Eric Wicklund
A proposed bill that aims to reduce regulatory burden in healthcare IT is drawing backlash from mHealth advocates who feel it may endanger lives and decimate the industry. Sponsors say the bill would prioritize the FDA's attention to technologies that pose the greatest health risk, rather than giving the agency broad authority over "low-risk health IT."
A Washington-based network of pediatricians who are now using a mobile app to connect with their EHR, have discovered that a few minutes saved in each encounter can add up over time, and the ROI can mean a whole lot more than just money saved. Just ask the parents of a sick or newborn child what a few minutes mean to them.
Meaningful use -- it's not just for healthcare providers anymore. Patients are paying attention to meaningful use of electronic health data; they're understanding, and now they want it.
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, urged his mHealth Summit audience Dec. 10 to think of the smartphone as a modern-day Aladdin's lamp: Touch it, and all sorts of magic can happen. Denmark Minister of Health Astrid Krag talked about Denmark's initiative to reconfigure its healthcare system.
With mHealth becoming the norm instead of the exception, a panel at Partners HealthCare's 10th Annual Connected Health Symposium concluded that EHR vendors will have to find a way to modify their products to focus on data that the patient and his or her care team want, or they'll become obsolete.
A non-profit organization focused on Internet security is looking to develop a set of benchmarks to protect medical devices from potentially fatal cyber attacks.
mHealth advocates are giving good early reviews to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's final guidance document on the regulation of mobile medical apps, with one expert calling it "an expansive document that truly seeks to deregulate our nimble and innovative industry, while ensuring patient safety."
The ONC's contest was designed to compel developers to increase the number of patient-facing apps that can receive and move clinical data via Blue Button Direct, which takes that data and puts it in a machine-readable format for easier integration and use.
Glen Tullman, who spent 15 years at Allscripts before stepping down in 2012 amid a company shakeup, has announced plans to launch Zest Health. The company's opening salvo will be a consumer-focused mobile app.
Johnson + Johnson and the mHealth Alliance are partnering to serve developing nations where mobile healthcare tools are catching on but held back by limited resources.