05/15/2012
A study finds that a mobile application helped boost the frequency of glucose monitoring among teenagers with diabetes. The teens earned points each time they measured their glucose levels, and the points could be redeemed for iTunes rewards. FierceMobileHealthcare, CMIO.
05/15/2012
An Annals of Family Medicine study finds no correlation between physicians' use of electronic health record systems and improved adherence to clinical guidelines for diabetes care. The study offers recommendations for improving the effective use of EHR systems. Modern Healthcare.
05/11/2012
A study presented at an American Heart Association meeting shows that patients who receive telemonitoring and blood pressure management support from a pharmacist are more likely to lower their blood pressure than those who do not receive the support. Healthcare IT News.
05/02/2012
A review published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association finds that sending text messages and other electronic reminders could improve medication adherence in the short term, but the long-term effectiveness of the strategy is unclear. CMIO, FierceHealthIT.
05/02/2012
A new project led by researchers from the State University of New York-Buffalo aims to use data analytics technology from IBM and Revolution Analytics to identify various clinical, genetic and environmental factors that could play a role in multiple sclerosis. InformationWeek.
04/27/2012
According to a Federal Register notice, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking public comment on its plans to develop a Registry of Patient Registries. AHRQ said the registry aims to promote collaboration among researchers. Health Data Management, Federal Register.
04/27/2012
The New York Digital Health Accelerator will award 12 companies up to $300,000 each to develop tools to support New York's Medicaid medical home program. The initiative aims to boost health IT innovation and create 1,500 jobs. Healthcare IT News, Health Data Management.
04/17/2012
An online community called the Collaborative Chronic Care Network helps patients with inflammatory bowel disease and their physicians collect data and collaborate on treatment plans. Researchers say such online networks could bolster medical studies. Wall Street Journal.
04/17/2012
According to a new Archives of Internal Medicine study, seniors with certain medical conditions who used telemonitoring systems had about the same rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits as seniors who did not use the telemonitoring technology. Reuters.
04/16/2012
A series of papers published in the journal Nature Genetics show how scientists used crowdsourcing to pool brain research data from more than 200 scientists and identify genes that play a role in brain size and memory. Researchers say the findings are significant because they demonstrate the power of using collective data to advance research. New York Times.
04/13/2012
Health insurers, government entities and researchers are looking into in-home monitoring technology that could help elderly individuals stay in their homes rather than in hospitals or nursing homes. Stakeholders say such tools could significantly reduce health care costs. Reuters.
04/13/2012
Humana Cares, a division of Humana, is partnering with the National Council on Aging to pilot Stanford University's online chronic disease management program. The pilot will involve Web-based health management workshops. Louisville Business First, Healthcare IT News.
03/29/2012
A new database developed by Amazon Web Services -- Amazon's cloud-computing arm -- aims to facilitate access to data from NIH's 1000 Genomes Project. AWS is incurring the costs of storing the 200 terabytes of data from the genome project. New York Times' "Bits."
03/29/2012
Two teams of researchers from the Boston area have developed large data catalogs to help predict whether hundreds of different types of cancer cells could be vulnerable to specific drugs. The new catalogs are available online at no cost. Boston Globe's "White Coat Notes."
03/27/2012
National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari recently announced the winners of a contest for software applications aimed at improving heart health. The first place prize of $50,000 went to THUMPr, an app that provides users with customized heart health recommendations. Modern Healthcare.