Diversinet announced their Clinical Communicator application for mobile devices and tablets, for secure communication between clinical professionals and patients. Benefits for patients include asking questions and replies to clinicians; receiving automated medication reminders, managing personal health information, scheduling appointments and more. Diversinet plans to market Clinical Communicator through partnerships with large healthcare organizations, via use in drug and clinical trials and for case and disease management. Clinical trials begin in June. Release.
RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be at retail in the US and Canada starting 19 April, starting at $499 for Wi-Fi or the 16GB version, $599 for the 32GB version and $699 for the 64GB tablet. ZDNet has the specs.
Meridian Health, a leading healthcare provider in New Jersey, received the first-ever Excellence in Quality Improvements Award (post-acute care category) from the New Jersey Hospital Association for their pilot program that remotely monitored congestive heart failure (CHF) patients that included in one comparison group the use of the MedApps system to monitor weight gain. The full pilot determined a significant decrease in the rate of readmissions from 14.93% to 4.84%, compared to the national average of 27%, in less than eight months. Meridian Health release.
8,000 iTunes apps for health…but they don’t work? LiveScience/Fox News reports that 26% of those who download health apps use them only once, anti-smoking apps don’t seem to work when monitored, but those who use weight loss apps like Weight Watchers seem to do better. For the 28% of cell phone users with smartphones (US), the question seems to be motivation and the variations thereof. The exception: text based health programs like Text4Baby. iHealthBeat
The UN Foundation, which funds the mHealth Alliance (mHA), announced that David Aylward, the founding executive director has stepped down from his position as head of the alliance to focus “his talents and commitment to mHealth… on delivery of mHealth rather than running the multi-faceted Alliance,” UN Foundation Chief Executive Officer Kathy Calvin wrote in an email to mHA partners. Aylward has held the position since the fall of 2009. The Foundation’s Managing Director of Global Health Kate Dodson will lead the mHA management team. Mobihealthnews. The mHA was a key part of the successful mHealth Summit last November and is partnering with the GSMA for the upcoming (6-9 June) Mobile Health Summit in South Africa. Undoubtedly more news to come from Mr. Aylward.