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> Sarah Bush Lincoln, a 128-bed regional hospital in East Central Illinois' Coles County, is tapping a mobile app, called Engage, to improve communications with care teams, provide needed education and give patients greater involvement in healthcare efforts. It allows providers to alert users of new programs, community events and preventative screenings. Article
> The Mayo Clinic is updating and re-branded its Patient app with Apple HealthKit-type functionality and features and has even christened it with a new name, Mayo Clinic. The app provides users with more control over data and sharing healthcare information. Article
> A new healthcare initiative in Ghana aims to help pharmaceutical companies provide special labeling to products provided on the retail market to insure the prescribed medicine for Ebola, malaria and cholera is legitimate as fake drugs are becoming an increasing problem in West Africa. The PREVENT (Patients' Research, Empowerment, Vigilance, and Education Through New Technologies) program launched by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana provides a unique numeric code for each prescription which patients then text to a unique short code and informs patients if the medicine is genuine or fake. Article
Healthcare News
> The cost tied to hospital readmissions is increasing with a record number of fines being levied against hospitals by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency has also increased the fine limits by 3 percent. An analysis of records reveals Medicare will fine 433 more hospitals than last year. Article
Health IT News
> Cash incentives aren't proving to be a viable approach to get health plan consumers active in online wellness programs, according to a new study, even when participants are offered $20 to provide insight on self-management measures and $40 for participating in educational offerings. Article
Health Payer News
> WebMD and Walgreens are collaborating in a partnership to boost health and wellness for consumers with WebMD providing virtual wellness coaching programs to Walgreen customers. In return WebMD users will be able to fill prescriptions and make clinic appointments via WebMD through the website using a mobile or desktop computing device. Article
And Finally…. Curiosity may kill cats but boasts a bright side for humans. Article