Mobile

Connected medical devices present a challenging problem for security professionals in healthcare organizations. Such devices are typically not well protected and are now under near-constant cyber-attacks. This webinar presented by Mayuresh Ektare, VP of Product Management at ZingBox, will reveal the challenges in securing medical endpoints and discuss the steps security professionals can take to avoid being victims of cyber threats and significantly reduce their risk exposure.

Over the last few years digital health and telemedicine, in particular, have become one of the core focuses of the big HIMSS annual conference. MobiHealthNews is teaming up with telemedicine luminary American Well to discuss the digital health trends likely to dominate conversations at the big event in Orlando this February.

The healthcare industry has come under siege with the rise in security breaches. Healthcare organizations can help prevent breaches by deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Most medical things exhibited at CES 2017 are connected devices with apps that collect, analyze, and feedback data and information to users (patients, consumers, caregivers) and health/care providers (physicians, nurses, care coaches, and others who support people in self-care). While the Internet of Things is generally thought to cover more generic stuff for smart and connected homes, network-connected health and medical technologies are also part of the larger IoT phenomenon. And like health and medical “things” exhibited at #CES2017, other consumer electronics that people will purchase this year ongoing will be connected to the Internet, from refrigerators to cars, to TVs and hearing aids. Among the most popular connected devices during the 2016 holiday season was Amazon’s Alexa, providing voice-assistant technology in the home: Amazon shoppers bought more Alexa devices than ever in the 2016 holiday season. Alexa’s base technology can be used for healthcare at home, which was demonstrated by Orbita at the recent Connected Health Conference in December 2016. The company showed voice-activated home health capabilities such as medication adherence, pain management, patient monitoring, and caregiver coordination. This is an early example of home health through home tech assistants, of which Amazon’s Jeff Bezos waxed, “I think health care is going to be one of those industries that is elevated and made better by machine learning and artificial intelligence. And I actually think Echo and Elena do have a role to play in that.” Boston Children’s Hospital is a pioneering healthcare provider, implementing Alexa in KidsMD, which uses the device to support parents caregiving for their kids’ healthcare. As the Internet of Things takes hold in all aspects of consumer technology adoption, another phenomenon may also simultaneously occur: the Insecurity of Things, coined by Accenture in advance of #CES2017. The Insecurity of Things, Accenture’s John Curran explained to VentureBeat last week, is the challenge that consumers won’t universally trust IoT connected devices until the ongoing security issues around them are resolved. Health Populi’s Hot Points: I addressed the privacy and security issues of connected health data in my recent paper published by the California HealthCare Foundation, Here’s Looking At You: How Personal Health Information Is Being Tracked And Used. Most consumers are unaware of what’s in the fine print in mobile health opt-in notices, but if people buy a new wearable tech or download an app they’re keen to use, most click through the privacy policy without really knowing what’s gonig to happen to their data. That information can end up in third party data brokers’ data mines that can be mashed up into consumer profiles and sold to any number of organizations who might benefit from getting up-close-and-personal (albeit, in the dark shadows) with consumers; say, mortgage brokers evaluating loans for home buyers, or employers considering job applications for prospective employees. That’s the privacy aspect of data shared, unwittingly, by health consumers whose diagnosis of, perhaps, depression, or active use of a food-tracking app that documents one’s personal obsession with Twinkies. From privacy in IoT for health and medicine, we can then consider security. The US Department of Homeland Security published the report, Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things (IoT), in November 2016. The report talked about the growing ubiquity of network-connected devices, from fitness trackers and pacemakers to cars and home thermostats. Cybersecurity has gained more attention in the age of connected health and the Internet of Healthy Things, the phenomenon discussed by Dr. Joseph Kvedar in his book of the same name. The Homeland Security report mentions the Food and Drug Administration draft guidance on Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices discussed in a recent blog on the FDA website here. A Healthcare IT News survey out this week found that the No.1 health IT challenge hospital IT execs cite for 2017 is data security (52 percent), followed by analytics; patient engagement and population health tied for third place. Electronic health records took the fourth position, indicating that now that most healthcare providers have patients’ records digitized, they’re now ready to mash them up and analyze them to manage  population health, prevent readmissions, and personalize services for increasingly demanding consumers. But that data, first, must be secured to prevent cyber-attacks, malware, and personal health data theft. Trust is a precursor to health engagement: patients engage with healthcare stakeholders who earn that trust and authenticity which drives patient satisfaction. Data security in health care is now a patient engagement issue in the growing telehealth and health IoT era. I’ll be asking digital health companies about privacy and security issues all week here at #CES2017.

