Telemedicine / Telehealth

BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and Blue Shield of Northeastern New York plan to cover telehealth services for patients who connect with healthcare providers from home or work via the American Well Online Care platform.

UnitedHealth Group and Cisco are teaming up to build a national telehealth network that will grant patients access to physicians and specialists when in-person visits are not possible.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced $145 million in grants to 16 telehealth projects for engineering, constructing and implementing regional high-speed broadband networks in 17 states.

Five research teams will receive $2.4 million in grants to study how patient-recorded observations of daily life can be used to treat chronic conditions. According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the projects involve mobile phone applications, remote patient monitoring tools and personal health record systems.

Raleigh, N.C.-based TeleHealth Services has rolled out its updated TIGR version 7 system. The new interactive education system will provide hospital patients with on-demand access to condition-specific patient education care plans.

Verizon Wireless spoke with healthcare professionals at HIMSS10 in Atlanta today about products and services that can help change the way healthcare organizations operate. The company offers healthcare an extensive portfolio of products and services that run on its Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network.

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has made the case for using wireless technology, including Sprint's expanding WiMax network, to transform health care.

The Veterans Administration of Central California Health Care System plans to use the Health Buddy remote patient monitoring system from Robert Bosch Healthcare, Inc. to promote better medication adherence in chronically ill veterans.

The FCC has named healthcare and education as two of its top priorities in its upcoming National Broadband Plan, which is scheduled to be released March 17.