Monthly Archives: March 2012

Crowdsourced Clinical Studies: A New Paradigm in Health Care?

The Miriam-Webster defines crowdsourcing as: “the practice of obtaining participants, services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially via the Internet.” Clinical studies using patient recruitment and data collected via crowdsourcing is surely an … Continue reading

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mHealth and Pharma: Opportunities for Patients and Industry

No greater is the opportunity for mHealth to break into mainstream healthcare than in partnerships with members of the pharmaceutical community. mHealth’s influence in the sector may be tentacle in the patient care area, the business process area, and the … Continue reading

Posted in clinical trials, digital health, healthcare economics, Healthcare IT, informatics, mHealth, mobile health, pharma, smartphone apps, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Can Digital Health Technologies Improve Health Literacy?

A recent article in the AMA News cites a 2003 health literacy study by the US Department of Education which surveyed more than 19,000 Americans. It found that over one-third had trouble reading and understanding basic medical information. Not surprisingly, … Continue reading

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Mobile mHealth

At first glance, the term ‘mobile mHealth’ might seem redundant. Consider a mobile van equipped not with physicians or nurses for the homeless, runaway youth, uninsured people above the poverty level, deployed servicemen, and the incarcerated, but with a medical … Continue reading

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Five Big Untapped Opportunities for mHealth

1. Patient Advocates. Professional patient advocates are a growing sector of healthcare stakeholders, borne out of a need for a person to navigate billing problems, a newly diagnosed complex condition, or difficulty in communicating with providers, and clinical problems after … Continue reading

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Adoption of mHealth: Chicken or Egg?

There seems to be universal agreement among all stakeholders in health care that mHealth technologies will play a significant role in the future. The questions are how far into the future and how will they find their way to patients. … Continue reading

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Five Ways in Which mHealth is like the Senior Prom

I thought I would write a fun piece on a lovely Friday afternoon. While my children are now grown, I had the experience of seeing all three off to the senior prom when their times came. It is prom time … Continue reading

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Is the Sole Purpose of EHRs to Save Money?

A recent study cited in the New York Times today concluded that ‘digital records may not cut health costs.’ It was performed by the RAND Corporation and published in the journal Health Affairs (http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/3/488.abstract ). Specifically, it was composed of … Continue reading

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How Patient-Centric Care Differs from Patient-Centered Care

The NIH defines patient-centered care as follows: “health care that establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients’ wants, needs and preferences and solicit patients’ input on the education and support … Continue reading

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