Mobile
In the new world of healthcare -- one that is focused on collaboration, accountability, providing better care and cutting costs -- Aetna executives view the insurer's newly minted Healthagen division, unveiled last month at HIMSS13, as an indispensible piece of getting things right.
Hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries in almost 100 counties across the United States and its territories will be losing coverage for telehealth services because they no longer live in federally designated rural areas. As a result of the 2010 Census, 97 counties in 36 states and territories are being redefined as metropolitan, rather than rural.
Three subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee just concluded three hearings on mobile health March 18-21, looking for "the sweet spot and that fine line," between patient safety regulations and freedom of innovation, as it was described by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) at the opening of the hearings.
Several witnesses from the health IT and mobile health industries are set to testify March 19 before the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The hearing will focus on medical devices and mobile app markets.
After 15 years at the helm of Allscripts, the EHR vendor he helped steer through years of growth and change, Glen Tullman is poised to join the ranks of serial entrepreneurs. He and Allscripts colleague Lee Shapiro, who served as president, have set their sights on starting a new company -- or maybe multiple companies -- in the mobile healthcare arena.
The man once hailed by GQ Magazine as one of the 12 "rock stars of science" doesn't predict a rosy future for hospitals or medical clinics. But he does expect the individual consumer to be much more aware and proactive about healthcare.
A raft of technologies including broadband, cloud computing, cheaper storage and mobile devices, among others, is driving the transformation. At the same time, market expectations regarding standards of care are changing, as are younger providers' relationship with health-specific IT.
San Diego-based Humetrix has expanded the ways patients and physicians can exchange health records via its iBlueButton app using not only iPhones and iPads but also Android devices with secure Quick Response code to transfer the patient's Blue Button record between systems.
Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health, talks with Bernie Monegain about the Center's mobile health plans and describes the concept of "Wellocracy."
A recent market forecast on wearable devices and smart glasses, coupled with 2012 venture capital investments in mHealth at nearly $908 million, indicate the market is hot and likely to get hotter.