TEDMED Challenge of Health and Medicine – Improving Medical Communications

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Health care is about you being in charge of your health. It’s about you partnering and communicating with your doctor and other health care providers. Patient engagement is essential and it begins with you being an empowered and proactive patient. How can we improve communication between doctor and patient? A critical first step is to gather knowledge and ideas from all of us with a passion for improving our…

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Too Much Hype in the Mobile Health App World?

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA [Original post, “Too Much Hype in the Mobile Health App World?” published on The Huffington Post on 7/23/12 in the Healthy Living/Health News Section.] The Wild West of mobile health (mHealth) is taking the health care industry by storm, but “there are no rules to the game,” said Joseph C. Kvedar, M.D., founder and director at the Center for Connected Health in a recent interview. Mobile health is a…

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mHealth: Valuable information in PwC report, but are the findings remarkable?

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA A recent report, (PDF link) “Emerging mHealth:  Paths for growth,” commissioned by PwC, (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) the Economist Intelligence Unit, is well executed, however it’s important to understand the research sample for this survey. Is it possible that the results of the survey would be different if the sample was broader in terms of the types of patients questioned and the doctors and executives from payer organizations that were selected were…

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Patient Engagement and Health IT – Social Media Voices

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Four active social media influencers share their voices to define patient engagement and comment on why digital technology is important for the doctor/patient and caregiver relationship. What is patient engagement and how important is digital technology for the doctor/patient relationship? Twitter Jody Schoger @jodyms Writer, blogger. Optimist. Cancer Advocate. Working for a better world, one word at a time. The Woodlands, Texas • http://womenwcancer.blogspot.com/ The only person with the…

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