Morning Headlines 12/8/17

Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD on advancing new digital health policies to encourage innovation, bring efficiency and modernization to regulation

FDA releases three sets of digital health guidance: clinical decision support (draft), reassertion that lifestyle apps will not be treated as medical devices (draft), and how software will be assessed as a medical device (final).

Dignity and CHI sign definitive agreement to merge

Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives will merge to create the country’s largest health system as measured by operating revenue.

Apple health exec Anil Sethi leaves to form new healthcare records startup

Apple’s health director Anil Sethi leaves to focus on his medical information sharing startup Ciitizen.

Using Electronic Health Data for Community Health

A report from public health grant-making organization De Beaumont Foundation and Johns Hopkins University presents use cases describing how public health agencies could use provider EHR data without running afoul of HIPAA.