In a new report from BCC Research, its been projected that the market for global telemedicine services is set to reach $27.3B in 2016, which is up from $9.8 billion in 2010 and $11.6 billion in 2011.

The growth represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6% over the next five years.  The report, Global Markets for Telemedicine Technologies, is based on interviews with manufacturers and users of telemedicine technologies and services, as well as from reviews of secondary sources such as company literature, conference proceedings, and related government data.

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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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The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has issued a call for public comments surrounding the security, privacy and best practices of using mobile devices in healthcare.

More specifically, the ONC is seeking comments on three categories, including real-world uses of mobile devices by providers and other healthcare delivery professionals; real-world privacy and security practices, strategies and technology; and other general comments on the use of mobile devices by providers and other healthcare delivery professionals.

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It was announced during this week’s HIMSS conference that Verizon, Motorola and BoxTone are teaming up to develop secure solutions for Android-based devices and applications with the aim of making the platform suitable for health IT implementation.

The jointly created offering leverages BoxTone’s automated “Enterprise Mobility Management” (EMM) software platform on select Motorola devices,such as the DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX smartphones, as well as DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and 8.2 tablets, all of which leveraging Verizon’s 4G LTE network.  As such, healthcare organizations can now “reliably deploy Android-based mobile devices and apps that are designed to help them meet strict compliance requirements, including privacy measures outlined in the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).”

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have published a new proposed rule for Stage 2 Meaningful Use that would stipulate that mobile devices that retain patient data after a clinical encounter — such as laptops, smartphones and tablets — have default encryption enabled.

Many of the recent high-profile data breaches involving sensitive health information had to do with lost or stolen mobile devices, which has brought device security and proper encryption into the spotlight.  ”We agree that this is an area of security that appears to need specific focus,” the NPRM for Stage 2 Meaningful Use states.  “Recent HHS analysis of reported breaches indicates that almost 40% of large breaches involve lost or stolen devices.  Had these devices been encrypted, their data would have been secured.”

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GlobalMed, a company providing real-time healthcare delivery systems, has introduced a new enterprise-wide cloud-based solution that delivers visible and invisible light medical images to any Web-connected computer, tablet or smartphone.

Showcased during the HIMSS conference, the new solution — dubbed CONi — allows a physician to enter a SOAP Report that can be saved for later modification or “Finished” and placed into the patient’s medical record.  Once finished, the doctor’s notes cannot be altered or deleted.  In addition, patients and their guests can be given passcode access to their medical images with a limited amount of information.  The images are never resident on computers or mobile devices for security and patient confidentiality.

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Yesterday during the HIMSS healthcare IT conference in Las Vegas, mobile network infrastructure provider Aruba Networks released results of a recent survey showing that 85% of hospitals are currently providing access to personal mobile devices.

In addition, the results show that 83% of healthcare IT professionals allow iPads on their enterprise networks and 65% support iPhones and iPod Touch devices.  Interestingly, 52% of hospitals currently support Blackberry devices as well, which is interesting considering RIMs quick decline in the enterprise space over the last year.  The healthcare industry seems to be one last shining spot for RIM’s fledgling enterprise business.  Lastly, Android is gaining major momentum as well, with 46 percent of the IT professionals surveyed allowing enterprise use of the Google OS on personal phones and tablets.

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