Healthcare Technology Featured Article

August 02, 2014

Health TechZone Week in Review


The medical technology industry is always seeking out new ways to improve the quality of healthcare for those who need it, as well as keeping those who don't healthy enough to stay that way. Mobile apps, electronic health records, and cloud-based data networks all work together to create the health centers of the future today. Even the way that patients meet with their doctors is changing, as telemedicine practices allow patients to conduct a checkup over a video client without ever having to enter a hospital. Here are some of this week's top headlines in the world of healthcare technology.

Telemedicine provider HealthTap has recently expanded their services with HealthTap Prime, which allows subscribers to pay $99 monthly for an unlimited number of doctor visits over a video conferencing service. This allows patients with burning questions about recently developed symptoms to meet with doctors on their own time, without having to waste a trip to the hospital if it turns out to be nothing serious. Not only does telemedicine help to reduce hospital crowding, but it also helps reduce the spread of infection by keeping more people out of the hospital.

Another tool working well in conjunction with telemedicine is electronic prescribing, which is more commonly referred to as ePrescribing. The concept of getting a prescription over the Internet sounds dangerous to some since the patients are never actually meeting with a doctor, but in concert with telemedicine the practice is relatively safe. While the practice has not become widely adopted yet, experts believe that it will become mainstream in as little as a year from now.

Meanwhile, Aruba Networks made the announcement earlier this week that the University of Miami and the Uhealth-University of Miami Health System had received a major network upgrade. This upgrade will impact around 200 buildings across three campuses, affecting more than 15,000 students. Ultimately, this will allow for a much faster and more efficient storage and sharing capability for patient medical records and information.

Finally, a new health-monitoring app called Kurbo is aimed at fighting childhood obesity through mobile devices. By targeting both diet and exercise, Kurbo is designed to teach children the 'ins and outs' of weight loss in a much safer manner than other apps, which are designed for adults. A kid-friendly app instead provides exercises that are less likely to strain their young bodies, in a fun format that children will enjoy.



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