Connected Health

Early stage investments have already climbed close to $4 billion this year, according to a report published by StartUp Health, which is fostering an ecosystem of emerging companies in the healthcare sector. 

The research firm rated 11 RTLS vendors and found that today’s vendors are looking beyond the basics to help healthcare organizations improve care quality, increase staff efficiency and boost the bottom line.

Doctors are required by law to allow patients to view, download and transmit data and that new reality is giving rise to many hesitations. Here’s a look at pressing issues to understand before proceeding. 

The companies plan to integrate Validic’s digital platform for patient-generated health data with SAP’s analytics to help providers make personalized care decisions. 

Interactive mobile messaging is helping improve the health of Medicaid patients while reducing costs, according to a study by Inland Empire Health Plan and the vendor mPulse Mobile.

The new app, which includes features for finding doctors and booking appointments as well as general information, is designed to strengthen patient engagement efforts by streamlining their experience, Mount Sinai’s CIO said.

Coordinated Care Oklahoma, working with technology partners Cerner and Browsersoft, has connected with the U.S. Department of Defense, and it's being billed as the first time an agency using Cerner is providing electronic health records to the DoD. Military personnel at bases in the Sooner State can now have their EHRs available at providers who subscribe to CCO’s exchange, which spans Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas and Kansas. "Up until this point, military personnel and their families were covered as it pertains to electronic health records in a sort of duplicate system and then only within base medical installations," said Brian Yeaman, MD, chief administrative officer at CCO, in a statement. [Also: Brian Yeaman wins HIMSS Physician IT Leadership Award for meaningful use, HIE work] Currently there are 22,000 active duty personnel in Oklahoma, supported by 23,000 civilians at military installations statewide. Their medical records are now available to CCO members. Initial talks and implementation were made possible through the work of team members at CCO, Cerner, Browsersoft and Fort Sill, according to CCO, Oklahoma’s largest HIE. Alongside health IT giant Cerner, Browsersoft - which develops open source technology to enable exchange of data among disparate systems - is helping the HIE connect with Oklahoma providers with the DoD in a cost effective way. "What’s exciting and unique about this implementation is the collaborative effort that went into it" said Yeaman. "This involved high level talks, but started locally more than a year ago, and the end results will very much be felt in local impact."   Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

InterSystems' Russell Leftwich, MD, says 'there's still a lot of data yet to be incorporated' with the HL7 standard.

Sutter, Alameda Health System and others to share real-time patient data via a portable health record called PreManage ED, to help redirect frequent flyers.

Google, the world's most used search engine, is partnering with two of the world's leading health organizations to take the confusion out of symptom searching.