Mar 23, 2010

Americans see Light - Health care reform passes the Senate approval

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 10:  Health care activists...



Finally, Healthcare reform is a reality. Passed by the House with a 219-212 vote, the bill now goes to President Obama for signing. And to complete the package, a bill of negotiated changes to the newly passed legislation will go to the Senate for a vote. It took a lot to explain ( a 18-day stretch in which Obama traveled to four states and lobbied more than 60 wavering lawmakers in person or by phone to secure passage of the health reform bill) to all the American lawmakers that health is a right and not a derivative of how much one can pay the Health management organizations or Insurers.

The reform package will extend insurance coverage to some 32 million more Americans, adding millions more who can now access health care.


Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums. The bill will allow senior citizens get more help paying for drugs in Medicare. People with health problems that left them uninsurable could now qualify for coverage through a federal program.

Republican critics said the $940 billion legislation was a heavy-handed intrusion in the healthcare sector that will drive up costs, increase the budget deficit and reduce patients' choices.
 

Mar 9, 2010

Mobile applications in Medicine

healthcare IT



Smart phones and small hand held devices are making medicine safer and faster. They are being used to provide information, administrative and patient management services.And predictably, their use is shooting up.

Medical Media and marketing reports that about 80% of all US physicians will be using smart phones by 2012, and not just for drug reference or clinical information. An explosion of new healthcare professional-facing apps - over 1,500 in Apple's app store alone - will expand mobile device usage to include patient care and administrative functions, according to Manhattan Research survey.
  
Half of the apps available in the Apple app store's medical category are for medical reference, 9.3% of the apps are calculators, 7% of the apps are for EMR and operations, 3.4% are for prenatal and infant care, and 3% are for chronic disease management, including diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and asthma management, according to a quantitative study on mobile health apps conducted by MobiHealthNews. Emergency information, medication adherence and CME apps make up a combined 4% of the total medical apps (roughly 24% of the apps in the medical category were labeled "other" or "miscatagorized").

Apps exist for almost everything, and if its not there, Go build it.