News From Around the Web
> Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone, designed to compete with Apple's iPhone 5, has gotten the attention of research firm Frost & Sullivan for "transforming the mobile device into a health monitoring tool." According to the firm, the Galaxy S4 comes with an updated version of the S Health app, a built-in pedometer to track steps and also delivers food nutrition information. Announcement
> Mike Lazaridis, inventor of the BlackBerry smartphone, is starting a $97 million quantum technology fund that's aiming to turn devices like the medical tricorder from "Star Trek" into reality. The fund, called Quantum Valley Investments, is being financed exclusively by Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, an old friend and co-founder of Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry. Article
> Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have filed two recent patent applications "dealing with the use of a smartphone with the sensors already embedded in the phone." The first is a cardiac health monitor that records the change of heart activity every time a user stands up. A sensor in the smartphone detects when the patient gets up and a wireless heart sensor detects heart activity. Article
EMR News
> Electronic health record vendors need to improve the usability of their products and provide more guidance to their provider clients, according to a new study by Orem, Utah, research firm KLAS. In its study of 128 physician leaders, KLAS found that no vendor scored above a four (on a scale from one to five) in clinical usability. Epic scored the highest at four, while Cerner and Siemens each came in at 3.7. Allscripts scored a 3.5, with McKesson Paragon at 3.4 and MEDITECH v. 6 at 3.The study also found that providers want their vendors to expend more effort to make their EHRs more usable. Article
Healthcare IT News
> Though hackers generally go after healthcare information they can use in identity theft and other fraud schemes, that data increasingly is prized for numerous commercial ventures--even marketing, according to an article published by The Information Daily. The information can be partially and wholly replicated numerous times without the original owner's knowledge--and the new owner might be unaware of the content's origins. Article
And Finally… Just when you think you've got this actress figured out, she mixes it up again. Article