It’s not surprising to learn that health IT workers are among the heaviest users of mobile devices, but it’s encouraging nonetheless to review the latest Forrester research, which finds that 95 percent of healthcare enterprises rely on smartphones for work, usually in addition to laptop computers. Read »

Back in December, I wrote about how technology companies were looking to wireless devices as a way to advance the remote monitoring of healthcare. One of the companies with its sights set on the industry’s future was Qualcomm, which has been steadily chugging along with its Wireless Health Program. Read »

Supply agreements are generally a bit of a snore, particularly when the news comes shrouded in confidentiality agreements that keep all the interesting details from coming to light. But it’s worth noting that machine-to-machine wireless communications developer RF Monolithics (RFM) just locked in a multi-year agreement with a major medical equipment manufacturer for its ultra-low power short-range radio, the Virtual Wire transceiver. Read »

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Thomson Reuters is beefing up its Clinical Xpert suite of workflow solutions with the launch of its new Pharmacy Intervention solution for hospitals. Although Clinical Xpert has been the category leader for mobile data systems in the Best in KLAS Awards for eight years running, the new software combines real-time clinical surveillance, mobile access to patient data, and Micromedex reference information—all aimed at helping hospital pharmacists identify and document interventions at the point of care, prevent adverse drug events, and reduce medication costs. Read »

My subjective take on HIMSS10 is that the general consensus of attendees thought it was a great success (and personally, I want to thank those who allowed me to be involved with the educational outreach in the areas of medical banking and social media). Read »

It’s a good time to be researching the mobile health IT space. The grant money floodgates are open and all eyes are fixed on chronic disease management. The collective expectation that remote patient monitoring will set our health system free is at an all-time high, and activity levels among those organizations working to develop breakthrough systems are equally lofty. Read »

Telecom spending in healthcare is expected to increase 44 percent over next three years, from $8.6 billion to $12.4 billion. With wireless applications likely to represent two-thirds of that jump, it's not surprising that HIMSS10 would draw out the wireless industry honchos to bang the drum in support of mobile HIT. Although much of what they had to say you've heard before, it's always worth getting their take on the future of the mobile point of care. Read »

Is a bi-directional mobile software solution what hospitals have been waiting for? Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Validus Medical Systems—which developed its Validus inTouch software system with a team of physicians, software engineers, cloud computing experts, and network security specialists before rolling it out to hospitals—believes so. Read »

eHealth and mHealth are data driven and are dependent on both the kinds of information which can be generated and the transport infrastructure which carries them. This week the International Journal of Medical Banking, Vol. 3, will be officially announced at the HIMSS Medical Banking Project's Eighth National Banking Institute, and it will focus upon innovations related to the convergence of Financial Services and Healthcare. John Casillas, senior vice president, HIMSS Medical Banking Project, is the IJMB's Editor-in-Chief. Read »

A little over a year ago, I wrote how Voalté, which competes with Ascom, Cisco and others, wants to be the central communications engine--or traffic cop--on your healthcare organization's iPhone. This year at HIMSS, the Sarasota, Fla.-based developer of point-of-care communication technology plans to make its Voalté One solution available to Blackberry users, too. Read »