Verizon, Cisco introduce new telemedicine service for doctors
In the latest example of communications giants expanding into the telemedicine market, Verizon Communications and Cisco are partnering on a new telehealth service that allows physicians to interact virtually with their patients. According to Rajeev Kapoor, global managing director for Verizon Connected Healthcare, the product, Telehealth Collaboration Services, enables healthcare providers to remotely consult with patients and physicians in real-time, allowing them to provide increased accessibility to specialty services, control costs of patient-provider encounters, and more closely monitor patient health. The service will also provide continuing medical education and training opportunities to medical professionals. Telemedicine continues to gain popularity in North America; research firm Datamonitor projects that annual spending on telehealth hardware, software, and related services will nearly triple from the current $2.4 billion to $6.1 billion by 2012. http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/...

HHS to award $80 million in health IT grants in 2010
In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services plans to award $80 million in grants to help train a health information technology-based workforce. According to David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, the grants will include $70 million for community college training programs and $10 million to develop educational materials to support the program. Both programs will address the immediate need for skilled HIT professionals, who will enable the broad adoption and use of healthcare IT throughout the United States, Blumenthal said. The funding, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is the first to cover a series of programs designed to strengthen and support the healthcare IT workforce. Further details will be announced in coming weeks, he said. http://www.hhs.gov/news/...

VA, Kaiser Permanente launch EHR pilot for veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs and Kaiser Permanente are launching a pilot program to exchange electronic health record information using the Nationwide Health Information Network created by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, the pilot program connects two of the nation's largest electronic health record systems - Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect and the VA's electronic health record system, VistA. The two groups have begun recruiting veterans for the pilot, scheduled to begin in mid December 2009, with the first participants being those in the San Diego area. The Department of Defense will be added to the pilot during its second phase in early 2010, Shinseki said. http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/p...

U.S. Army tests telehealth program for brain-injured soldiers
More than 10,000 U.S. Army soldiers who sustained traumatic brain injury or other serious injuries while on duty in Iraq or Afghanistan are part of a telehealth pilot study to track progress, improve quality of care, and increase optimal outcomes. According to AllOne Mobile Senior Director Frank Avignone, Ph.D., the Wilkes-Barre, PA-based company's mobile phone health information management application securely links wounded soldiers at home with case managers. The system allows case managers to monitor and stay in contact with the wounded warriors through personalized, encrypted interactive messages. Preliminary findings from the first phase of the pilot indicate that participants have been extremely compliant with the messaging with care managers' instructions, and they are enjoying use of the product because it enhances their lifestyle, Avignone said. http://behavioralhealthcentral.com/index.php/...

Glowing bottle cap could improve medication adherence
A new Internet-connected pill bottle cap could result in health improvements, cost savings, and even additional revenue for insurance and pharmaceutical companies, according to the product's creator. David Rose, chief executive officer of Cambridge, MA-based medical product startup Vitality Inc., said the new GlowCap reminds patients to take their pills and keeps track of when and if they're taking them. The caps, which are built into lids that fit on prescription bottles, contain microchips that communicate wirelessly with a home server. The server connects to Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault and standard electronic healthcare systems. GlowCaps flash amber when it's time to take medication; when the patient has taken the medication, the device turns blue, Rose said. If the patient forgets his or her medication, the device will call, using an interactive voice response unit to deliver a reminder. http://www.informationweek.com/news/...   http://www.rxvitality.com

Britain to invest $214 million in telecare and home health
The British government is considering a plan to invest $214 million [USD] in telecare and home health to help many illness-afflicted elderly persons regain their independence. The Personal Care at Home Bill will offer free personal care to 280,000 elderly and disabled people and represents a major breakthrough in home healthcare, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The bill is also designed to lower medical care costs for the government, as every $1.64 [USD] invested in telecare saves up to $20 in traditional health and social care services, according to Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King's Fund, a London-based policy analysis research firm. http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/...