Supply of mobile health apps greatly exceeds the demand for them, based on research2guidance’s report on the mHealth App Developer Economics 2016, analyzing the status and trends of the mobile health apps market.

Some 18 percent of U.S. consumers use a wearable device, according to the 2016 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper survey. UPS researched tech-savvy shoppers with an eye to understanding where and how people buy stuff – and of course, how they ship it given the company’s core logistics business. (“Tech-savvy” in this study means consumers had purchased at least two items online in a typical 3-month period). Overall, Millennials adopt devices and do more tech-shopping compared with other generations, but UPS notes that other groups are indeed shopping for tech and shipping it, too. Millennials are leading the way, but even older generations can “look” Millennial in their shopping behaviors. The 2015-2016 comparison of wearable device adoption shows growth from 13% in 2015 to 18% in 2016, heavily driven by Millennials’ interest. 1 in 6 people who did not currently own a wearable device are interested in acquiring one in the next year, UPS found. Current wearable users do the following activities: 76% monitor fitness (with more Non-Millennials doing so at 82%, and more women than men) 60% use smartwatches, led by Millennials 38% use GPS functions 30% monitor “health” (as opposed to fitness), 2x the number of Millennials (39% vs. 20% Non-Millennials) 23% use eyewear, again double the number of Millennials (31%) vs. Non-Millennials (15%). The only other device categories showing growth were connected TVs, increasing from 28% in 2015 to 32%, and smartphones growing from 74% of adoption in 2015 to 77% of adoption in 2016, PC purchases and tablets showed flat adoption (95% and 57%, respectively). The most important factors consumers consider when purchasing a wearable device are led by health reasons: 62% say the goal is to establish better fitness and health habits, compared with 47% who are tech-loving (“I like to have the most up-to-date technology”) and convenience-appreciating (47% liking convenient access compared with other devices), with another 47% wanting to listen to music via the device. UPS surveyed 5,330 consumers in January and February 2016 who had purchased at least 2 items online in a typical 3-month period. Health Populi’s Hot Points: UPS has a vested interested in people shopping online, but they also benefit from people shopping in retail stores because they ship “everywhere.” Increasingly, the company finds that consumers want their stuff shipped “everywhere,” too — people in urban areas often find it difficult to receive their goods securely; people in rural areas can also have challenges in getting their stuff to their homes. So shoppers are asking UPS to deliver stuff to retailers’ stores, friends’ and families’ homes, a UPS location, to the workplace, or other location. Increasingly, shopping is being done via smartphones — 25% expecting to do so more frequently going forward; and, 24% of tablet-using shoppers expect to shop more via mobile tablet as well. The bottom-line: consumers shop and live omni-channel, multi-channel, 24×7, in “I-want-it-now” mode. (Thank Amazon Prime, in part, for priming consumers in this regard). 3 in 4 people are looking for a peer-review or recommendation. 70% of people are looking for easy access to information on a retailer’s site, including real-time inventory. And, 59% of shoppers would like product recommendations based on past browsing and buying behavior — that is, personalization. This is the new retail, and a challenge for incumbent retailers. That’s the prime (pardon the pun) reason Walmart purchased Jet.com earlier this month, for the behemoth retailer’s ability to grow omni-channel capabilities. Consumers’ expectation in their retail shopping lives are bleeding over into their health-lives, too. Health/care is expected everywhere, and should be as people take on more health financial responsibility….they’ll exercise more clout and vote with their out-of-pocket spending.   This blog first appeared at Health Populi.

At the start of 2016, the current installed base of wearable activity tracking devices was just over 33 million in the U.S.

"We believe that mobile devices such as iPhones will become the predominant means by which patients interact with BIDMC," says Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka, MD. "Your phone will be the repository of your medical record."

Several healthcare and IT associations came together and asked the industry to design and pilot an effective blueprint to improve the patient intake process. The outcome: a more accurate process utilizing mobile technology.

An app is nothing without content. And for the most part, content comes from within. Naturally, gathering and organizing content is one of the most important steps in launching your app. The more complete, interesting, and easy-to-understand your app’s content is, the more likely patients and visitors will find value in your app and keep using it.