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Home Monitoring Improves Hypertension Management

Thursday, May 31, 2012  |  The Doctor Weighs In

Read how our blood pressure home monitoring program, Blood Pressure Connect, is improving hypertension management.

 
 

Qualcomm Life Announces Members of New Advisory Council

Wednesday, May 23, 2012  |  PR Newswire

Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Director of the Center for Connected Health, has been named to the new Qualcomm Life Advisory Council. Together with the vast experience and insight of the 25 council members, Qualcomm Life will address the key issues that the wireless health industry is facing, including adoption, reimbursement, privacy and security policies and interoperability.

 
 

Web-Based Management Program Significantly Reduces High Blood Pressure, According to New Data from the Center for Connected Health

Tuesday, May 22, 2012  |  Center for Connected Health

A recent study conducted by the Center for Connected Health demonstrated that a web-based self-management program helped patients with hypertension achieve significantly lower blood pressure by the conclusion of the program. Blood Pressure Connect enables patients to easily collect their blood pressure readings, monitor trends and securely share their personal data with their providers using a home blood pressure cuff and web portal.

 
 

What’s the difference between ACOs and capitation?

Friday, May 18, 2012  |  EHR Intelligence

So what makes the present system of ACOs more suitable for US healthcare and likely to succeed? During “The Future of ACOs” at Health 2.0, Levin-Scherz and Joe Kvedar of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare provided several factors that differentiate ACOs from capitation.

 
 

Virtual doctors visits catch on with insurers, employers

Sunday, May 6, 2012  |  USA TODAY

Insurers such as United Healthcare, Aetna and Cigna, and large employers such as General Electric and Delta Air Lines are getting on board, pushing telemedicine as a way to make doctor "visits" cheaper and more easily available. Proponents also see it as an answer to a worsening doctor shortage.

 
 

Institutional Profile: Center for Connected Health

Tuesday, May 1, 2012  |  Personalized Medicine

Read how the Center and its work fits into the mission of personalized medicine.

 
 

Smartphone Medicine

Tuesday, May 1, 2012  |  Repertoire Magazine

Devices and accompanying apps are helping patients and physicians monitor health.

 
 

SXSW IdeaNext Lounge presents Live from Stubbs with ‬Dr. Joe Kvedar

Tuesday, April 3, 2012  |  SXSW IdeaNext Lounge

Watch this video of Dr. Joe Kvedar discussing connected health at the recent SXSW conference in Austin, TX.

 
 

Study supports using virtual environment to teach mind/body techniques

Friday, March 30, 2012  |  Massachusetts General Hospital

A small study from Massachusetts General Hospital researchers found that online virtual communities may be an effective way to train patients in meditation and other mind/body techniques.

 
 

Connecting Young Mothers to the Care They Need

Thursday, March 29, 2012  |  Health Unbound

According to a new study from the Center for Connected Health, young women who receive informational and supportive text messages during pregnancy are more likely to attend prenatal doctor visits and are consequently better able to take care of themselves and their babies.

 
 

Better Clinical Outcomes via Home Monitoring: Diabetes Connect

Wednesday, March 28, 2012  |  Connect with Partners

Diabetes Connect, a home monitoring program developed by the Partners Center for Connected Health, is demonstrating how patients can better manage their diabetes and reduce HbA1c (the clinical measure for blood sugar control) to achieve better health outcomes.

 
 

10 Best Health Care Technology Blogs

Tuesday, March 13, 2012  |  Health in 30

Dr. Joseph Kvedar's cHealth Blog is listed here as the number two best healthcare technology blog.

 
 

Emotional Automation

Tuesday, March 13, 2012  |  Future of Health Tech Summit

Watch a video of Dr. Joseph Kvedar's talk on Emotional Automation at the 2011 Future of Health Tech Summit.

 
 

Physic Ventures Team Welcomes New Strategic Advisors

Tuesday, March 13, 2012  |  Physic Ventures

Dr. Joseph Kvedar was recently named to the Physic Ventures strategic advisor team.

 
 

Is Gaming Changing Health Care and Helping You Live a Healthier Life? Part 1

Monday, March 12, 2012  |  The Huffington Post

Do you think gaming can improve health care and help you live a healthier life? Dr. Joe Kvedar weighs in with his thoughts.

 
 

Partners Step It Up program expands

Friday, March 9, 2012  |  MGH Hotline

During a Feb. 29 visit to Boston by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Gov. Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Public Schools, Partners HealthCare and the Partners Center for Connected Health announced that the Partners Step It Up program will be offered to elementary students at six Boston public schools this year.

