Precision Medicine

Also called personalized medicine, this evolving field makes use of an individual’s genes, lifestyle, environment and other factors to identify unique disease risks and guide treatment decision-making.

Remote monitoring offers promise for geriatric patients

With the greater emphasis on care in the home and other living environments, geriatric providers will need alternate ways of monitoring disease, activity, response to therapy and patient safety, according to an article by Hyun Gu Kang, PhD, and colleagues in the October edition of Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Voalt, Meru partner for clinical communication

Voalt has entered into a strategic partnership with enterprise wireless networking company Meru Networks.

HIMSS roundtable finds common ground

Twenty states are now pursuing a legal battle against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Likewise, the Massachusetts universal insurance coverage plan certainly has its faults and faces an army of vocal detractors. However, the technological underpinnings of the Mass. model for EHR adoption and information exchange have earned high marks in some circles for being consensus-based and encompassing both public and private interests.

JACS: Surgical telemonitoring is a viable solution

The use of telemonitoring to guide remote general surgeons in the care of a wounded patient who needs an emergency subspecialty operation is clinically feasible, found a study published Oct. 21 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Philips upgrades SpeechExec for BlackBerry

Royal Philips Electronics has upgraded its dictation service SpeechExec for BlackBerry, adding the ability to transmit data and include data in the recording files.

Plenty of questions for NHIN standards

There was no shortage of stakeholder questions awaiting Douglas Fridsma, MD, PhD, director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, after his presentation earlier this month. An avalanche of questions can be hard to face, but usually its indicative of a high level of interest, which was certainly the case with health information exchange (HIE), and the Nationwide Health Information Network in particular.

Total costs of ICD-10 conversion could reach $3B for insurers

Making the switch from the ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM/PCS codes sets will add greater laterality and specificity to an outdated coding system. However, overall systemwide costs for insurers could reach $2 billion to $3 billion, according to an analysis published in September by Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

Sprint, AirStrip team up for remote patient monitoring

AirStrip Technologies is collaborating with Sprint to provide remote patient monitoring applications on Sprint smart phones.

Around the web

Compensation for heart specialists continues to climb. What does this say about cardiology as a whole? Could private equity's rising influence bring about change? We spoke to MedAxiom CEO Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, a veteran cardiologist himself, to learn more.

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”