Eric Wicklund

Consumers aren't the only ones using mobile apps to improve their health. Their doctors are using them, too. A recent study conducted by Epocrates indicates physicians are accessing drug information at the point of care, often through a mobile medical app, to make sure the drugs they're prescribing aren't harming their patients. That, says the San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of online reference tools, amounts to more than 27 million potentially dangerous drug interactions avoided each year.

While their colleagues in Washington are starting to take interest in the promises of digital health, lawmakers in several states are forging ahead with their own legislative ideas. According to the American Telemedicine Association, seven states and the District of Columbia have seen bills introduced in the past four weeks that address coverage and reimbursement for telemedicine services.

UnitedHealth Group is pushing a theme of behavior change and incentives to improve America's troubled healthcare system -- and, more importantly, the American patient. It's a battle that Reed Tuckson, MD, UnitedHealth's executive vice president and chief of medical affairs, says won't be easy.

Mark T. Bertolini, chairman, CEO and president of Aetna, delivered the opening keynote on Monday at the mHealth Summit. A former executive for Cigna, NYLCare Health Plans and SelectCare, he now oversees a global healthcare benefits company with some 33,000 employees in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The ever-increasing ability of both doctors and patients to send and receive healthcare data on the move is adding some weight to the health information exchange debate, but issues remain with security and a reluctance to share information.

Advocates and critics alike talk about finding the data to back up claims that telehealth can be successful. Officials at Humana and Intel-GE Care Innovations say they'll have those numbers shortly, thanks to a nationwide collaboration.

Epocrates officials were showing off an iPad version of their new electronic health record at the HIMSS12 Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas, Feb.20-24. The sleek, easy-to-use EHR app, which operated on screen touches rather than mouse clicks, seemed poised to make a splash in an ever-crowded field, which numbers more than 300 offerings at last count.

The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, working with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, has launched a Privacy & Security Mobile Device project.

The economy might not be filling everyone's wallets these days, but the landscape for venture capital firms looking to invest in healthcare has never been hotter.

Last year, HIMSS became an organizing partner for the mHealth Summit, a three-day event in Washington D.C. that attracted a wide range of academics, providers and entrepreneurs interested in the mobile healthcare landscape. Officials of the Chicago-based organization must have liked what they saw -- they now own the event.