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Apple sees potential profit in Veterans Healthcare Data
Apple is looking at the Department of Veterans Affairs as its way into a larger healthcare information market. And unlike most private health providers, they’re not cloaking their intentions. Read more from The Verge:
This deal with Veterans Affairs would mark a significantly larger investment in the healthcare space for Apple, which has been using its Health app and Apple Watch wearable to try and break into the multi-trillion dollar market.
The Apple Watch measures a user’s heart rate and other fitness metrics, and the newest Series 4 model is capable of performing an electrocardiogram, or EKG, for which it successfully sought FDA approval. Apple has also been allowing patients to share info with specialized medical apps using its CareKit platform, and provides the ResearchKit platform for medical studies. Back in February, it was reported that Apple is launching its own medical clinics for employees and their families, under the AC Wellness brand.
Apple isn’t alone in its quest to become a tech-focused player in the healthcare market, which has resisted efforts from Silicon Valley to improve the availability of patient health records due to a number of technological and privacy hurdles.
‘Groundless’ Charges in Manchester VA
From the New Hampshire Union Leader:
A Trump administration watchdog group concluded that most of the allegations whistleblowers at the Manchester VA Medical Center have made regarding the leadership style of upper management were groundless.
Dr. Michael Mayo-Smith, the VA’s regional network director who was forced into retirement due to fallout from the whistleblower scandal, said he had to hire a lawyer to get this 10-month-old, 25-page report from the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.
“It is somewhat embarrassing the VA took the rather abrupt action against the local and regional leadership only to find out that there was not a basis for it,” Mayo-Smith said during an interview.
A history of unreliable sources and groundless accusations...
From Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven’s piece Unreliable Sources – how political operatives and corporate funders influenced media coverage around veterans healthcare:
A similar story played out last summer at the VA hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire. Last July, the Boston Globe Spotlight Team reported on serious allegations at the Manchester hospital, from botched surgeries to a fly infestation. The investigation led to a string of embarrassing national headlines, the immediate dismissal of top Manchester managers, as well as pledged reforms from agency brass. Concerned Veterans for America highlighted the Manchester report on their “#VAFail” blog.
After the allegations surfaced, the former network director, Dr. Michael Mayo-Smith, penned a scathing op-ed in the Concord Monitor pushing back on the troubling allegations made by the Manchester whistleblowers, noting that the VA had found “no systematic breakdowns in patient care” and graded leadership as “engaged and responsive to problems.”
“Unsubstantiated allegations have come to be accepted as fact,” he wrote. “Careers and reputations have been damaged. Veterans have hesitated in seeking VA services. Individuals have used the allegations for personal and political gain.”
In an interview, Dr. Mayo-Smith poked holes in various allegations made in the Spotlight report, and accused the chief whistleblower, of being “largely driven by political and personal motivations.” A September report from the VA’s Inspector General report found no wrongdoing or neglect at the Manchester hospital.
Dr. Mayo-Smith noted that Manchester administrators were aware of the issues before the Globe report, and had actually submitted ten written reports to national VA leadership describing problems and plans for remediation. When Dr. Mayo-Smith and others looked to push back against the report, they were silenced by national VA press staff.
“The approach that was being taken at the national level was a philosophy of no response,” he said. “When you put this hospital under a microscope, things weren’t perfect. But to say there were serious breakdowns in care was not substantiated.” Read more on Unreliable Sources.
TONIGHT, Nov. 26: Join Suzanne Gordon at Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vermont at 7 p.m. for her latest stop in the Wounds of War Book Tour.
- New York City on Nov. 27 at PNHP
- New York City on Nov. 28 at Weill Cornell Medical School
- New York City on Nov. 29 at Community Church
- St. Paul / Minneapolis on Nov. 30
- Oakland, California on Dec. 11
- Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., California on Dec. 13
- Click here to see all the tour details
A Life Turned Around
A Vietnam veteran living in Detroit struggled with homelessness and PTSD for years. After an intervention from his family, he found himself inside the Detroit VA community. Then he started caring for other veterans. From Crains Detroit Business:
Finally, in 2008, Spencer's sister Belinda and her husband rescued him from an abandoned home where he had lived the past seven years. "I didn't need any help. I didn't want any help. ... They put me in her car. I must have smelled like a ton of garbage.
"'Why you here doing this?' She said, 'You are coming with me.' She tricked me, telling me she had a hot meal. 'Come home with me.' She knew what I liked. Pork chops and rice and corn. I had the plate right in front of me. I dug into it. It took me an hour to eat. I forgot how to use forks and knives," Spencer said.
After a week at his sister's house, Spencer said he had another surprise: A visit to the Detroit VA, a place he didn't want to go because it had doctors. "I was afraid of white coats," he said.
Spencer objected, but dreamed up a plan. He would go to the VA, get a physical, then come home, take some money and leave for his abandoned house. "If they don't let me I would jump off the Belle Isle bridge," he said.
But at the VA, Spencer was surprised again. "I got down here and I was terrified, trembling, and the social worker named Irma (who has since passed away), told me, 'Welcome home, soldier.' I never heard that in my life. I cried. I tell others that now. I never had anybody treat me so nice. The officers were very gentle with me."
No So Automatic Benefits for ALS Veterans
Mishandled benefits claims led to dozens of veterans with Lou Gehrig’s disease without financial support. Read the story at The Washington Post.
Save the Date: November 29 at 10:30 a.m. ET
The House Veterans Affairs Committee will meet to discuss ‘VA’s Development and Implementation of Policy Initiatives.’ Click here for the HVAC post.
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