In the future, your medical app may come from your hospital not from an app store
[cross-posted from iMedicalApps.com]
So says a recently published report by Research2Guidance, a mobile technology research company based in Germany. In their report, titled “Health Market Report 2010-2015”, the market researchers came to the conclusion that the dominant mode of application distribution in the future will be from doctors, hospitals and other care providers.
The report also painted a bullish picture of health care app adoption, estimating that the number of users of mHealth apps on smartphone phones will reach 500m by 2015. However, the revenue from this sector will still be driven mostly by device sales and through provision of services, rather than by paid downloads.
The report preview shows it to be organized into three “dimensions”: a) The smartphone market, b) The current state of the mHealth market & c) mHealth outlook to 2015. One would imagine that the last portion will be the most avidly read read as the numerous stockholders in mHealth – telecoms, device makers, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and entrepreneurs jockey to position themselves in this rapidly evolving land grab.
Interview: Dr. Tom Doerr and Joel Andersen, co-founder and president of ClearPractice on Nimble, a powerful iPad EHR
[ClearPractice has been in business long before last month's release of Nimble, its iPad EMR. In this interview, we learn from Joel Andersen & Dr. Doerr how the founding principles of ClearPractice still drive its current evolution. This interview is cross-posted from iMedicalApps.com.]
Dr. Doer, please tell us a little about your background, and the start of ClearPractice
I am a practicing internist and in 1996, I had an epiphany while in an exam room, that medicine was an art not a science. I thought there should be some consumer reports for doctors to help them make decision. So, I, wrote a drug reference for myself. This grew to 140 pages by 1998. I recruited a pharmacist to help edit it and started to share it with partners.
When I told this to my brother John, the investor, he told me to write a business plan. I co-founded the company in 1999. We hired more pharmacists and the document eventually became 5000 pages. We indexed it by diagnosis codes in order to help find information faster. Using this guide, in1999 United Healthcare told our group that we were one of top two in the country in terms of cost-effectiveness. This led to the development of our data driven company servicing Medicare Advantage plans.
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Review of Nimble: Possibly the first true high-powered EMR running on an iPad
[this is cross-posted from IMedicalApps.com]
Lately, it seems almost anything medical regarding Apple’s iPad generates immediate interest. Nimble, the new iPad electronic health record (EHR) by Clear Practice, has been no exception. In the few short weeks since its release, this application has rapidly generated interest across medical blogs, mainstream press and, most importantly, from doctors themselves.
Most prominently, the coverage included a lengthy piece last month in the New York Times, which apparently resulted in a dramatic spike of physician interest. Other coverage has included prominent medical bloggers (here, and here) and other press coverage, listed here.
One reason why the heightened interest in Nimble may be justified is that the application, although written natively for the iPad operating system, is actually the front end for a mature and feature complete web-based EHR named ClearPractice that has been in use for more than a decade. As such, it already includes features such as practice management, e-prescribing, patient portal, and coding and billing that doctors expect from an EHR. In addition, ClearPractice and thus Nimble includes a rich body of patient education material and physician oriented evidence based information on diseases. It is the ready availability of these comprehensive features in a truly mobile device that might justify the description of the iPad, in co-founder Dr. Doerr’s words, as potentially “transformational in healthcare”.
Interview with Doximity CEO Jeff Tangney
[I recently had a chance to talk with Jeff Tangney, who founded Doximity at the beginning of this year. Doximity is an iPhone app and web service for physician communication and practice-related information lookup. This interview is cross-posted from iMedicalApps.com. Be sure also to check out the Doximity iPhone app review on iMedicalApps.com ]
Why did you create Doximity ?
Our goal was to help physicians communicate in this increasingly byzantine economic climate. Doctors spend on average 40 minutes every day communicating, or trying to communicate, with other physicians. Currently, that means using the phone to call their office, have the medical assistant interrupt the other physician or leave a message. Most places still use a fax to exchange information, even in facilities with electronic health records.
Aren’t there other places where physicians can communicate ?
Physicans are shying away from Facebook because of its public nature. The presence of patients can make privacy difficult. LinkedIn has not been seen much adoption by physicians – only 2% of US physicians are on LinkedIn. It seems to be better suited for tech and marketing types and a great tool for recruiters. Physician communication was our focus . Communication in medicine happens in real-time. Often it has to happen while the patient is waiting. That is why the phone is critical. The app needs to be available at all times.
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Thanks to Care Cloud for mentioning this blog [OrthoOnc] as a Top Healthcare Blog
As readers may be aware, I have been a fan of Care Cloud and it highly refined web-based electronic health record (EHR).
Having met some of the team, I was impressed by their understanding of the needs of physicians and what some of the shortcomings of the current crop of EHRs.
What I didn’t expect was that they would mention this humble blog as the first one in their post titled “The Top 7 Healthcare Blogs You Probably Aren’t Reading But Should Be” (link)
In fact, in the post they went on to describe this writer in the following terms:
Felasfa Wodajo is something of a superhuman, dividing his time between blogging, practicing medicine, and developing software solutions for physicians. We want to give some kudos to his excellent blog, OrthOnc, where he discusses everything from healthcare policy to technology.
Of course, I have direct knowledge of this individual and can confidently assert to the inaccuracy of the above description. In fact, most days, I feel like an impostor. But, it’s still nice to hear and I want to thank the kind folks at Care Cloud for the mention.
Decreasing prices for Android phones could expand mobile internet access and apps to Kenyans
[cross-posted from iMedicalApps.com]
According to a recent article in cp-africa.com, Huawei, a global mobile and telecom provider, is bringing an inexpensive Android powered mobile phone to cellular subscribers in the East African country of Kenya.
