Overheard at GMM HQ
"You're not even a real Instagram celebrity until you have to learn the appropriate use of #sponsored and #ad hashtags." - Jamie Davidson, on How to Disclose Social Media Endorsements for Life Sciences Companies According to the FTC.
WHAT THE INDUSTRY IS BUZZING ABOUT
MOTHER KNOWS BEST
That's why she was the inspiration for a new voice-based technology platform from Sonde Health that leverages machine intelligence to detect subtle changes in a user's voice to possibly signal a variety of health conditions ranging from a sinus infection to depression. You know when you call your mom and within three seconds she can tell that you skipped breakfast and are having a spat with your BFF? Yeah, kinda like that.
WHO'S LISTENING?
"[Artificial Intelligence] can take those perceptual cues in the acoustic sounds of what we are speaking, and also other signals not related to speech, and create objective, quantifiable measures that correlate with the best health measures that are in use today and put those perceptual cues back on a path of being clinically actionable," says Sonde Health's founder, Jim Harper. That means that your smartphone, Amazon Echo, Siri, and Google Home could all be used as medical devices as they listen in on your every word at all times. Don't worry about it, it's probably fine but you may have to prepare yourself for an overflowing inbox with Privacy Policy updates and GDPR news. Again.
THE 411
Your voice says more than you think it does. Using voice reading software as a tool might give healthcare professionals the info you're not even sure how to communicate.
I WANT A NEW DRUG...
The FDA recently approved Lucemyra to help mitigate the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, marking the first non-opioid prescription drug to be introduced into the arsenal of treatment options for patients seeking help for opioid addiction. Sometimes you gotta fight fire with not-fire.
...ONE THAT WON'T MAKE ME SICK
"The fear of experiencing withdrawal symptoms often prevents those suffering from opioid addiction from seeking help," says FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. Lucemyra reduces the release of norepinephrine, which is believed to play a role in many of the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, including anxiety, agitation, sleep problems, muscle aches, runny nose, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. We'd take a pass on that, too.
THE 411
A new option in opioid addiction treatment represents a shift towards a more individualized approach to an epidemic that requires more treatment tools.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
A 21-year-old Army Private has a brand new left ear constructed from cartilage from her ribs and grown under the skin of her forearm before being transplanted onto her head following a severe car crash. *Vincent van Gogh rolls over in grave*
ONLY HER HAIRDRESSER KNOWS FOR SURE
The procedure is one of the most complicated ear constructions in the United States, allowing for the formation of new blood vessels in the cartilage and restoration of the patient's hearing. "The whole goal is ... in five years if somebody doesn't know her they won't notice," Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III, the chief of plastic and reconstructive surgery at William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
THE 411
The whole ear reconstruction game just changed. I mean, she grew an ear in her arm for crying out loud.
GOOD TO KNOW
You may be able to wash that man right out of your hair, but you'll never get his DNA out of your brain, according to a terrifying new study that suggests that women harbor living DNA from men they've had sex with. Forever.
