News From Around the Web
> Nearly all French doctors use their smartphone for professional or mixed professional-social purposes, according to the second observatory on the digital usages and the internet from medical information specialist Vidal and the national order of doctors (CNOM). France Mobiles reports that some 94 percent of survey respondents said they used their smartphone for either professional or mixed uses. However, the study also found that only 8 percent of doctors with smartphones said they had recommended apps to their patients. Article
> MDSave, a Tennessee-based health e-commerce company that enables patients to research, compare and purchase health services directly from local physicians at cost savings, has launched a free Apple iOS mobile app. Similar to the information on the company's website, the app enables consumers to research health conditions and services to determine what care they need. The app also provides price transparency by comparing the costs of health services for MDSave members, uninsured individuals and those with high-deductible insurance plans. Article
> A Canadian smartphone app for sharing medical images was the number one free healthcare app in the United States within two weeks of its launch. The app, called Figure 1, allows doctors to share interesting images or photos of unique medical conditions, while building what could become a huge visual reference library. "The grand vision is to have a free, open access medical repository that any health care professional can contribute to and can comment on," said Dr. Josh Landy, the Toronto, Ontario-based critical care physician who came up with the idea for the app, which is available through iTunes. Article
EMR News
> Electronic health records can stem the short-term growth in healthcare costs, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers, from the University of Michigan and elsewhere, studied four years of healthcare cost data of 179,000 patients in nine Massachusetts communities. Three of the communities had adopted EHRs; the other six were used as control groups. The study found that EHRs reduced the costs of outpatient care by 3 percent, which amounted to about $5.14 in savings per patient per month. Most of the savings were realized in radiology. Article
Healthcare IT News
> Five workers and a student research assistant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Calif.) have been fired over privacy breaches involving patient medical records--and there is speculation that the patient was Kim Kardashian, who gave birth to her daughter with rapper Kanye West in a birthing suite at the hospital on June 15, the Los Angeles Times reports. Accessing the records violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which limits what information can be accessed without a patient's permission. Article
And Finally… Special requests don't upset us. Article