2010 ATA mid-year meeting: The nation's leaders detail the future of telemedicine
American Telemedicine Association
For the first time, the top leaders in health care from government agencies, private and public payers, leading medical centers and the private sector have agreed to come together and describe changes underway right now that will expand the use of telemedicine for years to come. It is an incredible time for telemedicine and the 2010 ATA Mid-Year Meeting, Sept. 26-28 in Baltimore, Md., is an unprecedented event that will be talked about for the next year. Featured speakers include Marilyn Tavenner of CMS, Dr. Mary Wakefield of HRSA, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein of FDA and Phoebe Yang of FCC, Reed Tuckson of UnitedHealth and many more.More

ATA 2011 Call For Presentations Open Through September 15, 2010
American Telemedicine Association
ATA 2011, May 1-3, 2011 in Tampa, Fla., will be the largest international meeting and exposition focusing exclusively on telemedicine, telehealth and remote medical technologies. If you use telecommunications solutions for health care, this is the single most important event of the year! Recognized throughout the world as the primary forum for the telemedicine industry, ATA's peer-reviewed educational program sets the standard for continuing medical education on the topics of telemedicine and telehealth. We invite you to submit an abstract to be considered for inclusion in the ATA 2011 Sixteenth Annual International Meeting and Exposition educational program.More

Report: Health providers must address gaps in health IT work force
iHealthBeat
Gaps in the health IT work force need to be addressed as more hospitals and health care providers adopt electronic health records to meet the federal government's "meaningful use" criteria, according to a new report from Computer Sciences Corp., CMIO reports. In the report, CSC notes that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT estimates that 50,000 additional health IT workers will be needed over the next five years to install and operate EHR systems. The company said ONC's estimate "represents an almost 50% increase in the size of the current health IT work force."More

EHR market projected to double by 2012
Healthcare IT News
The U.S. ambulatory EHR market, which was at $1.3 billion in 2009, is forecast to reach $2.6 billion in 2012, according to new analysis from research firm Frost & Sullivan. The rate of electronic health record adoption among U.S. physicians expects to increase over the next two to five years due to a combination of changes caused by healthcare reform and financial subsidies from the HITECH program, the report notes. "Today, many public and private stakeholders are committed to harnessing the power of information technology to improve the quality and efficiency of our healthcare system," states Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Nancy Fabozzi. More

iPhone set to replace the stethoscope
HealthLeaders Media
The stethoscope — medical icon, lifesaver and doctor's best friend — is disappearing from hospitals across the world as physicians increasingly use their smartphones to monitor patients' heartbeats. More than 3 million doctors have downloaded a 59p application — invented by Peter Bentley, a researcher from University College London — which turns an Apple iPhone into a stethoscope.More

GWU ER pilots mobile wound care diagnoses
MobiHealthNews
Neal Sikka, an emergency physician at George Washington University, launched a six-month study in May that aimed to determine how accurately ER doctors and physician assistants could diagnose wounds from images patients took with their own mobile phones. When people arrive at the hospital with cuts, skin infections, rashes or other flesh wounds, Sikka and his team of researchers recruit participants for the study by having them snap the photos of their wound and then filling out a medical history and symptoms survey. The images are then sent to a secure email and downloaded by clinicians onto a secure hard drive.More

Wave's wireless monitoring aims to manage epilepsy
MobiHealthNews
In the United States today there are about 3 million people with some form of epilepsy, a medical condition that produces seizures affecting mental and physical functions. The Epilepsy Foundation estimates direct and indirect costs associated with the condition at about $15.5 billion in the U.S. each year. "Ten percent of epilepsy patients have a severe case. That means about 300,000 people in the U.S. have severe cases with some of them continuously having seizures. They need 7-by-24 monitoring," Sam Cinquegrani, Founder, President and CEO of Wave Technology Group.More

Portable monitor auto-collects vitals
Health Data and Management
Medical device maker Welch Allyn has introduced a portable touch-screen monitor that enables the bedside documentation of patient vital signs, with wireless integration into the electronic health record. The Connex Electronic Vitals Documentation System can sit on a table, be carried or attached to a specialized cart. The device automatically collects such measures as heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and pulse oximetry, and manually collects respiration, height, weight and pain level. It also collects modifiers, such as body position and oxygen therapy details, according to the Skaneateles Falls, N.Y. based vendor.More

HHS offers online insurance finder tool
Government Health It
The Health and Human Services Department has made available an online tool from its Healthcare.gov Web site that streamlines the public's search for insurance coverage options. Healthcare.gov offers consumers a one-stop-shop of public and private insurance coverage options and, when they are created, a gateway to state health insurance exchange portals. Based on answers to a series of questions, the finder produces a menu of potential coverage choices personalized for the user.More

HP wins $135 million Alabama Medicaid contract
InformationWeek
Hewlett-Packard has announced an eight-year technology services contract worth $135 million to provide system upgrades, e-prescribing tools, and website development for the Alabama Medicaid Agency. The new contract extends HP's 30-year relationship with Alabama's Medicaid agency, which oversees the Medicaid program for more than 900,000 state residents each year. HP processed nearly 32 million Medicaid claims for Alabama healthcare providers in 2009.More

Video 'telecaregivers' keep seniors in their homes longer
Fierce Mobil Healthcare
Cell phones are ubiquitous. Plenty of American homes have high-speed Internet and wireless networks. And the population is aging. Take those factors together and it's no surprise that home patient monitoring is booming. As National Public Radio reports in a series on aging at home, one element of home monitoring is the rise of the "telecaregiver," a health professional who watches aging, chronically ill patients by video. More

HIE panel pushes for state provider directories
Government Health It
For health information exchanges to gain a footing, states will have to make sure physicians can access provider directories. Without these electronic listings of providers and patients across a state or region, vital health records and messages might not get to its proper destination. To help pave the way, the Health IT Policy Committee recently created a task force to pursue the use of directories across state HIEs to support provider and patient look-up as well as to enhance public health reporting.More

SANA, Narayana Hrudayalaya to launch m-Health project
The Economics Times
In a novel attempt to ensure early screening and detection of chronic diseases in India, Bangalore based Narayana Hrudayalaya and SANA, a research group at Harvard/MIT, have joined hand to launch a mobile healthcare project that promises to become cost effective and easily accessible for the treatment of patients. India is experiencing a double burden of disease with persistent infectious disease coupled with increasing incidence of chronic disease like cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, due to lack of specialists care in rural areas, most chronic diseases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment becomes complicated and expensive.More

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