precision medicine by overcoming scalability and accuracy challenges that plague current approaches,” said William Moss, CEO, Seven Bridges. “Using our GRAF solution, DNABr researchers now have the technology they need to better understand the genetic variations of the Brazilian people.”

What You Should Know:

–  Volpara Health, an integrated breast care platform assisting in the delivery of personalized patient care has acquired breast cancer risk assessment platform CRA Health.

– CRA Health, LLC, is a breast cancer risk assessment company spinoff from Massachusetts General Hospital — a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. Today the company delivers more than two million assessments annually to women’s imaging clinics.

– CRA software is cloud-based and tightly integrated into EHR systems. CRA receives patient information, including breast density, and returns the risk of breast cancer alongside appropriate recommendations, including whether additional imaging or genetics testing is needed according to established guidelines. Importantly, CRA has electronic interfaces established with all the major genetics companies.

– Under terms of the agreement, Volpara is paying US$18.0M to acquire all outstanding equity of CRA, with a further US$4.0M payable upon its meeting key performance targets over the next 18 months.

– The acquisition will allow Volpara to identify and deliver personalized breast care to more high-risk women across all care settings:  OBGYNs, primary care providers, oncology specialists, and breast centers.

– For more than a decade, Volpara Science, a set of clinically validated algorithms that use AI to assess breast tissue composition and imaging quality, has helped more than 27 percent of all breast centers in the US optimize mammography workflow and deliver personalized care.

Cerner announced some leadership changes promoting long-time associates Travis Dalton to Chief Client & Services Officer and Dan Devers to Chief Legal Counsel. After long, respected, meaningful careers at Cerner, John Peterzalek and Randy Sims will be departing.

Cognoa, the leading pediatric behavioral health company developing diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for children living with autism and other behavioral health conditions appoints Eric B. Mosbrooker as Chief Operations Officer. Mosbrooker will be responsible for overseeing and leading the global commercialization of the company’s product offerings, expanding Cognoa’s operational capabilities and implementing scalable business processes.

Discovery Health Partners announced that Sameer K. Mishra has joined the company as Chief Information Officer. Leveraging his significant health payer technology experience, Mishra will lead Discovery’s dedicated IT staff and evolve the company’s technology platform.

Medical Microinstruments (MMI) SpA, hires Mark Toland as Chief Executive Officer. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry and most recently served as President and CEO of Corindus, a vascular robotics company that Siemens Healthineers acquired for $1.1 billion in 2019. Following the CE mark of MMI’s Symani Surgical System® in 2019 and successfully completing the first human use cases in 2020, Toland will drive the company’s strategic direction from the developmental stage to broad commercialization.

Dr. Marilyn Ritholz and Dr. David Horwitz will join Chairman Eric Milledge on Dario Health’s scientific advisory board. Dr. Ritholz is a psychologist at Joslin Diabetes Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and Dr. Horwitz is the former Global Chief Medical Officer of Johnson and Johnson Diabetes Institute. They will work on advancing Dario’s technical leadership and help to guide the development of its technology roadmap.

DrChrono expands its senior leadership team with two new hires joining the company. Shahram Famorzadeh will be joining as Senior Vice President of Engineering, responsible for scaling DrChrono’s platform to the next level to support its growing network of physicians and practices, and Jason Rasmussen has joined as Senior Vice President of Revenue, contributing his expertise to DrChrono’s financial operations team.

Vave Health announced two additions to its executive team and advisory board to support the company’s accelerated growth in the medical imaging market. David Garner, a long-time veteran of point-of-care ultrasound and previous vice president at Butterfly Network, brings more than 22 years of experience to Vave Health, and Terri Bresenham, founder of TruNorth Health Advisors and recognized global healthcare expert, joins as a member of the company’s advisory board.

Anang Chokshi, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS joins Include Health as Chief Clinical Officer (CCO). Chokshi joins IncludeHealth’s executive team to provide clinical and technical expertise as IncludeHealth expands its portfolio of products. 

