Accelerator Launchpad picks five digital health startups | mobihealthnews

Mobile app development continues to accelerate at an ever increasing rate.  It becomes difficult to segregate the bad from the mediocre and good ones.  Here are a few new hopefuls.

Our Next several posts will summarize many hopeful startups as 2014 progresses as predicted.

Accelerator Launchpad picks five digital health startups | mobihealthnews

San Francisco-based accelerator Launchpad Digital Health funded its first five companies this week.

Through the accelerator, the companies receive between $200,000 and $500,000, office space in San Francisco, and advising with legal, accounting, and risk management issues. Launchpad focuses on companies that are working on wellness, remote monitoring, electronic health records, data analytics, and independent living support.

AddApp aims to provide users with context about their daily life. The app integrates data from other apps and devices that the user owns and puts the data into context. Some examples of insights that AddApp provides includes pointing out what gives the user a good night of sleep, showing users which days they are most active, and how they can run farther.

Lyfechannel develops programs for patients who have chronic diseases. The programs are designed to help patients who were recently diagnosed with a chronic disease and need additional help as they begin their care regimen like changing eating habits or getting used to a medication regimen. The program focuses on diabetes, pre-diabetes, COPD, smoking cessation, and heart health. According to an SEC filing, Lyfechannel raised $200,000.

Medable helps healthcare professionals, like physicians and payors, make apps that connect physicians and patients, store medical information safely, and follow the appropriate regulations. Providers can also use the app they make to communicate with each other. The company has built an API so that developers can build the program on Medable’s cloud platform.

QueueDr helps doctors add more appointments to their schedule if they have free time. A doctor’s office will use the platform to send texts to patients telling them about an open appointment slot so that that patients can get in to see the doctor earlier.

Sense.ly has developed a “virtual nurse” that provides follow-up care to patients, focusing mostly on those that have chronic diseases. The company offers patients an avatar that analyzes the patient’s condition and provides insights into what steps patients should improve their health. Earlier this month, MobiHealthNews reported that Sense.ly is set to come out of beta later this year.

EHRs Linked to Higher Revenue, Lower Patient Volume

Friday, September 5, 2014

RELATED TOPICS:

• EHRs and PHRs

Electronic health record implementation can result in reduced patient volume but can increase revenue over the long term, according to a study published in theJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Becker's Hospital Review's "Hospital CIO" reports (Gregg, "Hospital CIO," Becker's Hospital Review, 9/3).

For the study, researchers from Drexel University compared patient volume and reimbursement at 30 ambulatory practices in the two years after EHR implementation with the practices' pre-implementation baseline (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 9/4).

Study Findings

The study found that practices' reimbursements increased "significantly," even as their number of patient visits declined (Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR, 9/2). Specifically, practices on average submitted claims for 94 additional ancillary procedures per quarter after implementing an EHR system, while patient volume decreased on average by about 108 patients per quarter ("Hospital CIO," Becker's Hospital Review, 9/3).

The researchers wrote they did not find any indication of "upcoding or increased reimbursement rates to explain the increased revenues" (Clinical Innovation & Technology, 9/4).

They noted that their finding of increased revenues "is reassuring and offers a basis for further EHR investment," while their finding of decreased patient volume indicated that EHR systems were increasing practices' efficiency.

They recommended that any practices continuing to see declines in patient volume two years after implementing EHR systems should add analytics functionality to their EHR system to "focus on seeing the right patients" (FierceEMR, 9/2).

HHS: Federal Exchange Site Hacked, No Personal Data Stolen

The inevitable 'hack' occured in July according to HHS officials.  It involved the Federal Health Insurance Exchange, health.gov .

On Thursday, HHS officials announced that a hacker in July breached part of HealthCare.gov and uploaded malicious software, the Wall Street Journal reports (Yadron, Wall Street Journal, 9/4).

A team of investigators discovered the breach on Aug. 25 during a routine security scan. I suppose HHS and federal IT infrastructure have their own "Malwarebytes" to detect and clean their systems,  regularly.  I know that good IT practices require this type of routine maintenance.

Perhaps the hackers broke in to see if they could improve health.gov for the Dept. of HHS. I am sure many were willing to help there.  Probably any videogamer could improve the web site.  It's been a whole year for things to improve, and the next enrollment period begins in about one month.

According to an HHS official, the attack appears to be the first successful breach of the website, through which millions of U.S. residents have purchased health insurance coverage since fall 2013.

Details of the Hack

Investigators found no evidence that enrollees' personal data were taken in the attack. Rather, the hacker accessed a server used to test code for the website (Wall Street Journal, 9/4).

Common malware was uploaded to the test server and designed to incapacitate other websites, a method often referred to as a "denial of service" attack. Government officials say the malware was not intended to steal consumers' data (Viebeck/Hattem, The Hill, 9/4).

"Our review indicates that the server did not contain consumer personal information; data [were] not transmitted outside the agency, and the website was not specifically targeted," HHS said, adding, "We have taken measures to further strengthen security" (O'Donnell, USA Today, 9/4).

I feel relieved

It's about like someone breaking into your house and leaving a 'stink bomb' rather than taking your large screen T.V.

Reaction

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) -- chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee -- in a statement said the revelations were "unsurprising" amid previous concerns about the website's security. He added that the administration repeatedly had "dismissed concerns about the security of HealthCare.gov, even as it obstructed congressional oversight on the issue." Issa also called on CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner to testify alongside GAO officials before the committee on Sept. 18 (Hattem, The Hill, 9/4).

Meanwhile, Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) called on the Senate to join the House in passing the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act (HR 3811), which would require the federal government to notify individuals if their personal information has been breached (Black release, 9/4). (A one paragraph-regulations)  I thought that was already covered by HIPAA.

Let us hope that things will get better (don't hold your breath)

Today +Megan Smith (formerly VP at Google[x]) joins President +Barack Obama as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America.

Todd Park, the former CTO in the Obama administration has been replaced by Megan Smith, following his resignation several months ago.  Todd, during the rapid growth of HIT including Health Information Exchanges, and in conjunction with the Office of the National Coordinator of HIT (ONCHIT) was responsible for the successful role out of Health Information Exchanges, and later with the challenge of implementing Health.gov .

Megan Smith Named CTO of the United States!

Today +Megan Smith (formerly VP at Google[x]) joins President +Barack Obama as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America. Megan co-founded Women Techmakers in 2012 with +Stephanie Liu, and seeing the potential for building on the movement to empower women in technology, Megan and I created my current role as Google's Women in Technology Advocate. Megan has been an advisor to Women Techmakers despite her busy schedule advocating for women and children globally, and I'm honored to have worked side-by-side with her to enact change. I'm proud of my friend and mentor, and look forward to seeing the impact she'll make in her new role.

More from +Barack Obama and the White House blog http://goo.gl/xqbs10.