Digital therapeutics (DTx) has a new—and very official—definition.

The industry’s trade group, the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), got together with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) two years ago to develop the new definition of what exactly constitutes a digital therapeutic. Megan Coder, DTA’s founder and chief policy officer, said the new definition creates a foundation that helps payers and policymakers navigate the emerging industry, which creates software products used to prevent, manage, or treat disease.

The industry has faced some setbacks recently; Pear Therapeutics, a pioneer in digital therapeutics, filed for bankruptcy in early April. The company’s CEO cited a lack of payer reimbursement as a primary cause of Pear’s financial woes.

The new DTx definition: Digital therapeutics is “health software intended to treat or alleviate a disease, disorder, condition, or injury by generating and delivering a medical intervention that has a demonstrable positive therapeutic impact on a patient’s health” (that’s the short version, at least—there’s a much longer version that goes into more detail, but we’ll spare you and won’t publish the entire thing here).

“We know that digital therapeutics can be scalable; we know that they are the future of healthcare,” Coder said at a June 9 press conference in Washington, DC, announcing the change. “But it’s not going to happen until we figure out how to create some harmonization and some standardization and some infrastructure to make this occur.”

The DTA created the initial definition of a digital therapeutic in 2018.

“Digital therapeutics deliver to patients evidence-based therapeutic interventions that are driven by high-quality software programs to treat, manage, or prevent a disease or disorder. They are used independently or in concert with medications, devices, or other therapies to optimize patient care and health outcomes,” according to the original definition.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

Today’s healthcare system isn’t exactly built for easy navigation. From trying to book annual checkups to finding your health records, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Join Healthcare Brew and GE HealthCare on June 27 for a chat about reimagining the healthcare system.

Healthcare Brew is teaming up with GE HealthCare’s Dr. Mathias Goyen, chief medical officer for EMEA, and healthcare journalist and author Sarah DiGregorio to chat about what it takes to foster a more people-focused system.

Administrative issues aren’t the only concern, either. We’re covering everything from improving the patient experience to prioritizing a care team’s well-being to what it takes to create centralized harmony.

The best part? You’ll learn from the experts working at the heart of the healthcare system itself.

Save your spot.

A database operated by healthcare workwear company Scrubs & Beyond recently exposed purchaser data, according to cybersecurity researcher Anurag Sen.

Information revealed included full names, phone numbers and emails, credit card numbers and CVV/expiration, and more, Sen told IT Brew. The server was offline Tuesday, but had been online as recently as Monday afternoon, Sen said. HackRead reported that the breach was first detected on May 25; the database was exposed on May 16.

Sen, who previously revealed the Amazon Prime hack in October and the DOD hack in February, believes as many as 100,000 customers may have been affected.

Scrubs & Beyond and its parent company, Kindthread, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from IT Brew.

The popular apparel company primarily serves nurses and doctors in the US and has more than 120 stores across the country.

“The company is not that big but the details here belong to the doctors and nurses of the US,” Sen told IT Brew in a text. “Also their payment information including physical address which can cause lots of damage in bad actor hands.”

The database was accessible by its IP address. Personal information on the server was visible and accessible by members of the public. HackRead reported that anyone with working knowledge of tools like open source search engine Shodan could download the information.

Read more at IT Brew.—EH

Despite all the Zoom parties and virtual hangouts that marked the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Black, Latino, and lower-income couples’ social networks shrank more significantly than those of their more affluent or white peers during that time, according to a new study from researchers at UCLA and the Rand Corporation, a nonpartisan policy think tank.

In the early stages of the pandemic, white wives had about three more people in their face-to-face social networks than Black wives, though that number fell to just over one more person by 18 months into the pandemic, per the study, which is one of the first to analyze the loss of social connections among certain demographics who also experienced higher Covid case rates.

“Limiting social interactions may well have reduced the spread of infection, but this policy also had unexamined and potentially lasting social costs,” lead study author Benjamin Haggerty said in a statement.

As part of the study, UCLA researchers looked at 431 mixed-gender couples “living in neighborhoods with a high proportion of low-income residents in Los Angeles County,” and interviewed each spouse on the number of family, friends, and coworkers they had regularly interacted with before and during the first 18 months of the pandemic. The study concluded in March 2022.

White spouses reported smaller declines and higher recovery in their social network size compared to Black and Latino spouses. Spouses with higher incomes also saw higher recovery rates in the size of their in-person social networks, the study found. Across groups, “18 months after the onset of the pandemic, the average face-to-face interactive network size remained down by 40% for husbands and 36% for wives compared with pre-pandemic levels,” according to the study.

Keep reading here.—KW

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Kristine at [email protected]. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristine for her number on Signal.

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: An Illinois hospital is the first to close due to, in part, a cyberattack. (NBC News)

Quote: “This is a blatant, not-so-professional attempt to deceive retirees and put them in a sub-standard healthcare system.”—Anthony Tousis, a retired bus driver from Queens, on pending union contract terms (the New York Daily News)

Read: Natural deodorants have long been seen as a healthier alternative, but that claim may not be true. (the New York Times)

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Catch up on the top Healthcare Brew stories you may have missed:

• New research paves way for bladder cancer urine screens
• A new report highlights the divide between health tech used by patients and hospitals
• The pandemic is forcing physician practices to switch business models