News From Around the Web
> In a UK survey by legal firm Pintsent Masons and YouGov, 73 percent of respondents, prior to being given a definition of mHealth, didn't know what the term meant. Still worse, even when mobile healthcare was explained, 90 percent of those surveyed stated they never used mHealth services, despite the examples given including established applications such as fitness apps. Article
> Health app certification is a flawed proposition, so argues Satish Misra, M.D., fellow in cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a partner/managing editor at iMedicalApps. Misra lays out in an online opinion piece the inherent problems with app certification programs like Happtique's, which was recently suspended after several security flaws in apps certified by the company were discovered. Article
> A mobile fitness app called Pact fines users when they fail to meet previously established exercise goals. App users who fall short of their objectives pay the financial penalties to other Pact users who have achieved their targets, according to an article in NPR. Yifan Zhang, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Pact (formerly GymPact), believes the app works because people are extremely averse to losing money. Article
Healthcare News
> Although there is a decline in inappropriate use of antibiotics to treat acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in many outpatient settings, the number of adults still receiving those antibiotics in emergency departments, is high, according to a study abstract published by the American Society for Microbiology. Article
Healthcare IT News
> The House of Representatives passed a bill to bolster security for HealthCare.gov, requiring the government to alert users of data breaches involving their personal information entered into the site within two days of any incident. The bill, H.R. 3811, passed by a vote of 291-122, aims to protect patients entering their personal data into the exchanges when signing up for healthcare, according to its sponsors. Article
And Finally… A shorter distance makes all the difference. Article