Conversion Labs, Inc. appoints licensed personal care and wellness physician and psychiatrist, Dr. Anthony Puopolo, to the new position of chief medical officer. Dr. Puopolo will be responsible for overseeing the company’s rapidly expanding network of state-licensed physicians and ensuring that the company is delivering the highest quality of care.

BioCardia®, Inc. appoints Krisztina Zsebo, Ph.D., a 31-year veteran of the biotech industry, to its Board of Directors following her election at BioCardia’s 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders in December 2020.

Achiko AG appoints biotechnology research scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Morris S. Berrie to the position of President, and business leader in the life science industry Richard Lingard to the position of SVP Commercialization.

ApprioHealth announces the addition of Carl Swart as chief operating officer (COO). Prior to joining ApprioHealth, Swart served as the vice president for revenue cycle for Ensemble Health Partners. Additionally, he spent nearly a decade with Mercy Health as a market vice president.

What You Should Know:

– Google announces the launch of its Google Health Studies App with the first study focused on respiratory illness in partnership with Harvard Medical School & Boston Children’s Hospital.

– Google Health Studies aims to create opportunities for more people to participate in health research. By contributing, you’ll represent your community and start improving the future of health for everyone.

To make it easier for leading research institutions to connect with potential study participants, Google has announced the launch of the Google Health Studies app with the first study focused on respiratory illness. The app allows anyone with an Android phone to participate in health studies by answering survey questions and contributing relevant data. Google Health Studies provides a platform for researchers to reach a large and diverse population so they can better understand human health, while providing the public with greater opportunities to contribute to medical research.

Help Scientists Better Understand Respiratory Diseases

For the first study, Google has partnered with researchers from Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, which will help scientists and public health communities better understand respiratory illnesses, including influenza and COVID-19. The study utilizes federated learning and analytics—a privacy technology that keeps a person’s data stored on the device, while allowing researchers to discover aggregate insights based on encrypted, combined updates from many devices. The  technology examine trends to understand the link between mobility (such as the number of daily trips a person makes outside the home) and the spread of COVID-19, This same approach powers typing predictions on Gboard, without Google seeing what individuals type.

Help Researchers Make Advancements in Medicine and Healthcare

Respiratory Health Study is open to adults in the U.S. and will focus on identifying how types of respiratory illnesses evolve in communities and differ across risk factors such as age, and activities such as travel. Study participants will use the Google Health Studies app to regularly self-report how they feel, what symptoms they may be experiencing, any preventative measures they’ve taken, and additional information such as COVID-19 or influenza test results. By taking part in this study, volunteers can represent their community in medical research, and contribute to global efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With COVID-19 emerging alongside seasonal respiratory pathogens, research is now needed more than ever to develop more effective treatments and mitigation strategies,” says Dr. John Brownstein, professor at Harvard Medical School and Chief Innovation Officer of Boston Children’s Hospital. “Google Health Studies provides people with a secure and easy way to take part in medical research, while letting researchers discover novel epidemiological insights into respiratory diseases.”

The Google Health Studies app is now available in the Google Play Store for download.

The dominant presence of COVID-19 has not meant the absence of cancer, ear infections, heart attacks, chronic pain, or other illnesses that need attention and care. Physicians have continued treatment for all types of maladies, and physician training has continued as well. But this treatment and this training look much different these days. Despite the challenges that came with major COVID shutdowns and changing requirements, the healthcare system and patients have been both creative and resilient in finding robust “temporary” solutions to these challenges. It is now looking like some of these COVID-era transitional steps will be preserved and play a lasting role in the future of medical education and telemedicine. What must be sacrificed to reap the benefits of these new protocols?

The rapid adoption of technology and virtual engagement tools has been both impressive and interesting to watch – Zoom meetings between medical association boards of directors, FaceTime calls between isolated patients and their family members at home, telehealth phone appointments with family practice physicians, or virtual medical conferences through Webex – the increasing reliance on these tools has pushed boundaries and exposed both opportunities and challenges with technology use for the future of healthcare.

