HHS, Labor departments launch $1 billion health IT training plan
The departments of Health and Human Services and Labor have launched a nearly $1 billion plan designed to advance the use of health information technology and the training of workers for future health jobs. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the program will help make health IT available to more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in healthcare and information technology. HHS is awarding $750 million in grants to build capacity to enable widespread meaningful use of health IT, while DOL will award more than $225 million to train 15,000 people in job skills needed to access careers in health care, IT, and other high growth fields. A complete listing of grants and award recipients may be found at the Department of Health and Human Services website. Full Story

Drug companies, tech firms join forces on telehealth tool project  
Pharmaceutical companies want to collaborate with technology firms to develop new health information technology tools that improve clinical outcomes and cut costs, according to a new report by accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP. According to Ernst & Young Global Pharmaceutical Leader Carolyn Buck Luce, drug industry officials believe real-time patient monitoring tools could help them demonstrate the clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness of various medications. Typical pharmaceutical health IT tools underway include mobile phone applications for chronic disease management and medical communication; smartphone applications that upload readings from diabetic patients’ blood glucose monitors; and “smart pills” that transmit data about a patient’s medication adherence and vital signs. Full Story

GE Healthcare to enter handheld ultrasound market
GE Healthcare has become the latest electronic manufacturer to enter the market for portable ultrasounds, with the company announcing plans to release its handheld vScan machine as early as this week. According to Omar Ishrak, president and chief executive officer for clinical systems at GE Healthcare, the vScan is the size of a cellphone and, upon regulatory approval, will go on the market for less than $10,000. The device could reduce the need for tests and referrals during physical examinations, and could make healthcare more accessible to patients in the U.S. and in emerging markets, Ishrak said. Upon U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for vScan, GE will join other manufacturers such as Siemens, Signostics, and Toshiba in the portable ultrasound market. Full Story

New e-health developments by Rice researchers target cancer
Researchers at Rice University have made two telehealth-related breakthroughs designed to track down and kill cancer. A research team led by physicist Dmitri Lapotko has developed a new technique for singling out individual diseased cells and destroying them with tiny explosions. According to Lapotko, the process uses lasers to make “nanobubbles” by zapping gold nanoparticles inside cells. In tests on cancer cells, they found they could tune the lasers to create either small, bright bubbles that were visible but harmless or large bubbles that burst the cells. A study on the project appears online in the journal Nanotechnology. Meanwhile, a second study by a team led by fifth-year Rice graduate student Guoping Chang described an amplitude gating technique that gives physicians a clearer picture of how tumors are responding to treatment. The technique works in conjunction with PET/CT scanners, commonly used devices that capture a three-dimensional image of the inside of the body. Chang’s study appears in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Full Story   Full Story

St. Jude’s ultra-tiny pacemaker set for marketing in Europe, U.S.
St. Jude Medical Inc. has received the European Union’s CE mark of approval for sale and use of its Fortify and Fortify ST implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and Unify cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), the St. Paul, MN company announced. According to Eric S. Fain, M.D., president of St. Jude Medical’s Cardiac Rhythm Management Division, the devices will be fully launched in Europe later this spring, and U.S. versions of the Fortify ICD and Unify CRT-D are expected to be launched later this year. The Fortify ICD and Unify CRT-D feature advanced battery technology and circuitry that allow for a smaller device – the smallest in the industry – with more energy capacity, rapid charge times, and increased device longevity. This is important for patients with an enlarged heart, low ejection-fraction, advanced heart failure or previously demonstrated a high defibrillation threshold, Fain said. Full Story

Cambridge Consultants unveils Bluetooth platform with medical promise
Telehealth technology developer Cambridge Consultants has unveiled DEVA, a comprehensive platform for the rapid development of highly differentiated Bluetooth products and mobile accessories, the Cambridge, United Kingdom company announced. According to Tim Fowler, commercial director at Cambridge Consultants, DEVA can be used to develop a range of novel Bluetooth products – from mobile phone accessories and headsets, including for Apple’s iPhone, to wireless payment systems, industrial remote control devices, sports activity monitors or telehealth sensors that can be compliant with the Continua Health Alliance’s guidelines. The product will also speed development of new devices in many more diverse markets, such as medical applications, Fowler said. Full Story

UCLA, Health Net plan healthcare social networking site for teens
The UCLA School of Public Health and Health Net of California are creating a new social networking site aimed at adolescents enrolled in the state’s Healthy Families and Medi-Cal programs. The two-year project is designed to encourage teenagers to use available public health services, according to Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, Health Net’s director of health education and cultural and linguistic services. Teenagers – particularly those aged 13 to 17 – spend about nine hours a week on social networking sites, Kalev said. The platform will include blogs, instant messaging, video postings, and other features. Researchers plan to examine teen usage of the site to identify effective strategies for promoting health information. The project is funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. Full Story

