Kaiser Permanente has announced the launch of its latest mobile initiative — a full featured “Health Management” app for iOS.

Like its other mobile offerings, the new app allows members to access many of the same tools already available via its “My Health Manager” tool on kp.org.  Members can email their providers, check lab test results, order prescription refills, manage appointments and more — all from their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.  This latest move comes on the heals of Kaiser making the largest electronic health record system in the world accessible via smartphones with the launch of its mobile-optimized website m.kp.org.

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It’s been revealed that more than $439M has been poured into 70 different Web 2.0 healthcare startups that develop mobile health apps and tools for online social networking and collaboration in 2011.

In 2010, a little more than $305M was raised for 43 different deals, meaning 2011 showed a 44% increase in dollars invested and a 63% increase in deals funded compared to 2010.  ”We are at the very early stages of an evolution in the entire healthcare system,” Jessica Canning, global research director for Dow Jones VentureSource, told InformationWeek Healthcare. “We are essentially witnessing the democratization of healthcare where detailed information is being collected both from healthy people as well as individuals trying to improve their physical wellness.”

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It’s been announced that the Mayo Clinic has once again teamed with mobile app provider Preventice to create an mHealth solution.  Unlike the last partnership the two organizations aren’t working on an app, but rather a remote monitoring device called “Body Guardian” — which is being developed to monitor irregular heart rhythms.

The new device is meant to be worn unnoticeable under one’s clothing and tracks heart and respiratory rates, ECG, physical activity and other vital signs.  Using the patients smartphone, the data is transmitted back to a physician.  The system can be setup to monitor regular rhythms and only send data back to a physician when irregularities and/or cardiac events are detected.

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It was announced today that Highmark – a Pittsburgh-based independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association — has partnered with mobileStorm to power a new mobile messaging initiative to reach members, employees, group customers and the community at large on their mobile devices.

Highmark is currently implementing mobile campaigns to influence healthy behaviors for members as well as its own employee base, while also evaluating opportunities to use additional SMS initiatives to reach group customers and the general community.  Highmark is leveraging mobileStorm for Healthcare, the company’s multi-channel healthcare messaging system that enables both healthcare payers and providers to launch powerful one-to-many campaigns with a virtually limitless number of members.

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It was announced today that the American Diabetes Association (ADA) of Washington State is partnering with Numera, a provider of telehealth and other mHealth solutions, to “reach the diabetes community with a new approach to wellness and chronic health management.”

“Numera Social,” which is a Facebook and mobile application, will target anyone who would like to participate in plans and challenges that guide an individual through the process of making important nutrition and exercise changes to slow the progression of diabetes.  The ADA/Numera Social application will be prominently featured at the ADA Expo on April 21, 2012 at the Washington State Convention Center.

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Back in December at the mHealth Summit, the Surgeon General’s office launched a challenge that called on mobile app developers to create apps in three different categories; healthy eating & nutrition; physical fitness/activity; and integrative health and well-being.

In the healthy eating category, joint winners were selected as “equally outstanding submissions,” including GoodGuide — an app that makes it easy to get the information you need about your food, personal care and household products to aid in making healthy decisions — as well as Fooducate, which uses barcode scanning to allow you to scan the products you buy to quickly get information on that food’s health value.

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ChartLogic, a company known for its EHR suite that spans Electronic Medical Records, patient portals, billing/document management and patient education solutions, has announced a new voice recognition overlay technology designed for compatibility with all leading EHR systems.

Called “Stella,” the new solution works similar to Apple’s Siri personal assistant by leveraging the same type of cloud-based natural language processing (NLP) technology to “greatly speed workflow for physicians by enabling them to use iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices with their hospital’s EHR system.”  Voice recognition has long had a place in the healthcare space, and with the proliferation of mobile devices the concept is finally coming to fruition.

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