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Nine Hospitals Leading the Way In Mobile Health

A special edition from Brian Dolan and MobiHealthNews features 9 "Mobile Health Hospitals."  These organizations have "...worked with startups and others in the mobile health industry to hone services, devices and applications not yet in the market."

Organizations and their mobile health initiatives include:
  • Stanford Hospital & Clinics (CA) - combining Haiku - Epic Systems' mobile phone-based EHR system - with Apple's iPhone to create an "iPhone EMR."
  • Mt. Sinai (NY) - texting liver transplant patients to encourage adherence to treatment regimens and improve outcomes.
  • Meridian Health (NJ)- are consumers comfortable buying connected health devices at a big box electronics store?  Research is underway with Best Buy to find out.
  • Sarasota Memorial (FL) - developing a mobile communication platform for nurses using Voalte's iPhone-based capabilities.
  • Partners Healthcare (MA) - rolling out a nationwide blood pressure tracking service with proven clinical results and positive ROI.
  • St. Francis Hospital (NY)  - piloting a wireless pacemaker that connects to a server at least once per day to upload data or alerts.
  • St. Mary's Hospital (London, UK) - conducting clinical trials of a peel-and-stick vital sign monitoring system.
  • Mayo Clinic (MN) - monitoring vital signs at home, using videoconferencing to support patient-provider connectivity, all with the goals of reducing hospital admissions and ER visits.
  • Princeton Baptist Medical Center (AL) - testing wireless hand hygiene monitoring using RFID to monitor hand hygiene prior to and after entering a patient room.
According to Dolan, 
    "The nine mobile health hospitals detailed (above) have lent a hand to wireless health startups across the spectrum of devices and services, including text message reminders, wireless peel-and-stick vital sign monitoring, wireless implantable devices and much, much more. These are nine care providers worth recognizing as their support for and publicity of mobile health helps many more than the startups and vendor partners they worked with directly. Their willingness to share their interest in mobile health raises all boats."

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    Comments

    Anonymous said…
    Great list giving a nod to innovative healthcare institutions. What strikes me about the list how many of these technologies could impact both hospital/worker operations and patient after-care--both of which contribute greatly to rising costs. I am all for the acquiring the latest and greatest diagnostic/treatment tools, but these do not always promise to drive down the overwhelming cost of healthcare services delivery.

    I am especially impressed with the RFID hand washing system because I have wondered for years about the unscientific practice of monitoring hand hygiene. We all know bad data only makes for bad decisions down the road. I worked in a hospital where a worker literally walks around with a clipboard tabulating by hand the amount of times workers wash or do not wash. Kudos to Princeton Baptist Medical Center for finally getting an accurate, consistent measurement!
    May 25, 2010 at 5:44 PM
    Anonymous said…
    It is very encouraging to see these healthcare organizations be proactive with mHealth initiatives. They a setting a great example for providing remote healthcare on a large scale in the near future. At Globaltel Media we've adapted text message technology to aid patients in everything from appointment scheduling/reminders to rehabilitation support via mobile video. The physicians we've been working with overwhelmingly agree that appointment reminders and rescheduling have been top requests from their patients, but other capabilities like remote diagnostics have also been in high request. It will be interesting to see how mHealth will adjust as devices become more sophisticated, but all signs point to a much more mobile-focused approach to healthcare.
    May 28, 2010 at 6:58 PM
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