Content about Telehealth

DUBLIN, Ohio — HealthSpot, a provider of telehealth technology, has been asked to present at the Consumer Electronics Association 2013 CES on the Hill, the company has announced.

TreatMyUTI.com is an online service founded by a group of physicians that offers online access to physician diagnosis and treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections with no office visit, exam or lab test required.
 

BERLIN — The global market for mobile health app services is expected to reach $26 billion by 2017 as smartphone applications allow the mhealth industry to successfully monetize its services, according to a new report.

Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017, announced Friday by Berlin-based mobile market research firm Research2guidance, found that top mhealth publishers manage to generate more than 3 million free and 300,000 paid downloads in the United States on the Apple iOS platform.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid has expanded its telemedicine service to 58 more stores, the retail pharmacy chain said Friday.

Rite Aid said the NowClinic Online Care service were available at stores in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The service gives customers access to care, via a secure online video connection, from OptumHealth doctors and nurses. The company originally unveiled the program at nine stores in Detroit in 2011.

Telehealth is expected to experience a sharp rise in the number of patients, according a new report by health market research firm IHS, which projects that telehealth will reach 1.8 million patients around the world by 2017.

Widespread reliance on telemedicine to electronically deliver health and pharmacy services to hard-to-reach patients in remote locations is getting closer to reality. And in a fast-evolving health care system struggling to improve access to health services at a lower overall cost, that’s a good thing.

The potential breakthrough for remote-site dispensing and health counseling came in the U.S. House of Representatives. California Democrat Mike Thompson is sponsoring legislation that would eliminate barriers to telemedicine services for all federal health programs.

WASHINGTON — New legislation aims to increase access to telemedicine services through government-sponsored health programs.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., recently introduced H.R. 6719, the Telehealth Promotion Act of 2012, which would establish that "no [medical] benefit covered shall be excluded solely because it is furnished via a telecommunications system," allowing greater access to telemedicine services through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, Tricare, Department of Veterans Affairs and federal employee health plans.

ANDOVER, Mass. — More than 10% of Americans consider Web-enabled, mobile health apps a part of their health care and key to living long lives, according to a new survey by a division of electronics manufacturer Philips.

Royal Philips Electronics commissioned Opinion Research to conduct a survey of 1,003 adults, finding that 11% said that were it not for Web-based health information, they might already be "dead or severely incapacitated."

New applications based on advances in telemedicine and mobile health technology are proliferating as pharmacy providers, physicians and health plans find new ways to connect with patients who are homebound or in remote locations. The result is to extend access to care, improve convenience and lower health delivery costs.


Whatever dazzling visions science fiction may offer of the widgets of the future, the long, uphill road of technology inevitably leads to the smaller and the simpler. The horse and carriage gave way to the automobile; vacuum tubes gave way to transistors; and computers that took up entire rooms and required intricate climate-control technologies now fit in one’s pocket. 


Technologies used in health care have undergone a similar transition, and much of that has happened in the last few years thanks to the spread of mobile technology. 


CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — American Well, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Walgreens' Take Care Health Systems have collaborated to make telehealth services available to thousands of BCBSNC employees located throughout North Carolina. The service, called OnlineCareNC, allows BCBSNC employees from home or work to receive a healthcare consultation from credentialed Take Care Health System nurse practitioners, health coaches or nutritionists through two-way video, secure text chat or phone.

On the horizon of diabetes offerings at retail is telemedicine — a concept that may come sooner than later thanks to the rapid adoption of smartphones by consumers. In March 2012, researchers from the Stanford Prevention Research Center reported that smartphone applications can raise awareness and motivate older adults to improve their health. After eight weeks, 80% of participants reported increased awareness regarding a targeted health behavior (increased walking, decreased sitting time, improved diet), and three-quarters said the apps helped track the behavior.