This week, a new partnership was born for the benefit of mHealth across the pond.

Advanced Health & Care and GENTAG announced the market launch of a fully integrated wireless Near Field Communications feature cell phone.

The device is capable of remotely monitoring care worker visits in private homes. 4,000 GENTAG GT-601v2 NFC phones have already been deployed in the UK since June 2012, Wednesday’s announcement reads.

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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 growing sophistication of health information technology continues to dramatically impact all aspects of modern healthcare.

From boosting patient education to fostering colleboration among physicians and caretakers, the statistics are clear and compelling – health IT is changing healthcare for the better.

Fittingly, a new infographic from HealthIT.gov highlights how America’s healthcare providers are now using EHRs and Health IT to “achieve meaningful use and help to improve their patients’ care and health.”

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This week, the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) issued new guidance for healthcare organizations wanting to assess the state of their cybersecurity preparedness.

The release comes in direct response to the heightened awareness and concerns about cyber threats, attacks and incidents.

The guidance identifies an appropriate subset of controls within the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) that are most directly related to detecting and thwarting cyber-related breaches and allows organizations to assess against the cyber-specific controls and receive a snapshot of their cyber capabilities and readiness.

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The most miniscule of mobile technologies may soon change the way laboratory-quality blood tests are performed for certain patients suffering from chronic illness.

Swiss scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have created a remarkably compact device that can be implanted in a patient for the purpose of instantly testing and analyzing blood.

The results are then transmitted to healthcare providers via traditional cellular telephone network connectivity.

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Stanford engineers are touting a technological breakthrough that could change medicine and healthcare as we presently know them.

The latest Stanford research achievement could soon usher in a day where humans could carry microscopic natural computers inside their cells. The purpose would be to guard against disease and provide warning against imminent toxic threats.

Mercury News reported Monday that a team of engineers there has invented “genetic transistors,” completing a simple computer within a living cell.

This development is being universally hailed as a major step forward in the emerging field of synthetic biology.

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With debate reaching fever pitch over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s supposed consideration of regulations that could impact smartphones, tablets and mHealth apps, all eyes turn to Washington ahead of next week’s hearings on the Hill.

Lawmakers from the House Energy and Commerce committee will probe possible ways that regulation would impede further growth and innovation of mobile technologies in the field of healthcare.

The hearings follow a letter the committee sent to the FDA earlier this month, in which lawmakers questioned whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could allow the FDA to define smartphones and tablets with health-related apps as “medical devices” — and levy new taxes on developers and smartphone makers under the health-care law.

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