Not Much New in Mobile Apps After All

Slideshow: Retro-futurist health IT | Healthcare IT News:

Despite proponents of mobile HIT the ideas now growing to frition were thought of as early as the 1940s when television was born.

This slide show displays a wide variety of uses from telemedicine to diagnostics and clnical decision making.

Thanks to the microprocessor and modern software, HIT and mobile health have become a reality.

Your medical practice should be well along with it's plan to incorporate these services.

'via Blog this'

The Future Med from Singularity Hub

 

The Future Med from Singularity Hub has arrived on the Health Train Express. As usual the brightest minds presented new ideas already in existence and some likely developments in the near.

Singularity University was the site for FutureMed 2013 in Silicon Valley at the NASA Ames Facility It wasn't cheap but the $ 8500 USD fee provided a turnkey experience..room..board...and the chance to hang with the 1%. I suppose most people can find a way to write it off as a deduction and have Uncle Sam subsidize your educational bent.

One can chose to hear it first, smell the crowd and wallow lavishly in the sound of bling on your neighbor's wrist or neck. Or if you are like me, the lowly physician who has seen his overhead skyrocket from 35-55% to over 80%, and has had to cease and desist from charity care in favor of supporting ObamaCare, you will attend online via a number of sources ranging from streaming video to informed bloggers and national media sources.

Most of this stuff is so advanced that a delay of one day, one week, one month, or one year is not going to amount to a significant disadvantage of not attending the 'hatching'.

FutureMed is geared around six exponentially growing areas, each taught by world class experts from the worlds of medicine, biotech and innovation. These include lectures, workshops, discussions and site visits.

1. INFORMATION – DATA DRIVEN HEALTH: Digitization of healthcare, Electronic health records, Imaging Technology, Wearable devices, Wireless monitoring to ubiquitous Apps. The ‘Big Data’ explosion… from Imaging & Diagnostics to Mobile & Internet Enabled Health… Knowledge liquidity and leveraging information to enhance diagnostics, prevention and therapy…

2. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE & ‘Omics: Low cost, point of care Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Environmental monitoring… from Systems Medicine to the rapidly emerging world of Synthetic Biology and DIY-Genomics.

3. REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: Stem cells & beyond for the repair, replacement and regeneration of tissues and organs damaged by aging, trauma or disease, from cell therapy to limb regeneration. Cellular alchemy (reprogramming skin cell to cardiomyocytes) to tissue engineering and 3-D printing of organs and tissues.

4. FUTURE INTERVENTION: From Robotic Surgery, Bionic limbs and Exoskeletons, Smart pills, and Implantable Devices, to Targeted gene therapy, and ever shrinking and more capable devices, Nanomedicine.

5. NEUROMEDICINE: Real time brain imaging, Brain computer interface (BCI), Cognitive Enhancement, Targeted neurointervention, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

6. MEDTECH/BIOTECH & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Includes the future of Pharma and Drug Discovery, Synthetic Biology, Medical Device Development and the funding, opportunities and barriers (regulatory and otherwise) of biomedical innovation. The Drive to lower costs and more effective therapies. Impact of the FDA to Healthcare Models (Accountable Care Organizations).

The program focuses on three specific Application Areas, specifically the Future of…

MEDICAL PRACTICE & PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: How will convergent technologies impact the practice of medicine, diagnostics and clinical decision support, to new models of care from concierge practices to telemedicine… from feedback loops with patients utilizing wearable physiologic monitors, the networked ‘Medical home’ and beyond. Can care get better and at lower costs?  How will better informed, engaged and socially connected patients interact with the healthcare system?

HEALTH & WELLNESS:How will personalization, nutrigenomics and regenerative medicine impact wellness, prevention and longevity?

GLOBAL HEALTH: Leveraging technology for the developing world, and learning lessons from the underdeveloped to apply in ours, from rapid viral detection & forcasting and vaccine development to strategies to prevent and treat disease in underserved and remote communities.

Here are some specifics:

FutureMed Schedule: FutureMed Singularity University: FutureMed2013: Highlights of 2013

Perhaps one of the week’s most inspiring moments came when Jack Andraka’s 15-minute talk, “The Future of Oncology,” brought the room to its feet on Tuesday. Though Andraka is but a sophomore in high school, he’s invented a new diagnostic technique for pancreatic cancer using carbon nanotubes.

