The UK government has struck a deal with Amazon to make NHS-verified health advice available to users of the Alexa digital assistant. It says the move will help consumers to self-care with reliable healthcare information. However, detractors have questioned the government's motives and raised data privacy fears.

In FTC's "first case challenging a marketer’s use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website," agency files complaint alleging Cure Encapsulations Inc. paid an "amazonverifiedreviews.com" to create and post Amazon reviews of its Quality Encapsulations Garcinia Cambogia Extract with HCA supplement. Emails from the firm to amazonverifiedreviews included, "Please make sure my product should stay a five star.”

While digital health applications represent a major opportunity for biopharma, acting on the premise – and realizing its promise – depends on quantum-level shifts in organizational design and cultural resilience to disruptive change.  In an In Vivo interview, Omnicom Health Group’s SVP for Data Solutions Christina Kim says industry progress toward a digitized future varies, but the necessity to act is clear. 

A new independent health-care company created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan will put an emphasis on using technology to "simplify" health care. That is music to the ears of digital-health firms.