Patient-Centric Care at the Hub of Telehealth

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA The conundrum continued behind conference doors last week at the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) conference in Tampa about the efficacy of mobile phone usage to improve patient health. Lively discussions followed about the ROI for chronic disease management through mobile health and outcomes for remote patient monitoring focusing on whether telemedicine is excluded from meaningful use and reasons why telehealth should be a key component in Accountable Care Organizations…

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Heart Disease in Women: Ladies, Love Your Heart All Year Long

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Featured in USATODAY.com | Grand Rounds – Health Tips American Heart Month may be officially over, but don’t let the lack of media attention fool you into thinking heart disease isn’t a critical issue. We still need to be mindful of the fact that heart disease is the number one killer of women. There are simple lifestyle choices you can make to help prevent you from heart disease. I…

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Dr. Bill Crounse Talks with Todd Park: Comparing Health Insurance Plans Made Easy

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Microsoft’s Dr. Bill Crounse Talks with Todd Park, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on Health Tech Today There is a plethora of health information for consumers today.  We are surrounded by smart meaningful material, but somehow it is easy to get lost in the maze of information.  We get stuck navigating through it and we find it hard to obtain information that is right…

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The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Wants Innovative Health Care Developers

Guest post by Indu Subaiya and Matthew Holt The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge–It’s On! By Indu Subaiya & Matthew Holt [Original post published on The Health Care Blog July 8, 2010, and reprinted with permission from Matthew Holt.] Today is the formal kick-off of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge. The challenge was first announced by Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra on June 2 at the Community Health Data Initiative (CHDI) meeting, and it’s partly a continuation…

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Hope for Smokers

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Part I Some people think that a rainbow means hope and a new beginning. For those people who already smoked their first cigarette and are now addicted, there is hope to live a healthier life. If smokers are successful in quitting, they may see hope at the end of their rainbow. Hope in the form of living a healthier life and breathing easier. The truth is that most people…

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