Information technology
Telehealth providers makes a play for online psychiatry services | mHealth IntelligenceTelehealth providers are targeting the nation's growing mental health crisis with online platforms that allow providers to speak with patients in their own homes, where they're more comfortable and likely to be more at ease speaking to a professional.
UPMC-backed company to offer telemedicine in nursing homes | Pittsburgh Business Times
A UPMC doctor has helped launch a company, backed by UPMC Enterprises, that will bring comprehensive telemedicine services to a crucial population — nursing home patients. Curavi Health, a Pittsburgh-based company, plans to offer customers specialized telemedicine equipment and software, as well as access to doctors who can assess elderly patients at night and on the weekends, when staffing at nursing homes is sparse.
Texas lags behind on adoption of telemedicine, report says | Austin (Texas) Business Journal
Texas has some work to do if it's going to get serious about telemedicine. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Texas Association of Business, which highlights why telemedicine must be part of the solution to Texas' health care challenges.
Zuckerberg family fund to invest $3 billion in research technology | The Wall Street Journal
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Wednesday committed to invest more than $3 billion during the next decade to build technology that can speed up research on disease.
Turn off the computer and listen to the patient | The Wall Street Journal
In an opinion piece, Drs. Caleb Gardner and John Levinson write modern medicine “is losing its humanity amid increasingly automated and computer-driven interactions between doctors and patients.”
Pharmaceuticals
Valeant avoids double-digit price hikes with 9.9% increases | STATIn response to intensifying criticism over drug prices, Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders promised not to raise prices by more than single-digit percentage points. So far, no other head of a large drug maker has spoken publicly about this notion or agreed to do the same thing.
Physicians
Doctor confesses: I lied to protect colleague in malpractice suit | NPRDr. Lars Aanning, a retired physician, confesses that he lied in a medical malpractice trial more than 20 years ago in order to protect the career of a colleague.
Safety, quality and clinical practice
Emergency rooms slow to treat, transfer psychiatric patients | ReutersEmergency room patients needing mental health care were transferred to other facilities six times more often than patients needing other services, and they waited longer to be treated or moved, a new study found.
Maternal mortality rate in U.S. rises, defying global trend, study finds | The New York Times
One of the biggest worldwide public health triumphs in recent years has been maternal mortality. Global death rates fell by more than a third from 2000 to 2015. The United States, however, is one of the few countries in the world that have gone against the grain, new data show.