Catherine Mohr, Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, delivered a fascinating lecture on the future of robotic surgery. Robotic surgery isn’t itself the disruptive technology, she said. Rather, as cutting edge diagnostic tools on the molecular level allow oncologists to diagnose earlier and earlier, surgeons will need to remove smaller and smaller tumors. Put simply, robotic surgical systems won’t drive this change—they’ll need to adapt to it.

Big data was another prime theme this year. Information that was once limited to a few select individuals in a lab or exclusive scientific community is now available to the public at large. Never mind credentials—great ideas can come from outsiders, peeking in with fresh eyes and a beginner’s mind. Indeed, Andraka used Google, Wikipedia, and free online journal articles to do the initial research behind his diagnostic invention.

Stanford’s Atul Butte told participants, “We’re drowning in data.” Butte’s Stanford lab outsources experiments, finding it more efficient to simply buy data for analysis. Just as kids in garages once built computers, incoming generations will create “garage pharma” and “dormroom biotech.”

Kohn’s session was paired with famed investor Vinod Khosla who spoke of decreasing the need for physicians and leveraging big data and data analytics to improve diagnostics and outcomes. And later in the week, FutureMed welcomed Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health and Information Technology. Mostashari said that by leveraging more connected medical records we can dramatically improve outcomes.

Andrew Hessel on synthetic biology—the use of DNA as a programming language to build living systems from the ground up.

Alan Russel on regenerative medicine and how to speed the body’s natural ability to heal itself.

The Computer History Museum capped the program with a day of demos, talks, and a pitch contest by 17 biotech and health startups from around the world. Singularity University alum, Erez Livneh, won the pitch contest with his company Vecoy Nanomedicines. Vecoy makes nanoparticle “virus traps” that mimic human cells and lure viruses (eg., HIV, influenza, hepatitis, herpes) to attack them—once lured into the trap, the nanoparticles inactivate the virus.

And now for the Star Trek 'Tricorder', once science fiction and now almost a reality.

The Future Med from Singularity Hub has arrived on the Health Train Express. As usual the brightest minds presented new ideas already in existence and some likely developments in the near.

Singularity University was the site for FutureMed 2013 in Silicon Valley at the NASA Ames Facility It wasn't cheap but the $ 8500 USD fee provided a turnkey experience..room..board...and the chance to hang with the 1%. I suppose most people can find a way to write it off as a deduction and have Uncle Sam subsidize your educational bent.

One can chose to hear it first, smell the crowd and wallow lavishly in the sound of bling on your neighbor's wrist or neck. Or if you are like me, the lowly physician who has seen his overhead skyrocket from 35-55% to over 80%, and has had to cease and desist from charity care in favor of supporting ObamaCare, you will attend online via a number of sources ranging from streaming video to informed bloggers and national media sources.

Most of this stuff is so advanced that a delay of one day, one week, one month, or one year is not going to amount to a significant disadvantage of not attending the 'hatching'.

FutureMed is geared around six exponentially growing areas, each taught by world class experts from the worlds of medicine, biotech and innovation. These include lectures, workshops, discussions and site visits.

1. INFORMATION – DATA DRIVEN HEALTH: Digitization of healthcare, Electronic health records, Imaging Technology, Wearable devices, Wireless monitoring to ubiquitous Apps. The ‘Big Data’ explosion… from Imaging & Diagnostics to Mobile & Internet Enabled Health… Knowledge liquidity and leveraging information to enhance diagnostics, prevention and therapy…

2. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE & ‘Omics: Low cost, point of care Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Environmental monitoring… from Systems Medicine to the rapidly emerging world of Synthetic Biology and DIY-Genomics.

3. REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: Stem cells & beyond for the repair, replacement and regeneration of tissues and organs damaged by aging, trauma or disease, from cell therapy to limb regeneration. Cellular alchemy (reprogramming skin cell to cardiomyocytes) to tissue engineering and 3-D printing of organs and tissues.

4. FUTURE INTERVENTION: From Robotic Surgery, Bionic limbs and Exoskeletons, Smart pills, and Implantable Devices, to Targeted gene therapy, and ever shrinking and more capable devices, Nanomedicine.

