Mobile

Outgoing National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, spoke with Government Health IT Editor Tom Sullivan recently about the difference between applying his passion for improving healthcare through health IT at the local level and federal level.

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.

Martin Blinder, CEO of Tictrac, presents an innovative, consumer-focused mobile app which tracks a user's daily activites and amalgamates diverse metrics to provide snapshots of the individual's health via a personalized dashboard.

Intermountain Healthcare has joined with a group of IT companies including Intel and Dell to launch its new Healthcare Transformation Lab, which will work to bring envelope-pushing technologies to the bedside faster and more efficiently.

Naomi Fried, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital, was featured at the IHT2 Health IT Summit in Boston on May 7-8, where she talked about ways to incorporate innovation in day-to-day work and about specific initiatives at Boston Children's.

While the rapid spread of mobile apps and devices has led to innovations in providing targeted physical care, more and more technology is being put to work reaching out to patients struggling with mental illness.

Deborah Jeffries, MD, director of healthcare for Polycom, talks about emerging telemedicine trends, including the growing power of the peer-to-peer aspects of personal health management.

Despite the fact that patients are clamoring for it and health organizations see its benefits, electronic communication from primary care physicians won't become commonplace until doctors' workloads are reduced -- or they get paid extra for emails and phone calls.

About 15,000 children and family members across the country in need of healthcare will benefit from a partnership under which 15 of the Children's Health Fund's mobile medical clinics will be equipped with the latest health IT from the Verizon Foundation. The initiative kicked off in Miami on July 25.