Digital Health & Technology
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June 10, 2025
States Sue To Block 23andMe From Selling DNA Data In Ch. 11
A bipartisan coalition of 28 attorneys general has sued 23andMe Inc. in Missouri bankruptcy court seeking to block the genetic-testing company from auctioning off its 15 million customers' personal genetic information without their explicit consent in its ongoing Chapter 11 proceeding.
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June 10, 2025
23andMe Auction Is A Wake-Up Call For Data Privacy Law
With its giant trove of customer genetic and health data up for auction, direct-to-consumer genetic testing company 23andMe's bankruptcy is revealing glaring gaps in federal data privacy laws.
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June 10, 2025
Health Records Co. Looks To Toss Patient Data Access Case
PointClickCare is urging a Maryland federal court to toss a case seeking to force the medical records company to allow Real Time Medical Systems to access patient data with automated bots after the Fourth Circuit refused to lift an order requiring access while the case plays out.
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June 10, 2025
FDA's AI Launch Raises Training And Accuracy Concerns
The FDA's speedy adoption of Elsa, its new artificial intelligence tool, is raising questions about how it was trained and safeguards around AI-generated hallucinations.
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June 06, 2025
Google Must Face Bulk Of Healthcare Data Tracking Suit
A California federal judge allowed a proposed class action accusing Google of illicitly scooping up users' personal data from healthcare providers' websites to continue Friday, but only for certain claims based on communications made before the company started instructing healthcare provider clients not to send it their health information.
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June 06, 2025
Justices Reject Eligibility Appeal On Telemedicine Patents
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Friday to review a decision that telemedicine patents asserted against the U.S. government are invalid for claiming only abstract ideas, in the court's latest refusal to reconsider the standard for determining if inventions are eligible for patents.
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June 06, 2025
Judge Denies Class Cert. In Suit Over Unsolicited Faxes
A Pennsylvania federal judge declined to certify a class of as many as 25,00 healthcare providers who say they received unsolicited fax advertisements, saying there was no way to determine which plaintiffs received the ads via traditional, stand-alone fax machines and which received them through online fax services.
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June 03, 2025
Rosen, Pomerantz To Lead Seattle Biotech Class Action
The Rosen Law Firm PA and Pomerantz LLP will serve as co-lead counsel for shareholders accusing Seattle-based Sana Biotechnology Inc. of misleading investors about its ability to develop certain genetic therapy treatments.
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June 03, 2025
Utah Targets Mental Health Chatbots As States Scrutinize AI
An unusual new law in Utah zeroes in on the growing world of mental health chatbots, establishing privacy and advertising guardrails for the kind of intimate conversations a patient might share with a virtual therapist.
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June 03, 2025
The Law360 400: A Look At The Top 100 Firms
A rebound in client work sent the nation’s largest law firms into growth mode last year, driving a wave of hiring, mergers and strategic moves that reshaped the top tier of the Law360 400. Here's a preview of the 100 firms with the largest U.S. attorney headcounts.
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May 29, 2025
Masimo Founder Slaps Board With Lawsuit Over His Ouster
The founder and former CEO of Masimo Corp. has alleged six of the medical technology company's directors orchestrated his wrongful termination and denied him the compensation he is now owed, according to a suit for hundreds of millions of dollars filed against the executives in California state court.
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May 27, 2025
1 Year In, Firms Grapple With Scope Of Wash. Health Data Law
A year after Washington’s landmark health privacy law took effect, attorneys are bracing for the first judicial interpretation defining the law's reach and closely watching a proposed class action. Copycat legislation, meanwhile, is emerging in other states.
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May 23, 2025
Meta, App Maker Flo Can't Escape All Of Privacy Class Action
A California federal judge ruled Thursday that Flo Health Inc. and Meta cannot escape all the claims in a class action brought by users of a menstrual cycle app who allege their privacy was violated, denying parts of both companies' summary judgment bids.
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May 23, 2025
Seattle Cancer Center Inks $11.5M Class Data Breach Deal
A Washington state judge has given final approval to an $11.5 million class action settlement to end litigation against Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center over a 2023 data breach that exposed patient information, with the judge awarding $3.8 million in attorney fees in a deal class counsel values at more than $50 million.
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May 22, 2025
Calif. Docs Bring FDA Stem Cell Regulation Fight To Top Court
Two California clinics that provide stem cell treatments are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit panel's finding that their treatments are "drugs" subject to Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulations.
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May 20, 2025
Flo Users Get Class Cert. In Google, Meta Data-Sharing Suit
A California federal judge has granted class status to users of the menstrual cycle tracking app developed by Flo Health Inc. in a suit accusing the company of unlawfully sharing their personal health information with Google and Meta, finding that the defendants' opposition to this move lacked clarity and support.
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May 20, 2025
Medical Organizations Sue Feds For Removing Health Data
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and several constituent agencies are accused of violating the Administrative Procedure Act by illegally purging websites containing critical public health information related to trans and HIV care, vaccines and the prevention of outbreaks of communicable diseases, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington federal court.
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May 20, 2025
Biotech Stockholders Challenge Director Pay Levels In Del.
Investors in biotech company Intellia Therapeutics Inc. stock opened a derivative suit in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Tuesday seeking recovery of allegedly excessive compensation paid to non-employee directors for multiple years without an approval vote by stockholders.
