On June 13th the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a new guidance for ethical practice in telehealth and telemedicine. The guidance outlines the new ethical responsibilities of physicians when using telemedicine as opposed to traditional interactions in a medical office or hospital. The new guidance was drafted by the AMA’s Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs and approved on a vote by physicians across the United States. The American Medical Association saw the new guidance as necessary given the ways recent technological innovations are reshaping communication between patients and physicians.  

As the power of information technology expands, the healthcare system has begun to shrink. Integrated IT systems are allowing providers to communicate across an enterprise like never before.

On top of all the things you can do with your phone, add getting birth control. An article from the New York Times highlights the new apps and websites available to women that make it possible to get prescription contraceptives without going to the doctor.

The Dallas Cowboys football franchise is partnering with the biggest not-for-profit healthcare system in the Lone Star State to build and run a hulking sports medicine and research complex with a footprint stretching out over a 300,000-square-foot campus. 

Students at Binghamton University, State University of New York, have developed an app meant to reduce readmission rates in hospitals with a data-based assembled prediction model, reports News Medical. 

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a mobile app called "Aspirin-Guide" that is able to calculate the cardiovascular disease risk and the bleeding risk scores for patients while helping clinicians decide which patients are appropriate candidates for the use of low dose aspirin.

Integrating military trauma care with traditional hospitals could lead to a quicker and more effective response to car accidents, gunshot wounds and other trauma events, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A new method for Medicare payments of clinical laboratory tests will be based on private payer rates, though CMS is pushing off implementation of the system by one year