As COVID-19 has significantly accelerated the feasibility and acceptance of telehealth care by physicians, patients, and payors, we now see healthcare systems navigating in real-time the complex issues with cybersecurity and patient privacy. Due to waivers, everyday technologies can be utilized right now, including FaceTime, Skype, Facebook Messenger video chat, Google Hangouts, and Zoom, but new regulatory guidance may be needed to develop safe, secure, and patient-friendly telehealth applications for the future. Cyber-security, already an important priority in the healthcare information space, is going to become that much more essential as doctor’s offices and clinics implement even more telehealth protocols faster than they ever would have normally planned or budgeted for.

These changes in practice and patient care have also impacted how controlled substances are prescribed. The Drug Enforcement Agency has modified policies to allow for the remote prescribing of controlled substances during the pandemic. Online counseling, informed consent, and follow-up with patients can be done in a virtual setting. Pill counts can be done in a video call and patients can still have their questions answered regarding their pain therapy, although it is likely that after the crisis, prescribing certain controlled substances may return to in-person visits.   It is important that the regulatory climate continues to evolve at the pace needed to address the changing needs and realities of telehealth in the time of COVID.

While we have all become more comfortable on telehealth platforms, there continues to be an important role for in-person visits. Patients may appreciate the convenience of telemedicine; however, they must understand that it can limit a physician’s ability to perform a thorough examination and possibly reduce the chances of a physician detecting an unexpected complication or condition. 

Moving forward, I expect there will be much greater reliance on telehealth strategies even post-COVID, but it will always have to be balanced with old-fashioned office visits.

Residency training has also experienced a profound shift this year. Conventional teaching approaches have either been cut back or have been canceled due to COVID risks, and reduced access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has limited the amount of time spent with patients being cared for during residency and fellowship programs. But we can’t stop training for the next generation of physicians or providing quality Continuing Medical Education (CME) for practicing physicians. E-learning techniques, such as webinars and online skills training, certainly play a role – and these may offer ways to actually enhance cross-departmental or multidisciplinary collaborative educational sessions. E-learning may be more cost-effective and easier to participate in than traveling to conferences or symposia, but the hands-on learning and deep discussions that can occur in breakout sessions or clinical training modules will need to be replaced somehow. And there must be careful vetting of online content in order to avoid a proliferation of commercially biased information, plagiarized materials, or simply false information. As we all adjust to new settings and styles for learning, there must be purposeful strategies to ensure online lectures are still supported with opportunities for learning from direct patient contact and collegial support.

Despite these concerns and challenges, new models for CME activities actually pose a great opportunity for increased access, cost-effectiveness, and practicality for busy clinicians.

Even before the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed, technological innovation had already begun to change education, healthcare, and even social relationships. The COVID-19 crisis has simply accelerated the drive and interest in these new tools. But while the technological tools and platforms to a large extent existed years before COVID-19, they have never been used as purposefully, as rapidly, or with such intentionality, as they are being used now.

I am sure the shift toward technology and virtual engagement in medicine will not go away when we finally get past the COVID-19 crisis. There will likely be lasting changes with the reliance on distance-medicine techniques for both patient care and physician training. But we must keep a close eye on regulatory frameworks that need to be updated, and make extra efforts to build and maintain patient-physician relationships.

About Shalini Shah, MD

Shalini Shah, MD is Vice-Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, and Enterprise Director of Pain Services, UC Irvine Health.  Dr. Shah completed her residency in Anesthesiology from NYP-Cornell University and a combined fellowship in Adult and Pediatric Chronic Pain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess and Children’s Hospital of Boston, Harvard Medical School. 

Senior isolation is a health risk that affects at least a quarter of seniors over 65. It has become recognized over the past decade as a risk factor for poor aging outcomes including cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, impaired immune function, and even death.

Physical limitations, lack of transportation, and inadequate health literacy, among other social determinants of health (SDOH), further impair access to medical and mental health treatment and preventive care for older adults. These factors combine to increase the impact of chronic comorbidities and acute issues in our nation’s senior population.

COVID-19 exacerbates the negative impacts of social isolation. The consequent need for social distancing and reduced use of the healthcare system due to the risk of potential SARS-CoV-2 exposure are both important factors for seniors. Without timely medical attention, a minor illness or injury quickly deteriorates into a life-threatening situation. And without case management, chronic medical conditions worsen. 

