STERLING, Va., April 24, 2013 -- In an effort to reduce hospital readmissions, Chesterfield, Mo., based Mercy has contracted Trapollo LLC., to provide a complete managed service offering designed specifically for remote health monitoring programs. 

WOONSOCKET, R.I., April 24, 2013 -- The CVS Caremark Charitable Trust, a private foundation created by CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS) today announced the recipients of the "Innovations in Community Health" grants, which have been awarded to community health centers nationwide through a partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). The grants will help community health centers increase access to quality health care and produce better health outcomes while reducing costs for patients and healthcare systems.

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2013 -- The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute today announced the appointment of Bryan R. Luce, PhD, MBA, as PCORI's first Chief Science Officer (CSO). In this position, Luce will be responsible for leading the development and implementation of PCORI's patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) agenda.

“Big med telemedicine” is the idea of healthcare expanding, almost a “Walmartization” of healthcare, said Jonathan D. Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), during the group’s This Month in Telemedicine videocast on April 23.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced on April 23 that it is offering $68 million in funding opportunities to entities to develop a national patient-centered clinical research network.

FARMINGTON, Mont., April 23, 2013 -- Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership (FMBHP) and Vree Health – a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. focused on technology-enabled services designed to improve the reach, cost-efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare – today announced a collaboration designed to improve care transitions and reduce hospital readmission rates for patients in rural areas. Over the coming months, FMBHP and Vree Health will develop new, improved processes for transitioning patients from hospital to home within at least 10 Montana communities that will be pilots to inform later programs.

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2013 -- About one-third of Latinos or 15 million people will be seeking new doctors for diabetes, hypertension, cancer and preventive services when they become eligible to receive or buy health care coverage under the new health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  As the nation's Latino doctors come together this week for the 17th Annual Conference of the National Hispanic Medical Association, the implementation of the ACA and ensuring access to the benefits of the new law for Hispanic patients will be at the forefront of the agenda.  The conference opens Friday, April 27 th at 9:00 am at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC.

“Anyone who follows big ideas has that sense of unrealized potential,” said Juan Enriquez, managing director of Excel Venture Management, during a panel discussion on innovation at TEDMED. Big ideas have become a real part of the mainstream culture in the past decade, he said. "At Big Think (an online collaborative), we’ve been trying to drill down on this and isolate action-oriented ideas and bring them to life in day-to-day life."