5. NEUROMEDICINE: Real time brain imaging, Brain computer interface (BCI), Cognitive Enhancement, Targeted neurointervention, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

6. MEDTECH/BIOTECH & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Includes the future of Pharma and Drug Discovery, Synthetic Biology, Medical Device Development and the funding, opportunities and barriers (regulatory and otherwise) of biomedical innovation. The Drive to lower costs and more effective therapies. Impact of the FDA to Healthcare Models (Accountable Care Organizations).

The program focuses on three specific Application Areas, specifically the Future of…

MEDICAL PRACTICE & PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: How will convergent technologies impact the practice of medicine, diagnostics and clinical decision support, to new models of care from concierge practices to telemedicine… from feedback loops with patients utilizing wearable physiologic monitors, the networked ‘Medical home’ and beyond. Can care get better and at lower costs?  How will better informed, engaged and socially connected patients interact with the healthcare system?

HEALTH & WELLNESS:How will personalization, nutrigenomics and regenerative medicine impact wellness, prevention and longevity?

GLOBAL HEALTH: Leveraging technology for the developing world, and learning lessons from the underdeveloped to apply in ours, from rapid viral detection & forcasting and vaccine development to strategies to prevent and treat disease in underserved and remote communities.

Here are some specifics:

FutureMed Schedule: FutureMed Singularity University: FutureMed2013: Highlights of 2013

Perhaps one of the week’s most inspiring moments came when Jack Andraka’s 15-minute talk, “The Future of Oncology,” brought the room to its feet on Tuesday. Though Andraka is but a sophomore in high school, he’s invented a new diagnostic technique for pancreatic cancer using carbon nanotubes.

Catherine Mohr, Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, delivered a fascinating lecture on the future of robotic surgery. Robotic surgery isn’t itself the disruptive technology, she said. Rather, as cutting edge diagnostic tools on the molecular level allow oncologists to diagnose earlier and earlier, surgeons will need to remove smaller and smaller tumors. Put simply, robotic surgical systems won’t drive this change—they’ll need to adapt to it.

Big data was another prime theme this year. Information that was once limited to a few select individuals in a lab or exclusive scientific community is now available to the public at large. Never mind credentials—great ideas can come from outsiders, peeking in with fresh eyes and a beginner’s mind. Indeed, Andraka used Google, Wikipedia, and free online journal articles to do the initial research behind his diagnostic invention.

Stanford’s Atul Butte told participants, “We’re drowning in data.” Butte’s Stanford lab outsources experiments, finding it more efficient to simply buy data for analysis. Just as kids in garages once built computers, incoming generations will create “garage pharma” and “dormroom biotech.”

Kohn’s session was paired with famed investor Vinod Khosla who spoke of decreasing the need for physicians and leveraging big data and data analytics to improve diagnostics and outcomes. And later in the week, FutureMed welcomed Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health and Information Technology. Mostashari said that by leveraging more connected medical records we can dramatically improve outcomes.

Andrew Hessel on synthetic biology—the use of DNA as a programming language to build living systems from the ground up.

Alan Russel on regenerative medicine and how to speed the body’s natural ability to heal itself.

The Computer History Museum capped the program with a day of demos, talks, and a pitch contest by 17 biotech and health startups from around the world. Singularity University alum, Erez Livneh, won the pitch contest with his company Vecoy Nanomedicines. Vecoy makes nanoparticle “virus traps” that mimic human cells and lure viruses (eg., HIV, influenza, hepatitis, herpes) to attack them—once lured into the trap, the nanoparticles inactivate the virus.

And now for the Star Trek 'Tricorder', once science fiction and now almost a reality.

The Future Med from Singularity Hub has arrived on the Health Train Express. As usual the brightest minds presented new ideas already in existence and some likely developments in the near.

Singularity University was the site for FutureMed 2013 in Silicon Valley at the NASA Ames Facility It wasn't cheap but the $ 8500 USD fee provided a turnkey experience..room..board...and the chance to hang with the 1%. I suppose most people can find a way to write it off as a deduction and have Uncle Sam subsidize your educational bent.

One can chose to hear it first, smell the crowd and wallow lavishly in the sound of bling on your neighbor's wrist or neck. Or if you are like me, the lowly physician who has seen his overhead skyrocket from 35-55% to over 80%, and has had to cease and desist from charity care in favor of supporting ObamaCare, you will attend online via a number of sources ranging from streaming video to informed bloggers and national media sources.

