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Can You Say “Chemputer”?

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By KIM BELLARD

I learned a new word this week: “chemputer.”   It’s not a new word – it’s been around since at least 2012 — but chances are, unless you are a chemist or maybe a synthetic biologist, it’s not a word you knew it either.   Even if you don’t care about chemistry, biology, or, for that matter, etymology, this is something you might want to pay attention to, because it may end up revolutionizing healthcare. 

The term is credited to Professor Lee Cronin of the University of Glascow.  Back in 2012, when he was first discussing the concept, he told The Guardian: “Basically, what Apple did for music, I’d like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs.”

Fast-forward most of a decade and a pandemic, and Dr. Cronin and others are closing in on that goal — although they’ve updated their analogy to “Spotify for chemistry.”

I won’t pretend to understand either the chemistry nor the programming involved, but, simply put, chemputers automate the production of molecules – including prescription drugs, such as, for example, COVID-fighting Remdesivir.  CNBC recently profiled activity in the field, spurred by some new papers from Dr. Cronin and Dr. Nathan Collings of SRI Biosciences. 

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Not Just Faxes

By KIM BELLARD

I missed it when it was first announced in Japan, but fortunately the U.S. mainstream media has finally picked up on the story, with articles in both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal: Japan’s new Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono has “declared war” on fax machines, among other paper-based traditions. 

Wait, what?  “Administrative Reform Minister?”  The U.S., or at least the U.S. healthcare system, has to hear about this. 

Mr. Kono is a well known Japanese politician, including stints as Defense Minister and Foreign Minister.  He is thought of as something of a maverick, at least by Japanese political standards.  New Prime Minister Suga installed Mr. Kono in mid-September, making overhaul of bureaucracy a top priority: “Wherever there are problems, I want all of them brought to Mr. Kono for handling on behalf of the nation.” 

Mr. Kono set up a hotline for people to report government red tape, which was quickly overwhelmed with thousands of examples.  It soon reopened.

It didn’t take long for Mr. Kono to start calling for significant changes.  “To be honest, I don’t think there are many administrative procedures that actually need printing out paper and faxing,” he said in a press conference in late September.  “My job is to clear the road of obstructions to allow the Ferraris and Porsches of digital innovation to speed through.”

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A War on Science is a War on Us

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By KIM BELLARD

We’re in the midst of a major U.S. election, as well as hearings on a Supreme Court vacancy, so people are thinking about litmus tests and single issue voters – the most typical of which is whether someone is “pro-life” or “pro-choice.”  Well, I’m a single issue person too; my litmus test is whether someone believes in evolution. 

I’m pro-science, and these are scary times.

Within the last week there have been editorials in Scientific American, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature – all respected, normally nonpartisan, scientific publications – taking the current Administration to task for its coronavirus response.   Each, in its own way, accuses the Administration of letting politics, not science, drive its response. 

SA urges voters to “think about voting to protect science instead of destroying it.”  They cite, among other examples, Columbia Law School’s Silencing Science Tracker, which “tracks government attempts to restrict or prohibit scientific research, education or discussion, or the publication or use of scientific information, since the November 2016 election.”  Their count is over 450 by now, across a broad range of topics in numerous federal agencies on a variety of topics.   

The SA authors declare:

Science, built on facts and evidence-based analysis, is fundamental to a safe and fair America. Upholding science is not a Democratic or Republican issue.

Similarly, NEJM fears:

Our current leaders have undercut trust in science and in government,4 causing damage that will certainly outlast them. Instead of relying on expertise, the administration has turned to uninformed “opinion leaders” and charlatans who obscure the truth and facilitate the promulgation of outright lies.

Jeff Tollefson, in Nature, warns:

As he seeks re-election on 3 November, Trump’s actions in the face of COVID-19 are just one example of the damage he has inflicted on science and its institutions over the past four years, with repercussions for lives and livelihoods. 

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THCB Gang Episode 27, 10/8

Episode 27 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, October 8th! Watch it below!

Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) was joined by some of our regulars: health futurist Ian Morrison (@seccurve), WTF Health Host Jessica DaMassa (@jessdamassa), writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), patient & entrepreneur Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3), health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn (@healthythinker), and fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey)! We covered the recent presidential & vice-presidential debates, Trump on steroids, what the future of the ACA looks like, how will virtual care change public health, and more.

If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan (@zoykskhan)

Attention, Walmart Patients

By KIM BELLARD

When Walmart announced earlier this summer that it was opening an insurance agency to sell Medicare-related products and services plans, I thought, “that’s it?”  When Walmart announced later in the summer that it was partnering (first with Microsoft, then with Oracle) in the bid to buy TikTok, I thought, “well, isn’t that interesting?”  And when Walmart announced a few days ago that it was partnering with Clover Health to offer Medicare Advantage plans, I thought: “it’s about time.”

You know Walmart.  265 million people (worldwide) shop at its stores each week.  Ninety percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store.  It is estimated that 95% of Americans shop at Walmart during the year.  In over 200 U.S. markets, it accounts for at least 50% of grocery sales.  It is the fifth largest pharmacy chain by revenue. 

