Google has set up a new flu tracker initiative in partnership with the CDC that monitors flu outbreaks around the country by tracking users' searches relating to the illness. The data is then sent to the CDC to help ensure that vaccines get to the most-needed areas.
The initiative, however, is raising concerns among advocacy groups that Google could be breaching privacy laws by gathering individual users' search data.
Many people don't skip prescribed doses on purpose, they simply forget. But Vitality Inc. says its new GlowCap device will help them remember, and eventually lower healthcare costs. The GlowCap fits standard-size pill containers, and is embedded with a small light that begins flashing at a preset time when the patient is supposed to take a medication.
For the third year in a row, Cleveland Clinic doctors and consultants have picked the medical innovations they think will be most influential next year. The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2009 were announced during the Clinic's sixth annual Medical Innovation Summit. Number one for 2009 was the use of circulating tumor cell technology, which measures tumor cells that circulate in the blood. Results can help doctors understand how a cancer is progressing and how to adjust treatments in patients who have repeat cancer.
Cleveland Clinic is partnering with Microsoft HealthVault to enable certain patients to monitor chronic conditions at home. These patients will use high-tech devices, home computers, and the Internet to keep Clinic doctors posted on their conditions. The doctors could rely on the information to adjust medications or order aggressive medical care without seeing patients for office visits. Early medical interventions could lead to healthier patients and fewer hospital admissions, lowering costs, say Clinic representatives.
A group of large healthcare companies is trying to create a common set of security practices, but it remains to be seen whether they can persuade businesses in the fragmented industry to join their effort. Healthcare providers are required by law to safeguard the data they collect about patients, but the laws don't specify how the data should be secured. Proponents of the new standards say they would help ease the confusion that arises when organizations all do things differently.
Hospitals are increasingly relying on electronic tracking systems to keep tabs on equipment and lab specimens, and even to monitor the location of patients and staff. But the heightened surveillance is raising some safety and privacy concerns. The growing use of tracking technology has privacy experts warning that hospitals must take steps to protect any personal data from being inadvertently released, and requiring healthcare workers to wear tags raises questions about putting staffers under undue surveillance.