A team of Geisinger researchers has trained a neural network to evaluate electrocardiograms to predict which patients were likely to develop an irregular heartbeat.

The findings were presented at last week’s American Heart Association meeting. Researchers used 1.77 million ECGs and other records from almost 400,000 patients spanning 30 years of archival records.

VC funding for pharma supply chain startups hit $1 billion in Q3. Direct-to-consumer disruptors like GoodRx, Hims and Roman are in a race with big players like Amazon, CVS and Walmart to get our business.

Private equity firms have jumped in too. Last week, KKR edged toward a $70 billion bid for Walgreens.

Last month, Philips filed a lawsuit against Summit Imaging, a Washington-based servicing firm, for intellectual property theft.

Philips alleges Summit hacked and tampered with Philips copyright-protected software to create ultrasound systems in configurations the company has never sold nor supported, including interoperability with other hardware.

It accuses Summit of engaging in this illegal conduct “in order to promote and support its repair parts business and its service contract business.”

Ransomware attacks on hospitals that paralyze clinical operations and force workarounds have increased in recent months. Things could get worse.

Security experts are now warning nation states, their proxies and terrorists could escalate attacks by pairing cyber with physical attacks.

I’m reminded of the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that took 160 lives. It was soon characterized as a swarm attack - a term used for high-risk, coordinated assaults sometimes directed against multiple targets. Alarmingly, a 2012 swarm attack in the North Caucasus targeted a hospital.

The risk to lives and demands placed on first responders, law enforcement and security forces of a cyber-physical swarm attack would be extraordinary.

Change is hard, especially when people are involved. PWC says “chip away, move them on or light a fire” to defrost the frozen middle.

Have a great weekend.

Susan

@susan_ramonat

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