On March 28, 2019, the Council of Europe* issued a new Recommendation on the protection of health-related data. The Recommendation calls on all Council of Europe member states to take steps to ensure that the principles for processing health-related data (in both the public and private sector) set out in the Appendix of the Recommendation … Continue Reading
Following on from the Evidence Standards Framework for DHTs published in December 2018 (the Original Standards, as reported in our previous blog post, here), the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently published a newly updated version of the standards (the Updated Standards, available here). The Updated Standards were produced following feedback … Continue Reading
On March 4, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published two proposed rules to improve patient access to personal health data. The two rules, issued by the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), are intended to increase interoperability … Continue Reading
On 15 February 2019, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) published their Joint Big Data Taskforce’s summary report (available here) setting out recommendations for understanding the acceptability of evidence derived from ‘big data’ in support of the evaluation and supervision of medicines by regulators. The Taskforce has sought to clarify … Continue Reading
As with anything personalized, be it advertising, medicines or training schedules, also personalized nutrition — using information on individual characteristics to develop targeted nutritional advice, products, or services — risks being affected by the feared GDPR. Kristof Van Quathem discusses the topic in Vitafoods’ Insights magazine of January 2019, available here.… Continue Reading
Wearable watches that help consumers obtain a better understanding of their eating patterns; wearable clothes that send signals to treating physicians; smart watches: they are but a few examples of the increasingly available and increasingly sophisticated “wearables” on the EU market. These technologies are an integrated part of many people’s lives, and in some cases … Continue Reading
On 6 December 2018, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) published an opinion (“Opinion”) addressing the European Commission’s recent Communication on the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market (issued 25 April 2018). The EESC is an advisory body of the European Union (“EU”) comprising representatives of workers’ and employers’ … Continue Reading
On December 7, FDA published the much-anticipated “Framework for FDA’s Real-World Evidence Program” for drugs and biological products (the “Framework”). In a statement announcing the Framework, Commissioner Gottlieb recognized the opportunities and challenges of using real-world data (“RWD”) and real-world evidence (“RWE”) to enhance regulatory decision-making and noted that leveraging this information is “a top … Continue Reading
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recently published an evidence standards framework for DHTs (the Standards), available here. It did so through a working group led by NHS England, but supported by representatives from Public Health England, MedCity and DigitalHealth.London. The Standards cover DHTs, such as apps, programs and software … Continue Reading
On 17 October, the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a policy paper entitled “The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care” (the Policy Paper). The Policy Paper outlines the DHSC’s vision to use technology across the health and care system, from “getting the … Continue Reading
On 8 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published a report (available here) setting out the progress it has made towards applying a common data model (CDM) in Europe. The EMA defines a CDM as “a mechanism by which raw data are standardized to a common structure, format and terminology independently from any particular study … Continue Reading
Designing data-driven products and services in compliance with privacy requirements can be a challenging process. Technological innovation enables novel uses of personal data, and companies designing new data-driven products must navigate new, untested, and sometimes unclear requirements of privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These challenges are often particularly acute for companies … Continue Reading
On 5 September, in response to the opportunities presented by data-driven innovations, apps, clinician decision support tools, electronic health care records and advances in technology such as artificial intelligence, the UK Government published a draft “Initial code of conduct for data-driven health and care technology” (Code) for consultation. The Code is designed to be supplementary … Continue Reading
On 1 May, 2018 the Centre for Policy Studies (the “CPS”) published its latest paper on the UK’s National Health Service (the “NHS”) entitled “Powerful Patients, Paperless Systems: How New Technology Can Renew The NHS” (the “Paper”). The Paper advocates a “digital first NHS” that adopts a paperless system and enables patients to take full … Continue Reading
On the April 25, 2018 the European Commission (the “Commission”) adopted a plan of action to enable the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market (the “Communication”), intended to put EU citizens at the centre of the healthcare system. This is to be achieved in three ways: 1. Citizens’ secure access … Continue Reading
Reflecting evidence from 280 witnesses from the government, academia and industry, and nine months of investigation, the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence published its report “AI in the UK: ready, willing and able?” on April 16, 2018 (the Report). The Report considers the future of AI in the UK, from perceived … Continue Reading
On March 6, 2018, CMS announced the MyHealthEData initiative, which aims to give patients easier access to and control over their medical records. Announcing the initiative, CMS Administrator Seema Verma laid out a future where individuals will have access to their health data wherever they go and be able to share data with the push … Continue Reading
On November 16, 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA” or the “Agency”) will hold a public hearing on a proposed approach for sponsors seeking to market devices referencing drugs (“DRDs”) when the drug sponsor does not wish to collaborate with the sponsor of the device. FDA will accept comments to the docket until January … Continue Reading
According to a distinguished panel of lawyers from MSD and Covington & Burling, companies involved in Digital Health deals need to ask themselves the following questions: What data is required to develop and deliver the Digital Health solution, and does your company have sufficient expertise in-house to analyze the data? What happens if your technology … Continue Reading
Although the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month of October has come to a close, it is not too late for corporate counsel and risk managers to be thinking about cyber-risk insurance — an increasingly essential tool in the enterprise risk management toolkit. But a prospective policyholder purchasing cyber insurance for the first time may be hard … Continue Reading
On 14 September 2017, the Committee for Human Medicinal Products (“CHMP”) of the European Medicines Agency adopted ICH Guideline E18 (the “Guideline”) on genomic sampling and the management of genomic data. The Guideline takes effect on 28 February 2018. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (“ICH”) … Continue Reading
On August 30, the UK government published a report by Professor Sir John Bell of Oxford University providing a number of recommendations to government to ensure the long term success of the life sciences sector in the UK (Life Sciences Industry Strategy). This blog post summarises the key recommendations and observations made from a digital … Continue Reading
In the first of a three-part series, Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team answers key questions that companies across the life sciences, technology, and communications industries should be asking as they seek to fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle. Key Regulatory Questions About Digital Health Solutions 1. What are … Continue Reading
At the beginning of August, the D.C. Circuit found that the fact that a data breach has occurred and individual consumer information has been lost may constitute sufficient injury to confer standing on those individual victims at the pleading stage–irrespective of whether any stolen information has been misused. Specifically, Attias, et al. v. CareFirst, Inc., … Continue Reading
