Katie’s Notebook: July 18, 2024
Good morning!
I am excited to be sharing this issue with you today — so many interesting things!
One of the reasons I write this notebook is to build community and connection with like-minded professionals and friends. If you have thoughts you’d like to share, feel free to contact me or connect on LinkedIn. Know others that would enjoy this content? They can sign up at the bottom of this page. Right now the community is around 200 strong. Let’s bring more cool people into the fold!
Onward to the awesome content and some hot takes!
Apple Watch Is Becoming Doctors’ Favorite Medical Device (and they are using it outside of the FDA approved use cases.): The Wall Street Journal recently published this article and I found it FASCINATING. Apple’s brand holds so much gravitas that if they build something, the innovators will come. (It’s honestly a brilliant business strategy.) Think of the creation of the App Store in the early 2000s…the iPhone came with a handful of apps and Apple threw out an SDK and let an entirely new economy form itself. Albeit on a smaller scale, the Apple Watch and its associated sensors + algorithms (as well as their Research Kit and Health Kit tools) have launched hundreds of clinical studies. Innovative healthcare researchers find new ways to crunch the data and provide success stories and product direction to Apple for its use as a health device.
A unique take in this article is that the writer points out that cardiologists are suggesting the watch for usages that aren’t FDA approved. The FDA commentary (inset) is in line with their general “pass the risk buck” philosophy when it comes to digital health. I don’t want to spoil the whole thing for you— I encourage you to read it and send me your thoughts! Also if you hit a pay wall I have a PDF of the article I can send to you.
The super-flexible summer dish: I made this lemony chickpea feta salad recently and it was so good! I served it as a side at a barbecue, and then ate the leftovers a few ways…once wrapped in a tortilla with some arugula and hummus, and then over a salad. Add it to your summer rotation!
Novocuff Secures $26M in Series A Funding to Advance Preterm Birth Prevention Technology: I’ve shared past studies of digital health tools like Whoop that have used sensors to identify when women are going into pre-term labor, however, I hadn’t seen anything really ground breaking recently on prevention of preterm birth. Enter: Novocuff. A lot of their science is under wraps right now, but their medical device, “The Novocuff Cervical Control System (CCS) has been designed with the goal of stabilizing and closing the cervix to retain amniotic fluid and sustain cervical length, with the aim of extending pregnancy.” I am looking forward to hearing more as the company grows.
Need book recommendations for vacation? I got you. These are all books I’ve read and loved.
Romantasy: Fourth Wing / Iron Flame
Historical Fiction: Weyward, The Veronica Speedwell Series (A Curious Beginning is #1. Also the audiobooks are fantastic.), The Song of Achilles
Modern Fiction: Tom Lake, The Thursday Murder Club series, Hench, Ilium, The Midnight Library
(PS: if you have Spotify premium you get 15 hours of audiobooks on their platform a month. I’ve been loving this! Still use my Libby account all the time. Check out Bookshop.org (linked in here) if you want to support independent bookshops.) Also don’t forget to wear sunscreen on your trips! (My favorite face, body, and kid’s sunscreens.)
ARPA-H women’s health funding updates: (Or should I say lack of updates.) After poking around, the latest I’ve heard is that all applicants have been notified whether or not they made it to the pitch stage, but there is no public list of which companies have moved forward. It’s all very cloak and dagger….I haven’t heard of anyone saying they have been selected to pitch and the word in Slack/ LinkedIn is that they were asked not to disclose. Considering that this is tax payer money I would love to see more transparency from ARPA-H. Please share if you have any insights!
That’s all for this issue.
Be well, friends!
Katie
Note: I believe in integrity and have personally tried every product that I recommend. When you buy something I have linked to, I may receive a small commission from that company at no cost to you.
