As the Chief Experience Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, you might expect Adrienne Boissy to be a champion for the health system’s many mobile apps. But, at the Pop Health Forum in Chicago this week, Boissy took a different tack, arguing that apps by themselves are not a strategy, and can get in the way of a positive patient experience if they’re not deployed smartly.
Study finds patients often misuse wrist blood pressure monitors, leading to inaccurate readings
Not all blood pressure monitors are created equal, it seems. New research from Italy suggests that at-home, wrist blood pressure cuffs can be inaccurate if not done exactly right, leading to false reports of elevated blood pressure at home when compared to measurements taken in a doctor’s office.
Apple will now start screening medical and health apps more closely
Apple just released updated App Store Review Guidelines, and there are tremendous implications for the medical and health apps in the iOS App Store.
The changes they are announcing contain the most stringent language I have ever seen Apple use for the health and medical categories of apps. Frankly — these are a long time coming. The FDA recently updated guidelines on health apps, but this is definitely a bigger deal as Apple is the gateway for these apps.
How Nighttime Telehealth Services Can Improve Overnight Care
In hospitals across the country, the image of the solitary doctor making midnight rounds is changing, thanks to telemedicine.
That doctor now sits in front of a tablet, laptop or desktop computer, perhaps at home or even in another country. And he or she can be connected to several hospitals via a telemedicine network, helping night shift nurses with whatever needs to be done during those long, not-always-quiet hours between dinner and breakfast.
MUSC launches e-visit program for nonemergency care
Sinus problems, urinary tract infections, allergies, back pain and sexually transmitted diseases are among the more than 30 conditions that patients can now be treated for using the Medical University of South Carolina’snew e-visit program.
Bosch shutters pioneering telehealth service Health Buddy, US-based unit
Even though telemedicine seems to be having its day in the sun, with Teladoc’s forthcoming IPO and major funding for MDLive, Doctor on Demand, and American Well, one of the oldest, earliest telemedicine companies is shutting down. Bosch has officially closed its US subsidiary Robert Bosch Healthcare, reducing the scope its healthcare operations to a 50-person team based in Germany.
Teladoc Secures Second Consecutive Win in Patent Dispute
Teladoc, Inc. (NYSE: TDOC), the nation’s first and largest telehealth provider, today announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has invalidated the major elements of a telemedicine patent held by American Well Corporation on the basis that they were not patentable because American Well did not invent them. The USPTO took this action at the request of Teladoc. At issue before the USPTO were the same elements of the American Well patent that a Massachusetts federal court declared invalid earlier this year on a separate basis.
Telehealth Growth, Savings Tied to Parity Laws
Telehealth will only succeed if providers are reimbursed at the same rate as in-person care.
That’s the conclusion drawn from a health policy brief developed by Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It argues that the nation’s move from volume-based to value-based healthcare will be accomplished only if providers can be assured of delivering high-value care at a lower cost – and that’s what telehealth promises.
ACOs reward big hospitals, but small practices, using mobile tech, are best bet to cut healthcare costs
The Journal of the American Medical Association published a point-counterpoint set of opinion pieces yesterday on whether ACOs, as an experiment, should be declared a failure. Massachusetts General physician Dr. Zirui Song and Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy Director Elliot Fisher argued for ACOs by pointing to the shades of grey between different types of ACOs and suggesting ways to focus future ACO efforts. But the anti-ACO contingent, Drs. Kevin Schulman and Barak Richman of Duke University Schools of Medicine and Law respectively, argued that the concept was fundamentally flawed, and that mobile and telehealth tools were central to their reason why.
9 in 10 large employers will offer telehealth next year
The group’s annual survey of 133 large employers, who altogether cover more than 15 million Americans, was conducted in May and June 2016. It indicated that telehealth availability, among other employee benefits, is on the rise as employers shift their priorities.