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Medical students and doctors typically plan out their career time lines as meticulously as Big Ben chimes on the hour. Though in a year when Big Ben has taken a break for some restoration work, perhaps it is time for entrepreneurial medical professionals to also take some time out to re-think their career goals.

By Dr. Vishaal Virani

The health tech start-up Better seemed to be hitting all the right notes. Backed by a star-studded cast of founders and partner institutions, Better aimed to help consumers manage the complexities of the healthcare system. So why did they have to close their doors in 2015? 

By Rishi Madhok, MD

As many as one in seven couples struggles with infertility, yet so often they struggle alone, feeling the topic is taboo or not appropriate for conversation. Jennifer Aldoretta (pictured), co-founder and CEO of Groove, hopes that her new mobile app can help bring these conversations into the light by providing high tech menstruation and fertility tracking.

By JENNIFER ALDORETTA,
AS TOLD TO BILL GORDON  

Millions of Americans live in areas – both rural and urban – void of pharmacies. Telepharmacy services are beginning to bridge the gap.

By Larry McClain

When it comes to telemedicine, few medical specialties are more suitable than ophthalmology and optometry. The need is great: according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired. It’s an issue that affects all ages, genders, and ethnicities, and it places a difficult burden not only on the individual, but on the family, and often on society as a whole. But the prognosis is excellent: 80 percent of these visual impairments are treatable and can be prevented with access to even basic vision care services.

By Scott Jung

Dr. Alan Roga, senior vice president and general manager of Teladoc’s provider market, talks cost savings, utilization and why Teladoc has never been sued for malpractice.

Interview by Logan Plaster

There is a new category of telemedicine popping up called Tele-rehab in which physical rehabilitation services are provided via an app or web platform. Companies like Telespine, Simple Therapy, RespondWell and Rezoom are changing the way people access and utilize traditional services. Reflexion Health has even created an at-home rehab service based on the Xbox Kinect. Here’s a look at where this burgeoning field is heading. 

By Bill Gordon

Emergency Physicians Monthly and Telemedicine Magazine will be exploring the ACEP floor looking for new stories starting Sunday, October 16. Come find us booth #S2227.

Although HealthKit and ResearchKit were ambitious in their own right, CareKit has enormous potential (and also great potential for failure).

By Nicholas Genes, MD, PHD

As we continue our wired home series, we shift our focus to a critical area in any home, the kitchen! Smart kitchen devices are now commonplace in the internet of healthy things, with a whole host of connected accessories and appliances available. Here’s a rundown of tech advances that will help keep consumers healthier longer.

by Aneel Irfan

Modeled after the Apple Genius Bar, these consumer-oriented digital health hubs help patients take steps towards more comprehensive health tracking.    

By Jeremy Lacocque, DO & Nicholas Genes, MD, PHD

According to Larry Jones, CEO and founder of Telacare, telemedicine is in need of a backend overhaul. A computer programmer by training, Jones wants to fundamentally rethink the software backbone for how digital health gets delivered.

as told to Logan Plaster

The American Medical Association (AMA) has had an up and down relationship with telemedicine. This tension was palpable at the association’s annual meeting in June.

By Aneel Irfan

In 1996, Sky Christopherson was one of the promising young cyclists in Project ’96, the ambitious development program built around Lance Armstrong and expected to redeem USA Cycling’s embarrassing performance at the ’88 and ‘92 Olympic games. In 2009, with his Olympic-level intensity now focused on building an Internet startup, he worked himself into the back of an ambulance with a tightness in his chest and pain in his shoulder. Two years later he broke a track cycling world record in the 200-meter sprint, a physiological coup made possible by an experimental program leveraging health tracking and data analytics.

In Conversation with Sky Christopherson
by John Tyler Allen

After entering the telemedicine arena in 1993 with a service called eConsult, Avera has grown to be one of the nation’s most robust telemedicine hubs, servicing 31 hospitals through eight distinct service lines – including eEmergency. Telemedicine caught up with Dr. Brian Skow, executive medical director of the eCare hub in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to learn about Avera’s operations. 

Interview by Logan Plaster

Millions of Americans live in areas – both rural and urban – void of pharmacies. Telepharmacy services are beginning to bridge the gap.

By Larry McClain

Before there were Fitbits and Teladocs there was Apollo 13 and Skylab. If you want to gain some perspective on the future of wearable health tracking, take a look back at the industry’s high flying pioneers.

by Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD

Ten years from now, telehealth will be an integral part of every American’s health experience. Remote monitors will seamlessly collect our health information from home, routine check-ups will be as easy as a Facetime call, and rural health centers will simply patch-in the world’s best specialists for meaningful consultations as-needed.

By Unity Stoakes

In a world of software services and algorithm-driven applications, a few companies stand out as truly inventing the hardware that will redefine healthcare. In addition to the challenges of server space and flat UX design, these companies iron out the complexities of supply chain, custom factory build-outs and material shortages.
 

By Logan Plaster

A unique partnership seeks to bring telemedicine to one of America’s most remote island communities. The biggest challenge so far has been supplying fast, reliable internet connectivity at a price a small town can afford.

By Michael Levin-Epstein

Sure signs of progress could be seen at the three 2016 TRC event stops on our first national tour. The CTN’s Summit in San Diego, the SWTRC’s provider showcase in Phoenix, and SCTRC’s Nashville forum all just about doubled in attendance this year. These organizations continue to be at the forefront of telehealth awareness, creating hubs for dialogue on change. Look for video interviews from these shows on our website, www.telemedmag.com. Keep up the good work, TRCs!  

Edited by Aneel Irfan

If you want your company to be the next big thing, pay as much attention to how your company operates as you do to the shiny product you provide to the world.  

by Bill Gordon

This past April Telemedicine Magazine teamed up with Weill Cornell and Health Solutions Africa to present a med tech workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. Our goal: Bring together about 100 physicians over two days to learn about healthcare innovation.

Writer Scott Jung

When we think of telemedicine we often think of speaking with a doctor over a video chat. But Joe Burton, CEO of Whil, has taken these concepts to a new arena: Mindfulness. Whil uses videos and mobile training programs to integrate mindfulness into every aspect of your life so you can pay attention to the present and fully engage in what is happening around you. If that sounds like soft science, you haven’t met Whil’s big data. Joe Burton explains the essence of Whil, and how a new level of data tracking is allowing employers like Google to prove the efficacy of mindfulness training.

Interview with Bill Gordon

The American Optometric Association (AOA) calls Opternative a ‘snake oil salesmen’, but is this just a classic case of turf warfare? 

By Rishi Madhok, MD

What if we could heal the ‘wounds’ of a cyber attack in the same way that our body’s immune system handles vaccines?

by Graham Plaster

NODE health is the Network for Digital Evidence – a group of clinicians, researchers and developers who set themselves the task of evaluating digital health.  Brought together by Dr. Ashish Atreja, NODE holds that digital health devices and platforms are lacking the studies and evidence that we associate with other healthcare interventions.

A smartphone that measures lung sounds? Sure. But now, even dumbphones are getting in on the action.

by Lonnie Stoltzfoos

Just because you’re using HIPAA-compliant telemedicine software doesn’t mean that you aren’t violating HIPAA. Here are six pitfalls to avoid.   

by Teresa Iafolla

As recently as last September, Theranos still seemed like an amazing Cinderella story. Nineteen-year-old Stanford dropout disrupts the laboratory testing industry and becomes America’s youngest female billionaire. But as a lack of transparency gave way to unsettling reports about test accuracy, this Silicon Valley unicorn began to fall apart before our eyes.