Per-company spending on health IT to continue to rise
More healthcare organizations have increased the budget that they allocate to health information technology over the past year, and more plan to do so in the next 12 months, according to a report in HealthLeaders Media. The “HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey 2010” notes that 34 percent of respondents now place their operating IT budget at 4 percent to 6 percent of their overall operating revenue – up 10 points from last year’s survey, and nearly double the 17 percent response in HealthLeaders’ 2008 survey. The increase in IT operating budgets appears to be fueled by the smaller organizations – 18.5 percent of small hospital respondents, which have less than 200 beds, said their IT operating budget was 7 percent or more, the survey notes. Full Story

VA ‘IT dashboard’ to help public track project performance
The Department of Veterans Affairs has released an information technology dashboard to provide the public with insight into cost, schedule, and performance of projects that are part of the agency’s $3.4 billion annual IT budget. According to VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker, the dashboard includes green, yellow, red, and orange ratings in nine different categories for 76 different IT projects, including e-health initiatives. A green rating signifies a project is on track in a category, a yellow that the project is behind, and red that a project is failing. Orange signifies that a category is not reported. The categories include an overall rating, whether a project is meeting requirements, whether a project is on schedule and keeping in line with costs, whether requirements and business process documents have been signed, and whether the acquisition plan is going smoothly. Full Story    Further Information

When it comes to healthcare advice, doctors still know best
The Internet’s influence over consumer health decisions and actions is significantly stronger than traditional channels like print, TV, and radio, but healthcare professionals remain the top influence on consumer health behavior, according to a new report from New York City-based Manhattan Research. According to Monique Levy, senior director of research at Manhattan Research and lead author of “Health Influence Mapping: Benchmarking the Influence of Various Sources on Consumer Health Actions,” editorial health content still has significantly more influence over consumer health actions than various forms of social media. “With all the changes in media and healthcare, we think it’s critical for marketers to take a step back and check their assumptions around the relative influence of various health sources on consumer behavior,” Levy said. Full Story

GE Healthcare launches European HIE portfolio
GE Healthcare has unveiled a line of health information exchange (HIE)-based products aimed at the European market. According to Juergen Reyinger, vice president and general manager at GE Healthcare IT for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the new business unit will provide advanced e-health solutions and services to healthcare providers, health insurances, and governmental agencies and will enhance quality of care, improve productivity, and reduce costs and medical errors. Like the United States, many healthcare providers in Europe have differing health IT systems and lack a framework to connect care providers to their patients, Reyinger said. The new HIE product will simplify collection and exchange of data across various systems, including imaging products, hospital information systems, electronic medical records, and other products and devices involved in diagnostic or patient monitoring. Full Story

Successful HIEs not as prominent as vendors claim
Few vendors can support claims of creating a proven, repeatable model for health information exchange, according to a report by Orem, UT-based research firm KLAS. “Health Information Exchanges: The Reality of HIE Adoption” highlights the commercial HIE solutions of 22 vendors, most of which have one, two or three validated sites – in many cases, far fewer than the number of successful HIEs the vendors claim to have. And, not surprisingly, the most successful HIEs are those with less-complex approaches, according to Jason Hess, KLAS general manager of clinical research and author of the HIE report. Providers also reported a number of administrative challenges encountered while deploying an HIE, led by IT governance concerns over privacy, security and patient consent, as well as the HIE’s financial viability and sustainability, Hess said. Full Story

Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, describes the Obama administration’s $250 million budget proposal for the VA that would expand home-based primary care and mental health through the VA’s telehealth  program…William Van Noll, founder of e-Val MD, announced the release of the software company’s medical history & physical (H&P) examination tool designed for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch…Peter Tassiopoulos, chief operating officer of Biosign Technologies Inc., announced that the company has met the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, ISO 13485-2003, and Directive 93/42/EEC for their non-invasive blood glucose monitoring products in the European Union and for their automated wrist blood pressure and blood glucose monitors…Dr. Sikder M. Zakir, managing director of Bangladesh company, Telemedicine Reference Centre Ltd (TRCL), announced his company has signed an agreement with approximately 25 Gulf and Malaysian companies to provide telemedicine healthcare services in the Middle East and Malaysia…Chuck Hitt, MD, chief of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology, is overseeing the Arkansas START (System To Access Rural Telecolposcopy), a program that enables an OB/GYN at UAMS in Little Rock to oversee exams and biopsies administered by an advanced practice nurse at remote clinics…Christy Bell, senior vice president of healthcare management for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey announced their intentions to build a multi-payer portal, NaviNet’s Insurer Connect, as a one-stop shop for physicians to communicate directly with five of New Jersey’s largest insurers: Aetna, AmeriHealth New Jersey, Cigna, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and United Healthcare…Rose Crane, chief executive officer of Epocrates, reports that a company survey of 350 physicians found that nearly 20% plan to buy an Apple iPad within one year and another 38% are interested, but want more information before making the purchase… Neha Khandelwal, market research analyst at InMedica, authored a report on telehealth that predicts the number of gateways used in telehealth applications will increase to over one million in 2014 and to around 3.6 million in 2018…Please send us your news on Movers and Shakers in the field.