Among Medicare beneficiaries alone, social isolation is the source of $6.7 billion in additional healthcare costs annually. Preventing and addressing loneliness and social isolation are critically important goals for healthcare systems, communities, and national policy.

Organizations across the healthcare spectrum are taking a more holistic view of patients and the approaches used to connect the most vulnerable populations to the healthcare and community resources they need. To support that effort, technology is now available to facilitate analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental circumstances that adversely affect patient health and mitigate the negative impacts of social isolation. 

Addressing Chronic Health Issues and SDOH 

When we think about addressing chronic health issues and SDOH in older adults, it is usually after the fact, not focused on prevention. By the time a person has reached 65 years of age, they may already be suffering from the long-term effects of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension or heart disease. Access points to healthcare for older adults are often in the setting of post-acute care with limited attention to SDOH. The focus is almost wholly limited to the treatment and management of complications versus preventive measures.  

Preventive outreach for older adults begins by focusing on health disparities and targeting patients at the highest risk. Attention must shift to care quality, utilization, and health outcomes through better care coordination and stronger data analytics. Population health management technology is the vehicle to drive this change. 

Bimodal Outreach: Prevention and Follow-Up Interventions

Preventive care includes the identification of high-risk individuals. Once identified, essential steps of contact, outreach, assessment, determination, referral, and follow-up must occur. Actions are performed seamlessly within an organization’s workflows, with automated interventions and triggered alerts. And to establish a true community health record, available healthcare and community resources must be integrated to support these actions. 

Social Support and Outreach through Technology 

Though older adults are moving toward more digitally connected lives, many still face unique barriers to using and adopting new technologies. So how can we use technology to address the issues?

Provide education and training to improve health literacy and access, knowledge of care resources, and access points. Many hospitals and health systems offer day programs that teach seniors how to use a smartphone or tablet to access information and engage in preventive services. For example, connecting home monitoring devices such as digital blood pressure reading helps to keep people out of the ED. 

Use population health and data analytics to identify high-risk patients. Determining which patients are at higher risk requires stratification at specific levels. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 hospitalizations rise with age, from approximately 12 per 100,000 people among those 65 to 74 years old, to 17 per 100,000 for those over 85. And those who recover often have difficulty returning to the same level of physical and mental ability. Predictive analytics tools can target various risk factors including:

– Recent ED visits or hospitalizations

– Presence of multiple chronic conditions

– Depression 

– Food insecurity, housing instability, lack of transportation, and other SDOH 

– Frailty indices such as fall risk

With the capability to identify the top 10% or the top 1% of patients at highest risk, care management becomes more efficient and effective using integrated care coordination platforms to assist staff in conducting outreach and assessments. Efforts to support care coordination workflows are essential, especially with staffing cutbacks, COVID restrictions, and related factors. 

Optimal Use of Care Coordination Tools

Training and education of the healthcare workforce is necessary to maximize the utility of care coordination tools. Users must understand all the capabilities and how to make the most of them. Care coordination technology simplifies workflows, allowing care managers to: 

– Risk-stratify patient populations, identify gaps in care, and develop customized care coordination strategies by taking a holistic view of patient care. 

– Target high-cost, high-risk patients for intervention and ensure that each patient receives the right level of care, at the right time and in the right setting.

– Emphasize prevention, patient self-management, continuity of care and communication between primary care providers, specialists and patients.

This approach helps to identify the resources needed to create community connections that older adults require. Data alone is insufficient. The most effective solution requires a combination of data analytics to identify patients at highest risk, business intelligence to generate interventions and alerts, and care management workflows to support outreach and interventions. 

About Dr. Jenifer Leaf Jaeger 

Dr. Jenifer Leaf Jaeger serves as the Senior Medical Director for HealthEC, a Best in KLAS population health and data analytics company. Jenifer provides clinical oversight to HealthEC’s population health management programs, now with a major focus on COVID-19. She functions at the intersection of healthcare policy, clinical care, and data analytics, translating knowledge into actionable insights for healthcare organizations to improve patient care and health outcomes at a reduced cost.