Most of this stuff is so advanced that a delay of one day, one week, one month, or one year is not going to amount to a significant disadvantage of not attending the 'hatching'.

FutureMed is geared around six exponentially growing areas, each taught by world class experts from the worlds of medicine, biotech and innovation. These include lectures, workshops, discussions and site visits.

1. INFORMATION – DATA DRIVEN HEALTH: Digitization of healthcare, Electronic health records, Imaging Technology, Wearable devices, Wireless monitoring to ubiquitous Apps. The ‘Big Data’ explosion… from Imaging & Diagnostics to Mobile & Internet Enabled Health… Knowledge liquidity and leveraging information to enhance diagnostics, prevention and therapy…

2. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE & ‘Omics: Low cost, point of care Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Environmental monitoring… from Systems Medicine to the rapidly emerging world of Synthetic Biology and DIY-Genomics.

3. REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: Stem cells & beyond for the repair, replacement and regeneration of tissues and organs damaged by aging, trauma or disease, from cell therapy to limb regeneration. Cellular alchemy (reprogramming skin cell to cardiomyocytes) to tissue engineering and 3-D printing of organs and tissues.

4. FUTURE INTERVENTION: From Robotic Surgery, Bionic limbs and Exoskeletons, Smart pills, and Implantable Devices, to Targeted gene therapy, and ever shrinking and more capable devices, Nanomedicine.

5. NEUROMEDICINE: Real time brain imaging, Brain computer interface (BCI), Cognitive Enhancement, Targeted neurointervention, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

6. MEDTECH/BIOTECH & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Includes the future of Pharma and Drug Discovery, Synthetic Biology, Medical Device Development and the funding, opportunities and barriers (regulatory and otherwise) of biomedical innovation. The Drive to lower costs and more effective therapies. Impact of the FDA to Healthcare Models (Accountable Care Organizations).

The program focuses on three specific Application Areas, specifically the Future of…

MEDICAL PRACTICE & PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: How will convergent technologies impact the practice of medicine, diagnostics and clinical decision support, to new models of care from concierge practices to telemedicine… from feedback loops with patients utilizing wearable physiologic monitors, the networked ‘Medical home’ and beyond. Can care get better and at lower costs?  How will better informed, engaged and socially connected patients interact with the healthcare system?

HEALTH & WELLNESS:How will personalization, nutrigenomics and regenerative medicine impact wellness, prevention and longevity?

GLOBAL HEALTH: Leveraging technology for the developing world, and learning lessons from the underdeveloped to apply in ours, from rapid viral detection & forcasting and vaccine development to strategies to prevent and treat disease in underserved and remote communities.

Here are some specifics:

FutureMed Schedule: FutureMed Singularity University: FutureMed2013: Highlights of 2013

Perhaps one of the week’s most inspiring moments came when Jack Andraka’s 15-minute talk, “The Future of Oncology,” brought the room to its feet on Tuesday. Though Andraka is but a sophomore in high school, he’s invented a new diagnostic technique for pancreatic cancer using carbon nanotubes.

Catherine Mohr, Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, delivered a fascinating lecture on the future of robotic surgery. Robotic surgery isn’t itself the disruptive technology, she said. Rather, as cutting edge diagnostic tools on the molecular level allow oncologists to diagnose earlier and earlier, surgeons will need to remove smaller and smaller tumors. Put simply, robotic surgical systems won’t drive this change—they’ll need to adapt to it.

Big data was another prime theme this year. Information that was once limited to a few select individuals in a lab or exclusive scientific community is now available to the public at large. Never mind credentials—great ideas can come from outsiders, peeking in with fresh eyes and a beginner’s mind. Indeed, Andraka used Google, Wikipedia, and free online journal articles to do the initial research behind his diagnostic invention.

Stanford’s Atul Butte told participants, “We’re drowning in data.” Butte’s Stanford lab outsources experiments, finding it more efficient to simply buy data for analysis. Just as kids in garages once built computers, incoming generations will create “garage pharma” and “dormroom biotech.”

Kohn’s session was paired with famed investor Vinod Khosla who spoke of decreasing the need for physicians and leveraging big data and data analytics to improve diagnostics and outcomes. And later in the week, FutureMed welcomed Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health and Information Technology. Mostashari said that by leveraging more connected medical records we can dramatically improve outcomes.

