Millions of Blackberry users across 2 continents suffer through a 2nd outage in less than a week. Canadian-based Research in Motion blamed the outage on a software upgrade that was confined to North and South America. Phone service remained available, but “Crackberry” users were unable to send or receive e-mails and instant messages… causing a period of intense cravings for millions of addicts. This comes at a tough time for Blackberry, which is under mounting pressure from iPhone and Android.
San Francisco is considering passing an ordinance that would require retailers to prominently display the amount of radiation emitted by cellphones. Taking it a step further, Democrat Andrea Boland from Maine has proposed to State legislators that cell phones directly carry permanent labels, warning of the risk of cancer from exposure to low-grade electromagnetic radiation.
Lexi-Comp On-Hand now available for Android. The apps are coming in full force, but where are the devices? Google’s device bid is making more sense with each passing day.
TransMedia releases its Glide OS Extension for Internet Explorer. According to the Company, “Glide effectively transforms the Microsoft Internet Explorer into a browser OS with a complete application suite fully compatible with Microsoft Office and 20GB of free storage.” Seeking to broaden the base of its rights-based Glide OS media sharing service, Transmedia created a spin-off back in October called Glide Health Corporation. Glide Health markets itself as the complete mobile desktop for patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals. The Glide Health service, hailed as a true cloud solution, is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Stay tuned… this looks interesting.
PWC releases its Top 10 Health Industry Issues in 2010. The report includes some good data points for anyone researching the industry. Of particular interest, the report includes a reference extracted from a PWC Consumer Access Survey that suggests 21% of consumers are willing to use mobile devices (including text messaging) to access healthcare. I guess that means keep the iPhone apps coming…
And if it’s industry research data you’re looking for, check out MobiHealthNews’ Wireless Health: State of the Industry, 2009 Year End Report. The report is a comprehensive year in review, including analyst numbers, venture deals, and mergers and acquisitions activity. MobiHealthNews has done a great job collecting and collating data without a heavy-handed interpretation or leaf-reading. Kudos.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced the adoption of Bluetooth® low-energy wireless technology, which is the hallmark feature of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. Continua Health Alliance, a non-profit industry coalition focused on establishing a system of interoperable personal telehealth solutions, has already voted to include the Bluetooth low energy wireless technology specification in Version Two of its design guidelines.
Unbound Medicine has announced the release of Evidence Central™, an integrated, evidence-based solution with content from its partner, Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Skyscape, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Physicians Interactive, has announced support of Google’s Android operating system. The Skyscape Android Reader comes with 3 free resources (RxDrugs, Outlines in Clinical Medicine, and the Archimedes set of calculators) and provides access to hundreds of others.
Emerging Solutions in Pain, a leading source for pain medicine health information, has released ESP Mobile, a free iPhone medical application for health care professions involved in pain management or addiction medicine.
UnitedHealthcare has released DocGPS, an iPhone app that helps users locate in-network physicians and facilities using the device’s GPS functionality. Clearly a useful tool – look for other major carriers to follow in short order. But am I missing something?
NHS Near v1.0 for Android does essentially the same thing, except for ALL NHS services throughout the entire UK. Poor blokes have apparently stumbled on healthcare salvation and couldn’t even muster up a press release.
Speaking of salvation, it looks like there is finally some consensus on healthcare reform. “Death Panel” a non-political, non-partisan healthcare reform trivia game for the iPhone has been generating a lot of buzz lately. The game questions players on a number of healthcare facts and statistics (which are based on third-party government-documented data). Is the goal to make us feel as dumb as a politician without the public humiliation? No, players are encouraged to share their results with friends via Facebook and Twitter.
Google is planning to market and sell its own Android phone – “Nexus One”. According to insiders, Google has entered into an agreement with HTC to build the phones. This follows much speculation after reports emerged last week that Google had distributed test devices to employees involved in the project. Analysts are aflutter interpreting the implications – Is Google moving in on the mobile ad frontier; what does this mean to device manufactures, including Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and others who are building devices with Android? Perhaps Google’s just not happy with the pace of Android penetration… Just when it looked like the iPhone flurry had slowed to a steady downpour.
Busy couple of weeks for PatientKeeper – $13 million financing round; win a deal at Butler Health System in PA ; and CEO, Paul Brient, to present at Piper Jaffray’s 21st Annual Healthcare Conference. The current round of financing brings the total to $88 million invested to date. Will the ARRA spectacle carry the Company to an IPO next year?
Epocrates expanded its iPhone offerings to include Epocrates Essentials Deluxe. For those keeping score, that includes: Drug Information, OTC Medications, Drug Interactions, Disease Information, Medical Billing Codes, Medical Dictionary, Infectious Disease, Diagnostic/Lab Tests, Alternative Medicines, Pill ID, Tables/Calcs… or, better described “a bunch of cool stuff.”
Allscripts announces remote EHR support for Blackberry devices. The Company announced support for the iPhone back in April. According to the Company, features include: access to real-time patient summary information; fast communication to local hospital emergency rooms (because it’s a phone?); ePrescribing to any pharmacy; and real-time access to medical history, lab results and medications.
3M has released its Mobile Dictation Software for Blackberry and Windows Mobile smartphones.
Thomson Reuters has announced version 2.0 of its Micromedex clinical decision support software… available on January 21, 2010. Is the point of an early December announcement of a late January release to satisfy a January 1 target date? I don’t think it works that way. The major improvement – apparently you get all of Micromedex’s great content, but now it will be easy to find. I wish I could say the same for their website.
Great 3 part article by Brett Pollard at AlertPresence. Title says it all, “’My Doctor Sucks’ and Other Tweets I Found”. Not many doctors have time to think about social media. Unfortunate for them, many patients do.
An interesting article in For The Record evaluating the impact of new communication tools in healthcare, including the possibility of SMS (“texting”) from physician to patient. After having a good chuckle over the idea of MD’s texting patients, it occurred how nice it would be for physicians if patients were forced to limit their comments to 160 character bursts. In fact, a great strategy to double patient volume might be to issue cell phones to patients when they walk into the exam room.
