The Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center http://www.nrtrc.org Provides technical assistance in developing telehealth networks and applications to serve rural and underserved communities. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:15:42 +0000 en hourly 1 Guest Post: 3 Medical Devices of the Future for iOS http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/guest-post-3-medical-devices-of-the-future-for-ios/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/guest-post-3-medical-devices-of-the-future-for-ios/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:15:42 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2182 Continue reading →]]> 3 Medical Devices of the Future for iOS

by Katie Matlack

There’s a lot of interest in the impact medical peripherals on iOS mobile platforms can have. Used properly, properly designed apps could help catch diseases earlier and make lives of patients easier. As the blogger covering health IT and medical software for Software Advice, I decided to see what it would take to design three apps myself.

Disease Risk Calculator

Since proteins found in blood can be used as biomarkers to diagnose diseases from type 2 diabetes, to cancer, to HIV. Using tests that detect specific biomarkers of diseases long before clinical symptoms arise can lead to earlier treatment, saving lives.

A user interface, or UI, that indicated to a patient how his score on specific biomarkers had changed over time could help him visualize progress and compare himself to his peers.

Spirometer

Studies have found that measuring breathing difficulty before and after taking medicines for emphysema or chronic bronchitis can help people minimize shortness of breath. Often even after a patient has taken a medicine that does increase airflow to the lungs, their shortness of breath continues. But if a patient sees the measurement of her inspiratory flow–her in-breath–before she takes a medicine, the likelihood she’ll actually start breathing easier after she takes the medicine will be increased.  

Spirometers in patient hands today are cheap, simple devices, so a spirometer attached to a sophisticated app that could record breathing performance over time would be extremely useful for both patients and doctors.

Electrocardiogram

Interpreting the electrical activity of the heart over time is useful. It can tell you the rate and regularity of your heartbeats, as well as the size and position of your heart chambers. The presence of heart damage, as well as the impact of drugs or heart rate regulation devices such as pacemakers, can also be detected from an ECG.

If used by caregivers this device can help automate recognition of possible problems, rather than relying solely on the human eye to detect potential irregularities. In addition, doctors could take this device to the field.

Katie Matlack is the Medical Software Analyst at Software Advice, where she writes about health IT including web based home health software. You can view the full article this story is based on on the Software Advice blog. 
]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/guest-post-3-medical-devices-of-the-future-for-ios/feed/ 0 Re-Post: Telehealth boom could break down distance barriers http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/re-post-telehealth-boom-could-break-down-distance-barriers/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/re-post-telehealth-boom-could-break-down-distance-barriers/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:24:23 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2143 Continue reading →]]>

Telehealth still must overcome obstacles to reach predicted potential.

The combination of an ever-greater reach of the Internet and wireless technologies, the need to deliver health care services to isolated populations and the movement to reduce costs is pushing telehealth — health care delivered at a distance — into a more prominent role.

It’s been around in some form for many years, but it’s always been a relatively small niche in the overall health care universe. But that will soon change, according to United Kingdom-based market watcher InMedica, which predicts a more than $1 billion worldwide market for telehealth by 2016, which could jump to $6 billion by the end of the decade.

Home monitoring of patients, particularly to manage chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and congestive heart failure, is one big reason underlying this expansion, said Diane Wilkinson, research manager at InMedica.

“Many public health care systems now have targets to reduce both the number of hospital visits and the length of stay in hospital,” Wilkinson said. “This has led to a growing trend for health care to be managed outside the traditional hospital environment, and as a result, there is a growing trend for patients to be monitored in their home environment using telehealth technologies once their treatment is complete.”

There have been some large-scale trials in Europe and the United Kingdom, but by far, the most established market for telehealth is in the United States.

To continue reading click here

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/re-post-telehealth-boom-could-break-down-distance-barriers/feed/ 0 NRTRC Telemedicine Conference Giveaway http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/nrtrc-telemedicine-conference-giveaway/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/nrtrc-telemedicine-conference-giveaway/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:08:55 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2118 Continue reading →]]> NRTRC Telemedicine Conference Giveaway

The NRTRC Telemedicine Conference 2012 is fast approaching and we’d like to give one lucky person a free pass to come.  This giveaway is for one free registration to our conference.  It does not include any of the travel costs.  Entering is easy; simply leave a comment on this blog post with your name and your email address so we can contact you if you win.  This contest will go from today, Jan. 11th through midnight (MST) Wednesday, Jan. 25th.  The winner will be announced on Thursday the 26th via email.  This will give the rest of you who didn’t win a chance to still sign up for the early bird registration that ends on Feb. 1st.

In the spirit of giving you lots of chances to win you can enter every day on the blog but you can also enter by liking us on Facebook and then leaving a wall post again with your email address or by tweeting “I’m entering the @NRTRC Conference giveaway” or something like that.  Just remember to mention us in the tweet so we see it.

Here are the links to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

So to recap you have the chance to enter three times a day but just once per media, adding up to 45 chances to win!

Want more information on the conference go to www.nrtrc-conference.com

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to network and learn with other telehealth professionals from around the Northwest region!

 

*Prize is non-transferable

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/nrtrc-telemedicine-conference-giveaway/feed/ 5 Grant Opportunity from the NRTRC http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/grant-opportunity-from-the-nrtrc/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/grant-opportunity-from-the-nrtrc/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:23:56 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2083 Continue reading →]]> The Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center has announced a new grant opportunity for all their members.  These grants are available to anyone who is a member of the NRTRC (click here to find out how to become a member) and will be up to $10,000 maximum.

The deadline to apply is 5:00pm Mountain Time, Feb. 3rd.

