HIMSS

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 and HIMSS are accepting speaker proposals for Pop Health Forum 2017, April 3-4, in Boston.

The top five markets for mobile health app companies in Europe include Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, according to a survey of 5,000 app developers, healthcare professionals, and digital health practitioners.

In a pilot that included more than 350 chronic heart failure patients, a Philadelphia hospital was able to reduce its 30-day readmissions by 10 percent -- a 40 percent improvement over baseline -- by using email and text message reminders to get patients into follow-up appointments.

Value-based care, patient engagement, and data analytics are three of the biggest trends in healthcare, according to a panel of health investors that spoke at HIMSS 2015 in Chicago this week.

Nearly a third of healthcare providers offer organization-specific apps for their patients, according to a small survey of healthcare providers conducted by HIMSS.

Since Walgreens merged with UK drugstore chain Boots last year, the company has been ramping up its digital strategy and has announced a slew of strategic partnerships with companies like Qualcomm Life, WebMD, MDLive, and PatientsLikeMe.

More than two-thirds of clinicians at US hospitals use smartphones or tablet computers at their facilities, according to a small HIMSS survey of 139 clinicians.

Forty-six percent of healthcare providers answering a HIMSS survey used multiple telemedicine technologies in their practice, with the most popular technology by far being two-way video messaging.

Teladoc was one of the many signatories on one of the letters recently sent to incoming HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.