News about mobile in health fields
Check here for interesting links to news about technology in medicine.
Feb. 17 “mHealth Apps Continue to Dominate App Stores” — According to a recent report by MAW, app stores remain the number one distribution channel for mHealth apps. “Fifty two percent of mHealth experts rate app stores, such as Apple App Store or Google Play, to be the best channels from which to distribute mHealth apps for the next five years,” asserts a new publication from Research2Guidance. Distribution through other channels, such as via doctors, hospitals, or pharmacies, are increasingly seen to be weaker channels through which to distribute a successful app solution.”
Feb. 2 “Doctor On Demand Makes Psychiatric Video Visits Available Nationwide” — Doctor On Demand is set to become the first major telemedicine provider to offer psychiatric video visits on a nationwide scale. The company began offering mental health care services in December 2014 with the addition of psychologists to its provider network. The new addition of psychiatrists represents “a significant expansion of access to mental health care through Doctor On Demand.” Now, patients can receive both therapy from a doctorate-level psychologist and medication evaluation and management from a board-certified psychiatrist through their smartphone or computer in the comfort of their home.
Feb. 2 “Fitbits now mandatory for students at this Oklahoma university” — They take exercise seriously at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. All students are required to meet strict fitness goals. And they are graded on how they do. For years, this meant Oral Roberts students had to quantify fitness levels. They used tables and charts to figure out the value of a jog or a game of pickup basketball or even cutting the grass with a push mower. They had to remember to check their heart rates. And then they had to translate that activity using a point system. Now, all 900 freshmen are required to use Fitbits, the wearable fitness monitors. It’s part of a new college requirement that began last fall and will be rolled out with each incoming class until all students are using them.
Jan. 27 “Study: YouPlus Health Mobile App Benefits Users’ Health” — YouPlus Health recently announced the results of a 12-week user study that purportedly reveal the positive impacts of the platform. The science-driven mobile health coaching platform was subjected to a peer-reviewed study recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) mHealth and uHealth. The study found that users of YouPlus Health’s mobile app experienced significant reductions in body weight, waist circumference, and both systolic and diastolic blood pressures, while attaining significant increases in HDL and VO2 max. YouPlus Health is now available free to download for iOS and Android devices.
Jan. 19 “Accenture: Hospitals Engaging Just 2 Percent of Patients via Mobile Apps” — Research from Accenture reveals that just 2 percent of patients in the largest U.S. hospitals are currently using hospital-provided mobile health apps. The research, which assessed mobile app use among the 100 largest U.S. hospitals, found that two-thirds of the hospitals have mobile apps for consumers and roughly two-fifths have developed proprietary apps for their patients. However, only 11 percent of health systems offer patients proprietary apps that provide access to medical records; the ability to book, change and cancel appointments; and the ability to request prescription refills electronically.
Jan. 18 “MTBC Touts Electronic Prescribing Smartwatch App” — MTBC — a leading provider of healthcare information technology solutions — shared details of its new electronic prescribing app for the Apple Watch, one of the first electronic prescribing smartwatch apps available to U.S. healthcare providers. MTBC’s Apple Watch app extends key components of its electronic prescribing app for iPhone users, known as MTBC iRx, to the Apple Watch. Users of the app can view patient refill request alerts and inbound patient communications on the watch and leverage iRx to authorize refills, write new prescriptions, access patients’ medication histories and clinical support decision tools.
Jan. 15 “Mobile Technology’s Impact On Healthcare Marketing” — As the population becomes increasingly tech-savvy, more people are taking their health into their own hands, literally, as handheld mobile devices become major tools in seeking healthcare information and even diagnosis. With more than 13,000 health and medical apps available on mobile devices, and the estimate from Research and Markets that the mobile health market will grow by 61% by 2017 due to sales of mobile monitoring devices and integration with mainstream medicine, the future of healthcare lies within mobile technology and is tapping into a global market.
Jan. 14 “8 out of 10 mobile health apps open to HIPAA violations, hacking, data theft” — A new report shows 84 percent of U.S. FDA-approved health apps tested by IT security vendor Arxan Technologies did not adequately address at least two of the Open Web Application Security Project top 10 risks. Most health apps are susceptible to code tampering and reverse-engineering, two of the most common hacking techniques, the report found. Ninety-five percent of the FDA-approved apps lack binary protection and have insufficient transport layer protection, leaving them open to hacks that could result in privacy violations, theft of personal health information, as well as device tampering and patient safety issues.
Dec. 30 “Mobile Tech Tapped to Help Predict Asthma Attacks in Kids” — In recent weeks, UCLA and USC researchers were awarded $6 million by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering for the purpose of developing technology that “will enable users’ smartphones and smart watches to identify them of their unique triggers for asthma attacks.” The four-year grant is part of a national $144 million initiative called Pediatric Research using Integrated Sensor Monitoring Systems, or PRISMS, which aims to blend big data with mobile technology to develop tools that shed light on the environment’s role in children’s health.
