BOSTON--The addictive nature of smartphones is an opportunity for the healthcare industry to insert positive health messages at the fingertips of patients, Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of Partners HealthCare's Center for Connected Health, said at the 10th Annual Connected Health Symposium.

BOSTON--Donald Berwick, MD, senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, equated healthcare to the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras, which survived Hurricane Mitch in 1998 only for the river itself to move and no longer flow beneath it. “That is American healthcare,” Berwick told an audience at Partners HealthCare’s 10th Annual Connected Health Symposium. 

BOSTON--Current outcomes and measures—the way providers are compared—are a set of dull process measures that can’t articulate differences in providers, said Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Partners HealthCare, speaking at the organization’s 10th Annual Connected Health Symposium.

A bipartisan group of House members--three Democrats and three Republicans--has introduced a bill to provide the FDA with guidance about mobile medical app regulations.

Building off its Patient Engagement Framework, the National eHealth Collaborative has begun work on a collaborative effort to develop a Patient Experience Framework.

24/7 hotline connects patients to certified physicians outside of normal working hours

Pressure to cut healthcare costs, growing demand to integrate healthcare systems, rising interest in computerized physician order entry to reduce medication errors and government incentives translate into a rosy forecast for the health IT market.

With all the focus on soon-to-be-implemented penalties for 30-day hospital readmissions, it’s no surprise that healthcare organizations are employing a range of initiatives to address the problem.