New digital imaging unit could reduce melanoma diagnosis errors
A melanoma survivor has formed a company with a product designed to improve digital imaging and reduce errors in diagnosis of the nation's most deadly form of cancer. The Optomed Smartscope M3-1, marketed by Leawood, KS-based MidCon Distribution Inc., is a handheld, cordless unit that uses LED lighting and a fixed-zoom lens to produce consistent, reliable images during skin cancer screenings, according to MidCon co-founder Neal Nurnberg. Used in conjunction with the Macro Image Manager, proprietary software that MidCon designed for the Smartscope, the device measures lesions automatically and allows a physician to attach notations to the images. This information then becomes part of a patient's electronic medical record and is archived to track lesion progression over time, Nurnberg said. http://www.group3solutions.com/clients/...   http://www.midcondist.com/

St. Jude Medical markets 'pacemaker for pain' in China
A 62-year-old man from Shenzhen, Guangdong province has become the first patient in China to be implanted with St. Jude Medical Inc.'s Eon neurostimulator, a rechargeable device used to help manage chronic pain, the St. Paul, MN-based medical products maker announced. According to Chris Chavez, president of the St. Jude Medical Neuromodulation Division, the "pacemaker for pain" delivers mild electrical pulses to leads placed in the epidural space near the spine to interrupt or mask transmission of pain signals to the brain. In this case, the patient had suffered from chronic back pain for more than a decade. The Chinese State Food and Drug Administration recently approved marketing of the Eon as the first rechargeable pain management device in China, Chavez notes. http://www.news-medical.net/news/...

Virtual treatment center on tap for families of cancer victims
London, Ontario-based Resolution Interactive Media (ResIM) will build an online, interactive program to help provide cancer victims with a virtual idea of the type of treatment they will need to undergo before they actually receive the treatment at the London Regional Cancer Program (LRCP). According to ResIM partner Jonathan Kochis, patients and family members who come to the LRCP for the first time face fear and anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis, as well as the unknowns related to visiting a cancer center. Virtual orientation will "make it possible for patients and their families to access and navigate the treatment experience from the comfort of their home at any time prior to their arrival," Kochis said. LRCP is part of the London Health Sciences Centre, one of Canada's largest acute-care teaching hospitals. http://www.resolutionim.com/useruploads/...

CMS still on track for 'meaningful use' definition by year's end
Despite growing concerns about the possible impact of a proposed healthcare rule on use of electronic health records (EHRs), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is still set to publish its definition of "meaningful use" by the end of the year, according to Tony Trenkle, director of the CMS Office of e-Health Standards and Services. The definition, required as part of the Medicare and Medicaid plan to offer reimbursements to healthcare providers who use EHRs, has come under scrutiny from healthcare industry members who are concerned about what will be in the regulation. Those include how high the bar will be set for meeting meaningful use targets during the first year of implementation, and whether the industry will be able to meet them, Trenkle said. http://www.govhealthit.com/...

Study: Federal prescription database could improve drug safety
A federally run public database for monitoring prescription drugs would improve the safety of those drugs when used by the public, according to a study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. Authors of "Pooled Analysis of Rofecoxib Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial Data" propose use of a drug safety database consisting of publicly available information that researchers can freely analyze and update. The hope, according to study lead author Joseph S. Ross of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is to prevent another Vioxx incident, in which the pain medication was widely - and enthusiastically - released in 1999, only to be yanked off the shelves five years later after the product was linked to increased risk of heart attack and strokes. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/...   http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content...

HIEs becoming more popular among local medical groups
Health information exchanges (HIEs) are gaining popularity at the local level, as the federal government continues efforts to promote their usage nationwide. According to a report in Information Week, in the past year several new local networks have been launched around the country that are designed to allow doctors, outpatient facilities and hospitals within those networks to easily share data. The new networks include HealthInfoNet in Maine, which went live last July; the Western Washington Rural Health Care Collaborative exchange, which serves patients near the Oregon and Canadian borders; and the New York City Primary Care Information Project, which covers patients in the Bronx, Harlem, and South Central Brooklyn. Operators of all three networks expect to see their HIEs increase in size by at least 50 percent over the next calendar year. http://www.informationweek.com/news/...