News & Updates
A study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded that evidence of the benefits of clinical decision-support systems (CDSSs) is sparse. A review of 148 randomized, controlled trials found that CDSSs don’t significantly impact clinical, economic, workload or efficiency outcomes.
IMB acquired Big data analytics company Vivisimo. Financial terms were not disclosed. Vivisimo specializes in capturing and delivering information across a broad range of data sources. The software will be incorporated into IBM’s big data platform, which more than 100 of IBM’s business partners have adopted.
Independa, creator of an independent-living platform for the elderly, closed its convertible note funding at $2.35 million. This comes after the company raised $1.6 million in seed-round venture capital last year. Independa is working with the San Diego-based business incubator, EvoNexus.
A low-cost smartphone device to detect oral cancer is being developed at Stanford University. OScan uses florescent light to detect possible malignant cancer lesions. The images captured by the phone’s camera are sent to remote professionals for an assessment.
A recent poll by KPMG Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Institute gauged hospital and health system business leaders’ feelings about their preparedness to meet Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements. Forty-eight percent said they were confident in their organization’s level of readiness, 39% percent said they were somewhat confident, 3% percent said they were not confident at all and 10% didn’t know their level of readiness.
Boston Children’s Hospital launched its new mobile app called Boston Children’s Hospital MyWay. It’s designed to help families navigate their patient experience and help them immediately access personal health data and information about physicians and clinical programs.
Check out Technology Review’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012. Athenahealth made it on the list in the biomedicine category. Why: “Its systems help doctors and patients with the morass of medical records and billing paperwork.”
With the American Telemedicine Association meeting coming up next week, expect lots of telehealth-related announcements. Provider of telecare monitoring systems Numera is in the news again this week. It launched HealthPort, a communications hub designed to let users share health information with their care team not just through a smartphone or computer, but with digital or analog phone lines.
Thomson Reuters Corp., one of the world’s largest news and information companies, said it will sell its health care analytics division to Veritas Capital. Veritas, a private-equity fund, will acquire the division for $1.25 billion.
Health 2.0 is sponsoring the two day Cajun Code-Fest in Lafayette, LA today and tomorrow. The competition is focused on developing tools to address childhood obesity. The event will feature talks from US Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and TEDMED Curator Jay Walker.
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