Digital Health & Technology

  • February 29, 2024

    Medtronic Expands Its Bladder Device Patent Fight

    Medical device conglomerate Medtronic has opened two more fronts in its fight over a new kind of "neuromodulation solution" for bladder and bowel control issues that's at the center of its ongoing intellectual property dispute with a newer and smaller rival, a recent acquisition of Boston Scientific.

  • February 29, 2024

    UnitedHealth Unit Says Blackcat Group Behind Cyberattack

    A UnitedHealth unit on Thursday announced that the "Blackcat" ransomware group is behind a cyberattack that has taken out its information technology systems and services for the past nine days.

  • February 29, 2024

    Medtronic Says 3 Years Of Tax Returns Under IRS Audit

    Three years of medical device company Medtronic's federal income tax returns are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

  • February 28, 2024

    Biotech Co., Ex-Exec And Investor To Pay $5.2M In SEC Suit

    A New York federal judge entered final judgments against medical device company RenovaCare, its controlling shareholder, and its former chief operating officer to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit accusing them of artificially inflating RenovaCare's stock price, ordering them to pay a total of $5.2 million.

  • February 28, 2024

    Attys Get $750K Fee Award In $6M Med Tech Co. Deal

    Class attorneys for minority shareholders of Autonomous Medical Devices Inc. who secured a $6 million settlement to resolve claims about a purportedly underpriced stock sale to an interest of Oracle founder Larry J. Ellison won court approval of the settlement Wednesday, along with a requested $750,000 fee award.

  • February 28, 2024

    WilmerHale Adds Ex-Medtronic Legal Leader To Its DC Office

    WilmerHale has hired for its Washington, D.C., office an attorney who helped build the global trade legal department at healthcare technology company Medtronic.

  • February 28, 2024

    Dexcom Rival Fights Its Bid To Tweak Glucose Monitor Patent

    A Korean medical tech company has asked a London court to block Dexcom's bid to tweak its diabetes management patent to avoid losing protections should the court rule that it's invalid.

  • February 28, 2024

    NuVasive Can Pierce Co. To Collect From Ex-Rep, Judge Says

    NuVasive Inc. can pierce the corporate veil to collect a $617,000-plus arbitration judgment it won against a company operated by one of its former sales representatives who improperly cut ties with the medical device company and violated his noncompete agreement, a Boston federal judge has ruled. 

  • February 27, 2024

    Last-Minute Settlement Stops 2nd Catheter Trial In Del.

    A second legal fight over patents that cover a type of external catheter for women will not be going before a jury in Wilmington after the two feuding rivals agreed on Tuesday to settle the dispute.

  • February 27, 2024

    10th Circ. Backs FDA E-Cigarettes Marketing Denial

    The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday upheld the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's denials of two companies' applications to market flavored e-cigarettes, rejecting their argument that the agency secretly planned to reject any applications without long-term studies.

  • February 27, 2024

    Survey Finds Just 4 in 10 Healthcare Orgs. Review AI Guidance

    Only 40% of healthcare professionals surveyed by the Berkeley Research Group say their organizations are reviewing or plan to review regulatory guidance on artificial intelligence, even as they expect rapid growth in AI deployment over the next three years, according to a report released Tuesday.

  • February 26, 2024

    NC Health Data Breach Class Deal Gets Preliminary OK

    A North Carolina state judge has preliminarily approved a settlement resolving a class action against an orthopedic practice over a data breach that compromised sensitive personal information and medical records of current and former patients.

  • February 26, 2024

    UnitedHealth Unit Hits 6th Day Of IT Outage After Cyberattack

    A UnitedHealth Group unit on Monday entered its sixth day of dealing with a cyberattack that breached its information technology systems and services spanning pharmacy claims billing, medical records and payor communications software.

  • February 26, 2024

    NC Hospital's Weak Data Security Led To Breach, Suit Says

    A patient filed a proposed class action in North Carolina's business court alleging a hospital system's inadequate data security resulted in a breach that allowed hackers to access private personal and health information.

  • February 23, 2024

    Seattle Hospital Gets Facebook Browser Tracking Suit Tossed

    A Washington state judge sided with Seattle Children's Hospital on Friday, throwing out a proposed class action accusing the healthcare provider of privacy law violations and agreeing the group of parents hadn't shown how the use of a browser tracking tool on its website disclosed confidential patient information to Facebook.

  • February 23, 2024

    Chamber's Report Bemoans Biden's March-In Idea For Drug IP

    The most powerful business lobbying group in the U.S. said that although the country ranked at the top of its annual International IP Index, the Biden administration's efforts to potentially use patent laws to reduce the price of pharmaceuticals would jeopardize its place down the line.

  • February 23, 2024

    Fla. Doctor Says T-Mobile Let Hacker Steal Her SIM Card

    A Tampa, Florida, doctor has sued T-Mobile for allegedly failing to stop a "SIM swap" hacker from transferring her personal phone account and then doing little to address the identity theft that followed, which involved the hacker trying to steal thousands from her retirement account and using her medical credentials to write more than 700 fraudulent prescriptions.

  • February 23, 2024

    Healthcare AI Startup Abridge Raises $150M

    AI clinical documentation company Abridge said on Friday that it had raised a $150 million series C round to build on its existing product lines and accelerate research and development.

  • February 22, 2024

    HHS' Civil Rights Office Reaches 2nd-Ever Ransomware Deal

    The Department of Health and Human Services has reached a deal with a Maryland-based behavioral health practice over a ransomware attack that affected the protected health information of nearly 15,000 individuals.

