The FDA has given the OK to digital health startup Nephosity to market its image viewing mobile app for diagnostic purposes. Nephosity said it received 510(k) clearance for use of its app in situations where a clinician doesn’t have access to the traditional means of viewing CT scans, MRIs and X-rays.[read more]

What's the definition of insanity?

This edition of the Health Wonk Review is a bit tongue-in-cheek, as I offer some interesting definitions of well-known words and make light of some of the more despair-inducing aspects of the world of health policy. Buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride![read more]

elder care robots / shutterstock

The aging population plus fewer family caregivers, fewer available human aides and relentless advances in technology are making the routine use of robotic assistants for the elderly all but inevitable. If and when I get old and am on my own, I’ll be ready for my robot or robots.[read more]

EHR implementation race

According to a recent study by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, only 31 percent of solo practitioners have an EHR system that meets the requirements for Meaningful Use Stage 1, compared to 62 percent of mid-sized practices and 82 percent of larger healthcare facilities.[read more]

Brianna Garrison, oncology social worker

Do you have resources to deal with cancer that go beyond understanding treatment? Patients like me certainly spend a lot of time talking about treatments, and research into better treatments, which makes a lot of sense. But that’s just part of the cancer journey.[read more]

Healthcare obstacles

It’s almost cliché to say that the American healthcare system is changing. But the reality is that the pace of care delivery transformation will speed up in 2013 with technology, consumerism and the Affordable Care Act. All these factors will merge on a sector that today represents one-fifth of the economy.[read more]

Pedro Arrabal, M.D.

“Fetal echocardiography allows us to diagnose fetal heart defects as early as possible – while a woman is still pregnant – and determine what diagnostic measures can be performed during the pregnancy to further advise the parents,” says Pedro Arrabal, M.D., one of Sinai’s high-risk pregnancy specialists.[read more]

First, do no harm / Wikipedia

MedStar Health is partnering with HPI (Healthcare Performance Improvement) to take this innovative health system to zero preventable harm utilizing principles of high reliability organizations. Since the number one goal of all healthcare providers is to do no harm it would seem everyone is aligned.[read more]

Emergency department / Lisa Jarvis, Wiki Commons

Insightful new healthcare research from the RAND Corp, commissioned by the Emergency Medicine Action Fund, proposes that the 4 percent of U.S. physicians who work in emergency rooms serve as the major decisionmakers for nearly half of all hospital admissions in the U.S.[read more]

healthcare costs

Under today’s reimbursement system, better care doesn’t always yield better business results. That’s because healthcare organizations aren’t incentivized to eliminate profitable procedures that may not benefit patients. The way most hospitals and clinicians are paid today, why would we expect otherwise?[read more]

It’s been just over one year since the JOBS Act was passed, which makes equity- and debt-based crowdfunding legal for accredited and nonaccredited investors. Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to finalize and implement specific rules around those provisions, several online platforms have plowed ahead and created private portals for accredited investors and startups to find each other in the meantime.[read more]

patient engagement / shutterstock

This is the transcript of my recent interview with Harvard Pilgrim’s CEO Eric Schultz. We talk about what consumer engagement is, how it is finally starting to get real traction, and what Harvard Pilgrim is doing in that area.[read more]