| | | | |  | | By Ruth Reader and Ben Leonard | Presented by Guardant Health | | | | The Supreme Court's decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion forebodes courtroom quagmires for America's tech giants. Google and Facebook can expect battles over everything from abortion service advertising to location data warrants. Model legislation proposed by the National Right to Life Committee, which has already attracted the interest of anti-abortion lawmakers in Indiana and South Carolina, would penalize advertising abortion services to people who live in states where the practice is illegal. Texas and Oklahoma allow civilians to sue anyone who helps a resident get an abortion, creating ambiguity around the legality of advertising there. Activists seeking to help people end their pregnancies in states with restrictions are finding that Facebook and Google have special approval processes for running ads about abortion as well as medications. To block scammers — anyone who might be misrepresenting themselves as an abortion clinic or medication provider— from using their sites, only online pharmacies, telehealth providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers can apply to place ads. Facebook has removed posts that offer to mail abortion pills without a prescription, citing its policy on regulated goods. Even though abortion-rights advocates say they have the First Amendment on their side, the regulatory thicket is bound to grow denser , your host reports. Google already bans abortion advertising in 72 countries where it's illegal. Meanwhile, the tech giants have long dealt with law enforcement requests for evidence in criminal cases. Prosecutors looking to prove abortion cases might turn to Google and Facebook for location data.
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Google says it will delete location data when a mobile device user is near abortion and fertility clinics. | Leon Neal/Getty Images | POLITICO's Alfred Ng reported that 10 states where abortion is illegal issued a collective 5,764 "geofence" warrants to Google between 2018 and 2020. Such location data shows where and when a mobile device was present and helps police investigate persons of interest at a crime scene. The high number of requests suggests that law enforcement in states where abortion is restricted are well versed in seeking out location data. To avoid turning over this information, Google has committed to automatically delete geolocation data around abortion and fertility clinics. Anti-abortion activists are savvy about Google and Facebook's granular geo-targeting abilities. A Massachusetts ad firm once ran into trouble with the state for targeting people in proximity to abortion clinics with ads encouraging them to take their pregnancies to term. After state Attorney General Maura Healey charged Copley Advertising with violating a Massachusetts consumer-protection law, the firm agreed not to target Bay State health care facilities. Welcome back to Future Pulse, where we explore the convergence of health care and technology. Death is getting expensive, so people are DIY-ing their own coffins and "having so much fun!" What do you think? Will you be building your own boat to the afterlife? Share your news, tips and feedback with Ben at bleonard@politico.com or Ruth at rreader@politico.com and follow us on Twitter for the latest @_BenLeonard_ and @RuthReader. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp here .
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Twitter | | | | HEARING TODAY ON PROBLEMS WITH VA'S EHR SYSTEM — The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee will meet at 3 p.m. today to discuss where the agency's efforts to modernize its electronic health record system stand. The $16 billion project has been beset with issues since its launch in 2020. Delays, miscommunication and a dysfunctional rollout have haunted the new system, designed by EHR developer Cerner (now owned by Oracle). The hearing will hopefully elucidate what's next.
| | | STATES JOCKEY FOR ARPA-H HEADQUARTERS — Congress gave the green light to President Joe Biden's idea to create a new agency to bolster "high-risk, high-reward" biomedical research when it passed legislation funding the Health and Human Services Department in March. The law provided $1 billion in seed money but didn't say where the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health should be located. Now, lawmakers and industry groups are lobbying HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for the headquarters. So far, 10 states, from California to Massachusetts, are making the case that they have the best mix of companies, universities and government agencies to complement the new agency. Lawmakers and the Biden administration want the ARPA-H to take more risks and respond more quickly to opportunities than existing agencies that fund health research, like the National Institutes of Health. They hope that will lead to cures, or at least improvements in treatments, for diseases like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
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| Background: Becerra has annoyed lawmakers by announcing he wants to put ARPA-H under the NIH budget to take advantage of existing support infrastructure, like human resources. But that doesn't mean Becerra wants it beholden to NIH or even located near NIH headquarters in Maryland. House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo , a California Democrat, wants a clean break with NIH, and the House passed her bill to make ARPA-H an independent agency last month. It's unclear whether the Senate will take up the measure or when Becerra will settle on the agency's home. UNIFORM TELEHEALTH ACT HEADS TO STATES — An influential commission agreed to propose a bill to states to coordinate state telehealth legislation and expand access to virtual care. The Uniform Law Commission approved the model legislation after years of deliberation among groups, including the Federation of State Medical Boards, the American Medical Association, the Federal Trade Commission and telehealth groups. If states enact the legislation, it would align telehealth regulation and add a new registration system to facilitate care across state borders. Abortion was a point of contention during the proceedings. Some commissioners proposed protecting providers from liability if they offered abortion pills via telehealth appointments, while some hoped the model bill would help law enforcement go after doctors providing abortions. The commission avoided the issue, a decision that may not hold up as states move to ban or restrict the procedure following last month's Supreme Court decision.
| | | PATIENT ACCESS TO RECORDS AND BURNOUT — Regulations from HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology requiring health care organizations to give patients digital access to their records that went into effect last spring haven't caused more clinician burnout, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Pennsylvania found. Health professionals often cite paperwork as a source of stress. But using data from electronic health record giant Epic, the authors of the paper, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , found that time spent keeping records didn't significantly change after the rule change.
| | | | A message from Guardant Health:   | | | | | | FUNDING IS DRYING UP FOR DIGITAL HEALTH — Funding for digital health is down 32 percent from last quarter and nearly 50 percent from the same time last year, according to a report from CB Insights . This quarter, digital health companies have raised a collective $7.1 billion. In the U.S., only one company in the category went public this year, Heart Test Laboratories, and overall deal sizes are also smaller than they were last year. "The volume of companies raising right now is down, as companies with a choice are waiting. Rounds are still getting done, but prices have adjusted," said Ellie Wheeler, a digital health investor at Greycroft. She expects funding to pick up at the end of the year. Bucking the trend, funding for digital health in Europe saw a 6 percent increase. The biggest investment area is in health IT companies, which have attracted $2.8 billion this quarter.
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Akili, who created a video game to help kids with ADHD, hopes to do the same to help people with lupus. | Business Wire | A VIDEO GAME FOR LUPUS — People with a chronic immune disorder who participated in a study published in Lupus were better able to adapt their behavior to changing conditions, showing improved cognitive flexibility after playing a video game from Akili Interactive Labs. Over four weeks, 60 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus demonstrated improved executive functioning and motor speed. SLE is a chronic inflammatory disease that manifests in fatigue and joint pain and can damage the nervous system. This is just the latest foray into gaming-as-medicine by Akili Interactive. The company was the first to get FDA approval for a video game in 2020. That game, EndeavorRx, helps with attention and focus in kids ages 8 to 12 with ADHD. The company is looking into using its technology to treat multiple sclerosis, major depressive disorder and autism spectrum disorder as well as acute cognitive dysfunction related to chemotherapy, surgery and Covid-19.
| | | How the Brazilian butt lift became one of the deadliest surgeries via Bloomberg Biotech executives and health tech execs see big payouts via Stat Facebook is circulating dangerous ads for abortion reversal via The Markup
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