Prior to HealthEC, Jenifer served as Director, Infectious Disease Bureau and Population Health for the Boston Public Health Commission. She has previously held executive-level and advisory positions at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as academic positions at Harvard Medical School, Boston University School of Medicine, and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

American businesses and their leadership are at a crossroads. COVID-19 has forced us all to re-evaluate how we work and live, while the current protest movements have placed a spotlight on the systemic injustices non-white workers face both in and out of the office. Given that communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, companies serious about doing right by their employees need to act decisively and clearly or risk becoming complicit in the racial and social inequities we so desperately need to correct.

The mass lay-offs and furloughs, erratic work schedules, limited sick leave benefits, and low wages have become a testament of how employers can play a role in the financial fragility and hardship of their employees. Throughout my career as a researcher and educator, I’ve seen institutions successfully make progress around racial/ethnic health disparities. In these instances, leadership has taken decisive action to review how policies and employee regulations—both explicit and implicit—have contributed to the disparities. This process needs to be ongoing, requiring company leadership to have the courage to commit to social change.

In the wake of the current social justice movement, many companies have put out statements of support for the protest movement, highlighting how they are working to address racial injustice. But these statements have been met with skepticism, especially from former and current Black employees, many of whom experienced circumstances where they did voice concerns to managers or leadership, but those concerns were ignored or left in limbo.

We’re seeing this buildup of lack of trust in workplaces across the country, especially in light of the pandemic. Consider this through the lens of reopening. The first step in determining how to open safely for all employees is listening to employees and their unique concerns. If employers truly want to reopen safely, they need to be open to receiving feedback, even when it might be tough to hear.

Once employers have employee opinion and advice, they must devise a plan for addressing their concerns, identifying what arsenal of expertise and partnerships are needed to make sustainable social change and protect employee health. Each company will have a different reopening plan depending on their needs, location, and available resources and will have to use their creativity as employers deal with the pain of serious financial losses while still committing to safeguarding employee health.

Crucially, leadership should evaluate health insurance coverage at every level of the company, as equitable access to healthcare and healthcare information via employers can go a long way in addressing a company’s racial inequalities. Further, access and information are powerful tools for alleviating anxiety, encouraging trust, and diminishing uncertainty, such as:

– Are all your employees covered for medical benefits?

– Do they know what COVID-19 related procedures and treatments are covered under their current plans?

– Can these be expanded to be ready for the next pandemic?

Trust also requires employers to regularly and critically evaluate the solutions they have put into place for employees, especially digital solutions. Digital health evaluations and AI health screening tools can appear to simplify the burden of addressing health or racial concerns.  But, these tools also have faced their own issues around racial and gender bias. The guidance provided by these tools is only as good as the data that informs the platform. Employers must ask hard questions about how comfortable employees are disclosing health information, in addition to interrogating what data is informing their guidance and how confidential is the disclosed information. AI and other digital platforms are not band-aids for companies that are looking to reopen, they are part of a larger action plan that must be informed by employees’ needs and the latest expert guidance around how to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Regardless of the pandemic, companies, and institutions that have historically made any progress around racial diversity and inclusion have actively incorporated social justice into their mission. In the midst of a pandemic, that commitment is even more critical.

The process of addressing disparities can be painful, but if companies are serious about reopening safely, they must face these realities head-on. If the commitment is real, the company evolves to a place with better employee loyalty and a stronger reputation. In today’s world, this progress will literally save lives.

About Margarita Alegría, PhD

Margarita Alegría, PhD is the Chief of the Disparities Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also a member of the Buoy Health Back with Care™ advisory board. She is one of the country’s leading health disparities researchers, and her expertise on the role of health disparities during COVID-19 has been highlighted in publications that include USA Today, The Hill, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 2014, pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom set out to better understand the student experience by sitting in on middle school classes. She sat. She sat some more. She then noticed that a day’s worth of sitting was affecting her ability to focus. She asked “how on Earth do these children tolerate sitting this long?” before spotting all the fidgety, distracted bodies – “well, the short answer is they don’t.”

