Europe launching mHealth initiative; one life sciences CEO's opinion on mHealth;

News From Around the Web

> European lawmakers are launching an expansive discussion regarding mHealth and inviting consumer and patient organizations and health professionals to join, as well as telecommunications providers, mobile device makers and app developers. The goal is to seek out specific answers to questions regarding safety and performance requirements and promoting mHealth entrepreneurship in Europe. The deadline on the consultant project is July 3. Article

> A life sciences CEO outlines in Smarter Planet blog post how new devices and new apps for mHealth initiatives provide tremendous opportunity to boost patient care while saving on costs, but warns that user involvement and needs must be addressed with the same enthusiasm. "Healthcare organizations need to view patient engagement through the lens of shifting their business model from brick-and-mortar to brick-and-mobile, packaging their apps to meet the needs of the patient and driving the continued transformation of the healthcare industry," writes Scott Megill, of Coriell Life Sciences. Article

Health Payer News

> If the United States implemented a single-payer health insurance system, small and large businesses would reap the benefits, including seeing their costs go down, according to a new report from Public Citizen. "Small businesses have rated the cost of health insurance as their top concern for a quarter century, and large businesses struggle with healthcare obligations that their international competitors do not have to worry about," said Taylor Lincoln, the report's author and research director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division. Article

> Limited data does not prevent payers from covering high-risk devices, concluded a new study commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may use a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) to bring new technologies to patients with rare conditions, requiring less evidence of a device's efficacy for approval. Article

Health IT News

> In the future, will telemedicine become just as ordinary and common as video chatting a relative or friend who's far away? As care becomes more patient-centered, "Father of Telemedicine" Jay Sanders, M.D., believes that will be the case. Sanders, former president of the American Telemedicine Association, in an interview with EHRIntelligence, said that not only will telemedicine change the way patients and doctors connect, it also will revolutionize they way clinicians interact with patients, in general. Article

> A framework for evaluating telehealth programs must consider socioeconomic aspects--not just the technological--argue researchers in an article published online in Telemedicine and e-Health. Costs, benefits, barriers and outcomes, including clinical outcomes, are among the integral socioeconomic factors at play in telehealth implementations, they say. Article

And Finally… But where's the bionic kangaroo kid? Article