Market for mobile health sensors will grow to $5.6 billion by 2017; Capitol Hill legislators see showcase of latest mHealth technology;

News From Around the Web

> The market for mobile health sensors will grow to $5.6 billion by 2017 with a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 69 percent, according to a new report by mobile research firm research2guidance. mHealth apps make more and more use of external sensors that can track a range of health metrics, such as blood pressure, heart rate, glucose level, medication compliance and more. mHealth app-based business models, which rely on sensors sales, will play a major role in the mHealth market, states the report. Announcement

> Capitol Hill legislators got a chance to look at the latest in mobile healthcare last week with the appearance of the HealthSpot Station at the Consumer Electronics Association's 2013 event, CES on the Hill. The mHealth kiosk, developed by Dublin, Ohio-based HealthSpot, was stationed in the cafeteria of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The 8-foot-by-5-foot walk-in kiosk connected patients to a certified physician through a two-way, high-definition video hookup and featured interactive digital tools for the collection of vitals and other patient-generated data. The tools included a scale, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, dermascope, otoscope, stethoscope and pulse oximeter. Article

> The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has launched a new iPad application designed as a tablet-based practice marketing and patient education app and a customizable tool envisioned for both aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgeons. It is an exclusive app for ASPS member surgeons that includes 30 procedural e-brochures, pre- as well as post-op checklists, a video gallery, encyclopedia and a Virtual Surgery Simulator. Once the plastic surgeon has customized the app for their practice, consumers can download it for free from the App Store. Article

EMR News

> The "next generation" of electronic health record systems need to make more than "incremental" changes and move beyond the concept of serving as computerized paper charts, according to a new study of leaders in the Department of Veterans Affairs, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. The researchers, from the VA, interviewed 14 VA operational, clinical and informatics leaders for their vision on the future needs of EHRs. The leaders recommended that a number of design and other changes were needed. Article

Health IT News

> An interactive decision dashboard format developed by researchers at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine & Dentistry can be adapted to create a clinically realistic prototype patient decision aid, according to an article published this week in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making. Such findings, the researchers say, represent the potential of interactive decision dashboards for fostering informed decision making. Article

And Finally… First and last words. Article