Andrew Hessel on synthetic biology—the use of DNA as a programming language to build living systems from the ground up.

Alan Russel on regenerative medicine and how to speed the body’s natural ability to heal itself.

The Computer History Museum capped the program with a day of demos, talks, and a pitch contest by 17 biotech and health startups from around the world. Singularity University alum, Erez Livneh, won the pitch contest with his company Vecoy Nanomedicines. Vecoy makes nanoparticle “virus traps” that mimic human cells and lure viruses (eg., HIV, influenza, hepatitis, herpes) to attack them—once lured into the trap, the nanoparticles inactivate the virus.

The Future Med from Singularity Hub has arrived on the Health Train Express. As usual the brightest minds presented new ideas already in existence and some likely developments in the near.

Singularity University was the site for FutureMed 2013 in Silicon Valley at the NASA Ames Facility It wasn't cheap but the $ 8500 USD fee provided a turnkey experience..room..board...and the chance to hang with the 1%. I suppose most people can find a way to write it off as a deduction and have Uncle Sam subsidize your educational bent.

One can chose to hear it first, smell the crowd and wallow lavishly in the sound of bling on your neighbor's wrist or neck. Or if you are like me, the lowly physician who has seen his overhead skyrocket from 35-55% to over 80%, and has had to cease and desist from charity care in favor of supporting ObamaCare, you will attend online via a number of sources ranging from streaming video to informed bloggers and national media sources.

Most of this stuff is so advanced that a delay of one day, one week, one month, or one year is not going to amount to a significant disadvantage of not attending the 'hatching'.

FutureMed is geared around six exponentially growing areas, each taught by world class experts from the worlds of medicine, biotech and innovation. These include lectures, workshops, discussions and site visits.

1. INFORMATION – DATA DRIVEN HEALTH: Digitization of healthcare, Electronic health records, Imaging Technology, Wearable devices, Wireless monitoring to ubiquitous Apps. The ‘Big Data’ explosion… from Imaging & Diagnostics to Mobile & Internet Enabled Health… Knowledge liquidity and leveraging information to enhance diagnostics, prevention and therapy…

2. PERSONALIZED MEDICINE & ‘Omics: Low cost, point of care Genomics, Proteomics, Metabolomics, Environmental monitoring… from Systems Medicine to the rapidly emerging world of Synthetic Biology and DIY-Genomics.

3. REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: Stem cells & beyond for the repair, replacement and regeneration of tissues and organs damaged by aging, trauma or disease, from cell therapy to limb regeneration. Cellular alchemy (reprogramming skin cell to cardiomyocytes) to tissue engineering and 3-D printing of organs and tissues.

4. FUTURE INTERVENTION: From Robotic Surgery, Bionic limbs and Exoskeletons, Smart pills, and Implantable Devices, to Targeted gene therapy, and ever shrinking and more capable devices, Nanomedicine.

5. NEUROMEDICINE: Real time brain imaging, Brain computer interface (BCI), Cognitive Enhancement, Targeted neurointervention, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.

6. MEDTECH/BIOTECH & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Includes the future of Pharma and Drug Discovery, Synthetic Biology, Medical Device Development and the funding, opportunities and barriers (regulatory and otherwise) of biomedical innovation. The Drive to lower costs and more effective therapies. Impact of the FDA to Healthcare Models (Accountable Care Organizations).

The program focuses on three specific Application Areas, specifically the Future of…

MEDICAL PRACTICE & PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: How will convergent technologies impact the practice of medicine, diagnostics and clinical decision support, to new models of care from concierge practices to telemedicine… from feedback loops with patients utilizing wearable physiologic monitors, the networked ‘Medical home’ and beyond. Can care get better and at lower costs?  How will better informed, engaged and socially connected patients interact with the healthcare system?

HEALTH & WELLNESS:How will personalization, nutrigenomics and regenerative medicine impact wellness, prevention and longevity?

GLOBAL HEALTH: Leveraging technology for the developing world, and learning lessons from the underdeveloped to apply in ours, from rapid viral detection & forcasting and vaccine development to strategies to prevent and treat disease in underserved and remote communities.

