David Shaywitz

Wearable devices have an ability to capture lots of data, in real-time and over long periods of time, that may reflect aspects of an individual person’s health. But (and this is a common theme in the application of data science to healthcare), gathering volumes of data is one thing – deriving meaning from these data in a way that significantly... Read More

Sometimes the most relevant digital health companies have the least elaborate technology. More than a decade ago, I discussed UpToDate, a fairly basic medicine e-textbook, served through a web-based app. It was then, and still remains, a go-to site for timely, high-quality medical information relevant to clinicians. There’s nothing fancy about it, it just works. Recently, I discovered a similar... Read More

A frequent – and frequently correct – critique of entrepreneurs bearing technology is “your solution is not my problem.”  Healthcare – among many other domains, perhaps all domains – has been beset by “solutionism,” the idea that my clever technology will solve your hideously complex problem.  But perhaps it makes no more sense to instinctively reject this mindset as it... Read More

Many of us first experience exercise as kids playing sports. Think back to the coach yelling at you and your teammates to run the extra lap. Maybe this helps explain why fitness and competition seem inextricably linked to so many adults, so many years later.  Digital fitness companies know this. Many digital fitness offerings lean heavily into the competitive aspect,... Read More

The first iteration of the “Quantified Self” movement largely fizzled out about five years ago. Avid self-trackers, at the time, started to worry they were drowning in data, but lacking in insight.  Today, we seem to be entering Quantified Self 2.0. Once again, an expanding assortment of consumer devices promises to measure every parameter of our health and well-being.  The... Read More

We’re drawn to stories. We understand the world through stories – both the narratives we read, and those we create and develop for ourselves. It’s the very power – the unreasonable effectiveness? – of stories that also leaves us so vulnerable to deception, including self-deception. This is a key message from “Super Founders,” Ali Tamaseb’s soon-to-be-published analysis of the factors... Read More

A comprehensive 2018 review of the scientific literature commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services reported that physical activity not only helps you “sleep better, feel better, and function better,” but also “reduces the risk of a large number of diseases and conditions,” including dementia, hypertension, diabetes, and a range of cancers. The report specifically highlights the benefits... Read More

Digital platforms such as Peloton and Tonal have clearly learned how to use emerging technologies to cultivate healthy exercise habits and a loyal base of fitness-focused customers. These same technologies would seem ideally suited – if presented in the right way – to coax more people off the couch in the first place.  This represents an enormous health — and... Read More

Astute TR readers might have noticed that I’ve been writing a lot about digital fitness lately, in contrast to digital pharma.  This is deliberate, and represents an evolution of my thinking. I was first drawn to digital health over a decade ago, in the context of a translational medicine training program for medical scientists that I developed with Dr. Denny... Read More

Whether you are an “exercist,” who relentlessly talks up the benefits of regular exercise to anyone who will listen, or instead are like the vast majority of people and conscientiously avoid exercise, you will find something appealing in the recently published Exercised, by Harvard anthropologist Daniel Lieberman. Those who assiduously avoid unnecessary exertion – pretty much the definition of exercise... Read More

I recently discussed the rise of digital fitness, and specifically how companies like Peloton are succeeding by delivering an engaging experience. The new crop of digital fitness companies have figured out how to make health-promoting activities that are intrinsically tedious – like riding a stationary bike – into something compelling and sustaining. A New York Times writer, Amanda Hess, captures... Read More

Three quick data science items: 1) How pharma companies could engage more constructively with data scientists. 2) How health system barriers to data sharing inhibit robust evaluation of the underlying science. 3) The savvy way the FDA is thinking about data science. Learning From SpaceX On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s SpaceX landed a prototype spacecraft vertically on the ground — a... Read More

Digital tools played a critical role in accelerating the development and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, according to leaders at the companies driving this effort.  Speaking at a recent virtual panel discussion organized by the Galien Foundation (and available here), leaders from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna, and the CRO IQVIA shared their experiences leveraging digital tools for vaccine development. Data Deluge... Read More

Despite, or perhaps because, of the incessant hype, it can be difficult to assess the impact AI is actually having in medicine.  Enter Harvard’s Zak Kohane, who in a remarkably astute recent seminar, available on YouTube, highlighted the opportunities for AI in healthcare while revealing some of the ways AI is falling short – generally by being deployed in a... Read More

The unreasonable effectiveness of personal narrative – and what it means for persuasion and health The goal of “alternative facts,” is “to flood the zone with sh*t,” as former Trump advisor Steve Bannon notoriously explained to the author Michael Lewis. The idea is to persuade us it’s just too difficult to know what to believe about anything.  This “manufactured nihilism,”... Read More

“Their story — yours, mine — it’s what we all carry with us on this trip that we take, and we owe it to each other to respect our stories and learn from them.” — Dr. William Carlos Williams to Dr. Robert Coles, from Coles’s “The Call of Stories.” The term “data empathy” is on the verge of entering the... Read More

The mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, developed by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer, were a conspicuous bright spot in a generally devastating year. Besides giving us a chance to bring the pandemic to an end, they remind us more generally of the profoundly transformative potential of emerging technologies.  Audacious scientific and entrepreneurial ambitions can take years of grinding persistence, often sounding unrealistic or... Read More

From the moment Joe Biden takes the oath in January, his Administration will confront a brutal onslaught of urgent health challenges. The work starts with the complex distribution of a multi-dose vaccine to a remarkably skeptical public. To do this job, and countless others, there is a desperate need to upgrade the nation’s health data capabilities, which were pressure-tested by COVID-19... Read More