“I don’t care if they have an iPhone or an HTC EVO 4G, it’s my job to support that device,” says Russell P. Branzell, CIO of Poudre Valley Health System (CO), in this CMIO article. The article speaks to the increased use of mobile devices and increased adoption of mobile health applications by clinicians, most of whom bring their own brand of mobile into the enterprise. I wonder if most healthcare CIOs agree, because two I’ve spoken to recently from medium and very large health systems do no, explicitly telling me which devices would be supported in their respective environments.

The telehealth joint venture between Intel and GE, which we reported on last fall, is going live as GE Care Innovations, based in Sacramento. The new venture will focus on chronic disease management, independent living, and assistive technologies. No commercial product is available yet.

A new report suggests Apple will ship three different versions of the next iPad for different types of wireless networks, allowing for more ubiquitous connectivity than solely 3G. The report also predicts that 40 million iPad 2s will ship in 2011.  

Increasing numbers of providers are using Skype and other remote services to provide video-enabled telemedicine consultations. Providers can charge the same for online visits as those conducted in person, though this will likely have to change as asynchronous (SMS, e-mail) services requiring less time are used to provide care. The article suggests the potential use of a flat monthly patient fee for all interactions.

STAT-MI program, which is funded by The Verizon Foundation, transmits ECG readings from EMTs to smart phones of physicians at University Hospital (NJ). The program has been found to shorten time to treatment by as much as 131 minutes.

Pharmaceutical giants Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis, who were the first to offer Apple mobile apps, continue their trend setting as the first big pharma companies to offer Android-based mobile apps. Novartis released an oncology-focused app for providers and a flu tracking app for consumers while Sanofil offered an app with nutritional information geared at dietary-conscience conditions like diabetes.

16% of family physicians offer online appointment scheduling today versus 6% in 2005. The rapid expansion of services like ZocDoc, which operates in only four metro areas, is helping fill the demand from patients to schedule appointments. ZocDoc charges providers $250 a month. Another company the article mentions, Health In Reach, is pretty interesting to me as they offer appointment scheduling and are only paid when appointments are set, forcing patients scheduling appointments to pay a portion of the co-pay to get the appointment slot.

A new report by Pyramid Research finds mHealth as an opportunity for carriers as well as hardware and software companies to realize new revenue streams. The report also concluded that the number of mHealth apps will increase from 200,000 to 600,000 by 2012 and that 70% of people worldwide are willing to pay for mHealth applications.

Oklahoma City physician David Albert showcases a single lead ECG that is essentially a skin for the iPhone 4. The device, coined AliveCor, can analyze, store, and transmit readings. That’s pretty cool.

A similar product from iHealth is a new blood pressure monitoring system that transmits results to Apple devices. Pretty soon Apple will have to start devoting sections of the their stores to mHealth hardware.    

Sutter Health is offering Epic’s MyChart app for Apple devices to its 75,000 patients in Sonoma County, California. The app provides users with access to their medical records as well as the ability to contact providers, see upcoming appointments, and check test results.

This WSJ article features its top apps and platforms for people caring for family members. Over 7,100 of the 8,700 health-related apps out there are built for Apple devices, with Android and BlackBerry a distant second and third, respectively.               

Remote monitoring solutions developer IDEAL LIFE announces the IDEAL LIFE Health Tablet, which sounds like a home monitoring aggregator in that it collects and transmits data. It also provides the patient with access to health information and the ability to contact the provider. We recently reported about IDEAL LIFE as their products are part of a massive remote monitoring / telemed pilot in China.

UK insurer Westfield Health releases an iPhone app for users to access policy and claim information on the go. After some recent personal experience with dental insurance yearly maximums, it would be very nice to have access to balance information on my iPhone while deciding between material options for crowns. More generally, a little consumer price/cost transparency in healthcare would go a long way, though we’re at least moving that direction with startups like Castlight and solutions developers like Net.Orange.        

A study conducted in 12 countries by the London School of Economics finds 81% of those with Internet access search for health related information, but only ~25% check the source of the information they use. What was most interesting to me was that people in Russia, China, India, Mexico, and Brazil were more likely to use the Internet for health information than the US, Australia, or other European countries. The study was conducted in part because smart phones and tablets will outsell PCs by 2012, making online information more readily accessible.

Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.

Gentag demonstrates a disposable diagnostic test strip that uses wireless Near Field Communication (NFC) to transmit test results to cell phones for automatic results. The press release claims the system can be used to test for pregnancy, fertility, pathogens, AIDS, drugs, allergens, and certain types of cancers. This seems to me like a breakthrough for certain tests, though my concern would be giving bad news delivered remotely.

A new HIMSS survey finds that almost 70% of healthcare organizations plan to deploy the iPad in 2011. Point-of-care applications were cited as the main driver.

Physicians are warned to review geolocation websites (Foursquare, Facebook Places, etc.) to discover what information is available about their practices and themselves. The story about the dental patient seeing a list of people “checked in” at the same office is pretty crazy. I wonder what the average age of that practice’s patient panel is?
   

