Machine-to-machine communications company Cinterion partners with medical product maker TZ Medical to build Aera-CT, a mobile telemetry solution with embedded cellular connectivity. The monitor detects certain common arrhythmias and alerts physicians and caregivers according to user-defined preferences.  According to the product Web page, the device can also alert emergency response personnel in the event of a life-threatening rhythm.

A clinical trial in Singapore assesses the effectiveness of a wrist-worn device from HealthSTATS to remotely monitor blood pressure and heart rhythm. Information is sent over a cellular connection and the integration of all of the components is being done by HP’s Mobile Health Monitoring Solution.

Evidence In Motion (EIM) releases EIM PT Mobile for Apple devices. It pushes customized, evidence-based news to users in the physical therapy industry. This seems like a cool application for the broader healthcare market. Online services are available for sending daily journal feeds — they just need to be mobilized.

A new Apple mobile app, MoodKit ($4.99), is released by two psychologists. The app does mood tracking, but also claims to provide tools to help people engage in “’natural antidepressant’ behaviors”.

SHL Telemedicine showcases Smartheart ECG at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC. The $500 device turns an iPhone into a user-friendly wireless ECG. I honestly don’t see this having much impact. How many people who are experiencing an acute cardiac event: 1) have an iPhone plus a $500 ECG attachment, and 2) would bother to hook themselves up to a monitor when they have chest pain?

Everybody seems to be smart phone-enabling clinical devices right. The new PhoneOximeter can detect oxygenation levels in remote settings and has been tested for anesthesia in Uganda. It seems like this could be used in the US for things like remote monitoring or home care, but it depends how much value real-time data adds to that already being collected by home care personnel.

EXTENSION launches Device Messaging to allow health providers to send secure text messages over hospital networks. The solution sounds like a HIPAA-compliant version of SMS. The release claims it is compatible with “ANY” device (iPhone, Android, Vocera, Ascom, Cisco).

Infant formula maker Enfamil gets into the pregnancy app game with its own ExpectingBaby app. It’s sort of like the Enfamil and Pampers bags that are given to new moms after delivery to hopefully build brand loyalty.

A new act, the Servicemembers’ Telemedicine and E-Health Portability Act, is added to the new defense spending bill. It would ease rules on providers credentialed by the Department of Defense to cross state lines to and presumably deliver care remotely.

Verilogue, which provides a tool for providers to record interactions with patients at the point of care, launches CareCoach.com to assist with patient and provider interactions. The site allows patients to store and share conversations with providers as well as listen to provider / patient recordings from similar patients. It has both Android and iOS mobile platforms. Verilogue is leveraging its existing recording technology, mined by pharmaceutical companies, to target patients to help increase the number of recordings.

Travis Good is an MD/MBA and is involved with health IT startups.

Ford announces that it will be experimenting with health apps integrated into its cars.  They’ve signed a partnership agreement with WellDoc, which makes disease management platforms.  The funny thing as I read the opening of the story was that I assumed the driver in the story veering across lanes was doing so because he was looking at a graph of his glucose readings instead of the road.  It ends up the driver was slumped over the wheel of his car. I really don’t believe that an integrated health app would have prevented that.

Healthcare marketing organization CPM announces  a predictive model to identify smart phone users for targeting messaging.  Once identified, hospitals can target promotion of smart phone apps to users. I guess CPM hopes it is the developer of those mobile apps.

More on the federal investigation of Google for allegedly allowing illegal pharmacies to advertise on its services, for which Google has apparently set aside $500 million to settle.  A WSJ story details how Google was warned repeatedly about this problem but did not address or resolve it.

Voalte signs an agreement with the industries favorite, just-went-public, mHealth champion  Epocrates.  The deal enables Voalte to offer hospital customers the option to purchase the Epocrates drug and clinical reference application for smart phones that are already being used for Voalte’s clinical communications platform.  This is an interesting extension by Voalte as they clearly realize owning the smart phone platform for clinical users enables them to resell other applicable tools for the platform.  I wondering how this works with Apple’s in-app purchase and subscription policy?  Either way, it’s exciting to see Voalte extend its functionality through validated third party applications.

Mobile health app adoption is being driven by both patients and doctors.  That is definitely true, but my favorite quote is this one: “I see an app for my condition. Is there a chance to include it in my treatment plan so I don’t have to come in all the time?” I’m not sure how most doctors would react to that, especially if they are liable for endorsing random health apps.

Verizon and Medco partner to launch Medco Pharmacy mobile app for Verizon’s Android and Blackberry devices.  The app helps Medco PBM members find less expensive drug options, sends reminders, identifies harmful interactions, and provides access to member benefit information.

Project ECHO, which links specialists at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center with rural providers, has provided more than 10,000 consultations, mostly in the evaluation and management of hepatitis C patients.  This paper speaks to the success of the program, but also the need to change reimbursement policies if the model is going to be scaled.  To date, the project has been funded by ~$9 million in grants.

