One of the great things about living near a “destination city” such as Washington DC is that friends and relatives often come to visit. This past Fourth of July week was a perfect example, as my sister-in-law and niece came to visit and to celebrate our country’s birthday in it's capital city.

My niece had also recently just turned 21, and was celebrating her birthday too. One thing that they both wanted to do was to go to a casino. Luckily about an hour or so north was Arundel Mills, an outlet shopping destination and (non-smoking) casino.

A California resident filed a class-action lawsuit against Fitbit, arguing that the sleep-tracking feature of the company's wearable device is not accurate and that the firm is engaging in false advertising, MobiHealthNews reports.

Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) re-introduced a bill (S 1101) that would exempt certain medical software and mobile applications from FDA regulation, Health Data Management reports.

Hospital errors could be better avoided by improving the interoperability of medical devices, according to a survey of 526 registered nurses conducted by Harris Poll, FierceHealthIT reports (Dvorak, FierceHealthIT, 3/12).

The FDA launched a new mobile application that allows users to share and obtain information about drug shortages, Modern Healthcare reports.

About 66% of U.S.

The Apple smartwatch set to be released in April lacks some health-related technology components that the company had originally envisioned, the Wall Street Journal reports.

More than 40 million U.S. residents who have a smartphone actively use a wellness or fitness application on the device, according to a survey by Parks Associates, MobiHealthNews reports (Dolan, MobiHealthNews, 2/3).

Lawmakers in Congress are circulating a revised draft bill intended to develop a regulatory framework for FDA's oversight of health IT, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 1/26).

The Federal Trade Commission released a report highlighting the public health benefits of devices that can transmit health data to the Internet, as well as the security and privacy risks that could come along with such technologies and undermine U.S.

The FDA published two draft guidance documents that outline how the agency would classify low-risk general wellness devices and applications and propose risk assessment-based regulation for medical device accessories, Health Data Management reports.

To benefit from fitness trackers, people need to start consistently wearing them, three researchers argue in a JAMA Viewpoint, The Atlantic reports.

Nearly 100 million wearable health monitoring devices are expected to be sold over the next five years, according to a new ABI Research report, FierceMobileHealthcare reports (Mottl

Apple appears to be taking steps to prevent application developers from selling health data collected by its recently launched mobile platform called HealthKit, MobiHealthNews reports (Dolan, MobiHealthNews, 9/2).

Background

In June, Apple introduced a new mobile application and platform that aims to consolidate health data tracked by various other health apps into one location.

During a news conference on Sunday August 10th, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) discussed the lack of regulations over data collected by wearable health-monitoring devices, Long Island Newsday reports (Ngo, Long Island Newsday, 8/10).

The FDA released draft guidance on a wide-ranging list of medical devices -- including those that fall into the mobile health care category -- that the agency believes do not require premarket authorization, MobiHealthNews reports (Dolan,

FDA issued draft guidance saying that it considers medical device data systems to be safe and does not intend to regulate such tools, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 6/20).

M&A, Financial Reports and Funding

An international group of medical device regulators and stakeholders released a draft framework designed to harmonize regulation of software as a medical device, or SaMD, Health Data Management reports.

On Tuesday, March 27, 2014 the FDA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would update how the agency classifies medical devices, including mobile health technologies, Health Data Management reports (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 3/25).