While it is common knowledge on the continent, many abroad are not aware that use of mobile phones has grown at a dizzying rate in Africa. For many Africans, a mobile phone is their first phone ever. And, since service is almost exclusively provided via ubiquitous pre-paid phone cards, customers do not need to sign service contracts, which typically require a credit history and a fixed address.
Until recently, a cell phone in Africa usually meant an inexpensive Nokia handset with little in the way of installable apps. However, the inexorable smartphone revolution appears to be headed to Africa. The limiting factors remain handset prices and network capacity. At least for handsets, the recent announcement of a $100 (8000 Kenyan Shillings) Android 2.2 powered phone means that many members of the emerging Kenyan middle class can now afford an app phone.
According to cp-africa.com, the phone
runs on Android 2.2 [Froyo], features a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen, 528MHz processor, 3.2MP camera, brightness, proximity and accelerometer sensors built in, and MicroSD storage. Available in black, yellow, blue, and purple, the IDEOS supports functions such as voice dialling, voice navigation, and the ability to run applications off the SD card.
While it is remarkable that this much hardware capability is available at such a low price, it is important to remember that to reach the much larger, poorer population, the phone price would have to drop substantially further.
Huwei had already launched another Android powered phone in July on Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest mobile network carrier. Together, these announcements show the promise of a powerful and free mobile operating system, Android, coupled with rapidly decreasing hardware prices to reach every corner of the world.
Source: www.cp-africa.com, via James Bon Tempo, @jamesbt
Moving the doctor’s office on-line: milestones from the digital practice revolution
[Cross-posted from iMedicalApps.com]
While there seems to be a never ending stream of medical reference applications for smartphones, it might well be that medical apps for the more mundane parts of a doctor’s life that get the most use. Once outside the examination room, it seems we spend the bulk of our time charting and returning messages. Therefore, it is as much with relief as with pleasure that we welcome two iPhone applications that aim to facilitate medical transcription and handling phone calls: Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician.
Emdat Mobile
Emdat Mobile (iTunes link) is a simple application that allows dictation directly into the iPhone. It is not connected to a voice recognition engine such as Nuance’s Dragon but rather sends the recorded audio to a medical transcriptionist. Later, the transcribed record is available for viewing on the iPhone. While this may seem mundane, it is actually a very nice advance over using a digital dictaphone and special software to upload dictations.
It is likely that many readers have never heard of Emdat (“Electronic Medical Dictation And Transcription”). The company provides a web based platform for transcribed medical documents and was founded in 1999, early in the internet era . Emdat is not a transcription company but rather provides the infrastructure for independent medical transcription companies to store recorded audio as well as the finished documents. Clinicians and hospitals then use a simple web interface to edit and sign the documents.
While a lot of attention is given of late to computer voice recognition and transcription, many physicians still rely on voice dictation for documenting their patient encounters. The benefits are fairly plain, speaking is faster than typing or clicking and it does not require standing in front of a computer. Of course, many physicians who have converted to template based EHRs will say that, with time, they can document just as fast as with voice dictation. While this is likely correct, the catch is in the product. The dirty secret is that notes generated by clicking and choosing entries from templates are just barely usable as medical documents.
Continue Reading September 3, 2010 at 11:33 am Leave a comment
Customer service online chat : Are they really human ? A hilarious transcript
One of my good friends, Phil, recently had a spirited conversation with an online chat service agent for Verizon. This is is a true story
He started with simple question – do you have this service available in my area ? But, as you can see from the transcript below, he became quickly much more interested in finding out whether the responder is a computer or not. You be the judge:
Thank you for contacting Verizon. We are routing you to a chat representative. You are now chatting with Halley.
you: Phil
Halley: Hello. Thank you for visiting our Verizon chat service. How can I help you place your order?
Halley: Hi, Phil. How may I assist you online?
you: Hi can I get FiOS on my line
Halley: You will get FiOS if FiOS is activated in your area. Do you get an option to select FIOS after entering your home phone number online?
you: Actually no, so I guess that means that I can’t get it. However I’ve seen it so heavily advertised in New York City that I assumed it was available. I live in Manhattan .Do you know when the roll out is planned for the whole of Manhattan?
Halley: Our network is continually being expanded. If your number does not qualify for Verizon FIOS service, you will be directed to a form to be notified if FiOS becomes available in your area.
you: Are you a machine or a human?…cos you certainly answer questions like a machine
VisualDx Mobile for the iPad is now on the app store
One of the better examples of a mobile medical app that provides useful point-of-care information is VisualDx Mobile. This iPhone application (iTunes link) is powered by a rich database of high quality, carefully tagged images of dermatological conditions that can be efficiently searched by one or multiple keywords. To learn more about the app, check out our iMedicalApps review here . To get a glimpse of the design philosophy behind the web and mobile applications, check out our interview with the CMIO of Logical Images, Art Papier, MD.
The quality of the images and reliance on visual to make a diagnosis made the iPhone app a natural fit for the iPad. In fact, we had predicted the potential shortly after the iPad was announced and had counted VisualDx as on of the Top 5 iPad medical apps that we were eagerly awaiting.
The wait is over and the iPad version of Visual Dx is now available in the App Store (iTunes link).
Could Tea Party America of today be a future Weimar Republic ?
But, without warning, I had a sudden vision that this may not be the only possible outcome. In fact, as the political timer clicks on, one thing that has been clear is that the center point of discourse has been steadily moving rightward.
For a simple point of reference, look at the conversations around health care reform. A basically conservative market-based approach, that preserves almost all of the present institutions, that could have been at home on Nixon’s legislative docket, has thoroughly inflamed 20 states enough to sue to overturn it in Federal court.
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September 19, 2010 at 5:11 pm 1 comment