Next summer there will likely be slightly more than 13,000 health apps intended for use by consumers available for download in Apple's AppStore, according to MobiHealthNews' latest report: Consumer Health Apps for Apple's iPhone. Based on an analysis of 18 months of data from Apple's AppStore, it's also clear the the average price of a paid health app is trending upward. Last February the average...
ZocDoc a free iPhone, Android, or web app that enables users to schedule dentist and doctor appointments launched in the greater Boston area last week. ZocDoc's database includes user reviews of providers, which insurance they accept, and other relevant background information to help potential patients determine the best provider for them. Users can also find out ahead of time whether they will...
LookTel powered by NantWorks
Earlier this month Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announced the name of the company that he has been building through a series of acquisitions over the past few years: NantWorks. This week Vodafone announced that it had partnered with NantWorks on researching and developing remote patient care mobile health services over advanced wireless networks. Vodafone recently opened...
By Bradley Merrill Thompson
FDA's exemption for EHRs seems headed the way of the dodo bird. Nobody planned it that way, but a combination of opposing trends-- the trend toward greater and greater functionality for EHRs and the trend toward greater FDA regulation of any software functionality that can impact patients -- means there may very well be little left of the traditional EHR exemption in...
Teladoc announced this week a round of funding totaling $18.6 million, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Other investors in the funding round include Cardinal Partners, HLM Venture Partners, Trident Capital, and New Capital Partners.
Teladoc offers consumers remote consultations with licensed physicians for routine medical issues. The visits are on-demand and can be scheduled...
Given the steadily rising popularity of the iPhone and iPad among US physicians it's surprising this didn't happen sooner: Apple just made it a little bit easier for healthcare professionals to find apps for their iPhones and iPads. This month the Cupertino-based company added a new area of its AppStore purportedly just for the healthcare professional crowd.
On September 2, Apple quietly launched...
London, UK-based mobile diabetes technology startup Cellnovo inked a deal with Johnson & Johnson company LifeScan that sees the startup embedding LifeScan glucometer technology into its mobile health offering.
Cellnovo's system includes an insulin patch pump and a touchscreen handset that transmits patient data via cellular networks to a secure online portal that both patients and healthcare...
This morning at the FDA's public Workshop on its Mobile Medical Applications Draft Guidance, which it published in July, FDA senior advisor Bakul Patel noted that Medco had registered its smartphone app Medco Pharmacy App as a Class 1 medical device. The app became commercially available in mid-May and marked a collaboration between the pharmaceutical company and Verizon Wireless, which is...
This week the Federal Trade Commission made an unprecedented move to remove two medical apps from the Apple AppStore and Android Market on grounds that they made unsubstantiated efficacy claims. The apps both offered "light therapy" to treat a user's acne. Both developers were ordered to pay back the monies they made by selling the apps to consumers.
While app stores have offered a number of apps...
By Brian Dolan and Chris Gullo
In a watershed moment, the FTC this week fined two app developers who falsely advertised that their smartphone apps could treat acne. The apps, AcneApp and Acne Pwner, were sold in the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace, respectively. The settlements ban the developers from stating certain health-related claims without scientific evidence. AcneApp's...
