“Wake up y’all! The king’s here.” Hmmmm. Let’s see, who could have said that? Oh, I know. It is a line from the latest Spike Lee movie Highest to Lowest. I’m not going to lie — that movie is a hot mess. Despite some really great actors (Jeffrey Wright is impressive no matter how dumb his lines are), the movie left you wondering why no one could convince Spike Lee to hire a decent film editor or match the musical score to what was actually happening in each scene. The great-people-but-poor-management theme also seems to be relevant to the health policy news this week. I explore the latest *interesting* decision-making in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
Some other interesting health IT-related news from this week:
- ASTP/ONC issued an information collection request similar to a previous solicitation in May asking digital health companies to comment on experiences with healthcare APIs, information blocking, and other 21st Century Cures Act provisions. Comments are due September 25, 2025.
- The FDA began updating adverse event data daily instead of quarterly, as part of its broader data modernization strategy and commitment to “radical transparency.” This change gives the public access to drug safety reports in real time, though the agency emphasized these reports do not establish causality between drugs and adverse events.
- The U.S. House Energy & Commerce health subcommittee will hold a hearing on September 3, 2025, to examine how real-world applications of AI can improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
“I think you gotta be a little crazy sometimes in this world to get what you want.” That line from the Highest to Lowest movie would explain some of the decision-making this week about vaccine policy leadership. But health tech is our focus, so I am looking at another HHS decision to seek advisors about how to modernize the healthcare system. HHS announced it is looking for 15 good people to make recommendations about modernizing CMS programs, including “levers to advance a real-time data system, enabling a new standard of excellence in care, rapid claims processing, rapid quality measurement, and rewards.” Sure, but I’ve been doing this for a long time and I don’t know one person who can make recommendations about all of those things well. And the other four things these 15 people are supposed to be qualified to do – including prevent chronic disease and make Medicare Advantage financially sustainable – is even harder. Is this even possible? I am taking a lesson from the Spike Lee movie. While I was sitting there, I didn’t think it was possible that I would walk out and feel like I hadn’t just wasted two precious hours of my life. And yet. In the last few minutes of the film, someone named Aiyana-Lee showed up and sang “A Dream Realized.” Her incredible performance made me realize that sometimes you just need one good person to salvage a bad situation (or realize a dream). Like Denzel Washington said when she was done giving everyone goosebumps: “And let the church say: Amen.”
