News & Updates

May 12, 2023 - By Deb Linton

The X PRIZE Foundation, a leading nonprofit creating and managing large-scale, global incentivized competitions, announced a collaboration with Qualcomm to design the Tricorder X PRIZE, a $10 million prize to develop a mobile solution that can diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians. It expects to launch the competition in early 2012.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), a mobile application development partnership aimed at delivering free health care information and tips to pregnant women and mothers around the world via cell phone. Over the next three years, the partnership, which is expected to mobilize $10 million, will work across an initial set of three countries, Bangladesh, India and South Africa, to help coordinate and increase the impact of existing mobile health programs. Resources are being contributed by USAID, Johnson & Johnson, the U.N. Foundation, the  mHealth Alliance and BabyCenter. Check out the full USAID Press Release here.

The Institute for Health Technology Transformation has released a report that examines the best ways to engage patients in the digital age. See HealthIT News for an overview of the report or go to the Institute for Health Technology Transformation to download the full document, “Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Engaging Patients.” You can also read a similar post on our sister site, THCB, “Ten Rules for Health Care Organizations Interested in Using Social Media”

Aetna announced a collaboration that will offer Aetna members an enhanced version of Mindbloom’s Life Game, an online social game for personal wellness. Starting this fall, Aetna members will have access to this new engagement model which uses the behavioral psychology behind social gaming to help people achieve personal health goals.

OSCON‘s (O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention)The Health Track sessions have been announced. Check out the lineup here.

NPR’s All Things Considered featured an interesting piece on combat TBI (traumatic brain injury) and how new diagnostic methods are redefining what it means to be “healthy.” At Fort Campbell’s TBI clinic, which has been singled out as a national model by the Pentagon, patients must demonstrate their competence through pencil-and-paper tests as well as new real-life exercises supported by technology.

It’s National Women’s Health Week. A week long health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. During this week, they’re encouraging women to take the time to: get exercise; eat well; make healthy choices; visit a health care professional; and be mindful of our mental health.