News from Around the Web
> A Stanford physician's start-up has built what it calls "medical grade" apps that helps developers build mHealth software that allows for safe and compliant data sharing with clinical systems and easy communications with caregivers, according to a VentureBeat report. The Medable mobile app lets users get data, visualize it and communicate about it in an easy way, says co-founder Michelle Longmire. Article
> More than a few healthcare tech experts are eager to see what the new partnership of IBM and Apple will bring to mHealth in terms of devices and data sharing, security and analysis, according to an American Banker report. "In concept, the Apple/IBM deal sounds like a great opportunity to synergize," states George Hickman, CIO at Albany Medical Center. "Apple has heretofore shown a bias to consumer devices, making enterprise deployment a challenge, an area where IBM has been solid for decades." Article
Health IT News
> Lawmakers debating the role of health IT in improving patient care, as part of crafting a federal health IT risk-based regulatory framework, must make a distinction between man and machine, says Brad Thompson, a health attorney with Epstein Becker Green who represents five groups on the matter, in an exclusive interview with FierceHealthIT. Article
Provider News
> Patients today are no safer from harm caused by preventable errors than they were 15 years ago, a leading healthcare expert recently testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging. "In certain areas, things are better, in certain areas things are probably worse, but we are not substantially better off compared to where we were," says Ashish Jha, M.D., a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. Article
And Finally... Ancient whalebone leads to a new brew. Article