Quintiles hits CES, talking mHealth with Durham startup Validic

The world’s largest life sciences company is taking its message about digital health to Las Vegas. Right along side will be a Durham startup.

As digital health becomes more common in these days of emerging electronic medical records, wearable health devices and more, Quintiles is joining the growing number of companies seeking to capitalize on the world’s biggest tech show: CES.

The appearance is a way for Quintiles to tout its own initiatives as the “CES Digital Health Summit.”

Drew Schiller, CTO of Validic, a mobile health data trend-setter which is based in Durham and is a Quintiles partner, is heading the panel discussion through which Quintiles makes its premier.

So why go to Vegas?

“We seek to lead technological innovations as we transform clinical development,” said Quintiles’ Phil Bridges, who is senior director of corporate communications.

“So much of the clinical research process has gone digital (apps, wearables, more), Quintiles has a keen focus on developing and using technology advances in the improvement of drug development. “

Quintiles recently unveiled its open-source code enhancements to Apple’s ResearchKit that Bridges describes as “framework which was designed to make it easy for researchers to gather data more frequently and more accurately from research participants using iPhone apps.”

Quntiles’ (NYSE: Q) head of Digital Health Acceleration, John Reites, is part of a panel that will discuss mHealth, i.e. mobile health, on Thursday.

The specific focus: How mobile apps and wearables are having an impact on clinical research.

Here’s the formal title: “Data in Action: Digital Health’s Secret Weapon.”

Reites will talk about what Quintiles is doing as the company broadens its embrace of the new era in clinical trials and personal health tracking.

“Digital health is playing an increasingly influential role shaping the future of clinical research,” Reites says. “As a participant and panelist at CES this year, I’m looking forward to sharing more about the innovative work Quintiles is doing in digital health to enhance our customers’ clinical research programs.”

This “Digital Health Summit” track “reflects the burgeoning digital health industry, which is welcoming established innovators as well as new technology entrants as a result of $4.3 billion in digital health funding added over the course of 2015, according to a recent report by Rock Health,” Bridges points out.

Panel details:

Data in Action: Digital Health’s Secret Weapon