This phenomenon is rooted in the commonly ignored factor that students are embodied. Those delicate brains we hope to educate are carried around in living, breathing vessels. Those bodies are built to move, but our young people are simply… not. Not enough, at least.

Hanscom’s experience is not unique. Fewer than 1 in 5 students are getting the recommended amount of exercise. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic and students were ushered into the slog of remote learning. It is only getting worse.

Mark Mattson, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, asserts that this sort of lifestyle “betrays the evolutionary history encoded in our genes” (Mattson, p.347). The counter-evolutionary construct of sedentary school days has the potential to make students bored, unfocused, and unhealthy, while contributing to a variety of psychological disorders, including anxiety.

When sedentary behavior is experimentally induced in an otherwise active population, researchers at the University of Mississippi identified an increase in anxiety. Additional studies have found a similar alignment with sedentary behavior and depression.

In Kelly McGonagal’s recent book “The Joy of Movement” she cites one of those studies to highlight that “within one week of becoming more sedentary [study participants] report a 31 percent decline in life satisfaction,” (p. 14). The danger of sedentary behavior will not take long to take hold.

Work to be Done

Some schools have made valiant attempts to incorporate exercise-based strategies, but the work has just begun. Educators who understand this concern are attempting to create active classroom environments. They know that if we use our bodies in the manner in which they were built, studies have shown that exercise can improve memory, attention, and executive control.

There is good work being done out there. Or at least there was…

Those creative classroom environments are over, for the time being. During the remote-learning days of the COVID-19 pandemic, our students are more sedentary than ever before. They have, in a sense, brought their work home with them – or at least their working style.

The difference is, they no longer need to walk the halls and climb stairs to get to their next class. They might adjust their position in their chair before clicking to join the next Zoom meeting.

Sedentary students might not seem like a terrible concern when compared to the thousands of people battling the symptoms of the virus, but we should take care to look closely – these students are at a greater risk of mental health concerns. The CDC takes that concern seriously. The hopelessness, isolation, and sedentary behavior of remote learning combine to pose a very real public health risk.

In addition to mental health concerns, we should also be aware of the longitudinal risk of premature cognitive decline. Should this become their new normal, they will also find themselves at a greater risk of obesity, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. Truly, we are dealing with a public health dilemma.

Whether it is to improve learning and mental health outcomes or to prevent complicated longitudinal health concerns, it is clear that we need to create remote systems that encourage our young people to stay moving.

Next Steps

Communicate with parents. 

The home environment will either enhance or further challenge a student’s wellness. Reach out to parents and ask them to articulate what they want for their children during this time, then provide them with resources to understand why and how they can and should build a healthy, active culture at home. Keep in mind that this is a difficult time for parents as well. Perhaps the entire family would benefit from some additional exercise if only to de-stress!

Communicate with the school administration. 

Educators everywhere are doing their best, though many seem concerned that valuable teaching time has been lost. Curricula will certainly have to be pared down. Goals and outcomes will have to change. It is not advisable to keep students in Zoom meetings and on Canvas for 8 hours per day. Address your concerns with department coordinators and school administration. There is not likely to be an existing policy on this, they will appreciate your feedback.

Communicate with students. 

Ask them where they need support. In a recent survey of High School students (n=129) conducted by the Good Athlete Project, we found that most are now getting sufficient sleep quantity (many approaching 9-10 hours/night), but consistent sleep schedules are increasingly difficult. One student, after admitting that she was going to bed at 4:00 am and waking up at 2:00 pm simply said, “and why not?” Going to bed at 4:00 am is not concern many teachers would have assumed. Educators must reach out to students and identify where they need support now. The methods of the past are in the past.

Communicate with your school’s Physical Education department. 

If there are experts in movement and health on campus, use them as a resource. Many schools have experienced instructors who are already using remote training platforms like TrainHeroic to distribute workouts (and motivation) from afar. Instructors and coaches are also using Google drives, social media, and YouTube to deliver at-home exercise instruction to students. Creativity and initiative have never been more necessary.

