Mobile
To curb a common cause of faulty healthcare -- "use of the pen" -- hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have turned to voice technology, a move welcomed by clinicians.
"The singularity is near," says Ray Kurzweil, author, inventor, futurist and entrepreneur, who announced this past December he would be joining Google as director of engineering, with unlimited resources for researching artificial intelligence.
Mobile health is one of the more transformative developments in healthcare, according to Patricia Abbott, associate professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, School of Nursing, Division of Nursing Business and Health Systems. "The real winners will be the ones who grab on in the front end, and don't wait," she says.
There's a new app that can help caregivers and clinicians monitor the heart rate and respiratory activity of a patient; it's called SecuraFone, powered by Hermosa Beach, Calif.-based SecuraTrac.
Some fear mobile healthcare could replace the need for doctors in some cases, but according to Patricia Mechael, executive director of the mHealth Alliance, mHealth will only help doctors make better decisions. It won't replace them.
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.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the healthcare IT sector have seen considerable growth over the past year, with a significant portion of smaller, tactical deals yielding big return on investment, according to a report released Jan. 11.
The Federal Communications Commission will make $400 million available annually to healthcare providers to expand the development of broadband telehealth networks from a pilot to a permanent program. The pilot program has supported 50 provider healthcare networks in 38 states.
Despite the amazing potential of mobile healthcare, many concerns still remain over the issues of privacy and security.
There's a lot of hype around what apps can do for healthcare. What do experts advise doctors to look for when they want to use an app?