Patient Care

This page includes news coverage of various aspects of patient healthcare, including new technology innovations, what is working, what is not, personalized medicine and remote and telemedicine delivery. Find specific news in the areas of Care DeliveryDigital TransformationPrecision MedicineRemote Monitoring and Telehealth.

Siemens nets a $70M imaging contract in Iraq

Siemens Healthcare will supply diagnostics imaging equipment to all Ministry of Health hospitals (approximately 100) across Iraq.

GE appoints Denman as CMO

William Denman, MD, has been appointed chief medical officer (CMO) at GE Healthcare.

iPad apps debut, MDs weigh in on communication, EHRs

Apple's announcement of the iPad made headlines last week. Shortly after the announcement, vendors began announcing applications that might help make the device a game-changer for healthcare IT--or not. At press time, the ayes still held a narrow lead in our poll of CMIO.net readers about whether or not the technology has the functionality to be widely adopted within healthcare. Among respondents, the affirmative responses held a 51-45 edge.

NEJM: Functional MRI + mental tasks may indicate awareness for vegetative patients

A combined technique utilizing functional MRI and mental-imagery tasks have proven that a small proportion of patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative or minimally conscious state may have brain activity reflecting some awareness and cognition, according to the results of a study published online Feb. 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bos Sci settles long-standing stent patent disputes with J&J for $1.7B

Boston Scientific has settled three patent disputes with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for $1.73 billion.

IBM to acquire Initiate Systems for undisclosed sum

IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, a provider of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Advanced imaging accreditation looms, and that's good

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently approved three organizations as designated accrediting bodies for non-hospital providers of advanced medical imaging. Stephen Green, MD, chief of cardiology at North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, N.Y., said that such accreditation standardization makes sense.

AIM: Multidetector CT bests MRI in ruling out coronary artery disease

For ruling out coronary artery disease (CAD), multidetector CT (16-slice or more) is more accurate than MRI, according to a retrospective study in todays Annals of Internal Medicine.

Around the web

U.S. health systems are increasingly leveraging digital health to conduct their operations, but how health systems are using digital health in their strategies can vary widely.

When human counselors are unavailable to provide work-based wellness coaching, robots can substitute—as long as the workers are comfortable with emerging technologies and the machines aren’t overly humanlike.

A vendor that supplies EHR software to public health agencies is partnering with a health-tech startup in the cloud-communications space to equip state and local governments for managing their response to the COVID-19 crisis.