The new platform launches with over 150 active users, setting the industry baseline for quality and trust

BOSTON, Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) is launching the DiMe Seal, a new platform to evaluate digital health software products in today’s rapidly evolving market. The DiMe Seal is a symbol of quality and trust granted to digital health software products that demonstrate performance against a comprehensive framework of standards and best practices in privacy and security, usability, and evidence with equity woven throughout.

“The explosion of clinically digital health solutions is exciting but executing an effective GTM often determines which will break out. Buyers are confronted with a robust set of options and often struggle to sift through which solutions meet their purchasing criteria,” says Annie Collins, Investment Partner, Bio + Health, a16z. “The DiMe Seal will give digital health innovators a shared language with their customers that helps buyers easily validate their products’ security, usability, and clinical ROI.”

Digital health software products have become essential tools in modern healthcare. Today there are over 400,000 health apps available directly to consumers, with over 30,000 more targeted at providers, health systems, and other enterprise audiences. These products have the potential to dramatically improve lives and our healthcare system, but it’s currently difficult to distinguish between which products can help and which can harm.

“We know patients and families rely on technology not only to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system but to reduce administrative burden, improve their quality of life, and to help focus on their treatments and care. However, without proper quality standards and oversight, these tools can just as easily cause harm as they can help,” said Grace Cordovano, PhD, BCPA, Patient-In-Residence, DiMe. “There are resources available in the public domain to help guide informed decision-making about things like cars, colleges, and home renovations. When it comes to navigating digital health products, there’s a critical gap that leaves patients and families searching the unknown. We must prioritize getting the right tools to patients when they need them most or we as an industry risk losing trust in the transformative potential of digital health. DiMe Seal has been designed as a step in the right direction to define what good looks like with respect to digital health products.”

Developers are also affected by the lack of commonly accepted benchmarks of trustworthiness. Those who are building software and trying to meet the needs of downstream users are doing so without transparent buyer expectations. And developers who are implementing best practices struggle to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Now, a developer can apply for the Seal for their digital health software products online through a series of attestations and questions that incorporate complementary industry standards like SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST, Carin Code of Conduct, WCAG, ISO 27001, and more. If their product meets baseline criteria of evidence, privacy, and security standards, it is granted the DiMe Seal, a symbol that the software is quality and trusted.

Health systems, providers, patients, and the general public can also access and search the freely available database of products on the DiMe Seal’s website to view which meet baseline standards. This will help inform their decisions about which tools to use for their care.

“Until now, there was no standard or efficient way to evaluate digital health software products,” added John Brownstein, Chief Innovation Officer, Boston Children’s Hospital. “We spend countless hours vetting products, often using different criteria from organization to organization and provider to provider, which takes us away from the roles we were hired to perform. We need a new way to advance digital innovation and get the best products into the hands of the providers and patients who will benefit from them.”

The DiMe Seal standards were developed in collaboration with more than 150 industry experts and after the review of nearly 50 regulatory guidances, over 100 industry standards and quality programs, and over 1,000 scientific articles. DiMe also convened hundreds of cross-disciplinary experts from all corners of the digital health software ecosystem – including clinicians, developers, regulators, payers, and patient advocates – to create DiMe Seal’s comprehensive framework.

At launch, over 150 developers have signed up and over 50 products are being evaluated for the DiMe Seal, ranging from apps for glucose monitoring to platforms that integrate data and digital interventions to improve patient outcomes. Later this year, DiMe will launch a benchmarking database to compare categories of products and further meet the needs of end users by including details on regulatory status, common therapeutic areas, and more. For more information about the process or to apply for the DiMe Seal, please visit: http://dimesociety.org/dime-seal. 

The DiMe Seal is supported by the expertise of members of its Governance Committee, including:

Kate Berry, Senior Vice President Clinical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)John Brownstein, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, Boston Children’s HospitalAneesh Chopra, Chief Strategy Officer, ArcadiaMolly Coye, Executive in Residence, AVIA and Executive Advisor, Redesign HealthAnnie Collins, Investment Partner, Bio + Health, a16zGrace Cordovano, Co-founder, Unblock Health and Patient in Residence, Digital Medicine SocietyJackie Gerhart, Physician and VP of Clinical Informatics, EpicStephen Hughes, Director of Healthcare IT Policy, American Hospital AssociationShaye Mandle, Executive Director, AdvaMed Digital Health TechAdrienne McFadden, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer-Medicaid, Elevance HealthKimberly McManus, Deputy Chief Technology Officer – AI and Deputy Chief AI Officer, US Department of Veterans AffairsRene Quashie, Vice President of Digital Health, Consumer Technology AssociationSameer Sood, Co-founder and CEO, FwdSlash and Interim Medical Department Head, Kramer Davis HealthDaryl Tol, Head of Health Assurance Ecosystem, General CatalystCole Zanetti, Chief Health Informatics Officer and Senior Medical Advisor for Integrated Veteran Care, US Department of Veterans Affairs and Professor of Digital Health & Director of the Digital Health Track, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Rocky Vista University

About the Digital Medicine Society: DiMe is a global non-profit and the professional home for all members of the digital medicine community. Together, we tackle the toughest digital medicine challenges, develop clinical-quality resources on a technology timeline, and deliver these actionable resources to the field via open-source channels and educational programs.