This new undertaking will not be easy. That’s okay. This will not be perfect – nothing, in this strange moment, would fit our old standards of perfect. We should still do everything we can to make the most of this moment in time. Take the first step. Then another. Motivate students to get up and move. From there we might address nutrition and sleep. We might teach stress-management strategies. As always, if we can share the habits of health and wellness, then we are truly teaching lessons for a lifetime.

References & Further Reading

Mattson, Mark P., (2012). Evolutionary Aspects of Human Exercise – Born to Run Purposefully. Ageing Research Review, 11(3), 347-352.

How Exercise Effects Your Brain; Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-exercise-affects-your-brain/

Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking; Harvard Medical School: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110

Organic Fitness: Physical Activity Consistent with our Hunter-Gatherer Heritage; The Physician and Sports Medicine: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3810/psm.2010.12.1820

Prevalence of US Youth (12-17 Years) Meeting Recommended Levels of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity: NHANES; American Heart Association: https://healthmetrics.heart.org/prevalence-of-us-youth-12-17-years-meeting-recommended-levels-of-moderate-to-vigorous-physical-activity-nhanes/

Good Athlete Podcast, Episode 87 with John Ratey: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/good-athlete-project/good-athlete-podcast/e/66562976

Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases; Comprehensive Physiology: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242018403_Lack_of_Exercise_Is_a_Major_Cause_of_Chronic_Diseases

About Jim Davis

Jim Davis is the Director of the Good Athlete Project and a graduate of Harvard University, Northwestern University, and Knox College. Jim is a former professional football player, current coach, and nationally renowned speaker. Jim’s written work has appeared in the Harvard Crimson, the Psychologist (British Psychological Association), and World of Psychology, among other locations. To schedule a team workshop or professional consult, find Jim at goodathleteproject.com

What You Should Know:

– The Veterans Health Administration has selected Ontrak in collaboration with Harvard Medical School and Brown University to transform suicide prevention care for veterans.

– Leveraging AI developed by a Harvard Medical School professor and the core analytics of the Ontrak platform, the three-year study will look at the effect of intensive care coaching in addition to the standard of care for veterans at high risk of suicide after inpatient hospitalization at a psychiatric hospital. The trial will include 850 patients at six VA hospitals.

– Suicide prevention is a focus for the military as well as for the population as a whole as the U.S. grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ontrak, Inc., an AI-powered and telehealth-enabled, virtualized healthcare company, announced a cooperative research and development agreement with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to conduct a 3-year research study on the effect of intensive care coaching in addition to the standard of care for Veterans at high risk of suicide-related behaviors after psychiatric hospital.

Research Study Details

The study will leverage AI developed by Dr. Ronald Kessler of the Harvard Medical School, as well as the core analytics of the Ontrak platform. Dr. Kessler is the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a principal in the STARRS Longitudinal Study of suicide prevention among US Army soldiers. “We are excited to have Ontrak helping us evaluate the effects of an intensive intervention to prevent suicidal behaviors among Veterans at very high risk,” stated Dr. Kessler.

 Why It Matters

Suicidal ideation has been elevated since the pandemic and the CDC reported on August 14 that a survey of U.S. adults in June 2020 indicated that 11% had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days, which was twice as high as in the previous 12 month period.

Addressing Veteran suicide is a top VHA priority and Ontrak is proud to apply their AI and virtual care coaching model in a trial of 850 patients at 6 VHA hospitals selected from a total of 98 in the country. This study has the potential to not only reduce suicide risk but also to produce secondary reductions in risk through interventions that address co-occurring medical conditions.

Dr. Judy Feld, Medical Director of Ontrak, stated, “Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. with rates steadily increasing over the past decade and worsening during the Covid-19 pandemic. We know that individuals with behavioral health conditions such as depression, substance use disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder are at higher risk for suicidal ideation or attempt. Importantly, the rate of suicide among our country’s military Vets is double that of non-Veterans. As a pioneer in the development of evidence-based interventions for engaging individuals in care for anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders, Ontrak is honored to partner with the VHA healthcare system and collaborators from Harvard Medical School and Brown University to advance the medical community’s understanding of the most impactful case management for Veterans at high risk of suicide after inpatient hospitalization.”

