The Food and Drug Administration recently published draft guidelines for pharmaceutical and medical device companies on the use of “emerging electronic media,” A.K.A. social media marketing and communication.

Though the FDA notes the proposed guidelines aren’t comprehensive and rather the “first of many planned guidance initiatives,” the move marks the first time the FDA has clearly addressed rules for Pharma and medical device makers’ digital communication via social media and other channels — even specifically mentioning services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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It was announced during this week’s mHealth Summit that Varolii, a company known for its cloud-based “customer and employee communication” solutions, has debuted a new multi-channel healthcare interaction suite that leverages everything from voice and SMS to email and smartphone capabilities.

Designed to help healthcare organizations lower operational costs and reach patients and members through multi-channel communication, the company’s platform capabilities will be delivered in new, fast-to-deploy applications tailored to the needs of healthcare providers, disease management and wellness organizations, and pharmacy benefit management companies.

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It was announced today that Diversinet, who bills itself as a “leader in connected and protected mobile healthcare communication,” has been awarded a patent for its method for storing sensitive personal health information on mobile devices.

U.S. Patent # 8,051,297, “A Method for Binding a Security Element to a Mobile Device,” covers the security of information on smartphones and tablets, and prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data via an “Anti-Cloning Encryption” method.  This method prevents access to the information if it’s transferred to another mobile device and uses characteristics of a mobile device’s unique identity, such as its serial number, to create the encryption passkey.

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On the mobileStorm company blog recently, CEO Jared Reitzin wrote an interesting opinion piece on why hospitals need to become amazing marketers — stemming from the many changes on the horizon  in terms of Medicare and within the healthcare industry in general.

For example, it’s been announced by the federal government that Medicare will begin cutting back payments to hospitals where high numbers of patients are readmitted, or to hospitals with higher-than-average costs for patient care.  What this means is that hospitals and healthcare organizations in general need to start taking steps to keep members healthier post-visit.  Doing so means influencing member behavior through the right messaging strategies, sent at the right time, to the right members.

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Apple’s FaceTime video calling functionality was one of the most popular features of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, and could have far reaching implications in the healthcare industry — if it was secured and adhered to rigorous HIPAA standards that is.

That may be a reality, however, as Apple has stated that FaceTime can become fully HIPAA-compliant through proper configuration.  FaceTime sessions are already encrypted, and through a WPA2 Enterprise configuration, FaceTime video sessions can have the extra security safeguards that HIPAA requires for communication.

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Mobile marketing provider iLoop Mobile has announced a partnership with Nashville-based Dialog Health to create “mobile engagement programs” aimed at helping improve communication with patients, customers and employees within the healthcare industry.

Dialog Health is a brand new startup created by a group of individuals with backgrounds spanning the healthcare, advertising and information technology industries.  Their primary aim is to create mobile communication solutions to put vital healthcare information in the hands of patients and caregivers.  Partnering with iLoop Mobile, a company that has deep roots in the mobile marketing industry, Dialog Health gains the knowledge of how to engage mobile users with both “push” and “pull” information exchanges.

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Since debuting its Personal Health Record (PHR) initiative, health insurance provider Aetna has announced that more than 1.5 million users have begun using the new platform to date.

In addition, members are finding that new “personalized health action plans” — an added function of the platform — can become a gateway to better overall health.  For example, based on a recent internal survey, members who use the new PHRs are following up on recommended care, such as getting needed blood tests or starting finess programs, 68 percent more often than members who aren’t using PHRs.

One of the primary reasons this is taking place is because of the alert/reminder system Aetna has built into the platform.  PHR users can take advantage of a variety of “care alerts,” that remind users of things like needed tests or even notices of possible harmful drug interactions.  Alerts and reminders are also built into additional “health action plans” such as ones designed to control diabetes, lose weight, lower cholesterol, quit smoking or reach a number of other health goals.

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