News From Around the Web
> Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington, along with a medical team of collaborators, are developing a therapy bandage called SMART (Sensing, Monitoring and Release of Therapeutics) to help patients recovering from complex wounds. The bandages, funded by a $100,000 grant from Texas Medical Research Collaborative, be flexible and portable and should ease pain and spur healing. Announcement
> The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has approved a motion-tracking physical therapy tool called Vera, created by Reflexion Health, which uses Microsoft's Kinect intelligence to help patients undergoing musculoskeletal rehabilitation. The software features an avatar that encourages and motivates patients with rehab exercises and provides rehab data to a physical therapist. Announcement
Health Insurance News
> Both insurers and hospitals hope that data will improve patients' health, but industry experts at the Connecticut Insurance Market Summit recently pointed out that challenges remain. At the summit, Peter Bowers, M.D., senior clinical officer for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut, and Jerry Daly, a senior vice president at Optum, UnitedHealth's informatics unit, both offered a look to what insurers are hoping to accomplish in the coming years. Article
Health IT News
> As information flows into the healthcare system from myriad technologies--wearables, apps, social media, online portals, electronic records, etc.--the industry needs to figure out how those types of information can be combined and weighed, according to a paper published this week in Nature. Article
And Finally... Imagine if Pizza Rat were this size. Article