News & Updates
Researchers from Cleveland Clinic published a study in the journal Heart Rhythm on a new wristwatch able to detect events leading to heart attacks by monitoring arterial pulse swelling. The Wriskwatch device uses Bluetooth to wirelessly alert emergency medical providers when it notices absence of a pulse. It’s trying for the same general technology area (wrist-based pulse detection) as the forthcoming Basis device which takes more of a health and wellness flavor.
Sanofi-Aventis announced the 5 semi-finalists for its Diabetes Data Design Challenge, which was unveiled at the June HDI meeting. The winning projects include a mobile app featuring risk calculation engine that lets patients pinpoint behaviors that they want to change, a photo app allowing diabetes to upload photos of their foot wounds and a mobile gaming service that uses “food personas” to illustrate the impact of each food decision.
A new journal Games for Health: Research Development and Clinical Applications is scheduled to debut in early 2012. In addition to peer-reviewed articles on health games, the journal will feature product news and reviews. Interestingly this comes at a time when the Robert Wood Johns Foundation is ending some of its support for Gaming in Health research.
Hot on the heels of Dr. Chrono achieving meaningful use certification for its iPad EHR, GE Healthcare announced the release of Centricity* Advance — Mobile, a native iPad version of its web-based EMR, designed for medical practices with 10 or fewer physicians.
L.A. Care Health Plan, Los Angeles county’s safety-net health plan, with over 900,00 enrollees has announced that it will implement eConsult at a cost of $1.5 million. eConsult allows network physicians to post simple questions to be answered by specialists via secure e-mail.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis is conducting a feasibility study of a clinical alert system that would allow sick patients to be monitored in a step-down unit as opposed to being kept in the ICU. The system uses wireless telemetry and pulse oximetry units to monitor vital signs of at-risk patients. Data is pushed to patients’ electronic charts with alerts sent to nurses when critical data is encountered.
The University of California, Irvine will again issue iPads to its incoming class of medical students. UC Irvine joins schools like Stanford and Brown in either issuing or requiring the purchase of an iPad as a medical tool much like a stethoscope or reflex hammer. UC Irvine will also debut the West Coast’s first portable ultrasound training curriculum this Fall.
To encourage more women to get their screening mammograms, a Georgia-area hospital recently started including QR codes in its print advertisements. The QR codes send individuals directly to the hospital website where they can schedule a mammogram appointment.
Health 2.0 Developer Challenges