Monthly Archives: January 2013

Five Pitfalls of Designing a Medical App

Posted on January 31, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

There are an estimated 15,000 medical apps presently on the market and is expected to grow 25% per year according to one study.  There are issues which are common in the development of these apps and other categories of apps. … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, FDA, informatics, medical apps, mHealth, mobile health, smartphone apps, technology, telehealth, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Five Reasons Why Self-Insured Companies Need Mobile Health

Posted on January 29, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

According to 2011 research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute,  workers for companies with self-insured health plans make up 58.5% of workers with health coverage compared to 40.9% in 1998. The increase has been consistent over time. This percentage varied … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, fitness, health insurance, healthcare economics, healthcare reform, medical apps, medical devices, mHealth, smartphone apps, technology, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What Does the Ideal Hospital mHealth Strategy Look like?

Posted on January 24, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

Most hospital IT administrators are presently dealing with Implementation of Stage 2 of Meaningful Use as well as planning for conversion to ICD-10 coding. Among more advanced institutions, the topic of the day is development of a mobile strategy. The … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, Healthcare IT, healthcare vendors, medical apps, medical devices, mHealth, mobile health, smartphone apps, technology, telehealth, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Cardiac Patients will Benefit from Digital Health Technologies

Posted on January 22, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

Cardiovascular disease, specifically sudden cardiac death is the number one killer in the USA and most westernized countries. Many of the technologies which have been developed to address the problems of cardiac diseases have centered on expensive devices such as … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, Healthcare IT, healthcare reform, Implantable Defibrillators, mHealth, mobile health, smartphone apps, sudden cardiac arrest, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Case for Efficacy Studies of Digital Health Technologies

Posted on January 17, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

As many readers of this blog know, I have long been a proponent of proven technology in the digital health space.  Probably the most obvious reason is to dispel the generalized notion that these technologies are flimsy.  The HHS Text4HealthTask … Continue reading →

Posted in clinical trials, digital health, healthcare economics, Healthcare IT, healthcare reform, medical apps, medical devices, mHealth, mobile health, smartphone apps, technology, telehealth, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Business Models of Digital Health Technologies: Implications for ROI

Posted on January 11, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

In my last post I discussed problems with measuring the ROI of digital health technologies.  One of the problems is that the sector doesn’t fit neatly into traditional healthcare business models. There have been multiple articles  written about business models … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, FDA, Healthcare IT, healthcare vendors, medical devices, mHealth, mobile health, smartphone apps, technology, telehealth, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Measuring the ROI of Digital Health Technologies

Posted on January 8, 2013 by David Lee Scher, MD

     Alere’s purchase of Medapps prompts me to discuss a question posed to me daily, “What is the ROI of digital health technologies?”  Discussants in the Digital Health Linkedin Group were surprised at the purchase price of ‘no greater … Continue reading →

Posted in digital health, fitness, health insurance, healthcare economics, medical apps, medical devices, mHealth, mobile health, wireless health | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments