Duke collaborating with Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions

This just came out last week:

Duke and Verizon Join Forces on Health Information Technology

Initiatives will drive better care, expanded access and lower costs

DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University and Verizon will jointly develop health information technology initiatives to drive better care, expanded access and lower costs.

Duke and Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the company’s health care practice group, will combine technical resources and personnel to focus on projects that leverage the inherent value of advanced communications technologies. Among the initial potential projects are mobile health applications and consumer health care education.

Verizon will provide the computing infrastructure to perform analytical processing and modeling, as well as implementation and operational staffing and resources required for technical development. Duke University will provide personnel including students, research and project management experts, and educational program development staff, as well as intellectual property and other research required for use in program-sponsored initiatives.

Epic releases iPhone app called Haiku (Electronic Health Record)

According to this story on Healthcare IT News:

Electronic health record vendor Epic has just released Haiku, an iPhone application that provides authorized users with secure access to schedules, patient lists, health summaries, test results and notes.

The app is a free download on iTunes, but the user must belong to an organization that licenses Haiku and is currently on Epic's Summer 2009, according the the product description on iTunes.

What other Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendor has an iPhone app?

• Allscripts has one. 
• NextGen will be releasing an EHR Mobile app for the iPhone. 
• eClinicalWorks will be coming out with eClinicalMobile 2.0, an iPhone app. 

I'm sure we'll see other EHR/EMR vendors come out with iPhone apps in 2010. Where are the Android apps? 

Medical smartphone use in other countries

How are smartphones used by medical professionals in other countries? The U.S. is reacting to a major push by President Obama to incorporate electronic health records (EHRs) and to leverage computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems. As a result, we've seen a surge of medical applications for smartphones, especially the Apple iPhone. Several EHR vendors are providing iPhone apps for their EHR platform. I expect we will see many more as health information technology (health IT, HIT, HITECH) becomes the cornerstone to healthcare reform in this country.

So what about other countries? What about places where technology has deeply penetrated the entire market? I think about Asia. In metropolitan areas like Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul, we see mobile phones used everywhere - even underground. Are doctors in Asian countries using smartphones for many medical applications? Or, are they mainly using them like ordinary consumers?

So what about other non-Asian nations? Are physicians leveraging the wealth of smartphone clinical support tools as they treat patients at the point of care? President Obama is using health IT to push healthcare reform efforts. If other countries also need to reform their healthcare system, should they follow the same model and leverage health IT resources?