With the average annual failure rates for non-ruggedized handheld computers hovering at 38 percent, it makes sense that a maker of ruggedized handheld devices would team up with a mobile clinical software developer and an end-to-end solutions Integration firm to provide healthcare professionals with access to electronic medical records anytime, anywhere. Read »

If clinician turnout at last week’s mHealth Networking Conference in D.C., is any indication of things to come, doctors and other healthcare providers will not only play a critical role in supporting consumer uptake of mobile health apps and wireless medical devices, but in helping to slow the proliferation of symptom-driven apps that are prone to misinterpretation by patients. Read »

I’ve taken a fair amount of heat from health IT professionals over the years for including Apple’s line-up of mobile devices in a space largely devoted to enterprise mobility. Suffice it to say, most felt that since the Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of consumer devices didn’t have much of a stake in the healthcare enterprise, I should cut bait and move on. But, thanks mostly to physician preferences, Apple has in fact gained ground in healthcare. Now, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Agito Networks has come out with a major update to its product line—not only offering the ability to make calls over 3G, but including support for Apple’s iPhone and the ability to scale to up to 10,000 users. Read »

So, the federal government has kicked off a text messaging campaign aimed at arming expectant mothers with pregnancy related health information. If the news item got you thinking of creating bigger and better ways to leverage SMS technology in an effort to bridge the gap between medical experts and health information consumers, you’re probably onto something. Read »

In the wake of news that Boston’s MassGeneral Hospital for Children has implemented a new video program that puts doctors at the patient’s bedside 24/7—and another article showing how California has saved its taxpayers $13 million by using telemedicine to offset inmate transportation costs within the state’s prison system—Nashville, Tenn.-based SunCrest Healthcare has chosen Philips to supply telehealth monitors for its home care patients. Read »

One of the earlier developers of mobile point-of-care technologies is getting ready to swing for the fences. AirStrip Technologies, which has built a suite of products in various stages of development for mobile devices, just named a chief sales officer to drive its RPM business. Read »

I held off on commenting on Apple's unveiling of the widely-praised-yet-equally-criticized iPad because: A) I didn't want to be mistaken for part of the hype machine, B) while I think it's a promising device, I don't see it "revolutionizing" healthcare anytime soon, and C) I wanted to hear the news behind the news before offering an opinion--and that meant waiting for the first wave of hysteria to cycle through. Read »

Barco may be the digital display maker of choice at Sundance this year--the company's digital cinema projectors have been tapped as the exclusive selection for screening the festival's 3D entry--but now that the Belgium-based manufacturer of display solutions has finalized its acquisition of FIMI, company officials are making plans for healthcare. Read »

It's hard to say how many healthcare users will respond to Motion Computing's roll-out of two new peripherals for the C5 mobile clinical assistant and the rugged F5 Tablet PC, but the new EasyConnect magnetic stripe reader (MSR) offers a highly mobile point-of-sale (POS) solution, while a new case promises more options for using the Motion tablets on-the-go. Read »

The crisis in Haiti has served as an opportunity to bring mobile applications to the fore. Though a tragic incident, I am encouraged when I see evidence of transparent global collaboration (the "secret sauce" behind the open source movement) empowered by what I call the digitally, distributed enterprise-enabled collaborative results-only work environment (thanks to Cali Ressler, Jody Thompson and Peter Yim for all the appropriate descriptors). When extended to new challenging endeavors, this great global grid, in a phrase, will put an end to "geo-lock," which means that information intensive tasks which can be completed by subject matter experts wherever they happen to live will be. Read »