News

A panel of healthcare experts representing privacy, trends, technology, regulatory, data breach and governance have identified the top seven trends in healthcare information privacy for 2011.The experts suggest that as health information exchanges take form, millions of patient records - soon to be available as digital files - will lead to potential unauthorized access, violation of new data breach laws and exposure to the threat of medical and financial identity theft.

Kroll's Fraud Solutions division has released its data security forecast for 2011, highlighting the top 10 areas where organizations, particularly those in the healthcare industry, will see the most changes in new data security regulations, breach vulnerabilities and protective measures.

InterSystems Corporation has partnered with Spectrum Health, the not-for-profit Michigan health system, to launch a new smartphone app that provides access to personal health information via the provider's MySpectrum Web-based patient portal.The InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration and development platform enables the data aggregation and gathering of patient information across the Spectrum Health system for delivery to the portal.

Vitality, Inc. and AT&T announced Tuesday that wirelessly connected Vitality "smart" GlowCaps are now available on Amazon.com.The intelligent pill caps are designed to help patients take medications regularly by sending reminder calls, weekly email reports and monthly updates sent to your physician.

GE and Intel announced Monday that their joint healthcare initiative will be called Care Innovations, and that the company is operational starting today. Care Innovations will develop technologies that support healthy, independent living at home and in senior housing communities.

Telcare, a Bethesda, Md. based company, focused on developing technology to manage chronic diseases, has raised $4.46 million of a targeted $5 million in a mixed securities offering, according to an amended SEC filing. The financing sources were not named in the filing.Telcare uses wireless technology to provide communications between chronically ill patients and their physicians. Jonathan Javitt, MD, vice chairman and CEO, and John Dwyer, chairman, founded the company in 2008. Javitt, Dwyer and David Bjork, president, were named in the filing.