Telehealth

With an eye on reducing hospital readmissions and boosting patient care coordination, Partners HealthCare at Home, a division of Partner's HealthCare in Boston, is rolling out new remote monitoring technology.

Some 42 percent of U.S. hospitals have adopted telehealth platforms and are using the technology to treat patients, with several factors affecting market changes, according to new report findings.

Seeking ways in which IT can enable more coordinated care outside traditional settings, the Gary and Mary West Health Institute is launching a five-year study to explore new technologies and new approaches to chronic disease management.

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.

The mHealth Alliance is celebrating its fifth year of coordinating mHealth projects around the world. Patricia Mechael, the Alliance's executive director, discusses her life and career, and explains why she's driven to expand mHealth adoption in low- and middle-income countries.

There it was -- the clear-as-a-bell prediction. Call it the "wow factor." Andrew Watson, MD, medical director of the Center for Connected Medicine at UPMC, made an assertion about the future of digital health at the mHealth Summit on Dec. 9 that sent a hushed "wow" rippling across the room.

In a joint letter to the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees, several industry groups have implored legislators to incentivize integration between electronic health records and remote patient monitoring, to spur better use of patient-generated data in payment reform efforts.

Residents of New Hampshire and Vermont can count on quicker response to signs of a stroke with a new telestroke program launched by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Mayo Clinic. The program provides 24/7 access to telestroke specialists via videoconferencing technology.

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 595-bed Children's Medical Center in Dallas is the one of the latest hospitals to move forward on the telehealth front, with the launch of its TeleNICU, billed as Texas' first neonatal telemedicine program.