Centricity Radiology Mobile Access Receives FDA Clearance for Advanced, Diagnostic CT and MR Image Review

GE is one of the oldest countries in America.  They have led the way in so many technologies that it is really no surprise that they are leading the way in mHealth apps.  GE Healthcare announced yesterday that their Centricity Radiology Mobile Access App has received FDA clearance for Advanced DiagnosticCT and MR Image Review.  This is not the first app to receive clearance, but it is probably the most important thus far.

A recent study from ABI Research predicted that the mobile health app market is on track to hit $400 million by 2016 (up from $120 million in 2010), and with that much money on the table, you have to think major companies are looking to see how they care share the wealth.  One thing that is undoubtedly holding some companies back is not knowing what regulations are going to be placed on mHealth apps.  With the Centricity Radiology Access App receiving their 510(k) clearance I have to think more companies will be following suit ver quickly.

While there is still some uncertainty as to what regulations may still be coming, announcements like this have to embolden other companies to get their own apps on the market.  We aren’t just talking about apps that measure your exercise, or give you tips about staying healthy.  These are apps that can greatly enhance patient experiences, drastically cut diagnosis times, decrease pain, and possibly even save lives.

The app allows radiologists to provide review and diagnose images while away from their hospital workstation within moments of the scans being taken, reducing test result wait times.  Most of your time as a patient is spent waiting for various phases of the visit to take place.  If they can dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes for tests to come back then the whole process will be expedited.

From the press release:

Centricity Radiology Mobile Access 2.0 is the industry’s only mobile product with clearance for primary diagnosis that accesses images and reports from Centricity PACS. This new mode of access removes a sizable productivity barrier for an increasingly mobile field.

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“This application and its diagnostic clearance provide further validation of our continued investment in our Centricity PACS platform,” said Don Woodlock, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare IT. “As a native application for the Apple iOS and Android operating systems, Centricity Radiology Mobile Access requires very little training and, we believe, provides a more productive user experience versus an emulated Windows application that was designed to be driven by a mouse. Today, Centricity PACS stores one in five exams in the US. These advanced wireless capabilities will only expand its utility.”

While this is clearly of great benefit to the radiology community, it is important news for the mHealth industry as a whole.  I have said for a long time that the real boom of mHealth will be when the major companies put their minds and money behind development to generate apps that truly help save lives.  Seeing more apps receive their 510(k) clearance from the FDA will only help push the movement forward.

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December 2, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPad  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
Tags:ABI Research  Advanced DiagnosticCT and MR Image Review      Centricity PACS  Centricity Radiology Mobile Access 2.0  Don Woodlock  FDA Cleared Mobile Apps  GE Healthcare  Healthcare App Regulations  iPhone Radiology Apps  Radiology Smartphone Apps

Microsoft’s HealthVault Now Going Mobile

The full press release can be found here, and there are some great screen shots at this website, but here are my thoughts on the release.

After essentially leading the early years of the computer age Microsoft appears to be consistently playing catch-up.  They have chased after the ideas of others for years now.  The best example probably being the development of Bing trying to catch up with Google.

I find it amusing that they are now announcing the release of HealthVault to the mobile market as if they are the first company to release to the mobile market.  It looks like a worthwhile app, and has some great value in the long run, but it never ceases to amuse me how Microsoft always feels like they are the top dog in everything when they are actually just following a trend.  End rant.

As for the app itself there are some very interesting aspects.

The first being simply the mobile availability of features.  It is very convenient for people to carry their personal health record in their pocket.  This would allow patients to look up their medical history when filling out forms, and tell doctors exactly what they have been taking or been diagnosed with in the past.

Right now it is only available on Windows Phone 7, but that it should be available on the Apple iOS and Google Android in the coming weeks.  They have also built in client libraries to allow for the development of related apps.  The first one, Health Guard by Akvelon is already available on the WP7 marketplace.

HealthVault does a good job of translating CCR and CCD files into the PHR which is convenient since that is what most doctors are starting to use as they work towards attaining Meaningful Use.  The sheer convenience of this inputting method should help drive their product.  Users will still have the option to input manually, and anything that is not recognized will default to a manual input, but the more automation involved the more likely people will be to adopt it.

Maybe the most interesting aspect of the release is the ability to use Facebook to access the site.  By using your Facebook credentials you can populate the sign up form take advantage of what HealthVault has to offer.  With the amount of people that think of Facebook as the internet and how it drives their lives, this makes tons of sense.  They did emphasize that there will be no flow of information from HealthVault back to Facebook, but that if they ever were to develop such apps they would not be implemented without the express permission of users.

This really brings up an interesting discussion about EHR/EMR/PHR and social networking.  This was addressed in a video done by the founder of emrandhipaa.com which can be found here.  I don’t think we will be seeing people’s health records end up on their wall or anything, but I do think we will start to see apps that more widely cover our personal healthcare and take advantage of the power of Facebook.

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June 8, 2011 I Written By

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones  Windows Phone
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