Smartphone Use Increases, But Physicians Still on Information Overload

A recently released report shows that 94% of physicians use smartphones to improve communication and collaboration with colleagues, streamline productivity, and improve patient care. However, they told interviewers that they were still overwhelmed by the amount of information and incoming messages from colleagues and others. Fifty-six percent said they were concerned about lack of standardization in transitioning care between colleagues....More

Medical and Health Apps for Consumers

Many doctors are concerned about the potential for misinformation in the fast-growing market for consumer medical apps. Some organizations, including Consumer Reports, and doctors now provide guidance to the ones that are best. MORE....

Researchers Study Impact of Mobile Medicine on Patient Outcomes

Dr Richard Katz of George Washington University and other researchers are examining whether cell phone-based programs or simple text messaging to cell phones can improve disease management and health. Mobile phones can link providers to patients for feedback, alerts, or information related to medications or other ongoing needs. MORE...

Unbound Medicine Adds Grasp™ Study System to Unbound™ Platform

Unbound Medicine has enhanced its platform with a customizable study system, Grasp, tools for quick term or drug lookup within a web page, and automated custom alerts deliverable to mobile devices. All are included in the newest release of Nursing Central, a mobile and web application for nurses with integrated drug, disease, diagnostic testing, and literature alerts. MORE....

Increased Use of Cell Phones Shown in CDC Study

CDC has issued an early report of findings from the National Health Interview Survey with estimates of wireless use in US households compared to telephone "land lines." During the study period, July-December 2009, American homes with only wireless telephones continued to grow to approximately 25% of all households, an increase of 1.8% compared to the first half of 2009. Another 15% of homes had a land line, but received most or all calls on cell phones. MORE....

Market for Mobile Devices in Healthcare to Grow in 20009

InformationWeek reports on a study from Kalorama Information noting that the healthcare industry is among the fastest growing handheld device markets. They predict growth of $8.8 billion, up by 7%. Most active segments are mobile monitoring and devices used in the workflow of patient care...MORE

Wi-Fi Use in Healthcare on the Rise

California Healthcare Foundation's iHealth Beat reports on a study by ABI Research, that shows 60% growth over the past year. Uses that increased significantly included wireless local area networks and wearable wireless monitoring systems...MORE

Top 10 Smartphones for 2010

One blogger has posted his picks for top Smartphones currently available or about to be released...MORE

Social Networking Grows with Doctors and Patients

According to an article in ComputerWorld, health care practitioners are increasingly using Web 2.0 technology and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to interact with and provide information to patients....MORE

Report Shows Growth in Mobile Health Market

CSMG, the strategy division of TMNG Global issued a report on the mobile health market on March 19th. The market of approximately $1.5 billion in 2009 (including fixed telemedicine) is expected to experience a compoound annual growth rate of 25% over the next five years...MORE

Mobile a Major Trend in 2010

After reviewing plans for the upcoming Consumer Electronics show, a reporter at smartplanet.com concludes that mobile will be the big trend in healthcare in 2010...MORE

Verizon Enters Telehealth Business

Verizon has announced the launch of a new telehealth service that supports video consultations between patients and physicians with integrated audio and video communications. The goal is to provide increased access to specialists and control costs of patient-provider encounters while improving patient health monitoring...MORE

Hospital Support for iPhone Aids Nurses

Nurses at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System are using a hospital supported iPhones for text messaging, voice calls, and critical care alarms to provide faster response to patient needs. The hospital's need for paging dropped almost 80 percent....MORE

USDA grants for Rural Telemedicine

Federal Computer Week has announced that the US Department of Agriculture will award just under $35 million in grants to support telemedicine and distance learning programs to improve health care services in rural areas....MORE

Mobile Point-of-Care Resources in Pediatrics

Unbound Medicine has announced Pediatrics Central, a new group of mobile + web products with valuable information on pediatric diseases, infectious disease, drugs, drug interactions bundled with tools to access the latest journal literature...MORE

Social Media Use for Health and Medical Information

A new study by Manhattan Research found that approximately 35% of American adults (80 million) used social media for health and medical purposes in 2009. During this period consumers created or accessed material in blogs, chat rooms, social networks, and health communities. MORE...

Cell Phones Assist Rural Medical Imaging

A project at MIT's Media Lab has established use of cell phones in rural areas to transmit x-ray images to radiologists in urban areas. This offshoot of telemedicine is improving diagnosis and care in a remote area of the Philippines...MORE

CDC Funds New Projects in Health Care Informatics

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $4.37 million in grants supporting health care informatics in response to public health threats. Included in the funding are four new centers: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Indiana University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Utah. One of the projects in Indiana focuses on overcoming barriers to bringing public health to the point of care...MORE

Doctors Fail to Respond to Alerting Systems

A stody published September 28, 2009 in Archives of Internal Medicine showed that 8% of physicians did not respond promptly to test results communicated by alerting systems...MORE

Physicians Use Smartphones with Medical Applications

Wireless and Mobile News reported on a study by MDsearch.com, saying that 53% of physicians surveyed own a smartphone and 63% of these use mobile applcations such as drug guides, calculators, clinical resources, CME, and medical dictionaries...MORE