 
 

Online Doctor Consultations: Is medicine going remote?

Tuesday, March 6, 2012  |  Houston Chronicle

Just over 50 percent of adult Americans say they’d agree to an online doctor consultation and ask care-related questions. And more people said they’d like to take advantage of the web to make more routine aspects of doctor visits efficient.

 
 

Partners takes health technology into Boston-area schools

Monday, March 5, 2012  |  FierceMobileHealthcare

Partners HealthCare in Boston is taking technology out of the hospital and into local schools as a way to prevent future health problems, particularly obesity.

 
 

Partners HealthCare expands connected fitness program at Boston schools

Monday, March 5, 2012  |  mobihealthnews

Boston-based Partners HealthCare and its Center for Connected Health recently announced plans to expand its connected fitness program, Partners Step It Up, to six Boston public schools this year.

 
 

Can Mobile Devices Help Connect the Dots for Better Health Care?

Friday, March 2, 2012  |  Health in 30

Mobile technology may help to transform the lives of patients and provide a stronger partnership with health care providers.

 
 

Partners Encourages Healthy Living in the Next Generation

Friday, March 2, 2012  |  Connect with Partners

Earlier this week, Partners President and CEO Dr. Gary Gottlieb was joined by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas M. Menino to announce the expansion of the Partners Step It Up initiative into six Boston public schools this year.

 
 

Using wireless technology to get kids to Step It Up

Friday, March 2, 2012  |  The Doctor Weighs In

It was a rewarding and invigorating morning, to see the impact Partners Step It Up has had on these students, and how, through some simple technology and a bit of imagination, we can help keep our young people active and healthy.

 
 

So appy together: How smartphones are changing human evolution

Thursday, March 1, 2012  |  Boston Magazine

Behavioral scientists are racing to develop a new generation of apps and programs that can mimic compassion, concern, and sympathy—technology they hope we will form relationships with.

 
 

Partners takes its tech-driven Step It Up program to Boston schools

Thursday, March 1, 2012  |  Healthcare IT News

Partners HealthCare and its Center for Connected Health is offering its Partners Step It Up program to elementary students at six Boston public schools this year. The program incorporates technology, educational feedback and a team-oriented virtual foot race to raise awareness about the importance of daily activity and good health.

 
 

Student, Kathleen Sebelius nuts about pesto

Thursday, March 1, 2012  |  Boston Herald

A top Obama Cabinet secretary faced a tough grilling and was briefly knocked off-message yesterday — by a pint-sized fourth-grader with gourmet tastes. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was at a Dorchester school promoting a school health initiative called Step It Up.

 
 

Partners HealthCare expands Partners Step It Up program to six Boston public elementary school to help students live active, healthy lives

Wednesday, February 29, 2012  |  Partners HealthCare

During a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Governor Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Public Schools, Partners HealthCare and the Partners Center for Connected Health announced that Partners Step It Up will be offered to elementary students at six Boston public schools this year.

 
 

Dorchester students 'Step It Up' with Menino, Patrick, and Sebelius

Wednesday, February 29, 2012  |  boston.com

Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas M. Menino were joined by US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the Holmes Elementary School in Dorchester Wednesday morning to promote the Partners Step It Up program, which promotes healthy living through exercise and positive life choices.

 
 

Governor Patrick joins Secretary Sebelius, Mayor Menino at Holmes Elementary School to highlight initiatives to prevent childhood obesity

Wednesday, February 29, 2012  |  Mass.gov

Governor Deval Patrick today joined U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino at the Oliver Wendell Holmes School (Holmes School) in Dorchester to highlight Step It Up, an innovative pilot program that encourages students to be active and healthy in order to prevent childhood obesity.

 
 

Partners HealthCare expands "Partners Step It Up" program to six boston public elementary schools

Wednesday, February 29, 2012  |  mHIMSS

During a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Governor Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Public Schools, Partners HealthCare and the Partners Center for Connected Health announced that Partners Step It Up will be offered to elementary students at six Boston public schools this year.

 
 

‘Joslin everywhere’ initiative to expand reach of hospital’s diabetes care

Monday, February 27, 2012  |  The Boston Globe

Joslin Diabetes Center is planning to launch a virtual platform to distribute its diabetes research and clinical care programs to patients and primary care providers online and through mobile devices. Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of the Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health, said the possibilities for using mobile health in diabetes care are huge, not just in managing the disease but in preventing it among those people who are pre-diabetic.