This Times of India article talks about telemedicine in India moving to version 2.0, which they describe as the transition from video conferencing to data and image streaming on mobile devices. The article is about i2i Telesolutions, a Bangalore-based company that provides technology to do tele-ophthalmology and tele-sonography.

New Zealand providers are moving away from expensive, high-tech telepresence equipment from Cisco to more basic desktop video. To me, this is a welcome change, especially after seeing a telemedicine demonstration video last week which featured a a patient being remotely scoped over a two-way HD video feed.  

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Multibillion-dollar, multi-national company Brightstar predicts vertical consolidations in the mobile space to create total solutions in healthcare, amongst other industries.

Startup Symtrimics is offering providers a new source of revenue by allowing them to market, sell, and monitor their own patients as part of a weight loss program. The program, which costs physicians $15,500 to begin, includes an iPad for the doctors to monitor patients. I’m not really sure why the iPad is necessary for the program except that it might be appealing to a doc for some reason.  

This story, with responses to questions from Microsoft, speaks to the lack of available healthcare applications for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft definitely has a lot of catching up to do with Apple so far out in the lead and Android a strong second.

This CNET Year in review: Health Tech article focuses on the power of mobile technologies to improve health and wellness with everything from patient diaries to SMS to telemedicine. The excessive number of links in the article is slightly annoying, but does provide easy access to a lot of different CNET mHealth stories from the past year.

UCF College of Medicine benefactor Alan Ginsburg gives iPads to all of the school’s 100 MD students as a holiday gift. The iPads are part of a two-year research project to assess the use of the device in medical education. If Android tablet makers want to assure a place with future providers, they should start giving out their tablets to students as well.           

The Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network begins a tele-genetics project to provide families in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana with genetic counseling.  I imagine the commute to see a geneticist in these areas is pretty bad and the counseling nature of the genetics sessions make it a perfect fit for remote care.

AstraZeneca releases an Apple-based mobile application to provide clinicians with information about epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) testing in lung cancer. My bet is that EGFR testing is rather pricey if AstraZeneca bothered creating an app to educate providers about it.

A new report out of Belgium makes telemedicine a national priority, with six pilots to start in near future.

Here’s another story about the teledermatology program at UCSF, which offers remote consults to San Mateo County clinics. The article says the program costs about $112,000 annually, but this is a savings over the $150,000 the county would spend in contracting costs.    

Concierge health provider Guardian 24/7 will begin using hosted video services from Glowpoint to provide remote health services to Guardian’s exclusive customers.

Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.

Welldoc, which is having a very productive 2010 with partnerships and FDA approvals, announces integration of its DiabetesManager with Allscripts EHR. The integration provides doctors with a more continuous record for diabetic patients and also allows for customization of treatment plans for for individual patients.  Welldoc says this is the first of many integration projects it is planning over the next 12-18 months.

The VA in Tampa (FL) begins a $3 million Smart Home Project to assist vets with traumatic brain injuries to live independently. Using specially equipped apartments in combination with Ubisense tags worn on patients, the VA is able to track patients and send messages to keep patients on track with daily activities. 

The iCycleBeads app is released for Apple devices. The app uses the Standards Days Method, a family planning method, to help women determine which days they are likely or unlikely to get pregnant. This is pretty interesting to me as I thought cycle beads, which are just a string of beads, were meant to serve a developing country population without access or interest in other forms of birth control, and probably without access to Apple devices. Maybe that was an incorrect perception of who uses cycle beads for family planning. 

Wireless cardiac monitoring company CardioNet announces Daniel Wisniewski as senior vice president, business operations.

In holiday telemed news, ECU’s School of Medicine’s Telemedicine Unit provides tele-Santa services for deaf and special needs students. 

Englewood Hospital (NJ) uses home monitoring devices for discharged heart attack patients to monitor weight, blood pressure, and oxygen levels. The article doesn’t mention the duration of the program. 

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The results of a two-year study of telemedicine for chronic heart failure in Germany finds improvement in both quality of life and life expectancy.

St. John Ambulance plans to roll out iPads to all of its 850 on-road staff next year. The device is to be used for patient record keeping and communication.

Investor Omidyar Nework gives an $825,000 grant to an Africa tech organization Praekelt Foundation to develop mHealth solutions for the African continent.

Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.

The New England Healthcare Institute issues a new report on tele-ICUs, based on the experience from three-hospital pilot in Massachusetts. The conclusion of the authors is that tele-ICU could save the state 350 lives and $122 million per year. What is also interesting, to me at least, is that the investments in technology were recovered within one year.

Intel is conducting a telemedicine pilot in rural parts of India to provide specialized care (medical records, images, ECGs) outside of tertiary care facilities.

Ericsson is looking to roll out its Mobile Health Solution across Vietnam next year. The company is moving forward with mHealth and e-Health initiatives to connect the 70% of the population of Vietnam that is rural with mostly no access to healthcare. Ericsson hopes to use health initially before moving to other mobile services, such as banking and education.

