Mobile

The problem with many health apps often comes down to design, creating "a mismatch between what the app is trying to do and what the end users are trying to do," said Lorraine Chapman, director of healthcare user experience for the global software and design firm Macadamian.

A new study by the Scripps Translational Science Institute has found no short-term benefit in health costs or outcomes for patients who monitored their health with connected devices, whcih comes as a blow to the booming mobile health market. 

Patient engagement isn't always about patient portals. "In fact, most of the time it's not," said Pamela DeSalvo Landis, vice president of information services at Carolinas HealthCare System, the second largest public, nonprofit healthcare system in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued draft guidance outlining steps medical device manufacturers should take to counter cybersecurity threats.

Healthcare IT News and HIMSS are accepting speaker proposals for the Privacy & Security Forum in Los Angeles, May 11-12, 2016.

As physicians and hospitals move toward a more consumer-focused care model, experts say successful integration with mobile health faces challenges -- not just with technology, but also with processes.

Just a month after receiving an investment from healthcare giant HCA, Nashville-based cognitive Digital Reasoning has acquired Shareable, a fellow Music City tech company known for its clinical documentation platform.

Marin General Hospital has entered a 15-year, $90 million agreement with Philips to roll out an array of technologies including clinical informatics, patient monitoring, telehealth and imaging.

Microsoft has been building health-centric features into its stable of products and heading into HIMSS16 is also hoping to tap into the show’s overarching trends: patient engagement, telehealth and wearables. Acknowledging that Microsoft has historically been known as the Windows and Office company, Microsoft communications manager Greg Ormsby said the company is looking to build on those platforms in healthcare. "What’s changing are the emerging care scenarios," Ormsby said. "We’re looking to augment that shift." See all of our HIMSS16 previews At the upcoming HIMSS16, for instance, Ormsby said Team Redmond will be showcasing demonstrations of a partnership that will see MDLive using Skype for Business to conduct telehealth consults between doctors and patients as well as physicians and specialists. That’s one example. Ormsby said that Microsoft is set to release the Surface Hub this quarter and that collaboration tool will be a key piece of the company’s aim to "transform the hospital room." "Patient engagement really rests on helping doctors do their jobs more efficiently so they can help patients during the visit," Ormsby said. On the back end, Microsoft is girding to make the doctor’s experience with any EHR fluid so they can take notes, change apps naturally within a tablet, PC or phone, and access information they need in what Ormsby said should be an unburdensome way. [What healthcare organizations need to know about Windows 10 and Office 16.]  And while much work remains, by Microsoft and other wearable providers, to determine how endpoint devices can be integrated with healthcare organizations other data sources, Ormsby said Microsoft is seeing partners and customers looking into use cases, such as chronic care — and the devices evolving as well.  "Microsoft Band is a fitness and wellness wearable, we target that stay-fit crowd," Ormsby said.  "But one would argue it has the ability to do a lot, like a mobile health app — but that’s to be determined still." Microsoft will be in booth 3832. Twitter: @SullyHIT

MedStar Health, the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., region, is collaborating with Uber to increase access to health appointments.