 
 

Dieting? There's an app for fat.

Monday, February 13, 2012  |  The Boston Globe

The Center for Connected Health tripled the number of studies it did on a variety of products in the mobile health market last year - though not all related to weight - and Dr. Joseph Kvedar, the director, expects the number to triple again in the coming year.

 
 

Texting helps with at-risk pregnancies, Partners plans to expand program

Friday, February 3, 2012  |  FierceMobileHealthcare

Sending supportive text messages to moms-to-be, both during and after birth, can improve patients' prenatal and postpartum care, according to a study conducted by Partners HealthCare in Boston, and just published in the journal The Female Patient.

 
 

Your app's 'virtual coach' may give you beneficial nudge: study

Friday, February 3, 2012  |  Yahoo! Philippines

If you're looking to shed weight by relying on a smartphone app and/or a portable fitness gadget, look for one that comes with a "virtual coach," at least according to new research published last week.

 
 

Text messaging may improve prenatal care according to pilot study conducted by the Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health

Thursday, February 2, 2012  |  Center for Connected Health

In a pilot study developed as a collaboration between the Partners Center for Connected Health, Partners Community Health and the Lynn Community Health Center, data suggests that women receiving text messages found the messages to be helpful and had a higher level of attendance at their prenatal visits compared to a similar cohort in the same medical practice.

 
 

Texting For Prenatal Health

Thursday, February 2, 2012  |  CommonHealth

Text messaging for health isn’t new. Patients are now dinged with messages on their phones about a range of health matters: from remembering to take their birth control pills to finding out the mercury content of their fresh fish. Now, a new study suggests that texting — which, let’s face it, isn’t much more than a virtual nagging mom — may be a fast, cheap and effective way to improve prenatal care, or at least boost prenatal doctor visits, among at-risk pregnant adolescents.

 
 

Fitness apps out; virtual coaches in

Thursday, February 2, 2012  |  FierceHealthIT

Health and fitness apps and websites may be getting a bad rap these days, with many viewed as ineffective and unlikely to help users achieve long-term results. But add a "virtual coach" and you may boost effectiveness, according to a new study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, conducted by Partners' Center for Connected Health in Boston.

 
 

Massachusetts study shows benefits of virtual coaching

Wednesday, February 1, 2012  |  mHIMSS

Move over, “Biggest Loser.” A new study conducted by the Center for Connected Health and Massachusetts General Hospital has found that overweight people who make use of Internet-based coaching show more commitment to improving their health than those who don’t use a so-called “virtual coach.”

 
 

Virtual coaches keep overweight people on track

Wednesday, February 1, 2012  |  Healthcare IT News

Overweight people who make use of web-based virtual coaches show more commitment to improving their health than those who don’t, according to a new study by the Center for Connected Health and Massachusetts General Hospital.

 
 

Study: ‘Virtual Coach’ Helps Get Overweight People Moving

Wednesday, February 1, 2012  |  CommonHealth

If you’ve been talking with Siri on your iPhone lately, you know how deeply natural it is to respond to a computer-generated “person” as if they were human even when you know perfectly well they’re built of nothing but bits. Researchers had already found that patients tend to respond well to post-hospital instructions from computer-generated “discharge nurses.” Now, a new study finds that “virtual coaches” can help overweight people get more active, at least during a 12-week study.

 
 

Study: Virtual coach improves activity levels for overweight, obese

Wednesday, February 1, 2012  |  mobihealthnews

A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that using a “virtual coach” helped overweight or obese people increase their activity levels. Researchers at Boston-based Center for Connected Health and Massachusetts General Hospital found that virtual coaches increased step counts by a significant amount.

 
 

'Virtual Coach' increases activity levels in fight against obesity epidemic according to new study from the Partners Center for Connected Health

Tuesday, January 31, 2012  |  Center for Connected Health

The use of a ‘Virtual Coach’ or computer agent increases activity levels in overweight or obese individuals, according to a new study published in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Conducted by the Center for Connected Health, data showed a significant percentage change in step count for participants with access to Internet-based coaching, versus those without access to the Virtual Coach. The Virtual Coach technology was developed by Timothy Bickmore, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, a co-author of the study.

 
 

An Internet-Based Virtual Coach to Promote Physical Activity Adherence in Overweight Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial

Thursday, January 26, 2012  |  Journal of Medical Internet Research

The Center for Connected Health's study on the power of visual coaching for activity. We hypothesized that a virtual coach would increase activity levels, via step count, in overweight or obese individuals beyond the effect observed using a pedometer and website alone.

