Kaiser Permanente has just released a new API to go along with its very bold public encouragement to developers in hopes they will soon get to work creating tomorrow’s top mHealth smartphone applications.

“We’re looking for people to develop apps that offer value to our members” says Philip Fasano, Kaiser Permanente’s chief information officer.

As one of the nation’s biggest not-for-profit health plans, the company believes its API will inspire developers to do their greatest work.

“This is new territory for this industry. We have particular responsibility to our members; we need to be thoughtful about opening capabilities,” Fasano adds.

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A new Kalorama report points to dramatic growth in the telemedicine market over the last five years.

In particular, telemedicine patient monitoring ballooned from $4.2 billion in 2007 to north of $10 billion in 2012.

This Kalorama Information report, Advanced Remote Patient Monitoring Systems, is a comprehensive study on the patient monitoring industry, including the advanced system with remote and wireless capability to includes patient monitoring equipment and devices which have advanced features.

“Aging populations, increases in healthcare costs, advancing technologies and the often cost effectiveness of patient monitoring are all reasons contributing to market growth,” explains Erin McCann, Associate Editor of HealthCareITNews, which summarized the new Kalorama study’s findings. “Sales will continue their upward trend, as older monitoring equipment is replaced by wireless or remote monitors. Growth will increase over the forecast period as compatibility, privacy and security issues continue to be resolved.”

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Freshly published data and corresponding projections from MarketsandMarkets indicates that the global healthcare IT market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.0% to reach $56.7 billion by 2017 from $40.4 billion in 2012.

Factors ranging from a spike in incidents of chronic disorders, to the pressure to reduce healthcare costs are responsible for driving this anticipated growth, the report indicates.

North America (U.S. and Canada) commanded the highest share of the healthcare information technology market due to firm government support in terms of investment and incentives, growing demand of integrated healthcare IT system to achieve high return on investment, enhanced patient consumerism for quality care and safety, and rise in aging population.

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The Federal Communications Commission has quietly selected a new director of health care initiatives.

According to published reports Thursday, the job went to Matthew Quinn after the FCC first openly advertised the position in December 2012.

Based on details provided in the job description, the employed person “will lead the agency’s efforts in facilitating and promoting communications technologies and services that improve the quality of health care for all citizens and help reduce health care costs; facilitating the availability of medical devices that use spectrum; and ensuring hospitals and other health care facilities have required connectivity.”

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Cedars-Sinai hospital is touting a new program dubbed “BabyTime.”

The program in question uses Apple’s iPad to help mothers stay connected to their newborns, particularly in cases when they aren’t able to physically move shortly after giving birth.

The effort leverages the video messaging service made possible by the iOS-powered tablet, which creates a remote presence link between a new mother’s hospital room and the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“BabyTime will help bridge communication with the family and the baby’s medical team and is an excellent use of technology to help new mothers bond with their babies, even when they cannot be physically at their babies’ bedside,” explains Dr. Charles F. Simmons Jr., chair of the Cedars-Sinai Department of Pediatrics and Ruth and Harry Roman Chair in Neonatology. “When doctors and nurses are treating a newborn in the NICU, mom can be right there asking questions and getting updates, even if she’s on a different floor.”

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The GSMA is behind a new international campaign designed to raise awareness for how mHealth may provide answers for physicians and others looking to treat, prevent, and raise awareness about diabetes.

A disease that now affects close to 400 million people worldwide, diabetes has increasingly become a condition that can be effectively monitored and treated by doctors remotely, thereby similarly increasing the quality and frequency of care among these patients by medical professionals.

But the industry has a long way to go before its full potential has been reached, says the GSMA. As a result, the mDiabetes Campaign is designed to help medical professionals “better understand the commercial models for mDiabetes solutions that have launched or are in development, and to identify and address key market barriers, with the ultimate goal of stimulating the creating and delivery of clinically meaningful mDiabetes solutions.”

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Walgreens is continuing its aggressive mHealth push by launching yet another pilot program to allow customers to schedule appointment to its clinics directly from their smartphones.

The pilot program was launched at clinics in Denver and Chicago as a start, and to use the new scheduling service patients must first download the free iTriage app for iPhones and Android devices.  The partnership with iTriage is key, as it signifies how important this app has become in the mHealth space.  In its first three years since launch, for example, iTriage has seen more than 6 million downloads.

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