Here are some specifics:

FutureMed Schedule: FutureMed Singularity University: FutureMed2013: Highlights of 2013

Perhaps one of the week’s most inspiring moments came when Jack Andraka’s 15-minute talk, “The Future of Oncology,” brought the room to its feet on Tuesday. Though Andraka is but a sophomore in high school, he’s invented a new diagnostic technique for pancreatic cancer using carbon nanotubes.

Catherine Mohr, Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, delivered a fascinating lecture on the future of robotic surgery. Robotic surgery isn’t itself the disruptive technology, she said. Rather, as cutting edge diagnostic tools on the molecular level allow oncologists to diagnose earlier and earlier, surgeons will need to remove smaller and smaller tumors. Put simply, robotic surgical systems won’t drive this change—they’ll need to adapt to it.

Big data was another prime theme this year. Information that was once limited to a few select individuals in a lab or exclusive scientific community is now available to the public at large. Never mind credentials—great ideas can come from outsiders, peeking in with fresh eyes and a beginner’s mind. Indeed, Andraka used Google, Wikipedia, and free online journal articles to do the initial research behind his diagnostic invention.

Stanford’s Atul Butte told participants, “We’re drowning in data.” Butte’s Stanford lab outsources experiments, finding it more efficient to simply buy data for analysis. Just as kids in garages once built computers, incoming generations will create “garage pharma” and “dormroom biotech.”

Kohn’s session was paired with famed investor Vinod Khosla who spoke of decreasing the need for physicians and leveraging big data and data analytics to improve diagnostics and outcomes. And later in the week, FutureMed welcomed Dr. Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health and Information Technology. Mostashari said that by leveraging more connected medical records we can dramatically improve outcomes.

Andrew Hessel on synthetic biology—the use of DNA as a programming language to build living systems from the ground up.

Alan Russel on regenerative medicine and how to speed the body’s natural ability to heal itself.

The Computer History Museum capped the program with a day of demos, talks, and a pitch contest by 17 biotech and health startups from around the world. Singularity University alum, Erez Livneh, won the pitch contest with his company Vecoy Nanomedicines. Vecoy makes nanoparticle “virus traps” that mimic human cells and lure viruses (eg., HIV, influenza, hepatitis, herpes) to attack them—once lured into the trap, the nanoparticles inactivate the virus.

And now for the Star Trek 'Tricorder', once science fiction and now almost a reality.

 

 

Technorati Tags: X prize,futuremed,singularity,nanovirus,hiv,influenza,hepatitis,herpes,neuromedicine,data driven health,regenerative,obamacare,medicine,medtech,robotics,nasa ames

Not All Mobile is Social

 

Mobile health applications continue to soar as 2013 begins after a swelling in 2012.  Applications from physical fitness to remote monitoring and even telehealth are gaining a foothold.

In the process, lawyers are queuing up at the FCC, FTC, FDA and all things that I shall call the ‘F’ word.

Here is what I have ‘scraped’ this week.

Mobile Health Unlikely to Face Much Regulatory Scrutiny, Lawyer Says

Ringadoc rolls out provider-facing telehealth service

 

Remote monitoring startup Intuitive Health nabs $3.4M

Public health officials put a handy mobile app to use in mass immunization efforts

5 Digital Health Care Trends to Watch

The mHealth Zone  Register to Listen Live.

A written prescription may be more effective in motivating patients to adopt the use of mobile health applications.  The final assessment on their effectiveness and also  standards are not yet finalized.

How many of these advance will stick like superglue, or will it just be a Velcro fastener to be torn off and discarded, replaced or improved?  My bet would be on the later as new applications are fleshed out with improvements as the year goes by. Most of it will be controlled by market demand with some attribution given to quality measures. I see mobile health applications that pertain to ACA, ACO, Meaningful use, and POS billing for physicians making rounds at hospitals, SNFs and the like.

 

Technorati Tags: mhealth,mobile health,ringadoc,mhealth zone,intuitive health,aco,aca,meaningful use,snf

Ben Carson M.D. Keynotes National Prayer Breakfast

Ben Carson M.D. (podium) advising Barak Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast (February, 2013)

It’s not often that a physician gets 2 million YouTube video hits in 24 hours.

