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The 17 Beacon Communities, stretching from Maine to Hawaii, are celebrating their first anniversary. While much progress has been made, it is clear that this is "a journey of quality improvement that never ends," as one expert put it.The Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings, in collaboration with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, offered a one-year anniversary update on the Beacon Communities in Washington on Tuesday.

Technical advancement in the remote patient monitoring market is one of the key factors that is expected to contribute to its growth over the next couple of years, according to a new report. The report conducted by TechNavio and released by MarketResearch.com reveals that the global patient monitoring system market will reach $9.3 billion in 2014. The report focuses on United States, EMEA, and APAC.

As more employees use their personal mobile devices at work, it is vital that healthcare organizations have a "policy to in place to keep their employees productive and their data safe," says one expert.Michael Maloof, chief technology officer for TriGeo Network Security, Inc., a provider of security information and event management solutions based in Post Falls, Idaho, says that in order for HIPAA policies to be maintained, it is critical that organizations' human resources and IT departments work together to educate employees on mobile device policies.

Broader access to fast 4G wireless technologies will boost healthcare in rural and developing parts of the world where landline Internet is less developed, according to experts from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world's largest technical professional association.In March, the IEEE-SA Standards Board approved IEEE 802.16m, an advanced 4G wireless standard. Among the improvements promised by increased high-speed wireless, officials say, is an extended reach of high-quality healthcare through telemedicine.

Certain specialties, such as psychiatrists and oncologists, are more likely to be using video conferencing with patients, according to a new study from Manhattan Research. Taking the Pulse U.S. v11.0, a study of 2,041 U.S. practicing physicians, focuses on how physicians are using technology in the practice, such as for electronic health records, electronic prescribing and interaction with patients.The study found that seven percent of U.S. physicians use online video conferencing to communicate with their patients.

The increase in access to the Internet could be contributing to the prescription drug abuse epidemic this country is facing, according to a new Health Affairs report.The study released Thursday shows that a 10 percent increase in the availability of high-speed Internet service in a state was associated with an approximately 1 percent increase in admissions to a treatment facility center for prescription drug abuse. The number of U.S. households with Internet access increased from 18 percent in 1997 to 61 percent in 2007.

Consumers are tracking their own health data online, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation.The report, titled The Social Life of Health Information, 2011 by Susannah Fox, Pew's associate director, is billed as the first time anyone has reported, in a national consumer survey, how consumers are using the Internet for self-tracking of their health. Self-tracking