Eric Wicklund
Venture capital funding is alive and well in the digital health sector, according to the experts. But that doesn't mean every Tom, Dick and Harriet with a telehealth proposal is going to get it.
Assurance Wireless, a federal lifeline assistance program for wireless phone service, is joining forces with Gold Mobile to offer free two-way messaging services between Medicaid and low-income patients and their healthcare providers, insurance carriers and HMOs.
When the 2013 International CES opened this past January in Las Vegas, the usual high-tech toys and gadget geeks were in attendance. But tucked into that crowd was a newer market, one that could someday compete with the latest in high-definition TV or souped-up cars for prominence: the healthcare consumer.
From toothbrushes that do more than brush teeth to mobile platforms that help users transition from the hospital to the home or the home to the assisted living setting, 14 entrepreneurs with innovative digital health ideas have been named to Rock Health's most recent graduating class.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded $1.9 million to fund five regional and one national telehealth resource center.
The burgeoning mHealth field offers healthcare a wealth of opportunities to engage with patients and provide a satisfactory return on investment. But if mobile medical apps are going to stand any chance of survival - with physicians as well as consumers - they'll have to be able to integrate.
Those self-service kiosks that are often seen in supermarket pharmacies are becoming comprehensive health and wellness screening stations, thanks to SoloHealth.
The burgeoning mHealth field offers healthcare a wealth of opportunities to engage with patients and provide a satisfactory return on investment. But if mobile medical apps are going to stand any chance of survival -- with physicians as well as consumers -- they'll have to be able to integrate.
Guidelines on how certain mobile medical apps will be governed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be released as soon as the end of the year.
In the rush to regulate the fast-growing industry of mobile medical apps, Congress has apparently sidestepped a potential power struggle with the Food and Drug Administration over the agency's authority to regulate them.