Health Information Technology

  • Read more: House Holds mHealth Hearings, FDA Promises Final Guidance Forthcoming

    House Holds mHealth Hearings, FDA Promises Final Guidance Forthcoming

    By Dan Vorhaus [Cross-posted from Genomics Law Report] Three days of hearings by a House of Representatives committee concluded yesterday with a pledge from an FDA official to finalize long-awaited guidance on the regulation of mobile medical applications “in coming weeks“; at the latest by the end of the FDA’s fiscal year (i.e., September 30th). The hearings,…

  • Read more: Rethinking Biotechnology and Software Patents: A Myriad of Jurisdictional Issues Related to Subject-Matter Eligibility

    Rethinking Biotechnology and Software Patents: A Myriad of Jurisdictional Issues Related to Subject-Matter Eligibility

    By Adriana Benedict Today, Professor Glenn Cohen announced on this blog that he, in conjunction with two others, filed an amicus brief in AMP v. USPTO (Myriad), a case concerning Myriad’s patents on isolated DNA and cDNA. In a paper I have been writing on the natural phenomenon doctrine as applied to biotechnology patents, I…

  • Read more: Impact of the Sequester on Health Care: By the Numbers

    Impact of the Sequester on Health Care: By the Numbers

    By: Katie Booth  The looming sequester will have a significant impact on health care, including cuts to Medicare, FDA, CDC, NIH, and Affordable Care Act programs. Budget cuts could slow down the drug approval process, impede the tracking of infectious diseases, and lead to layoffs for hundreds of thousands of workers in the health care…

  • Read more: No Access to Medicines without Access to Research

    No Access to Medicines without Access to Research

    By Adriana Benedict In December, I wrote a blog post noting that access to biomedical research is critical not only for informed patient care, but also for the sustainable development of pharmaceutical R&D responsive to local needs, especially in developing countries.  In recent years, open access issues have taken on an increasingly important role in…

  • Read more: A Myriad of Options in the Spirit of the Law

    A Myriad of Options in the Spirit of the Law

    By Adriana Lee Benedict In a couple days, petitioners in AMP v. USPTO will be filing their brief on the merits following the Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari in late November.  For many, the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case will provide a long-awaited answer to the question of whether or not isolated DNA is…

  • Read more: Twitter Round-Up (1/13-1/19)

    Twitter Round-Up (1/13-1/19)

    By Casey Thomson   The flu, gun control, and legal action against the FDA – all amongst our Twitter feeds this past week. Read on for more:   Frank Pasquale (@FrankPasquale) retweeted a link to the FDA’s current legal trouble concerning their failure to disclose antibiotic resistance data. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is accusing…

  • Read more: Twitter Round-Up (12/2-12/8)

    Twitter Round-Up (12/2-12/8)

    By Casey Thomson   This week’s Twitter Round-Up features an “American Idol-style” selection of research grant winners, the problems facing children in Syria attempting to be vaccinated, and a review of where we stand with current patient health information privacy and security.   Michelle Meyer (@MichelleNMeyer) retweeted an article about a newly emerging landmark case in…

  • Read more: mHealth on the Horizon: Federal Agencies Paint Regulatory Landscape with Broad Brushstrokes

    mHealth on the Horizon: Federal Agencies Paint Regulatory Landscape with Broad Brushstrokes

    By Dan Vorhaus and Phil Ross (cross-posted from Genomics Law Report) For years, and with increasing frequency, health care and information technology companies have touted the potential of mobile medical and health applications and technologies to improve the quality and delivery of health care through the use of technology. While the future of mobile health (frequently…

  • Read more: Twitter Round-Up (11/25-12/1)

    Twitter Round-Up (11/25-12/1)

    By Casey Thomson From policy adoption at the federal level to debate over the health concerns of political figures, this week’s round-up focuses largely on the news for bioethics and health law in the realm of politics. Dan Vorhaus (@genomicslawyer) posted a feature on the history of gene patent litigation and implications for next-generation sequencing technologies.…

  • Read more: Meaningful Scrutiny for Meaningful Use

    Meaningful Scrutiny for Meaningful Use

    By Nicolas Terry Today the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the Department of Health and Human Services released a report, here, that is decidedly critical of CMS and ONC oversight of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) subsidy program. Over the last couple of years there have been growing criticisms of the Meaningful Use program and…