Mobile Health: How Mobile Phones Support Health Care

RT @niexecutive: Poots - Healthcare innovation key to the growth of our economy http://t.co/56yD6k43iS #ehW13 #wohit

Tool makes it easy to search for health providers who are active in the Medicare prescription drug program.

 What’s the purpose of Prescriber Checkup?

A. We’ve made it easy to search for doctors and other health providers who are active in Medicare’s prescription drug program, called Part D. You can find out how many prescriptions each wrote and which drugs were prescribed. You can compare your doctor with others in his or her specialty and state. And you can check out the drugs you are taking or any that your doctor recommends.

Is this new information?

Until now, the identities of doctors and which drugs they prescribed in Medicare Part D have not been public. ProPublica obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act and investigated prescribing patterns. We are making the data available to help consumers stay informed.

April Meeting PATIENTS 2.0 INTRODUCING THEEMPOWERED PATIENTMARIE ENNIS O’CONNOR (Thanks Liam RT @liamhq: Great deck by @JBBC from last weeks @Health2Dublin meetup: Patients 2.0 http://t.co/mmynCNgCiN...

In relatively few years, videoconferencing has advanced tremendously, from something that required expensive and complicated hardware setups to something most smartphone, tablet, and PC owners have easy access to.

FDA wants UDI surveillance to involve EHRs and apps.

Current reporting standards for medical devices are fraught with inconsistencies. For example, though companies and hospitals are required to report certain events to the FDA, reporting is optional for doctors. 

In the past, it took months, sometimes even years, for authorities to ascertain whether the adverse events were unrelated or indicated that the device posed a public health hazard.

edtronic wins FDA nods for next-gen cardiac devicesMay 6, 2013 | By Damian GardeShare ToolsCommentPrintContact AuthorReprintMedtronic won FDA approval for Viva, left, and Evera.--Courtesy of Medtronic

Medtronic ($MDT) is padding its fleet of U.S.-approved cardiac devices, winning the FDA's blessing to market new Viva and Evera implants.

Viva, a cardiac resynchronization therapy device, is designed to improve the lives of heart failure patients, boasting a 21% reduction in first-year hospitalizations compared to competing technologies, Medtronic said. That results in not only a safer device but also cost savings for payers and providers, according to the company.

Evera, on the other hand, is an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator outfitted with Medtronic's SmartShock technology, delivering a 98% inappropriate-shock-free rate after one year, the company said. Both devices have been redesigned with contours that reduce patient skin pressure by 30%, according to Medtronic.

"These devices are designed to provide optimal therapy for patients, while providing economic benefits through fewer hospitalizations, fewer inappropriate shocks and increased longevity, which can result in lower healthcare costs," Medtronic's Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management Medical Director David Steinhaus said in a statement. "Patients suffering from debilitating heart rhythm disorders can rely on new treatment options that can significantly improve their quality of life."

The new devices are part of Medtronic's efforts to reverse its fortunes in cardiac rhythm management, a business that declined 2% last quarter to $1.2 billion in sales and slipped about 3.3% to $4.6 billion last year. Medtronic is counting on new product rollouts to outweigh the flattening markets for CRT-Ds and ICDs, all while expanding the reach of its growing atrial fibrillation business.

- read the announcement

Read more: Medtronic wins FDA nods for next-gen cardiac devices - FierceMedicalDevices http://www.fiercemedicaldevices.com/story/medtronic-wins-fda-nods-next-gen-cardiac-devices/2013-05-06#ixzz2SXiKhLty
Subscribe at FierceMedicalDevices

A telemedicine system set up to help stroke patients has been declared a success by the NHS Cumbria & Lancashire Cardiac and Stroke Network (CSNLC).

Digital health isn’t the application of a web site to clinical practice.  And it’s not the generic idea of social media applied to a disease category.  I guess the confusion starts with the word digital.  Anything digital can combined with health and healthcare and there you have it–digital health. Even today’s more sophisticated healthcare marketers discuss digital health in the context of web sites and iPads.  Today, pharm, marketers, thinkers and engaged listeners often can’t see the true promise of digital health and are plotting a healthcare future that might just not exist and based upon these misconceptions.

Seamless Healthcare's multi-prong approach to raising health literacy, with a nod to the Meaningful Use provisions of the HITECH Act,hopes to improve practice workflows along the way.

Digital health may be garnering all the glory for its promise to transform health care, but take a closer look and you’ll find a promising next wave of health care investments.

With a proliferation of mobile apps and data being generated at a dizzying pace, few investments have yet to fulfill their financial promise. The real money will be made when companies build services around these applications, make the data actionable, and connect all this inbound patient data to the physical health care system.

Expect companies that find new, creative ways of connecting data to patients, determine what to do with the data when it’s generated, and figure out ways to creatively (and profitably) engage the health care system, to attract the attention of VCs and entrepreneurs alike. Here are three areas worth watching

Smart Sensors

Software Systems for Data Analysis

New Service Models for Patients

Everything that can be done digitally and virtually will be done digitally and virtually. This will dramatically improve access to and efficiency of the traditional health care system. Call centers will be staffed not just by the traditional nurse, but also by physicians, pharmacists and other professionals who can provide a higher level of care.

The Empowered Patient® Decision Support web app is a series of ten questions that help identify areas in which patients may need help and support when making health care decisions. The app produces a streamlined pdf report of areas where the patient feels confident and decisive – and areas in which the patient may need information and guidance.

The quantified self movement should be closely monitored by all interested in the future of the American health care delivery system. The potential to improve the life of patients with chronic diseases is clearly apparent; whether most people will use the increasingly sophisticated tools being developed is open to debate.

Visiongain's latest report examines the global mHealth market with a focus on service types, perceived benefits and the key drivers and barriers to uptake. This timely report is entitled World Mobile Healthcare (mHealth) Market 2013-2018: eHealth, Telemedicine & Health informatics

The potential benefits of mHealth solutions include improving healthcare system processes, collecting and retrieving crucial medical data and patients being able to manage chronic conditions better.  Dedicated devices that perform medical functions can utilise mobile technologies such as the cloud allowing data to be uploaded and downloaded instantly. The app ecosystem also offers a vast array of programs that cover everything from general wellness to chronic diseases and illnesses.

The mHealth ecosystem includes mobile operators who are set to reap revenues from increased data consumption. Healthcare practitioners will find workloads decreased and greater efficiency in treatments. Software and app developers will gain wide revenue streams from the creation of popular apps or solutions either through consumer purchase or subsidised purchase by health insurance companies. Governmental bodies and pharmaceutical companies can also increase savings and revenues from mHealth.

1 in 5 Physician Practices Have Care Coordinators D Healthcare Daily More than 1 out of 5 physician practices employ care coordinators, according to the 2013 Staff Salary Survey by Physicians Practice magazine.

Know Yourself From the Inside Out

Get the insights and expert recommendations to improve your health. Only WellnessFX combines extensive biomarker diagnostics with a personalized phone consult with the healthcare professional of your choice.

Watch a short video about WellnessFX