Are Healthcare Consumers at the Forefront of Digital Health?

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA and Ben Heubl Simply put, healthcare is about the patient. Healthcare is a multidisciplinary team approach and patients are at the center of healthcare. The urge to understand healthcare and medicine from the perspective of the patient, or consumer, is something that even key stockholders fail to understand, writes David Shaywitz in a Forbes piece. The author refers to an article from The Journal of the American Medical Association…

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Grand Rounds on Healthin30 Features Health IT – Mobile Technology, Telemedicine and More

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Thank you to everyone who submitted posts for Grand Rounds. I greatly appreciate it.  Grand Rounds is a summary of the best health care writing online.  It features stories, opinions and analysis from doctors, nurses, patients, researchers and administrators, as well as journalists.  This edition features health care technology blogs from industry experts.  I explored the web searching for blogs that I feel are worthwhile to read.  If your…

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Health Care: Employers Encourage Healthy Lifestyles with Penalties and Rewards

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA How do companies curb health care costs? Do healthier employees lead to increased productivity?  Several progressive companies believe so and have committed to providing employees with programs to help engage them in a healthier lifestyle. As part of the incentives to lead a healthier lifestyle some employers have instituted a penalty and reward system tied to the companies’ benefits.  For example, smokers may incur a significant surcharge to the…

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Social Media: Top 5 Useful Health Tweets

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Twitter is a powerful form of social media, and it is a phenomenal resource for sharing information.  Twitter can help improve your health. A significant blog on Mashable, “HOW TO: Use Social Media for Better Health” by Ben Parr, he writes that “Healthy living can be a shared experience.” Social media is about connections and information, while healthy living is about consistency and knowledge. Combined, social media can bring…

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Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold launch Sharecare.com, where experts share their knowledge with consumers

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Sharecare.com launched yesterday in San Francisco at the Health 2.0 conference and while I was unable to attend this exciting event, I followed the live twitter feed (#health2con) and it almost felt like I was there.  Having attended the Health 2.0 conferences in the past, the excitement and energy that circulates is always infectious. As a registered nurse, I am thrilled and honored to be included and surrounded by…

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