News From Around the Web
> Health eVillages has expanded two partnerships that will help deliver critical mobile healthcare technology to underserved populations in the U.S. and the Pacific. The program, founded by Physicians Interactive in partnership with the not-for-profit Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, provides iPods, iPads and other handheld devices equipped with specialized references and clinical decision support tools to improve primary and preventive healthcare in underserved areas of the world. Health eVillages is expanding its partnerships with the RFK Center in Louisiana and Project HOPE in support of its Pacific Partnership 2013 program on the USS Pearl Harbor, which is under sail in the Pacific Ocean. Article
>A medical app for handheld Apple devices is helping people with speech disabilities carry out their everyday errands by communicating with a few easy clicks of the screen. Developed by Toronto-based technology company My Voice Inc., TalkRocket Go has helped over 10,000 people worldwide who have suffered a stroke. TalkRocket Go was recently added to Ontario's Assistive Devices Program, so that users can now ask the Ministry of Health to help pay for the app and Apple device. Article
EMR News
> Pressure is ramping up on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to reassess the current implementation timelines for the next stages of the Meaningful Use program, with industry stakeholders and others using a Senate hearing on patient care to call for a reexamination of the issue. At the hearing, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance July 24, both vendor and provider representatives lauded the use of electronic health records to improve patient care, but recommended that the deadlines for Stages 2 and 3 of the Meaningful Use incentive program be extended and that he program be made more flexible. For instance, John Glaser, CEO of health services for Siemens Healthcare, testified that implementing an EHR system is "complicated" and "challenging" and should not be rushed. Article
Healthcare IT News
> South Florida mobile medical clinics operated by Children's Health Fund will be able to link to pediatric specialists from the University of Miami Health System thanks to a recent telemedicine upgrade. Children's Health Fund operates the mobile clinics for children in homeless or low-income families. Many of these children's only healthcare comes from emergency rooms because their parents can't afford to miss work for a doctor's appointment or they lack transportation. The Verizon Foundation is providing the mobile clinic with a high-speed 4G LTE wireless broadband connection and upgraded telecommunications equipment to link to the University of Miami's advanced telehealth program. Verizon has pledged to equip 15 of the Children's Health Fund's mobile medical clinics in sites including Dallas, Detroit, New York City and San Francisco. Article
And Finally… Crying fowl. Article