Molly Merrill
The not-for-profit Sutter Health network, in Sacramento, Calif., is helping its patients connect not only with its resources, but also with doctors, clinics and ERs nationwide, using a free application that they can download on their smartphones. Sutter Health is using technology called iTriage, a healthcare information software product introduced by Healthagen, LLC . iTriage was developed in 2008 by emergency room physicians, Peter Hudson, MD, who is co-founder and CEO of Healthagen and Wayne Guerra MD, who is the company's co-founder and chief medical officer.
The Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is launching a one-year program that will use a text messaging platform to increase medication adherence in its teenage heart transplant patients. The hospital is working with CareSpeak Communications Inc., a privately held mobile health company in New Jersey, which is providing the two-way technology system that will send the medication alerts to the patients.
Research firm Kalorama cites high rates of physician use of smartphones and PDAs and available applications among many factors making healthcare ideal for smartphone sales.
The increasing adoption of EHRs and other digital technologies by primary care physicians and specialists points to trends expected to help create "dramatic upswings in doctors' case loads," according to a new survey by research company Knowledge Networks. The survey of nearly 11,000 healthcare professionals was conducted using Mt. Arlington, N.J.-based Physicians Consulting Network (PCN), a physician research panel of specialists and other healthcare professionals.
The benefits of the National Demonstration Project on the patient-centered medical home, an initiative by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and its subsidiary TransforMED, are still being realized two years after the project ended.
How childbearing women are using social media is one of the topics that will be touched on in a breakout session at Health 2.0, which kicks off today in Washington. Amy Romano, a nurse-midwife that does online advocacy work for Lamaze International, a nonprofit organization that promotes a natural, healthy and safe approach to pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting, has about 10 minutes to speak at 2:45 pm today. And, what she says and learns at the conference could resonate with 4.2 million women - the number expected to give birth in the next year.
Microsoft Bing and Google have launched separate health maps that aim at making community healthcare data more transparent for consumers so they can make healthier decisions. Microsoft Bing announced on June 1 that in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Institute of Medicine its health team would be participating in the Community Health Data Initiative, a national initiative to help consumers and communities get more value out of the nation's wealth of health data.
Technology is always promising something and the iPad is no exception with some seeing it as a "game changer" for healthcare, and physicians in particular.Connecticut physician Steven A. R. Murphy proposes that every doctor should use one. "The iPad is going to crush laptops in this healthcare space," he said.Murphy, the managing partner of The Personalized Medicine Group of Connecticut, said he was purchasing one of Apple's 3G iPads to test it for any bugs.
How mobile technology can improve the health behaviors of everyday people is the focus of a two-day conference at Stanford University that kicks off on Sunday. Mobile Health 2010 is the brainchild of B.J. Fogg, director of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. The purpose of the conference, which runs through Tuesday, is to get people together to "foster conversation and relationships that will lead to important collaborations," said Fogg.