News & Updates
Social media is proving to play a valuable role in recruiting patients as participants in rare disease studies. Mayo Clinic conducted a study of the poorly understood, fatal, and rare disease called Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). It was thanks to the online social group of survivors of SCAD that the Clinic was able to quickly enlist a large, diverse pool of contributors. Similarly, Patients Like Me was able to successfully recruit participants for real-time results in a study for treatment evaluation of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (back in 4/2010).
The ONC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have designed and launched a project called “Care About Your Care” in an effort to create a space for patients and consumers to better comprehend their care quality and the ways in which they might take participatory action.
A partnership between American Well and Numera will leverage a new telehealth solution that directly feeds health monitoring information into a live online interaction between patients and their physicians. American Well will contribute their online care suite technologies, while Numera will pitch in with their NET gateway; patients can input using their home monitoring devices. Such a solution will serve most beneficial for chronic condition patients as well as those who have more difficulty with mobility.
Out with the paper, in with the iPads. Yale School of Medicine is equipping students with iPads in an effort to save money and “go green”.
Medical documentation platform vendor MD-IT has launched its’ android app, iConnect, which offers smart phone dictation and EMR access. The free product is offered through Google’s Android Market.
More incentives for rural health care access springs up; HHS has announced their $11.9 million grant that will be dispersed to rural health networks to be used towards the implementation of HIT’s and HER’s. 40 organizations will receive $300,000 to spend on equipment, and related integration costs.
It’s not just the (wo)manpower here at Health 2.0 who possess MBA’s in addition to their MD… A relevant article was published in the New York Times exposing this more common trend as Doc’s are encouraged to think more like entrepreneurs what with the tightening government regulations and insurance pressures.
Verizon Universal Identify Services-Healthcare that’s been around since November 2010 has now expanded to meet identity requirements for accessing EHR’s and HIE’s, and offers FDA approved digital signature for clinical documentation, e-pharma options for prescription distribution, and of course access through smartphones.
The White House “Startup America” program has expanded its support of Health IT developers by featuring a group of “Innovation Exchanges for Health IT”. The Office of the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. and the ONC are helping promote a series of meetings for Health organizations and Health IT developers who are nearing the proof-of-concepts stage in their development.
Health 2.0 Developer Challenges