News & Updates
HolaDoctor releases a white paper on opportunities and barriers to delivering mHealth interventions to Hispanic patients. HolaDoctor finds that Hispanics are more likely to own a smart phone than any other ethnic group, more likely to access the web through the mobile phones and highly receptive to text message interventions. For more interesting insights, see the white paper here.
California Governor Jerry Brown signs telehealth legislation AB 415 into law. AB 415 will remove current MediCal requirements to obtain written consent and document barriers to in-person visits prior to using telehealth. The law also eliminates restrictions on reimbursement for email and telephone consultations and clarifies state policy to allow California healthcare facilities to utilize a CMS-approved process for credentialing purposes.
Another partnership between academia and industry yields a new health app. UCSF and QuantiaMD announce a new interactive mobile app that helps patients learn about diabetes through a game show format.
Eldercare telehealth company, Virtual Living, launches in New York. Led by a veteran of Intel’s Home Healthcare business, the company offers a FDA-approved Care Innovations Guide platform that allows providers to remotely monitor vital signs and communicate with patients through video-conferencing. The company plans to offer the service at 10% the current cost of an assisted living contract.
Kareo, which provides cloud-based practice management and medical billing software, closes a $10 million investment round led by Greenspring Associates. Kareo plans to use the money to expand sales and marketing, enhance product offering, and support partnerships.
Happtique announces that 11 hospitals have signed on to trial their curated medical app store. Happtique offers health care institutions the ability to create individually branded, secure, multi-platform app stores independent of the Apple App Store.
University of California-Davis researchers have transformed the iPhone into a medical imaging device by attaching a special ball lens to the camera. The modified iPhone can examine features that are 1.5 microns in size, allowing users to identify various types of blood cells.
Verizon’s Connected Health Solutions group and Duke University announce a new multi-year partnership to test health care technologies for commercial viability. Verizon will contribute a cloud computing infrastructure, while Duke will supply researchers and students. Technologies to be tested may include home-based monitoring of chronic diseases and remote sensors running on Verizon's 4G network.
Five teams of scientists in the University of California system received grants of up to $100,000 funded by RWJF, CHCF & Booz Allen Hamilton to develop their mobile health ideas into effective methods for managing chronic diseases. Winning solutions include a web-based cancer radiotherapy treatment planning program, a lens-free, on-chip imaging modality that can convert a cell phone into a microscope, and a small scale that sits under a dinner plate and wirelessly transmits information about the user’s eating behavior.
Patient check-in company, Phreesia, adds a patient self-service version of the Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to its growing library of clinical assessments which includes asthma, autism and sleep disorders.
Cleveland Clinic is using clinical document improvement software from 3M Health Information Systems to analyze patient health data and identify indicators that could suggest a potential for complications.
Health 2.0 Developer Challenges