Digital health evaluation nonprofit the Peterson Health Technology Institute takes aim at the burgeoning market for hypertension treatment and management in its latest report, and it isn’t all good news for the companies hawking digital blood pressure cuffs, remotely observing levels, managing patients’ medication regimens, and using technology to nudge patients to change their habits such as diet or exercise.

The hypertension-focused tech companies appear to have coalesced around a handful of strategies: blood pressure monitoring, conducted by companies such as VitalSight; medication management by companies including Story Health; and behavior change, offered by well-known digital health darlings like Omada and Teladoc (via its multi-billion dollar acquisition Livongo).

Most of them, PHTI found, did not lead to clinically meaningful reductions in blood pressure: Only medication management companies currently demonstrate significant reductions. Remote monitoring showed “slightly greater, but not clinically meaningful declines” in blood pressure compared to the standard of care. And, behavior change technology leads to only “limited incremental
declines,” authors noted in the chart below. 

Some were less than impressed with the findings, including Omada, which has built a business around using technology to manage chronic conditions.

“We believe that the latest PHTI assessment inadequately groups companies with very different offerings, narrowly focuses on select clinical metrics (i.e. blood pressure), and presents virtual care providers as point solutions, which is inconsistent with buyer and member needs,” chief medical officer Carolyn Bradner Jasik said. The company believes the American Medical Association‘s “Return on Health” framework for assessing the value of virtual care “provides a more holistic and relevant approach, and we encourage the digital health industry to join us in adopting it.”

job market Open AI’s hiring in health — no health experience needed The ChatGPT developer appears to be beefing up its health care talent; health AI lead Karan Singhal posted on LinkedIn that OpenAI is hiring research scientists to work on “universalizing access to health information” and “using health as a testbed for safety/alignment.” Also noteworthy: While applicants should have experience in practical large language model safety and alignment, they don’t need a background or expertise in health, Singhal’s post reads. (For those interested, here’s the official job description, to be based in San Francisco.) from Politico:IV FLUID EXPIRATION EXTENDED — A key manufacturer of IV fluid solutions said Monday that it’s received federal authorization to extend the expiration dates of some of its products, Chelsea reports.Baxter International, which maintains a North Carolina factory that was damaged during Hurricane Helene in September, said in a press release that some products manufactured before the end of September now expire 24 months after the manufacture date. The company also said it will soon begin ramping up production of IV solutions.“Barring any unanticipated developments, Baxter anticipates restarting the highest-throughput IV solutions manufacturing line this week,” the company said in a statement.Helene forced the temporary closure of the factory last month and left hospitals scrambling to preserve their IV fluid supplies. Baxter on Monday encouraged hospitals to continue to ration their IV fluid supply. Staffing at the plant has since returned to pre-hurricane levels, and the company hopes to restore the allocation of the IV solution to 100 percent by the end of the year.A rare stumble for Lilly as sales and earnings fall shortEli Lilly’s third-quarter sales and earnings were lower than expected, a rare stumble for the company that had consistently reported strong sales and beat earnings forecasts since demand for its blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs began booming.Overall revenue was $11.4 billion, lower than the $12.2 billion expected from analysts polled by Visible Alpha. Adjusted earnings per share also came in lower than expected at $1.18.Lilly said sales of its GLP-1 drugs were affected by drug wholesalers buying less product. The diabetes treatment Mounjaro brought in $3.1 billion and the obesity medication Zepbound brought in $1.3 billion, lower than analysts’ predictions of $3.6 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.Read more.Lilly pushes for modified dosing of Alzheimer’s drug A change in the dosing regimen of Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla resulted in a lower rate of brain swelling among patients in a trial, new data show. But it’s unclear whether the new dosing schedule, if approved by regulators, will convince doctors that the treatment is safer for patients.Doctors are still waiting for more detailed results, and some clinicians have been reluctant to use Kisunla as well as Leqembi, the competing treatment from Eisai and Biogen. They produce only modest benefits along with potentially severe risks of brain swelling and bleeding, but they are the only two drugs on the U.S. market aimed at slowing progression of Alzheimer’s.Read more.