Mobile Health Strategies

Is Convenience a Problem for Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth Programs?

October 02, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Healthcare providers treating people with respiratory tract infections through a direct-to-consumer telehealth platform tend to speed up the visit by prescribing antibiotics, according to two studies. And those providers are also getting...

mHealth Provider Uses Apple Health Records to Support House Calls

October 01, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

A new mHealth service is taking advantage of Apple’s Health Records platform. Heal, the Los Angeles-based developer of a connected care platform for house calls, announced today that its OnCall iPad app will integrate with...

New Program Offers Free Insurance For mHealth Data From a Smartwatch

September 28, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

An mHealth app developer is partnering with a life insurance company to offer $1,000 in free insurance in exchange for the user’s digital health data collected through a smartwatch. Cardiogram, which markets a smartwatch app that...

Telehealth Provider Joins Global Effort to Curb Antibiotic Resistance

September 28, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

One of the nation’s largest telehealth providers is joining a global effort to reduce antibiotic resistance. California-based Doctor On Demand is pledging to reduce antibiotic prescription rates for acute upper respiratory...

HHS Grants to Help Native Americans Expand Telehealth Resources

September 27, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Federal officials are earmarking more than $50 million to expand telehealth programs and other healthcare service to help American Indian and Alaska Native tribes address opioid abuse. The funding, through the Health and Human Services...

Telehealth Can Connect the Dots Between Chronic Pain, Mental Health

September 27, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Telehealth advocates have argued that a connected health platform can help providers improve care management for patients with chronic pain. A New Jersey-based pain management and neurology clinic is putting that idea to the...

New Bill Targets Medicaid Coverage of Maternity Telehealth Programs

September 26, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Congress is considering new legislation to strengthen Medicaid support for maternity care programs delivered through telemedicine. The Maximizing Outcomes for Moms through Medicaid Improvement and Enhancement of Services (MOMMIES)...

Fitbits For Physicians: New mHealth Project Targets Provider Stress

September 25, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

mHealth wearables, long seen as a tool for helping patients manage their health, are now being tested as a care management tool for their doctors. Researchers at the University of Michigan, who have been analyzing stress levels of medical...

Telehealth Providers Look to Expand Their International Presence

September 24, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

One of the nation’s largest telehealth providers is expanding its platform to offer connected care services to multinational companies, Americans living abroad and those going on vacation outside the US. Teladoc Health’s new...

John Hancock Makes mHealth a Part of All Insurance Policies

September 20, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

One of America’s oldest insurers is switching from traditional policies to an interactive model that tracks member health through mHealth devices, including wearables. John Hancock announced this week that its interactive life...

Fitbit Launches a Connected Health Platform for mHealth Coaching

September 19, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Fitbit is launching a telehealth platform designed to offer coaching and support for healthcare providers, employers and others using mHealth devices in connected health programs. With the launch of Fitbit Care, the California-based...

HHS Makes a Pitch for Telemedicine in Substance Abuse Treatment

September 18, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

The Health and Human Services Department wants to remind everyone that telemedicine can be an important tool in treating people with addiction and substance abuse issues. In a blog timed to coincide with Prescription Opioid and Heroin...

Are Healthcare Providers Getting Comfortable With Telehealth?

September 17, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

While research has long suggested that telehealth can be more cost-effective than the in-person visit, new studies are suggesting that doctors who use connected care technology are also becoming better care providers. A year-long...

Occupational Therapists Find Scant Support for Telehealth Adoption

September 14, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Telehealth has the potential to help many healthcare specialties, including occupational therapy. But the path to launching a connected health platform isn’t that easy. That’s what Cynthia Abbott-Gaffney discovered. A...

The MAVEN Project Gives Busy Health Clinics a Telehealth Resource

September 13, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

A network of volunteer physicians is using telehealth to provide consults and mentorship to where it’s needed the most – health clinics serving the underserved. The volunteers offer their services for free under the MAVEN...

Alabama VA Replaces Mobile Health Units With Telehealth Centers

September 11, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

The Department of Veterans Affairs is replacing mobile health units in Alabama with dedicated telehealth centers in an effort to improve access to healthcare for veterans. The VA has recently opened telehealth centers at Bryan W....

Ambulance Company Eyes mHealth Reliability With FirstNet Platform

September 10, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

A private ambulance service serving three southern US states will soon be using mHealth and telehealth devices on a specially designed broadband network to improve care coordination and management. Acadian Ambulance, based in Lafayette,...

Planning a Hospital Strategy for Broadband, Telehealth Expansion

September 07, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

As hospitals and health systems launch new telehealth and telemedicine programs, one of the major challenges is finding enough broadband to handle the service. “Unless broadband in the US improves, the promise of telehealth will...

VA Hospitals Use Telemedicine to Improve Antibiotic Stewardship

September 07, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

A telemedicine platform linking two small VA hospitals with infectious disease experts has helped staff at those hospitals improve their antibiotic stewardship. The pilot program, detailed this month in Infection Control and Hospital...

Consumers Are Avoiding the ER - But Not in Favor of Telehealth

September 04, 2018 by Eric Wicklund

Hospitals and health systems are launching direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms to push people with non-acute health concerns away from the emergency department and toward virtual visits. But while new research suggests ED traffic is...