What You Should Know:

– Fern Health will reveal a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Mass General Hospital where it will inform existing and future digitally-delivered pain management programs through the marriage of AI + predictive analytics with 10 million de-identified Mass General patient records.

– MGH will validate emerging Fern Health products and pilot new products in clinical environments, setting the stage for Fern expansion into all aspects of non-invasive multimodal pain management.

Fern Health, a digital health company pioneering virtual musculoskeletal pain programs and pain neuroscience education through employers, announced that it has expanded its collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the MGH Center for Innovation in Digital HealthCare (CIDH). MGH is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and home to one of the world’s leading pain management clinics.

Fern Health’s relationship with MGH, formed 18 months ago, will now broaden to entail a multi-year collaboration in which MGH will validate emerging Fern Health product lines, pilot new products in a clinical setting, and investigate new scientific approaches to pain management.

The expansion supports Fern Health’s long-term vision of democratizing access to non-invasive multimodal pain management. Fern Health’s current product suite, which includes an evidence-based, digitally delivered musculoskeletal (MSK) pain management program, was originally developed with experts from within Mass General, in consultation with their clinical collaborators at the world-renowned Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. Fern’s biopsychosocial pain management solution was validated with the clinical rigor of MGH’s renowned hospital-based research enterprise.

“There are a multitude of gaps in the U.S. healthcare system that unfortunately fail our patients with chronic pain, from lack of access to high-quality pain care to the proliferation of costly and often ineffective treatments,” said Mihir M. Kamdar, MD, MGH Pain Physician and Digital Health Advisor. “Evidence-based models of care are still rare in digital health solutions even though they have the potential to address these gaps and give clinicians innovative and effective care options for their patients.”

Leverage Data-Driven Insights from De-Identified Patient Data

Fern Health will leverage clinical validation and implementation science, clinical protocol development, access to data-driven insights derived from de-identified patient data, third-party corroboration for peer-review publications, and FDA approval processes. 

“By evaluating digital health tools in a real-world clinical setting, we can provide distinctive insights, understand user preferences, and validate clinical protocols for optimal implementation and outcomes,” added Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, Senior Advisor, Virtual Care, Mass General Brigham; Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School; and Senior Advisor, MGH Center for Innovation in Digital HealthCare. “This collaboration is designed to help advance pain management through digitally-delivered personalized exercise therapy, education, and health coaching—which early results suggest is occurring.” Dr. Kvedar is also President of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).

Expansion into All Aspects of Non-Invasive Multimodal Pain Management

The collaboration also gives Fern Health substantial clinical and scientific data to expand into the broader ecosystem of digitally-delivered pain management platforms: 

– The Fern user experience will replicate how a patient might experience evidence-based, personalized treatment at a hospital-based pain management clinic. Rather than delivered in-person, treatment is delivered digitally and is accessible from anywhere.

– Informed by predictive analytics and an expansive MGH data set of 10 million de-identified patient records, personalized, evidence-based Fern patient treatment plans will leapfrog the performance of “one-size-fits-all” pain management platforms that are limited to publicly available data or their own user data.

– The collaboration will form the foundation from which Fern will launch new products and services rooted in collaborative care aimed at treating the whole person across physical, emotional, and behavioral considerations.

Why It Matters

One out of every two people suffer from MSK pain and the U.S. spends $380 billion on MSK conditions each year, contributing to MSK pain being the top driver of employer healthcare costs. Fern Health eases the burden on employers who face daunting pain management treatment economics. Provided as a benefits add-on for self-insured employers, Fern Health offers a biopsychosocial approach to pain management, including personalized restorative therapy, pain neuroscience education and virtual 1:1 health coaching. The company is currently engaged in pilot programs with several mid-size and large employers spanning the professional services, manufacturing and transportation sectors.

“At least half of the population suffers from physical pain and its cascade of effects across social, mental and emotional well-being,” said Travis Bond, CEO, Fern Health. “This initiative marries science, clinical rigor, artificial intelligence and incredibly rich historical patient data sets with digital care delivery. It’s a huge first step into a better future for pain management science and for the millions of people living with musculoskeletal pain today.”