Caregivers tapping mHealth devices for emergency notification capabilities

The increasing use of mHealth digital devices for home-based care reflects two trends: an increasing number of households featuring a caregiver and advancing technology that can help those in the role, according to the report. Read More

Digital Health Devices, Tools Popular Among Caregivers

A new report finds that 41% of caregivers with broadband connections use a digital health device. The report also finds interest among present and future caregivers in "electronic panic button" devices, online care coordination tools and other health IT products. MobiHealthNews et al. Read More

ATA Launches Accreditation Program for Telehealth Services

	The American Telemedicine Association launched an accreditation program for providers who offer online consultations directly to patients. The program -- which initially will include only U.S. providers -- aims to ensure consumers and payers that telehealth services are safe and secure. MedCity News, MobiHealthNews. Read More

Study finds most patients want the option to withhold data from their doctors

The study comes out of The Regenstrief Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine and Eskenazi Health, published as a five-part special supplement to the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and it shows that patients for the most part want controls of their data. Using Eskenazi Health’s in-house electronic record system, researchers gave 105 patients the option to block sensitive information, including information on sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse or mental health, from their care providers. Doctors could still gain access to the data if they deemed it medically essential by hitting a “break the glass” button in the back-end interface. Read More

Eight things we learned about HealthKit from Duke, Oschner

Duke University and Oschner Health System in Louisiana are two of the first hospitals to integrate with Apple HealthKit via Epic.  Here’s eight takeaways from a confence.
1) Patients and doctors are clamoring for patient-generated data 
2) The Epic integration is a one-way pipe 
3) The current set of data fields is just the beginning
4) Apple can’t access patients’ data
5) HealthKit is already reimbursable by CMS
6) Hospitals don’t want to leave Android users out
7) Apple’s glucose goof hasn’t shaken doctors’ confidence
8) HealthKit has big implications for medical research
Read More       

ONC Releases Health IT Strategic Plan for 2015-2020

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT today released a strategic plan for federal health IT. The plan outlines five goals through 2020, including increasing the adoption and use of health IT and advancing secure and interoperable health data. Modern Healthcare et al. 
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Mobile overcomes communication challenges

Survey results show mHealth is key to relieving communication issues in healthcare organizations, especially for nurses. http://bit.ly/1yQxLUJ

Mobile Overcomes Communication Challenges bit.ly

An Accenture survey has found mHealth is key to alleviating communication problems in healthcare organizations, especially for nurses

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UK & Depression App

The app initiative is part of a broader NHS effort to modernize and enhance youth mental health care in Britain.

Take Two Apps And Call Me In ThenMorningmraalert.blogspot.com

Depression is the most common type of mental illness, affecting some 350 million people globally and contributing to other problems like obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. But it often goes undiagnosed, and once you know you suffer from...Read More

 

How Do We Activate Engagement in Mental Health Patients?

mraalert.blogspot.com

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 1 in 4 adults - approximately 57.7 million Americans - experience a mental health disorder in a given year – and less than half get help. 1 in 17 Americans live with a serious mental illness....

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Check out the ‘ambulance drone’ that could one day save your life

...installing a network of the first-aid quadcopters across a city would give someone suffering a cardiac arrest an 80 percent chance of survival, up from around 8 percent today 

Check out the ‘ambulance drone’ that could one day save your life digitaltrends.com

An engineering student in the Netherlands has unveiled an 'ambulance drone' fitted with a defibrillator that he believes could save thousands of lives a year. Read More

The Case for Nurse Navigators

Nurse navigation programs have exhibited benefits to key performance metrics including cutting costs and saving lives, as well as reducing length of stay.

What’s Your Patient Navigation Strategy? orthoserviceline.com

Patient navigation has become the new favorite strategy for healthcare organizations trying to overcome the challenges of a fragmented care continuum. Whether seeking control over a complete episode in a bundled payment, or trying to make...Read More

Healthcare, Poverty, and Technology: Connecting the Dots

A new nongovernmental organization is seeking to leverage mobile and connected health technologies to improve healthcare access for the poor in the United States. 
There is an opportunity here to improve access to healthcare for the poor using technology. With that in mind, Aventor’s mission is to help social entrepreneurs trying to bring these important technologies to market by helping them cope with the legal, regulatory, and policy obstacles that lie in their way. Mobile health and telemedicine have great potential, but that potential also makes them disruptive to the current healthcare system. Read More

Does Telemedicine Work in 'Hands-on' Specialties?

This was a demonstration project, showing that even the most clinical exam–dependent subspecialties can do this if they do it with the right infrastructure. It is a good example of how broad the reach of telemedicine can be. It is very empowering for patients, many of whom are very challenged by getting to major medical centers—physically, economically, or because of time and distance. A big problem in rheumatology is access. We have 3-month waiting lists. Telemedicine dramatically increases our ability to care for more patients. Read More

Treatment of Ebola in the Digital Age

There’s many ways digital tools could impact the process of diagnosing and treating a disease like Ebola. One example would be an Ebola hotline to serve as the point of entry for care.
A single national Ebola hotline number could connect an at-risk patient to a trained Ebola screener who can assess the patient’s likelihood of exposure, clinical acuity, and need for care. The hotline number could produce an audio or audio/video connection depending on how the at-risk patient chooses to access the service. A screener would then follow an evidence-based decision-tree to conduct the assessment. The screening process limits exposures while facilitating care for the person potentially exposed to Ebola. Read More

PHR Alerts to Patients Help Narrow 'Prevention Gaps'

A study published in Telemedicine and e-Health shows that alerts sent to patients via their personal health records can help ensure individuals receive recommended care. Researchers note that nearly three-fourths of patients took action on their care after two alerts. FierceEMR, Telemedicine and e-Health. Read More

ECRI’s Top 10 Technology Hazards for 2015

Patient safety organization ECRI Institute has released its annual report examining the biggest technology hazards faced by healthcare providers--and their patients. READ MORE »