One of my favorite role models has always been a pediatric neurosurgeon from the Johns Hopkins University. As a pediatrician he touches the lives of many young people, mentors young doctors and developed the procedure for separating twins joined at the skull

Ben Carson’s appearance and speech should bring no surprise to anyone who chose him for the role at the National Prayer Breakfast as the keynote speaker earlier this week. As he stood immediately to the President's position, some in the audience had a measure of discomfort.

Carson's background should be no surprise to anyone, since he has written or coauthored several books on his subject.

The power of his words on a major national platform, first the prayer breakfast and then FOXnews should give open-minded economists, politicians, and patients food for thought.

Not only does he talk the talk, he walks the walk. His speech was the real picture of the “State of the Nation”, not the idealogy of President Barak Obama, nor the opposition. Audience reaction in real time indicated the overwhelming agreement of both Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, alike.

Juan Williams and Keith Ablow MD who both are FOXnew consultants wrote about the content of Carson's speech.

Ablow compares Carson's role as a neurosurgeon,

“ Well, let me tell you something about Ben Carson and other surgeons I was privileged to train with at Johns Hopkins during my medical and surgical rotations before I chose to become a psychiatrist: They don’t pull punches when a battle needs to be joined, and they don’t hate the people to whom they have to deliver bad news.

Ben Carson has sat with many, many families and told them that their children had tumors growing inside their heads and that he would need to cut open their skulls and remove those malignancies.

Why? Because, for him, the truth is the only thing worth speaking, no matter the audience. Another thing about Ben Carson and other surgeons I scrubbed in with:  They like to leave clean margins. That means that when they see pathology—like cancer—they want to cut it away so that only healthy tissue is left behind.  They have to be willing to make people bleed, in order to make them live.

Juan Williams,

“ Ben Carson is my hero !” Conservative, mostly white Republican critics of the president are praising Dr. Carson because they are ecstatic to see a black man express conservative ideas to the face of a liberal, Democrat and black president’s face. But that is not why I consider Dr. Carson a hero.

He is a winner to me for living by the conservative principles I want young America, especially poor black and Latino kids, to see as the prescription for success.”

Williams goes on to elaborate,

“This was the central theme of my 2006 book, “Enough”

“PC (Political Correctness) is dangerous. In this country, one of the founding principles was freedom of thought and freedom of expression...” Carson said.

“We have imposed upon people restrictions on what they can say, on what they can think. And the media is the largest proponent of this, crucifying people who say things really quite innocently.

Williams follows up,

“As the author of a 2011 book titled “Muzzled: the Assault on Honest Debate” about how PC is dangerous and imposes restrictions on what people can say and think, this warmed my heart.

Keith AblowM.D. is a psychiatrist who is a consultant to FOXnews.

And finally Keith Ablow comments on Dr Carson's approach to health care, coupling a flat tax, health savings accounts, minimizing the role of government and insurance companies to catastrophic insurance coverage.

Juan Williams concludes,

“The Wall Street Journal recently published an editorial headlined: “Ben Carson for President.” It said: “The Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon may not be politically correct, but he's closer to correct than we've heard in years.”

That’s true. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with talk of a Carson presidential bid. For now, I’m just happy to see Dr. Carson celebrated as an example of the personal success that is possible in America for anyone willing to follow the basic steps of personal responsibility for their own future.

Ben Carson's ideas are not much different than mine. I cannot speak for physicians' thoughts on the state of America, today.

Technorati Tags: Ben Carson,Keith Ablow,Juan Williams,national prayer breakfast,obamacare,Barak Obama,craniopagus

Bridging the GAP

 

Social Media is a non secure platform for connecting providers and patients but does not allow for confidential information protected by HIPAA..

Secure networks such as the Inland Empire Health Information Exchange offers HIPAA compliant interoperability between disparate EMRs for hospitals and providers.

Communication amongst providers via a health information exchange is a key factor in bridging the gap and bringing providers and patients closer together.

Open Source HIX:

This is the do it yourself (DIY) edition for development of a Health Information Exchange infrastructure…It is open source, and free of charge.

Webinar produced and broadcast by: A group of Open Source Developers using and Information Exchange in use by the Federal IT system. and now offered to the HIX community.

Connect has the following partners (clickable).

 

This webinar is designed to discuss the technical aspects of CONNECT 4.0 with health IT professionals. In this webinar, the CONNECT Team's developers will walk through the architecture and technical details of CONNECT 4.0. Current CONNECT adopters and those considering using CONNECT can learn about this platform and get their questions answered.