Dec. 9 “Ceeable is ‘Best Health Tech Innovation of 2015’ ” — mHealthWatch has learned who took home top honors this year as the HITLAB World Cup Grand Prize Winner. Following a long process of evaluation and competition, Ceeable — developer of the Ceeable Visual Field Analyzer (CVFA) — was awarded $10,000 the distinction “Best Health Tech Innovation of 2015.” CVFA is a visual field test that can detect, classify, and monitor degenerative eye disease using only a tablet.
Dec. 7 “Berg Insight says 4.9 million patients worldwide are remotely monitored” — The number of remotely monitored patients grew by 51 percent to 4.9 million in 2015 as the market entered a growth phase fuelled by rising market acceptance in several key verticals. The two main applications are monitoring of patients with implantable cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices and monitoring of patients with sleep therapy devices. These two verticals accounted for 81 percent of all connected home medical monitoring systems in 2015. Telehealth is the third largest segment with 0.41 million connections at the end of the year.
Dec. 5 “Apple smart strap patent hints at new direction in wearable tech” — In a patent Apple filed and the Patent and Trademark Office recently, we get a glimpse of yet another new product that could be launched under Tim Cook’s command. The patent describes a new Apple device that is a wearable strap made of a woven fine fabric capable of acting as a display. The strap is meant to either act as a tether to a phone or tablet or to the Apple Watch.
Dec. 2 “FDA Green Lights Android for Gmate SMART Mobile Diabetes Monitoring System” — Philosys, maker of Gmate products, announced Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved clearance for the Gmate SMART Blood Glucose Monitoring System and App for Android. The Gmate SMART is a small, portable blood glucose meter that plugs into the headphone jack of a smartphone and provides “fast and accurate blood glucose test results.”
Dec. 1 “Telemedicine Technology Trends for 2016” — Telemedicine technologies are evolving rapidly, enabling better care, greater patient access and the promise of bending the healthcare cost curve. REACH Health, a leading provider of enterprise telemedicine solutions, has identified five key technology trends for the coming year, each promising benefits for providers and patients.
Nov. 23 “Research Shows Patients with Chronic Diseases Want More Mobile Solutions” — A new study released by mobile engagement provider Mobiquity exposes the gap between patients demand for taking control of their own health and the accessibility or availability of digital and mobile tools when it comes to the management of chronic health conditions. The study revealed that one third of patients with chronic diseases don’t currently use mobile apps to manage their conditions, but would like to start.
Nov. 23 “Smart Car Seat Senses Driver’s Physical And Mental State” — A new smart car seat can keep a driver calm by actively monitoring the commuter’s physical and mental status, according to the maker. “We’ve built a seat called Active Wellness. And what it does is allows us to understand something about your heart rate, your respiration rate, and then analyze that to really understand your stress level,” said Matthew Benson, an advanced innovation manager at Faurecia, one of the largest automotive-equipment suppliers.
Nov. 11 “Walgreens unpacks mobile telehealth expansion alongside new loyalty app” — Walgreens is bringing its suite of telehealth services to mobile users in 20 new states as part of a significant expansion, in addition to rolling out the loyalty-boosted Walgreens Connect application for measuring glucose and blood pressure levels.
Nov. 9 “Mobile Study: Majority of Healthcare Institutions Risk HIPAA Non-Compliance” — A study finds that only 1 in 4 healthcare institutions who have an official mobile messaging platform are using an internal, company-authorized app. The rest are recommending or using consumer-facing messaging apps and services that do not provide the enterprise-grade security needed to comply with regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Nov. 3 “Health and Fitness Spurs Wearables Adoption” — Consumer intention to be more active and lose weight is spearheading the adoption of wearables. According to Rock Health, more than two-thirds of respondents said they purchased a wearable device to be active, almost half of US wearable device owners invested in one to lose weight, 25% of respondents purchased a wearable as an experiment and 14% bought one because of social reasons.
Nov. 2 “Smartwatches Are the New Health Devices of Choice” — According to a new report from ABI, the smart home market, projected to reach $34 billion in 2020, is becoming the center of activity for multiple IoT ecosystems, including wearables. Smartwatches are expected to drive the most interest for wearables integration into the smart home even though fitness trackers were approximately two-thirds of all wearable device shipments in 2014.
Sept. 29 “MiniMed Connect Now Available for Smartphone Access” — On Monday, Medtronic — a leader in medical technology — announced U.S. commercial availability of MiniMed Connect, a product designed to enable people with diabetes to “discreetly and conveniently” view their insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) information on a smartphone.
Sept. 22 “mHealth App Market Tops 165,000” — According to the findings of a new study from IMS Health, the number of mobile health applications available to consumers now surpasses 165,000. The IMS Institute study found that one in ten apps now has the capability to connect to a device or sensor, providing biofeedback and physiological function data from the patient and greatly extending the accuracy and convenience of data collection.
