On September 2, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced a new “Health Apps” feature on the HHS.gov website. The new website, which replaces the OCR’s Health App Developer Portal, highlights existing guidance for mobile health (“mHealth”) apps regarding the Health
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HHS Clarifies HIPAA Liability for EHR System Developers that Transfer Data to Health Apps
On Friday, April 19, 2019, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) explained in an FAQ the circumstances under which electronic health record (EHR) systems may be subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) liability for an
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Key Takeaways from FDA’s Framework for Real-World Evidence for Pharmaceuticals
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 strategic priority for the FDA.” FDA opened a docket for public comments on the Framework through February 5, 2019.
The Framework focuses in particular on the use of RWE to support regulatory decisions about effectiveness. The agency outlines three considerations that will guide its overall RWE Program and inform the agency’s assessment of individual drug applications. The Framework also offers background on the agency’s previous use and current initiatives with respect to RWE and related topics, such as innovative clinical trial designs. This blog post provides an overview of FDA’s proposal and highlights a few initial takeaways noted by Covington’s Digital Health team.Continue Reading Key Takeaways from FDA’s Framework for Real-World Evidence for Pharmaceuticals
Significant FDA Digital Health Policy Development for Prescription Drug Sponsors
As previewed by Commissioner Gottlieb several months ago (see our earlier post here), FDA published a notice in the Federal Register on November 20, 2018, to propose a new framework for “prescription drug-use-related software.” The Agency defines this digital health category widely as software disseminated by a prescription drug sponsor for use with the sponsor’s prescription drug(s). Last spring, the Commissioner stated that FDA would be seeking input “on how to support the development of digital health tools that are included as part of approved drugs.” The goal in establishing the framework, Gottlieb stated, would be “to develop an efficient pathway for the review and approval of digital health tools as part of drug review, so that these tools reach their full potential to help us treat illness and disease, and encourage synergies between software and therapeutics that meet FDA’s gold standard for safety and effectiveness.”
This policy development is significant, not only because it is one of CDER’s first policy statements on digital health associated with pharmaceuticals (see a few of our earlier posts about pharma-related digital health here and here), but also because it implicates a broad range of information that could be made available by prescription drug sponsors through software used with their products. We encourage prescription drug sponsors with any interest in providing digital health solutions, including through collaborations, to review the Federal Register notice and consider submitting comments to FDA.
Here are a few key takeaways from FDA’s notice:
- Under the proposed framework, software with the same drug-related functionalities will be subject to different regulatory approaches by FDA, depending on the developer of the software. FDA will apply the proposed framework to prescription drug-user-related software developed by or on behalf of pharmaceutical manufacturers, and a different approach to drug-related software developed “independently” by third-party software developers and other entities that are not prescription drug sponsors.
- It is unclear from the notice how the proposed framework, including the evidentiary standards described in the Federal Register notice, will align with other FDA initiatives such as the use of real-world evidence for drug development and the pre-certification program (see our earlier post here).
- An important question for prescription drug sponsors in particular is whether the proposed framework will encourage continued digital health innovation, including through collaborations, or whether FDA’s proposal will create challenges that may discourage advances in this area.
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AI Update: Medical Software and Preemption
In light of the rapidly expanding field of medical software technology, and its recognition that traditional approval mechanisms for hardware-based medical devices may not be well suited to regulating such technology, FDA is piloting a new, streamlined regulatory approach for digital health technologies. The initiative, currently a “working model” and
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Latest NIST Draft Report a Call to Action for Federal Agencies and Private Companies
Inflection Point for IoT
In a relatively short amount of time, the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its applications— from smart cars to the myriad of interconnected sensors in the General Service Administration building reminiscent of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey— has rapidly proliferated, providing
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Pharmaceutical Digital Health Innovators Take Note: FDA Public Hearing on an Innovative Approach to Devices Referencing Drugs
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 15, 2018.
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FDA Releases Details and Timelines in Its Digital Health Innovation Action Plan
On July 27, FDA published its Digital Health Innovation Action Plan. The plan provides details and timelines for the agency’s Digital Health Innovation Plan, announced by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb last month.
The action plan describes the agency’s “next steps” over the coming year to “encourage digital health innovation
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ICO Rules UK Hospital-DeepMind Trial Failed to Comply with UK Data Protection Law
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), which enforces data protection legislation in the UK, has ruled that the NHS Royal Free Foundation Trust (“Royal Free”), which manages a London hospital, failed to comply with the UK Data Protection Act 1998 in providing 1.6 million patient records to Google DeepMind (“DeepMind”), requiring the Royal Free to sign an undertaking committing to changes to ensure it is acting in line with the UK Data Protection Act.
On September 30, 2015, the Royal Free entered into an agreement with Google UK Limited (an affiliate of DeepMind) under which DeepMind would process approximately 1.6 million partial patient records, containing identifiable information on persons who had presented for treatment in the previous five years together with data from the Royal Free’s existing electronic records system. On November 18, 2015, DeepMind began processing patient records for clinical safety testing of a newly-developed platform to monitor and detect acute kidney injury, formalized into a mobile app called ‘Streams’.
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EU Updates MEDDEV 2.1/6 Guidance on Standalone Software
On 15 July 2016, the European Commission updated MEDDEV 2.1/6 (the “MEDDEV Guidance), its medical device guidance on the qualification and classification of stand alone software used in the healthcare setting. The updated version replaces an earlier version of MEDDEV 2.1/6 issued by the European Commission in January 2012.
MEDDEV 2.1/6 generally stands as a valuable resource to assist software developers in the assessment of whether software is a medical device. However, some have expressed disappointment that the updated guidance did not go further in clarifying the picture, particularly those operating within the mobile health (mHealth) space.
Indeed, the main changes consist of additions to the definitions section of the MEDDEV Guidance. There is now a definition to clarify that “software” is a “set of instructions that processes input data and creates output data“. There are also accompanying definitions of “input data” and “output data”.
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