"patient engagement" articles

According to research, patients are demanding more interactive solutions. In fact, 30% of consumers who visit health websites are very interested in communicating with an online physician other than their primary care doctor. The healthcare industry is shifting to a consumer-centric model in order to meet patients’ needs, and the industry sees an opportunity to cut costs. The new whitepaper, “The Real Healthcare Changes On The Way,” examines the trends driving changes in the...

Senator Kennedy (D-MA) will soon introduce a bill to provide financial incentive to physicians who persuade their patients to set up and use personal health records (PHR). Under the bill’s term, physicians will receive up to $3 for each participating patient and the Senator’s legislation will help create a payment pool drawing funds from the Medicare trust fund, health plans, pharmaceutical companies and medical device firms. HHS will act as a coordinator to help qualifying physicians...

J&J, the world’s largest consumer and healthcare product company reported annual sales figures yesterday. CEO William Weldon told analysts that the company is prepared to make selected acquisitions to strengthen its position in the healthcare side. These are his words: “This economic environment creates opportunities we may never see again, so we need to be in a position to go after them.” To elaborate on his thoughts, Mr. Weldon indicated that two of the areas that...

New technology-enabled monitoring solutions and services will reshape the diabetic care market and earn $1.4 billion in product and service revenues by 2013, according to Parks Associates’ Executive Update: Enhancing Diabetic Care through Intelligent Medical Devices. This executive update finds companies like Medtronic, Cardiocom, Diabetech, and Healthways are developing new products and service models in response to this paradigm shift in diabetic care. They are laying the...

GE made an unspecified amount of investment in New York-based QuietCare Systems in early October, 2008. At the same time, the two companies announced a technology collaboration and co-marketing arrangement. During the last two weeks, I have managed to locate executives from the two companies and here is what I learned. -GE Healthcare will help market Quietcare’s Living Independently product line and services under the brand “Quietcare by GE Healthcare.” David Stern,...

I am currently attending Partners Healthcare’s Symposium event held in Boston, MA. On Monday morning, I moderated a panel on the topic of the emerging medical home model. The four panelists are George Chadraoui from IBM, David Hom from David Hom LLC, Vince Kuraitis from Better Health Technologies, and Ediwna Rogers from the Patient Center Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC). This is an extremely important topic as the medical home model could be a disruptive force in the healthcare...

DigiTV, a not-for-profit organization owned by U.K.’s Kirklees Council recently received funding from Europe’s T-Seniority Project to build interactive TV-based telecare solutions to serve the chronically ill and the elderly populations. Last month, it also secured funding from the U.K government to develop digital TV-based interactive care solutions. DigiTV is the major technology facilitator behind its Looking Local portal, which broad content from UK’s local authorities through...

Microsoft’s relationship with Aetna, one of the nation’s largest private insurers, seems warming up. On Oct 21, 2008, the two companies announced a new collaboration that will allow six million Aetna members, or 16% of Aetna’s total insured lives, to transfer their personal health information from Aetna’s own PHR to Microsoft’s HealthVault. The long-term goal is to allow all members to do so. Aetna’s PHR capability is built on its acquired assets from ActiveHealth...