News & Updates
Dr Chrono, creator of a meaningful use-certified electronic health record for the iPad, closed a $2.8 million round of funding led by Facebook investor Yuri Milner. The round also included an investment from Matt Cutts from the search quality group at Google. The company announced that more than 15,000 registered providers and 400,000 patients are using the Dr Chrono EHR.
WellnessFX announced it would expand its services to users in Oregon. WellnessFx is a web-based personal wellness platform that allows users to organize and visualize their health information from connected devices, self-recorded data and other diagnostic tests. The platform launched at the Health 2.0 Conference in September 2011 and was made available to California residents in early December.
DSHI Systems, creator of health care web applications and toolkits, has been chosen to create a mobile triage solution for the Veterans Health Administration to use in emergency rooms. DHSI has provided a call-center based triage service to the VA for years, but this project, which will be completed in August, will move the VA toward a more tablet-friendly work environment.
The mHealth Regulatory Commission (MRC), an organization that proposes recommendations for the Food an Drug Administration in the area of mobile health, wrote a letter asking that the FDA clarify and hold off on finalizing its guidelines for mobile medical apps. The MRC is scheduled to meet with the FDA Feb. 1 to discuss the timeline.
Aneesh Chopra officially resigned as the White House’s first chief technology officer on Friday. Chopra was charged with helping to modernize the federal bureaucracy and developing tools to increase transparency in health care. He is expected to announce that he will run for lieutenant governor in Virginia, according to the Washington Post.
Glooko, creator of an iPhone-base glucose monitoring system, raised $3.5 million in its first round of funding led by venture fund The Social+Capital Partnership. Chamath Palihapitiya, managing partner at Social+Capital, will join Glooko’s board of directors. Glooko demonstrated its prototype on stage at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in 2009. Other glucose monitoring systems for iPhone include the Telcare and iBGStar.
CEO of the American Medical Association James L. Madara wrote to House Speaker John Boehner, asking him to help halt ICD-10 implementation citing excess costs for physicians. The AMA believes that the per practice cost of ICD-10 implementation could range from $83,290 to more than $2.7 million. The American Health Information Management Association took the opposite stance and issued a press release stating that the transition should proceed as scheduled.
Health organizations are increasingly hiring chief nurse information officers, according to an article in Healthcare IT News. Academic institutions and large integrated health systems are the main organizations hiring for these positions, Linda Hodges, vice president at executive search firm Witt/Kieffer said. Hodges will be co-presenting a session on the emerging role of the CNIO at HIMSS12 in February.
The University of Maryland launched an innovation challenge for students nationwide to develop programs and applications that improve health care outcomes. The challenge is supported by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. The “Innovate 4 Healthcare Challenge” will culminate in an April 20, 2012, and the first-prize winners will get $20,000.
A twenty-five year-old entrepreneur’s company Medic Mobile was featured in a recent article. The nonprofit company make it easy for health workers in rural parts of the world to communicate with patients and provide diagnostics through text messaging. Medic Mobile’s technology, used by about 6,000 workers, has been implemented in 16 countries with a focus on East and West Africa and Southern Asia.
Health 2.0 Developer Challenges