The above video is an advertisement for Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s iPhone app.  What is interesting to me is not the app itself, which was released last December, but that the advertisement is being shown in movie theaters before previews start.  I’ve never seen that advertising medium use before for a hospital app, but it seems like a good approach as it’s a perfect time for bored movie-goers to download apps.

A study conducted on the use of interactive voice response (IVR) for diabetic patients in Honduras finds fairly low numbers for active participation, but overall improvements in health awareness and A1c.  The system used cloud-based calling technology to minimize cost.

To meet the growing demand of college students needing mental health screenings and services, more colleges are turning to online questionnaires to evaluate and identify high risk patients.  I was surprised to read that a fourth of college students sought mental health services last year. 

Lake Chelan Community Hospital (WA) gets a $487,000 grant from the USDA to expand its telemedicine services.

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

The recent HIT market analysis by RNCOS, which predicted the overall HIT market would grow by 24% from 2012-2014, predicts specific growth in the mobile health market to be 22% from 2012-2014.  The mHealth growth will be driven by increasing smart phone and tablet adoption, especially by providers.

A study from UMass Memorial Hospital of tele-ICU care vs. traditional ICU care finds tele-ICU to be associated with reduced mortality and length of stay as well as higher rates of adherence to best practices. The study included over 6,000 patients admitted to seven ICUs.

The mHealth Summit announces that Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs will be a keynote speaker at this year’s event. Qualcomm will also have its extremely large Wireless Health Pavilion on the event’s showroom floor.

Akvelon announces Health Guard, a Windows 7 Phone mobile app to manage Microsoft HealthVault PHR. Maybe making the PHR mobile will drive more people to use it, as was predicted last year in a report that called mPHR a game changer.

The video above is a demo of bant, which is a Bluetooth diabetes app that links to Twitter and can be used in combination with rewards for positive health behavior. It seems pretty cool to me and I definitely see it having traction with a younger crowd.

Waldo Health announces a remote EKG system to assist providers in following and treating heart patients. The device monitors patients at home, does automated interpretation, and sends the data to a clinician to examine and act upon. It sounds good as long as you have a clinician who is being paid to interpret and care for remote patients.

The CORE Institute and Gentag announce a new wireless, Near Field Communication (NFC) device to monitor pressure and temperature in post-op surgical sites.  The NFC monitoring device works with any NFC phone to collect and transmit data. The device initially is tailored to orthopedic procedures.

Tablet patient check-in company Phreesia wins TripleTree I Award for Operational Effectiveness at the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA) Convergence Summit.The solution improves collections at the point of care, which providers need help with.

A new report, Global Patient Monitoring System 2010-2014, by TechNavio, predicts that the remote monitoring market will grow by 5.2% annually to reach $9.3 billion in 2014.

I stumbled on this story from New Zealand about a company, Vensa Health, that just got a $250,000 grant from the New Zealand government. Vensa does appointment and targeted health reminders via SMS. The only part worth reading is really the comments that rip Vensa for being a basic appointment reminder system that other industries have been using for years.

A new text4baby campaign to try to boost enrollment is creating competition between states to see who can get the most users registered on the system. I’m not sure the State Enrollment Contest, which will run until October, is a good sign or a bad sign for text4baby as it might indicate a general lack of demand and not lack of awareness of the program.

The CEO of Nvidia, which makes the processors for many of the new Android Honeycomb tablets, says that sales are sluggish compared to iPad because of problems with retail, marketing, and pricing. I think this sounds about right, though retail and pricing issues and even marketing issues are not that easy to overcome against the iPad right now.

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

Mobile messaging platform company mobileStorm announces mobileStorm for Healthcare with a nice beta customer in Humana. The platform and associated API ease the process of distributing mobile messages containing PHI. Humana will use it to build out its mHealth presence in a HIPAA-compliant way. I’ve seen or heard about more and more mobile messaging companies releasing healthcare-specific platforms. I think they’ll have lots of success as more healthcare messaging goes mobile.

A Manhattan Research survey of over 2,000 physicians finds that 7% use videoconferencing for patient consults. The issues limiting adoption were found to be reimbursement, HIPAA concerns, and potential liability.

Emergency departments are using third party tools that allow patients to pick their arrival times. They are charged $10 and guaranteed that they will be seen within 15 minutes of their chosen time. I know Healthagen is also doing this with certain urgent care centers.

Humana adds the ability to compare drug prices to its mobile app, MyHumana Mobile, as well as on its mobile Web site.

The new 7-inch HTC Flyer tablet offers potential for healthcare if the system is upgraded to run the new Android tablet OS, Honeycomb. I’m sure people will like the magic pen and smaller form factor that should make fitting it into a white coat pocket easier.

