News From Around the Web
> Two doctors have developed an app to help pregnant women based on their own research on nearly 40,000 deliveries in West Michigan. The physicians worked with ProCare Systems Inc. of Grand Rapids for the technical development of the app called babyQ. To date, the free app available on iTunes has been downloaded by thousands of women from more than 20 countries since it was launched in November. Moms-to-be answer a 22-question survey and then receive custom maternal and fetal health tips via text messages or on the app's website. Article
> According to a column in the Washington Times, the outlook for mHealth remains strong, but the industry is still waiting for that seminal moment or watershed breakthrough. "If one boils it down and compares it to the consumer technologies market--mobile medical technologies is still eagerly awaiting its 'iPhone' moment to truly become transformational," writes Timothy W. Coleman. "While there is a tremendous amount of dynamism and potentiality, the disruptive change on the horizon remains as elusive as the goal, but its inching closer." Article
> The University of Delaware is collaborating with HIMSS Analytics and mHIMSS to assess provider attitudes towards apps in healthcare settings. The organizations are conducting a survey to evaluate a number of key topics emerging in the healthcare space, including opinions on integration apps into the Meaningful Use program, characteristics important to users downloading an app, and assessing desirable pricing structures. Respondents should be providers, physicians, or nurses, and IT staff involved in Health IT and mobile decisions. The results may be published in a scholarly journal or industry research publication. Announcement
EMR News
> One of the more unique provisions of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's proposed 2014 budget is the imposition of a new "user fee" on electronic health record vendors and developers to support ONC's certification and standardization activities. The fee would be assessed on vendors who certify their products through the ONC health IT certification program. The estimated $1 million fee is part of ONC's $26.3 million request to support standards, interoperability and certification. According to the proposed budget, ONC's workload to certify EHR products has greatly increased, and the funds for certification activities from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which created the Meaningful Use incentive program, are scheduled to expire in 2013. Article
Healthcare IT News
> Better standards are needed for how discoveries in genomic medicine are found and recorded as health information technology develops, according to researchers from Harvard and the Mayo Clinic who published a viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week. Advances in genomic medicine, the researchers said, have lead patients and providers to be able to expect large improvements in healthcare effectiveness by 2020. However, institutions must be ready to incorporate "exponentially" larger volumes of genomic, medical, ethical and legal information into electronic health records, which already are fragmented, they added. Article
And Finally… Here comes the flood. Article