The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 1 (Feb 2014) | Page 26

News Highlights from the 2013 mHealth Summit WebMD Health Corp the leading source of health information, announced at the mHealth Summit that it is expanding the beta program for its Patient Instructions feature, which enables physicians who use Medscape Mobile to securely send education and instructions on thousands of conditions, procedures and drugs to their patients who use the WebMD app for iPhone, or access WebMD on a PC or other mobile device. “WebMD is partnering with innovative companies like Qualcomm and developing new products and services like Patient Instructions to make health information more actionable and accelerate consumer-provider connectivity,” said David Schlanger, Chief Executive Officer at WebMD. “As consumers and providers assume more financial risk for the provision of care, WebMD believes that facilitating this kind of engagement is essential to producing quality outcomes and reducing the cost of care.” Qualcomm Life and WebMD first announced plans to enable consumers to upload biometric data to WebMD in an effort to proactively manage health and fitness, as well as chronic health conditions such as obesity and diabetes, at the HIMMS confer- 24 February 2014 ence in March 2013. WebMD will introduce its new app and set of services that deliver personalised content and actionable insights, as well as a new online storefront where consumers will be able to purchase a variety of biometric devices from the industry’s leading providers, in the first quarter of 2014. “WebMD is uniquely positioned to facilitate consumer-provider connectivity and accelerate the roll-out of quantified health solutions to the masses,” said Bill Pence, EVP, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer, WebMD. “Our Patient Instructions service will enable consumers and their providers to jointly manage their care, and our partnership with Qualcomm Life will provide consumers with a more personalised WebMD experience that makes biometric data more actionable.” As part of the expanded Patient Instructions beta, Medscape providers can simply select from a set of over 4,200 clinically reviewed patient instructio