mHealth, Mobile Technology, and Our Wireless Future

iHealthBeat has posted a report detailing the progress being made in EHR system certifications under Stage 1 requirements for “meaningful use." The report, which includes some industry feedback, is available in audio form or transcript. Of the three testing and certification bodies authorized by the ONC, only the Certification Commission for Health Information IT reported a number of successful certifications to date (at least 36, as of this writing).

Certifications are under way, and products with EHR systems integration capability continue to become available. Medgaget has profiled German medical device manufacturer Seca’s wireless baby scale, which can be moved around the office space as needed and automatically enters data into an EHR. This is not to imply that scales with wireless reporting capabilities are new; Blue Cross of California made the news earlier this year when it announced it would deploy Bluetooth-enabled scales in the homes of patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

And speaking of mobile health technology, the mHealth Summit is being held in Washington, DC, on November 8-10. The conference program is posted online and boasts some industry heavy-hitters on the speaker list, with keynotes by Bill Gates, Aneesh Chopra, Julio Frenk, and Ted Turner.

I’m unable to attend, but would love to hear feedback from anyone else who goes. The conference appears to offer a little bit of something for a broad spectrum of health technology professionals, and although many of the sessions are forward-looking and will focus on changes in the industry that will happen in the next few years, several sessions will address the use of technology as it stands today. A prime example is the “Adolescence, Mobile Technology, and Culture” session led by Heather Patrick from the National Cancer Institute that will focus on the ways in which mobile technology is being leveraged to reach under-served adolescents.