In “social media gone wild” news, a Twitter-crazed woman sends 104 tweets during her labor and recovery to keep friends and family in the loop. She should have had her providers follow her tweets — they could have written it up as a remote monitoring, social media, mHealth pilot.

Massive food maker Kellogg launches the myPlan app for iPhone and Android. The app is the source of mobile content related to Kellogg’s Special K Challenge. It provides users with weight loss tools, diet plans, motivational messages, and meal tracking.

Emerson Network Power, a division of Emerson, announces its Healthcare Integrated Portable device (HIP) built on Chinese IT solutions provider Neusoft’s Xikang healthcare platform. The device is basically a hardware solution for remote data collection and is built to be integrated in Neusoft’s health information systems platform.

Dan Feinberg of Northeastern University rains on the mHealth parade at Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, telling developers and fans of mHealth that consideration of human nature is essential to successfully develop mHealth solutions and services. 

Philips says it will move strongly into the inpatient wireless monitoring space, with plans to introduce sensor technology in the near future.

CenTrak and VIXIA install CenTrak’s RTLS solution at Mission Hospital (CA). The article is very complimentary about the pace of the install, which tagged 1,400 pieces of equipment in less than four weeks.

The UCLA School of Nursing issues in iPod Touch to all nursing students. It’s pre-loaded with an all-in-one nursing application called Nursing Central, Medical Spanish, and NCLEX Review.

Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa will merge with Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, triggering reaction that the controversial “tele-abortion” service offered by the Heartland organization will be extended to new facilities.     

Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.

Healthrageous, the startup spun off from the Center for Connected Health, releases h!GO, a mobile version of the Healthrageous’ online personalized self-management system. It’s available on Apple, Android, and BlackBerry devices. This is an impressive entrant, with credible backing in the Center for Connected Health, Partners, and Harvard, into the mobile self-management arena. For a startup, Healthrageous has been getting a lot of attention this past six months.

Medical supply companies are increasingly looking to the iPad as a tool for their traveling workforce. Big players Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Zimmer Holdings, and Stryker are all mentioned as testing or using iPads.  

mPedigree, an SMS-based counterfeit medication detection network in Africa, announces that HP will provide it with a cloud-based infrastructure and security. The program is funded by drug manufacturers. According to the article, counterfeit meds are a $75 billion per year business, also costing up to 700,000 lives per year. Above is an interview with the founder of mPedigree, Bright Simons. At the bottom of the article is a pretty cool interactive widget from HP that lays out the need and the solution. This is a very cool, impactful, and seemingly sustainable mHealth business in the developing world.

PatientSafe officially unveils its wireless PatientTouch solution for caregivers at the Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care Conference this week. PatientTouch collects actionable data at the point of care on mobile devices. A webinar will be held on PatientTouch on December 15th.

ED docs at Vanderbilt are teaming with the school’s computer engineers to jointly explore the use and application of robots in the emergency room setting to assist with collection of information and tentative diagnoses. I sort of like the idea of seeing robotic Minute Clinics pop up at all the big chains.  

This LA Times article is a pretty good primer on mHealth for the consumer, finding that despite the vast potential to improve outcomes and lower costs, much needs to be done in terms of defining revenue sources as well as education.

A new study in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy finds that telepharmacy is a effective means to reduce medication errors. The study was conducted with a group of seven critical access hospitals.

Maryland-based HIT vendor eDoctor, Inc, will demo its e-Prescribing solution on Apple products at the Apple Retail Store in McLean, VA on December 22. The session is meant to give a hands on look to providers and practice managers. I wonder if this is the beginning of a trend or if this is already being done by other developers of health tools for Apple devices?

The largest remote monitoring initiative in the world, to include an initial pilot of 100,000 patients, is set to begin in China. Kiosks and remote monitoring devices will be provided by Canadian company Ideal Life. I know China is big, but the the stats in this story for China (170 million hypertensive patients, 95 million diabetics, 165 million CVD patients) are pretty astonishing.

A timely survey in support of the China pilot by the RAND Corp finds that home monitoring of patients has the potential to help overcome the global burdens of an aging population and chronic diseases. The story notes that China will have more people suffering from chronic diseases than the entire US population by 2014.

A report by Ovum finds that smart phones and tablets will “help to drive the consumerisation of healthcare next year”. This is in line with the recent Deloitte report that found mobile PHRs (mPHRs) to be the game-changer for healthcare. 

The remotely controlled ARTIS ultrasound allows skilled ultrasound personnel to conduct exams remotely. Originally developed for use on astronauts, the article touts its more general use as a telehealth tool. I really wonder if it makes sense to use a very expensive device being controlled by a very expensive person, or if providing basic training to local staff on something cheap, like Mobisante, is a more effective approach to solving this problem.

Arkansas Saves, funded with an initial investment of $6.1 million, is providing telestroke services from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to rural Arkansas facilities. 

Walla Walla General Hospital (WA) partners with Healthagen to offer facility and symptom information as part of the iTriage mobile application.
 

Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.