Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance Unveils ‘Connected Health World’

Web Portal for Products, Services and Opportunities in Wireless Health Ecosystem

SAN DIEGO – October 23, 2012 – The Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA) today announced the launch of Connected Health World, an online portal through which healthcare industry and government representatives, clinicians, academics and others can share and obtain timely information about products, services and opportunities in the wireless health ecosystem.

WLSA is announcing the community driven portal in conjunction with its seventh annual Wireless Health 2012 conference, being held in La Jolla, California for leaders in the digital revolution in healthcare.

Connected Health World is a resource to facilitate global collaboration and learning among the public and participants from industry, academia, clinical practice and government. Companies such as QualcommLife and Sotera Wireless have listed products in the portal, while other companies are registered and will log products in the coming weeks.

Center for Connected Health awarded McKesson Foundation Grant to develop text messaging program for diabetes patients

Last week, the Center for Connected Health was awarded a research grant from the McKesson Foundation’s Mobilizing for Health initiative to develop a text messaging program to help diabetes patients better manage their condition.

Their randomized, controlled clinical trial will integrate a text messaging program into an existing Diabetes Self-Management and Education program at three of Massachusetts General Hospital’s community health centers representing medically underserved and low-income populations in the Boston area. The goal of this study is to assess the effect of personalized text messages on clinical outcomes and physical activity in patients with Type 2 Diabetes, many of whom are obese or have low levels of activity. Results will be measured by change in HbA1c (the clinical measure for blood sugar control), as well as patients’ engagement, usability and satisfaction with the program. This study will also use pedometers to measure physical activity, to better target messages to engage patients in behavior change to increase their activity levels.

You can learn more about this initiative here (PDF)

Connected Health Symposium 2011 #CHS11 - focus on new, mobile technologies

I'm attending the 2011 Connected Health Symposium here in Boston. The theme this year is "New Technologies for an Era of Accountability." The focus around new technologies is very appropriate given what's happening in the mobile space. This year, mobile health or mHealth has been a very hot topic. As smartphones and tablets become more ubiquitous in health care,we're seeing broad application of these tools in hospitals and even rural health centers. We're also seeing a greater emphasis on telemedicine (but we still need to answer all the questions regarding reimbursement models for televisits). The new Apple iPhone 4S may support HIPAA-compliant video communication. Will you have video-visits with your patient on an iPhone?

Here at Connected Health, we're seeing presentations from mobile health companies like Airstrip Technologies, Nuance Communications, Wellbe.me, Zeo, Proxense, and others.

I'm excited to be speaking about social media this afternoon in the panel discussion titled, "Facebooking Health: Scouting Out the Latest Trends in Online Patient Communities and Social Media." Come and hear how social media is transforming health care!