 

 

CONNECT 4.0

About Connect 4.0

CONNECT is an open source software solution that supports health information exchange – both locally and at the national level. CONNECT uses Nationwide Health Information Network standards and governance to make sure that health information exchanges are compatible with other exchanges being set up throughout the country.

This software solution was initially developed by federal agencies to support their health-related missions, but it is now available to all organizations and can be used to help set up health information exchanges and share data using nationally-recognized interoperability standards.

CONNECT can be used to:

• Set up a health information exchange within an organization
• Tie a health information exchange into a regional network of health information exchanges using Nationwide Health Information Network standards

By advancing the adoption of interoperable health IT systems and health information exchanges, the country will better be able to achieve the goal of making sure all citizens have electronic health records by 2014. Health data will be able to follow a patient across the street or across the country.

 

Technorati Tags: hix,emr,interoperability,connect 4.0,ehr,onchit,health information exchange,open source,hit,social media,hipaa

IBMs Watson completes Fellowship in Oncology

 

You may remember the game of Jeopardy played by IBMs Watson  two years ago, defeating two championship players. For those of you living in a Bin-Laden bombed out cave, Watson is the look-alike “HAL” from  the movie, 2001 Space Odyssey.

Many physicians were intrigued about the possibilities of having some form of Artificial Intelligence to assist with diagnoses and treatments. Watson’s tremendous computing power gives it a sort of AI-like ability by storing and having the analytic ability to sort and analyze it’s databases.

"Dr". Watson's taking patients now, through a cloud-based medical application.

Thanks to a business partnership among IBM, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and WellPoint, health care providers will now be able to tap Watson’s expertise in deciding how to treat patients. Pricing was not disclosed, but hospitals and health care networks who sign up will be able to buy or rent Watson’s advice from the cloud or their own server.

Over the past two years, IBM’s researchers have shrunk Watson from the size of a master bedroom to a pizza-box-sized server that can fit in any data center. (I will purchase one when it gets to be size of an iPad mini, or Nexus 7. And they improved its processing speed by 240%. Now what was once was a fun computer-science experiment in natural language processing is becoming a real business for IBM and Wellpoint, which is the exclusive reseller of the technology for now. Initial customers include West Med Partners and the Maine Center for Cancer Medicine & Blood Disorders.

Watson was tasked with a pre-medical, medical school, and an oncology fellowship. Watson’s professors and mentors think he has graduated cum laude and is ready for practice. (no word on whether he has been approved by the FDA or any medical boards as yet, and we don’t know if a procedural code has been entered into CMS’ data fields.

Today Watson has analyzed 605,000 pieces of medical evidence, 2 million pages of text, 25,000 training cases and had the assist of 14,700 clinician hours fine-tuning its decision accuracy. Six “instances” of Watson have already been installed in the last 12 months.

There are few areas more in need of supercharged decision-support than health care. Doctors and nurses are drowning in information with new research, genetic data, treatments and procedures popping up daily. They often don’t know what to do, and are guessing as well as they can.

WellPoint’s chief medical officer Samuel Nussbaum said at the press event  that health care pros make accurate treatment decisions in lung cancer cases only 50% of the time (a shocker to me). Watson, since being trained in this  medical specialty, can make accurate decisions 90% of the time.

Watson doesn’t tell a doctor what to do, it provides several options with degrees of confidence for each, along with the supporting evidence it used to arrive at the optimal treatment. Doctors can enter on an iPad a new bit of information in plain text, such as “my patient has blood in her phlegm,” and Watson within half a minute will come back with an entirely different drug regimen that suits the individual.

WellPoint will be using the system internally for its nurses and clinicians who handle utilization management, the process by which health insurers determine which treatments are fair, appropriate and efficient and, in turn, what it will cover. The company will also make the intelligence available as a Web portal to other providers as its Interactive Care Reviewer. It is targeting 1,600 providers by the end of 2013 and will split the revenue with IBM.

The triumvirate of computer science, clinician and payers will be a major contribiutor to reduction in cost of healthcare.

The price was not disclosed for R&D nor it’s end user price. However I am certain it will more than pay for itself with better outcomes and perhaps fewer admissions.

Have you ever tried arguing with an ATM machine?