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May 20, 2025
Sales Exec Admits Role In $70M Brain Scan Kickback Scheme
A former operations and regional sales manager for a mobile medical diagnostic company has agreed to plead guilty to taking part in a $70.6 million conspiracy to pay kickbacks to doctors who ordered unnecessary brain scans, Massachusetts federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
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May 20, 2025
NYU Langone IT Workers Get Conditional Cert. In Wage Suit
Information technology workers who accused New York University's academic medical center of improperly classifying them as exempt from earning overtime wages can proceed as a collective, a federal judge ruled, finding they showed they were all subject to the same pay policies and practices.
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May 20, 2025
Foreign Drugmakers Brace For More Visits Amid FDA Cuts
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's plan to expand surprise inspections of overseas drug manufacturing plants is a legitimate enforcement threat that should be taken seriously, even as the agency adjusts to a future with a smaller workforce.
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May 16, 2025
Surgical Center Operator Inks $15M Deal Over Data Breach
Shields Health Group Inc., which runs dozens of MRI and surgical centers around New England, has agreed to pay around $15 million to resolve claims in a proposed class action stemming from a data breach that compromised the personal information of over 2 million people.
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May 15, 2025
Zuckerberg Can't Avoid Deposition In Meta Health Privacy Suit
A California federal judge on Wednesday refused to rethink her earlier order forcing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to give a limited deposition in privacy litigation over a Facebook tool's alleged collection of patient health information, rejecting Meta's arguments that other executives are better suited to testify.
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May 14, 2025
Health Co. Founder Pleads Guilty In $5M Fraud Case
A Florida man who operated a health monitoring company geared toward keeping substance-addicted people from relapsing has admitted to bilking investors out of $5 million by misstating interest in the firm, the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia said.
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May 14, 2025
Virta Health's Diabetes Mission Is Personal For Its GC
Jamie Anderson said it's important to find a mission-driven company to join — and when that mission aligns with an attorney's personal life, it's even more inspiration to work hard and contribute to the success of the business.
Expert Analysis
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Digging Into The Debate On FDA's Proposed Lab Test Rule
A proposed 10-word amendment from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration represents a sea change in device regulation as it would summarily end decades of FDA enforcement discretion for laboratory developed tests, and the public comments offer some insight into the future of this long-running saga, say attorneys at Mintz.
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AI Executive Order's Life Science, Healthcare Industry Effects
The recent White House executive order to manage risks associated with artificial intelligence includes provisions specific to healthcare and life sciences that merit special attention, including transparency, human oversight of AI output, and real world performance monitoring, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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5 Most Notable Class Action Standing Cases Of 2023
Key appellate class action decisions this past year continued the trend of a more demanding approach to the threshold issue of standing during each phase of litigation, say attorneys at MoFo.
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How SEC And NY Cyber Reporting Rules Affect Key Industries
The new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and New York State Department of Financial Services cybersecurity disclosure requirements, and their competing obligations, reveal the increasing complexity for organizations evaluating and reacting to cybersecurity incidents — particularly those in the healthcare and financial services industries, say attorneys at Manatt.
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In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023
Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.
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5 Steps For Healthcare Companies After Biden's AI Order
Rather than simply monitoring for the issuance of agency guidelines on artificial intelligence in the wake of President Joe Biden's October executive order, health and life sciences companies should take action now and begin building internal operational and technical infrastructures designed to govern the use of AI, says Joy Sharp at Faegre Drinker.
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The Basics Of Law Firm Cyber Liability Insurance Applications
Cyber liability insurance has become a common consideration for law firms as cyber threats have escalated, but these insurance forms can be quite complicated given the nature of the industry and associated risks, so simply filling out the form won't necessarily result in an ideal policy for your firm, says Kevin Haight at WAMS.
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AI Brings New Insurance Concerns For Healthcare Providers
As the healthcare industry increasingly invests in medical artificial intelligence tools, it confronts a variety of liability risks that necessitate careful consideration and potential recalibration of providers' insurance programs, say Marialuisa Gallozzi and Megan Mumford Myers at Covington.
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Writing Thriller Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Authoring several thriller novels has enriched my work by providing a fresh perspective on my privacy practice, expanding my knowledge, and keeping me alert to the next wave of issues in an increasingly complex space — a reminder to all lawyers that extracurricular activities can help sharpen professional instincts, says Reece Hirsch at Morgan Lewis.
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White House Activity Is A Band-Aid For Regulating AI In Health
In the medium term, recent White House actions will have a greater impact on AI in the health care industry than Congress' sluggish efforts to regulate it, but ultimately legislation of AI's development and use in the health space will fall to Congress, say Wendell Bartnick and Vanessa Perumal at Reed Smith.
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How Legal Teams Can Prep For Life Sciences' Tech Revolution
The life sciences and health care industries are uniquely positioned to take advantage of new efficiencies created by cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence, but the sensitivity of their data also demands careful navigation of an expanding legislative and regulatory landscape, say Kristi Gedid, Zack Laplante and Lisa LaMotta at Ernst & Young.
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General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI
With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
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Life Sciences Regulators Must Write Cloud-Specific Guidance
As cloud services continue to revolutionize the life sciences industry's ability to conduct regulated activities, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulators should update their data management policies to clearly support and encourage use of cloud technology, say Nate Brown and Marlee Gallant at Akin.