  • February 22, 2024

    HHS Warning to Congress: Health Data Breaches Surging

    The number of large data breaches exposing protected health information more than doubled in a recent five-year period, reaching 626 incidents in 2022 that affected nearly 42 million people, federal officials said Thursday.

  • February 22, 2024

    Mich. Judge OKs $52M Deal For Mayo Foundation Subscribers

    A Michigan federal judge on Wednesday gave the initial approval to a $52 million deal for subscribers to the Mayo Foundation's health magazine who allege the publisher shared their private information without consent.

  • February 21, 2024

    Del. Suit Accuses Healthcare Data Co. Exec Of Insider Trading

    A stockholder launched a derivative lawsuit late Wednesday in Delaware's Court of Chancery, alleging the founder of a behavioral healthcare data firm traded company shares using insider information and that nearly a dozen current and former directors and officers provided false and misleading disclosures about the business.

  • February 21, 2024

    Former Exec Convicted Of Medtronic Insider Trading Scheme

    A Minneapolis man who tipped off a friend about his employer's secret negotiations on a $1.6 billion acquisition deal with medical device company Medtronic has been convicted of securities fraud and conspiring to commit insider trading, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office has announced.

  • February 21, 2024

    3rd Circ. Kicks Data Privacy Suit Against Penn To State Court

    A proposed class action alleging that the University of Pennsylvania violated the state's privacy law must head back to state court, the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday, rejecting arguments that the university health system acted as a federal officer by operating an online patient portal.

  • February 20, 2024

    Ala. Justices Deem Frozen Embryos Children Under State Law

    The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos count as children in a first-of-its-kind decision bemoaned by advocates and a dissenting judge as potentially ruinous for in vitro fertilization services in the state. 

Expert Analysis

  • Privacy Lessons From FTC's BetterHelp Consent Decree

    Author Photo

    The Federal Trade Commission's recent enforcement action against BetterHelp highlights the growing risk associated with the use of third-party cookies and pixels on websites for companies that offer health services, say Rachel Marmor and Shannon Hartsfield at Holland & Knight.

  • 118th Congress: Investigative Priorities And Rule Changes

    Author Photo

    Attorneys at Gibson Dunn lay out what companies and individuals can expect with regard to congressional investigations in the 118th Congress, from political priorities to new rules and authorities.

  • Emerging Trends In Electronic Health Record Enforcement

    Author Photo

    As electronic health record systems become increasingly ubiquitous in health care, recent Anti-Kickback Statute and False Claims Act cases involving EHR systems provide a helpful list of issues that tech-savvy relators and government investigators might identify, say Ellen London at London & Stout and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Li Yu.

  • FTC's GoodRx Action Highlights Risks For Digital Health Cos.

    Author Photo

    The Federal Trade Commission's first-of-its-kind enforcement action against GoodRx for unlawfully sharing sensitive customer information is indicative of regulators' growing interest in the digital health space and heightens the importance of taking proactive compliance steps, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • What DOJ's 2022 Recovery Stats Say About FCA Enforcement

    Author Photo

    Despite showing a decline in False Claims Act recoveries in fiscal year 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice's recently released statistics should lead companies to expect a continued rise in government-initiated investigations, pandemic-related fraud enforcement and FCA cases involving new technology, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Medicare Developments Ahead For Remote Health Monitoring

    Author Photo

    Stakeholders interested in remote monitoring services should keep an eye on an upcoming multijurisdictional contractor advisory committee meeting that may lead to a new local coverage determination affecting Medicare coverage for remote monitoring devices, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Calif. Privacy Law Holds Implications For Mental Health Apps

    Author Photo

    California is leading the way in privacy regulation with its amended Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, which has important compliance repercussions for mental health app developers and could serve as a model for similar laws in other states, say Christine Moundas and Elana Bengualid at Ropes & Gray.

  • New Clinical Trial Law Promotes Diversity And Modernization

    Author Photo

    The Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act, signed into law last month, will likely encourage more equitable subject recruitment and enrollment in clinical trials, and also could create a pathway toward clarifying ambiguities that have historically been left for regulated entities to piece together, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Evaluating The Legal Ethics Of A ChatGPT-Authored Motion

    Author Photo

    Aimee Furness and Sam Mallick at Haynes Boone asked ChatGPT to draft a motion to dismiss, and then scrutinized the resulting work product in light of attorneys' ethical and professional responsibility obligations.

  • 2022 Law And Policy Highlights In Digital Health Care

    Author Photo

    This year, federal regulators made good on several commitments to create new opportunities for digital health innovators, and a number of promising cybersecurity bills are on the horizon, but not all virtual health care law and policy developments have been positive, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Next Compliance Steps For Health Cos. Using Tracking Tech

    Author Photo

    In light of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights' expansive view of what constitutes protected health information, regulated entities seeking to provide websites and mobile apps for patients may need to choose between several imperfect compliance pathways if they wish to continue using tracking technologies, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Top Trends And Challenges For Health Care Financing In 2022

    Author Photo

    Rising inflation, interest hikes, supply chain issues and public market disruption are just some of the factors that made 2022 a challenging year for financing health care deals, and all indications point to continued headwinds next year, say Stephanie McCann and Samantha Koplik at McDermott.

  • 2022 Data Privacy Suits Tested New Liability Theories

    Author Photo

    In the absence of a comprehensive federal data privacy law, plaintiffs lawyers are testing new theories of liability under state laws, and a look at recent lawsuits against online companies that have resulted in large settlements shows these attempts are more frequently being met with success, say attorneys at Quinn Emanuel.