 
 

Doctors debate use of email for communicating with their patients

Thursday, January 26, 2012  |  Harvard Health Blog

Every now and then, I email one of my doctors or they email me. The communications aren’t anything fancy, mind you—requests for prescription refills, test results, and the like. Apparently, these electronic exchanges put me squarely in the middle of a hot debate among doctors.

 
 

Doctor-Patient Communication in Today's Digital Age

Tuesday, January 24, 2012  |  The Diane Rehm Show

Many Americans send email and text messages more often than they speak on the phone. Whether electronics offer the best way for doctors to communicate with their patients is in debate. Dr. Joe Kvedar is one of three guests who will be discussing doctor-patient interactions in the digital age.

 
 

Should Physicians Use Email to Communicate With Patients?

Monday, January 23, 2012  |  The Wall Street Journal

Yes, it builds trust, says Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, Director of the Center for Connected Health. "I believe that patients understand the risks of email communication, and are willing to bear those risks in exchange for the more timely, useful and personal care that email can help bring about."

 
 

AT&T offers to secure tablets, messages for healthcare

Monday, January 23, 2012  |  mobihealthnews

“Text messaging is proving to be an effective way to engage patients in their care, improve patient satisfaction, and even improve clinical outcomes,” Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health, Partners HealthCare, stated in the AT&T announcement. “Messaging programs have great potential for providing low-cost, accessible, educational messaging to patients, and we look forward to additional applications of these powerful tools for reaching diverse and large patient populations.”

 
 

Telehealth Reimbursement Will Grow, Health Leaders Say

Thursday, January 19, 2012  |  InformationWeek

The federal Medicare program for seniors and disabled Americans currently does not reimburse for most telehealth, care coordination, and home monitoring services, but that could change once new evidence comes to bear and health reform picks up steam, said healthcare stakeholders at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas. "I think the future is quite bright for payment," said Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of the Center for Connected Health at the Harvard-affiliated Partners HealthCare in Boston. He was on a panel at the CES Digital Health Summit, discussing business models to support e-health.

 
 

Home monitoring improves management of hypertension

Thursday, January 19, 2012  |  Caring Headlines

Blood Pressure Connect is a home monitoring program developed by the Center for Connected Health, that enables patients and providers to view blood-pressure readings and facilitate communication. Patients are given a wireless blood-pressure cuff that stores and transmits physiological data to a (secure) website that can be viewed by their healthcare providers. “The program is a gem,” says Donna Leone, RN, of MGH Everett Family Care. “Patients are happy with the convenience of the blood-pressure cuff and the high level of support they receive. They don’t have to come into the offi ce to have their blood pressure checked, and the equipment is easy to use.” (See page 5 for the article)

 
 

Joslin Diabetes Center Champions Diabetes Prevention

Thursday, January 12, 2012  |  Joslin Diabetes Center

In a statement released today by Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, physicians at the Harvard Medical School-affiliated research and clinical care center strongly disagreed with comments made recently by Richard Kahn, M.D., a former executive of the American Diabetes Association.

 
 

Sprint enters remote health business

Tuesday, January 10, 2012  |  FierceMobileHealthcare

The gateway/hub service, while new in mHealth, is certainly welcome, according to Robert Havasy, customer operations manager for Partners Healthcare's Center for Connected Health in Boston. "Well-designed home monitoring hubs and systems can make the job of integrating remote monitoring data easier for a hospital. It's always easier to build one pipe to a central data warehouse and let the vendor handle the complexity of collection and ongoing support from multiple monitoring devices," he tells FMH.

 
 

Joseph Kvedar, MD and Connected-Health

Friday, January 6, 2012  |  The Health Communication, Health Literacy, & Social Science blog

“The “biggest value [of connected health]* is in unlocking [the] individual's ability to care for themselves!” says Joseph Kvedar, MD, Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health.

 
 

How is Gaming Changing the Landscape in Health Care?

Friday, January 6, 2012  |  HealthWorks Collective

Dr. Joseph Kvedar weighs in on how gaming is helping to change the landscape in health care: "Everyone is doing it. Men, women, kids, Baby Boomers. Can healthcare providers ignore the fact that gaming can be another tool in their armamentarium? Will consumers embrace gaming as a way to get fit, lose weight or manage their high blood pressure? When it comes to gaming for health, I see two silos drifting apart..."