Following a successful pilot in Denmark, CSC launches a new telemedicine platform called eMEDlink. The platform enables remote consultation, collection of patient data, and display of data to patients. I’ve read about several companies launching pilot programs in remote monitoring and telehealth in Europe with the hopes that US ACOs will look more like European health systems than US systems.

Google Health is frozen in time with key personnel leaving the development team. Dropping or reducing support is not very surprising in light of the lack of consumer interest in a PHR for a PHR’s sake. Consumers want Facebook exercise gadgets (RunKeeper) or automated reminders (GreatCall and many others) or scheduling (ZocDoc and HealthinReach and CarePilot). I really don’t think people are looking to track their lipids or sodium over time, regardless of how nicely formatted the graph.

GE and Intel joint venture Care Innovations launches Care Innovations Guide, which sounds like a mobile platform to collect and send both subjective and objective patient data. The Guide, which has FDA approval, is built exclusively for Windows 7 because “The Microsoft Windows 7 platform was selected to ensure a broad supply chain, diversity of options and choice, and an established robust, manageable, secure platform.”

HHS releases an online, interactive tool to assist health workers, patients, and caregivers learn about and hopefully prevent hospital-acquired infections. The tool has way too much content and video to really be useful, at least in my opinion.

A new educational game from California Poison Control, called Choose Your Poison (free), is designed to help users differentiate potential poisons and medications from candy. It also provides contact information for those that feel they’ve consumed poison or too much medication.

A plastic surgeon develops an app, iAugment, to assist women considering breast augmentation. The app allows users to load a photo and then choose different size breast implants to get an idea of how the augmentation will look.

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

A retrospective study of ResolutionMD mobile conducted by the founders of the company finds it to be very accurate (94%-100%) for diagnosis of acute stroke.  Having the study done by the founders made the conflict of interest statement very interesting.

WebMD releases an Android version of its mobile consumer platform. The app includes a symptom checker, health and med information, and local provider listings. WebMD for iOS (iPhone and iPad) has been downloaded more than five million times.

EMUrgent Care (FL) is named a premier-listed facility in iTriage’s mobile app. As I’m writing about iTriage and WebMD, I’m wondering why WebMD isn’t out selling its mobile application to healthcare facilities the same way that Healthagen is out selling iTriage? Maybe they are, but I’m not seeing it. WebMD has five times the number of downloads and a much bigger brand with consumers, who are the target users for both iTriage and WebMD.

Apple EMR/PM vendor MacPractice launches an iPad Kiosk App to allow patients to self register at the point of care using an iPad. This story is a few weeks old, but I think I missed it.

Verizon and Healthsense sign a deal to market Healthsense remote monitoring solutions to senior and assisted-living facilities that have Verizon FiOS.   Healthsense products use household monitors to detect changes in behavior and report those to defined contacts.

A Florida dermatologist uses a robot to perform remote patient encounters to ensure his patients have physician coverage. Apparently the images are not high quality enough to do cancer screenings or review suspicious lesions, but it works well for rashes like shingles or poison ivy. My only question is, why does somebody need to see a dermatologist, either remotely or in person, for shingles when a PCP should be able to diagnose and treat it?

Blausen Human Atlas HD, an animated app well suited for patient education, is released for the BlackBerry Playbook tablet. As the short article points out, more apps like this will need to be ported to the Playbook to increase its uptake in healthcare.

Sherman Health releases an In Case of Emergency mobile app to allow patients to store info about emergency contacts, medications, existing conditions, and allergies. This info can then be accessed by emergency responders. Sherman feels the benefits of access to such information outweigh the potential risks.

Hospital wireless provider Integer Wireless signs a partnership with startup Nukona to include Nukona’s mobile security platform as part of Integer’s portfolio of products.

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (UK) begins a pilot of iPads for patients in recovery from spinal surgery. The pilot involves having clinicians assess efficacy using patient feedback while at the facility. Patients can continue providing feedback at home over Web interfaces.

The American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) launches the Cancer.Net mobile app, which provides educational content about specific cancers, medication tracking, a place to ask questions and store responses from providers, and track symptoms.  I read recently that this is going to be the summer of QR codes and this Web page is no exception. I’m seeing them all over the place.

RxEOB launches emWellics mobile platform that payers, PBMs, and other care plans can white label. The app provides members with medication information, price comparisons, and questions for physician visits. The press release seems a little premature, so maybe it’s defensive — emWellics won’t be implemented until 2012.

The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize competition, worth $10 million, challenges developers to “develop a mobile solution that can diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians.”  The competition starts in 2012. It will be interesting to see what people develop.

The most recent round of winners of Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenge are announced and three involve mobile technology. The mobile solutions, each of which get $100,000 for Phase 1, are targeted at malaria diagnosis, mosquito zapping (really), and monitoring brain injuries in kids.  

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (TN) installs the HyGreen wireless hand washing reminder system to automatically detect compliance and remind staff about hand washing.

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