For application and criteria click here.

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/grant-opportunity-from-the-nrtrc/feed/ 0 The World of mHealth http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-world-of-mhealth/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-world-of-mhealth/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:21:43 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2069 Continue reading →]]> Just this last week the mHealth Summit was held in Washington D.C.  I was not so prvileged to go but Tom did and came back bubbling with new information on the latest and greatest in mHealth.  Our next newsletter is going to be themed around mHealth, so keep an eye out for that.  If you don’t subscribe to our newsletter you can do that here.

Also, coming down the pipeline is a mHealth toolkit put together by TTAC (Telehealth Technology Assessment Center).  I’m not sure when they plan on having it done but I’m sure it will be ready in a few months.  In the meantime you can check out their website for other great toolkits. www.telehealthtac.org

Also, I found this article to be interesting:

British Study Shows that Telemedicine Decreases Death by 45% – Fierce Mobile

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-world-of-mhealth/feed/ 0 Seattle Children’s Hospital Says No to iPads…. http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/seattle-childrens-hospital-says-no-to-ipads/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/seattle-childrens-hospital-says-no-to-ipads/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:19:26 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2051 Continue reading →]]> For now at least.  I just read this article from CIO about how Seattle Children’s did a test with a handful of physicians using iPads in a clinical setting.  ”Every one of the clinicians returned the iPad, saying that it wasn’t going to work for day-to-day clinical work,” says CTO Wes Wright. “The EMR (electronic medical record) apps are unwieldy on the iPad.”  I wonder though was it really the iPad’s fault or was it the EMR’s?  I’m guessing a bit of both.  If the EMR had an app that was designed to work on an iPad, or any other tablet for that matter, would the clinicians love it?  We’ve all seen articles that promote iPad use in healthcare and how physicians are loving them so this article comes as a bit of a shock against the promotion of that idea.  Still if you read to the end of the article it does say that Seattle Children’s is open to the idea of using tablets in their workflow if the EMR develops an app for that.  Sorry I couldn’t help but use the cliche.  I believe that healthcare is going more and more mobile but it has a ways to go and not everything will be better in a mobile format.  And you won’t get completely away from using a keyboard and mouse anytime soon.  At least not until they develop the technology to implant the computer in our brains. What are your thoughts?

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/seattle-childrens-hospital-says-no-to-ipads/feed/ 0 Wyoming Telehealth Consortium Launches New Website http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/wyoming-telehealth-consortium-launches-new-website/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/wyoming-telehealth-consortium-launches-new-website/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:11:54 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=2032 Continue reading →]]> The Wyoming Telehealth Consortium has launched their new website today.  It is full of great information on telehealth in Wyoming and beyond.  On the home page you will find a short video describing what telemedicine is like in Wyoming.  So click on the link and go check it out!  http://wyomingtelehealth.org/

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/wyoming-telehealth-consortium-launches-new-website/feed/ 0 The Power of Social Media http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-power-of-social-media/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-power-of-social-media/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:04:11 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=1981 Continue reading →]]> Social media seems to be swirling around a lot lately.  Not only did we just have a great webinar on the subject but we also are about to release a full toolkit on how to use social media in telehealth within the next week or so.  It also seems that every newsletter I get in the last few months has at least one article if not the whole focus of the newsletter on social media and mHealth.   I think some would say that all this hype means it’s a passing trend, that everyone is crazy about it now but in a year no one will care enough to write about it anymore.  I agree on one thing in that statement and that is that in a year no one will write about it anymore because in a year it will be an expected part of life, and telemedicine, to include social media.  It will be routine.  I’m sure there are early adopters out there that would say it is already routine.  And to go right along with that some say, “it’s the future of telehealth” but that’s not true either it is the present of telehealth.  If you are not seriously looking to implement some form of blogging, facebook or YouTube into your program then you are behind the eight ball whether you realize it or not.

I’d like to share with you a news story I saw this morning about the power of social media.  It has nothing what so ever to do with telehealth, or even healthcare.  But what it does show is what one person on facebook can do.

http://www.ktvq.com/news/i-m-too-pretty-to-do-homework-t-shirt-yanked/

What is truly amazing about this story to me is that it only took four hours from the time that one person called for the t-shirts removal via facebook before the store pulled it from all of it’s stores and online!  Four hours!

And that is just for a stupid shirt.  Imagine what could be done with something as important as telemedicine in four hours with that kind of power behind it.

 

If you would like to take a look at the webinar recording you can click here or if you want to look at the toolkit that is located here.

facebook twitter

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/the-power-of-social-media/feed/ 0 Social Media in Telehealth http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/social-media-in-telehealth/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/social-media-in-telehealth/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:29:51 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=1967 Continue reading →]]> Today at 2pm Mountain Time we will be hosting an Open Mic Webianr on Social Media in Telehealth.  There is still time to register for this great event by going to this link.  The webinar will be presented by Christina Theilst.  Click here to read the flyer and bio on Christina.  During this webinar Christina will review the various social media tools, discuss planning strategy, applications in a telehealth setting and how to minimize the risks of social media.  If you’ve been wondering how Social Media can work to help your network then you need to attend this webinar.

 

 

]]> http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/social-media-in-telehealth/feed/ 0 School-based Telemedicine Survey http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/school-based-telemedicine-survey/ http://www.nrtrc.org/blog/school-based-telemedicine-survey/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:37:58 +0000 Sara_Rivera http://www.nrtrc.org/?p=1957 The Center for Rural Health Innovation is working to compile a list of all groups providing school-based telemedicine services across the nation through this survey.

Take Our Survey

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