And Walmart has been shaking up healthcare for some time.  Way back in 2006, it introduced its $4 Prescriptions program that upended pharmacy pricing.  In 2008, it started offering in-store retail clinics, initially in partnership with hospitals and now operates on its own. 

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Trying to Make AI Less Squirrelly

By KIM BELLARD

You may have missed it, but the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) just announced its first annual Squirrel AI award winner: Regina Barzilay, a professor at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).   In fact, if you’re like me, you may have missed that there was a Squirrel AI award.  But there is, and it’s kind of a big deal, especially for healthcare – as Professor Barzilay’s work illustrates. 

The Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity (Squirrel AI is a Chinese-based AI-powered “adaptive education provider”) “recognizes positive impacts of artificial intelligence to protect, enhance, and improve human life in meaningful ways with long-lived effects.”  The award carries a prize of $1,000,000, which is about the same as a Nobel Prize. 

Yolanda Gil, a past president of AAAI, explained the rationale for the new award: “What we wanted to do with the award is to put out to the public that if we treat AI with fear, then we may not pursue the benefits that AI is having for people.”

Dr. Barzilay has impressive credentials, including a MacArthur Fellowship.   Her expertise is in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, and she focused her interests on healthcare following a breast cancer diagnosis.  “It was the end of 2014, January 2015, I just came back with a totally new vision about the goals of my research and technology development,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “And from there, I was trying to do something tangible, to change the diagnostics and treatment of breast cancer.”

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WeChat to Many, WeDoctor to Some

By KIM BELLARD

You’ve probably heard about TikTok, especially lately.  President Trump wanted a ban on it, and seems to have endorsed a deal for a U.S.-based version of it.  The hundred million U.S. users, and probably their parents, are undoubtedly watching the sequence of events with mixed amusement and concern. 

But you may have paid less attention to what’s been going on with WeChat, another China-based app.  WeChat was part of the original proposed ban, which a federal judge blocked this weekend, hours before it was due to go into effect (the Commerce Department plans to appeal).  The ban is on “transactions,” which, in WeChat’s case, covers a lot of ground. 

TikTok was overlooked by authority figures for a long time because it was mostly used by young people and mostly for what seemed, to them, to be trivial purposes.  Not so with WeChat; it is deeply engrained in users’ lives, including for their health.  

WeChat is owned by Tencent Holdings, one of China’s internet giants.  It has been described as a “Swiss Army knife” app, able to do many tasks – not just messaging and social networking, but also games, shopping, and payments.  You can order food or book travel.  For many users it is a primary source of news, which is part of the problem. 

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THCB Gang Episode 25 9/17

Joining Zoya Khan (@zoyak1594) on Episode 25 of “The THCB Gang” were regulars patient advocate Grace Cordovano (@GraceCordovano), writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), policy & tech expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis), data privacy expert Deven McGraw (@healthprivacy), and guest Rosemarie Day, Founder & CEO of Day Health Strategies (@Rosemarie_Day1). Rosemary’s book “Marching Towards Coverage” is out now. The conversation revolved around new health technology policies, Medicaid Expansion programs, the 2020 election, and the steps to get to universal health coverage. Oh, and you can take Rosemary’s quiz about what type of a health activist you are!

If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan

Healthcare Can Learn From Chess

By KIM BELLARD

Oh, gosh, two of my favorite things are in the news together: Twitch and chess. 

Just kidding.  I barely know what Twitch is, and the last time I played chess was, well, not in this century (and, even then, not well).  But I’m not kidding about their convergence.  Chess has become a big hit on Twitch, especially in these COVID times. 

I figure, if two such seemingly divergent things are meshing, there must be some lessons there, even for healthcare. 

For those of you over, say, fifty, Twitch is an online service that facilitates livestreaming, particularly of gaming.  That is, people watch other people playing games, such Fortnite or League of Legends. 

E-sports, as this is known, have become a big thing; colleges are even giving out scholarships for e-sports.   Major news outlets, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, reported on Twitch re-signing video game star Tyler Blevins, a.k.a “Ninja,” much as they might have reported an NFL team signing a star player. 

As I write, 2.7 million people are livingstreaming on Twitch.  Its all-time concurrent viewers peak is just over 6 million.  There were 1.6 billion hours watched in August, with over 11 billion year-to-date.  It draws more viewers than network television hits. There are 93,000 live channels at this moment. 

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THCB Gang Episode 24!

Episode 24 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, September 10th! Watch it below!

Joining Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) were some of our regulars: WTF Health Host Jessica DaMassa (@jessdamassa), patient & entrepreneur Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3), writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), policy & tech expert Vince Kuraitis (@VinceKuraitis), and guest Mike Magee, a medical historian & health economist (@drmikemagee). The conversation was incredibly wide-ranging and one of the best we’ve had in a while–not the least because Mike Magee gave us a great base with how our non -health system somehow did actually act as a cohesive force in society before tech, then COVID19 broke it up!

If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan