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Big Business, Little Data

A growing number of Californians are being sent to ambulatory surgery centers for a wide variety of procedures, yet little is known about the care they deliver because reporting is not required.

Keeping Track of Asthma

CHCF has made a second investment in Asthmapolis, a device that tracks asthma inhaler use and reports data through mobile phones to patients and doctors to better manage the disease.

Mobile Health

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

HIMSS Offers Health Care Providers Guide To Choosing Mobile Apps

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has released a guide to help health care providers assess and select mobile health applications, CMIO reports (Gale, CMIO, 7/17).

Guide Details

The guide is tailored to small- and medium-sized health care providers (Hall, FierceMobileHealthcare, 7/13).

It states, "While formal, professionally conducted usability evaluations can provide in-depth product comparisons, they may not be a practical consideration for small- to medium-sized practices."

Process for Evaluating Apps

The guide offers a three-step process for evaluating the design, function and usability of apps:

  • Assess the health care provider's goals and measurement objectives;
  • Check other resources to supplement reviews of market apps; and
  • Examine the app's efficacy within typical clinical scenarios.
In addition, the guide contains checklists and other resources to help health care providers select appropriate apps (CMIO, 7/17).



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