News From Around the Web
> At the HIMSS 2013 conference last week in New Orleans, WebMD and Qualcomm Life announced a collaboration to provide consumers with seamlessly connected personal wireless health data. WebMD will utilize Qualcomm Life's 2net Platform, an FDA-listed, Class I Medical Device Data System that enables end-to-end interoperability for medical devices and apps, to aggregate wireless health device data into its network of mobile apps and websites. The data will be securely stored in the WebMD Health Cloud platform, which is designed to enable user-friendly and automatic data collection. Announcement
> San Francisco-based BASIS Science, Inc., the company behind Basis, a wrist-based health tracker and online personal dashboard that helps people adopt healthy habits, announced it has raised $11.5 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Mayfield Fund with investment from existing investors, DCM and Norwest Venture Partners. Basis also announced that it has expanded its board of advisors with the addition of the world-renowned healthy living expert, Deepak Chopra, and innovator and technology analyst, Esther Dyson. Announcement
> Drugs.com, an online clinical drug resource, has launched the Drugs.com Medication Guide, a mobile app to facilitate patient engagement for the purposes of medication management. The app is now available as a free download for iOS and Android. Utilizing the Drugs.com Medication Guide app, patients and caregivers can have instant access to their most recent personal medication records, saved drug interactions lists, and breaking FDA and health news tailored to their needs. Announcement
EMR News
> The level of provider dissatisfaction with electronic health record systems appears to be growing, according to a survey by the American College of Physicians and AmericanEHR Partners, web-based resource for EHR system selection and implementation. Overall, user satisfaction dropped by 12 percentage points between 2010 and 2012 and the "very dissatisfied" group grew by 10 percentage points. The findings represent 4,279 responses to multiple surveys developed by ACP and AmericanEHR Partners between March 2010 and December 2012. Article
Health IT News
> While text messages and email have nearly replaced traditional phone and face-to-face communication, a survey recently conducted for The Atlantic determined that of 1,000 Americans, only one in 10 has ever emailed or texted with their doctor. According to the article accompanying the survey, confidentiality could be one reason so few have used such communication methods, as could a lack of technology on the part of the doctor. Article
And Finally… First killer bees, now monster mosquitoes! Article