Media Contact: Carla English, press@dimesociety.org

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-dime-seal-a-new-evaluation-platform-for-digital-health-software-products-302277161.html

SOURCE Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., Oct. 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sanofi announced today it will contribute $18 million to three Historically Black Medical Schools to help the institutions work to increase diversity in clinical studies. The investment over 10 years is aimed at strengthening Centers of Excellence in clinical study diversity at Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine.

Funding will be used to hire clinical research staff, establish infrastructure such as online chat services and pharmacy upgrades, create customized training programs, and more. Each of the Centers of Excellence have their own specific needs, which will help them harness their insights into the underrepresented communities they serve as they seek to increase representation and improve diversity in clinical studies.

Lionel Bascles
SVP, Global Head of Clinical Trials and Operations, Sanofi
“At Sanofi, our mission is to chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives, and this means all people’s lives, regardless of their race or ethnicity. By partnering with these three esteemed Historically Black College and University medical schools, we hope to facilitate new inroads to communities that have been underrepresented in healthcare for far too long. Increasing diversity and inclusion is essential to the research and development of medicines and vaccines for people of all backgrounds.”

Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD, FACOG
President and CEO, Morehouse School of Medicine
“Morehouse School of Medicine is exceptionally grateful to Sanofi for this investment in our clinical study diversity Center of Excellence. We look forward to a robust partnership as we work to increase diversity in clinical studies and develop advanced opportunities for researchers, leading to greater health equity. More diversity in clinical studies will ensure traditionally underserved populations receive the very latest cutting-edge therapeutic innovations.”

Sanofi is a global innovator in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion space, including by pioneering the international effort A Million Conversations to examine trust gaps in the healthcare system. In the U.S., Sanofi and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced a strategic partnership in July that is aimed at advancing health equity for Black and underserved communities.

About Sanofi
We are an innovative global healthcare company, driven by one purpose: we chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives. Our team, across the world, is dedicated to transforming the practice of medicine by working to turn the impossible into the possible. We provide potentially life-changing treatment options and life-saving vaccine protection to millions of people globally, while putting sustainability and social responsibility at the center of our ambitions.

Sanofi is listed on EURONEXT: SAN and NASDAQ: SNY

Media Relations
Sandrine Guendoul | + 33 6 25 09 14 25 | sandrine.guendoul@sanofi.com
Evan Berland | +1 215 432 0234 | evan.berland@sanofi.com
Timothy Gilbert | + 1 516 521 2929 | timothy.gilbert@sanofi.com

Investor Relations
Thomas Kudsk Larsen |+ 44 7545 513 693 | thomas.larsen@sanofi.com
Alizé Kaisserian | + 33 6 47 04 12 11 | alize.kaisserian@sanofi.com
Arnaud Delépine | + 33 6 73 69 36 93 | arnaud.delepine@sanofi.com
Corentine Driancourt | + 33 6 40 56 92 21 | corentine.driancourt@sanofi.com
Felix Lauscher | + 1 908 612 7239 | felix.lauscher@sanofi.com
Tarik Elgoutni| + 1 617 710 3587 | tarik.elgoutni@sanofi.com
Nathalie Pham | + 33 7 85 93 30 17 | nathalie.pham@sanofi.com

Sanofi Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions, and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “plans” and similar expressions. Although Sanofi’s management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labelling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the fact that product candidates if approved may not be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, Sanofi’s ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, to complete related transactions and/or obtain regulatory clearances, risks associated with intellectual property and any related pending or future litigation and the ultimate outcome of such litigation, trends in exchange rates and prevailing interest rates, volatile economic and market conditions, cost containment initiatives and subsequent changes thereto, and the impact that pandemics or other global crises may have on us, our customers, suppliers, vendors, and other business partners, and the financial condition of any one of them, as well as on our employees and on the global economy as a whole. The risks and uncertainties also include the uncertainties discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in Sanofi’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.

All trademarks mentioned in this press release are the property of the Sanofi group.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sanofi-commits-18-million-to-howard-university-college-of-medicine-meharry-medical-college-and-morehouse-school-of-medicine-to-increase-diversity-in-clinical-studies-302276979.html

SOURCE Sanofi

TORONTO, Oct. 16, 2024 /CNW/ – Propel Holdings Inc. (“Propel”) (TSX: PRL), the fintech facilitating access to credit for underserved consumers, announced today that it will be reporting quarterly financial results for the period ending September 30, 2024, after market close on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. Propel will be hosting a conference call and webcast with a presentation by Clive Kinross, Chief Executive Officer, and Sheldon Saidakovsky, Chief Financial Officer before market open on Thursday, November 7, 2024.

Conference details are as follows:

About Propel

Propel Holdings (TSX: PRL) is the fintech company building a new world of financial opportunity for consumers, partners, and investors. Propel’s operating brands — Fora Credit, CreditFresh and MoneyKey — and our Lending-as-a-Service product line facilitate access to credit for consumers underserved by traditional financial institutions. Through its groundbreaking AI-driven platform, Propel evaluates customers in a more comprehensive way than traditional credit scores can. The result is better products and an expanded credit market for consumers while creating sustainable, profitable growth for Propel.  Our revolutionary fintech platform has already helped consumers access over one million loans and lines of credit and over one billion dollars in credit. At Propel, we are here to change the way customers, partners and investors succeed together. Learn more at www.propelholdings.com

(www.foracredit.ca, www.creditfresh.com, www.moneykey.com)

SOURCE Propel Holdings Inc.