Maryland became the first state on Friday to join a federal program designed to improve health care quality and equity while lowering costs for all health care payers, including Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
Some Apple AirPods wireless headphones can be used as hearing aids with a new software update available Monday. It's a high-profile move that experts applaud, even if they only reach a small portion of the millions of Americans with hearing loss. An estimated 30 million people — 1 in 8 Americans over the age of 12 — have hearing loss in both ears. Millions would benefit from hearing aids but most have never tried them, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Boston Medical Center has launched a pilot project called the Clean Power Prescription program to help roughly 80 patients with complex, chronic medical needs keep the lights on and the gas running. The program relies on 519 solar panels installed on the roof of one of the hospital's office buildings. Half of the energy generated by the panels helps power the medical center. The rest goes to patients who receive a monthly credit of about $50 on their utility bills.
Oracle’s latest EHR is equipped with cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities that will make it easier to navigate and set up, the company said. There are no menus or drop-down screens, and doctors can pull up the information they need by asking questions with their voices. Ideally, this will allow doctors to spend less time searching through records and more time caring for patients, Oracle said.