Kiosks Offer Unmanned Telehealth Clinics With Basic Pharmacy Meds, But Will Patients Actually Use Them When They’re Sick And On The Go?
The stations that are equipped with tools like blood pressure cuffs and could help people deal with minor health issues like colds can potentially be set up just about anywhere people might need them like airports. Currently, some medical centers and drug stores are testing them out. News on health technology is on data breaches involving 300,000 patients in October, as well.
Stat:
Urgent Care, But With Robots
The pod — it looks something like an oversized phone booth — is a free-standing telehealth clinic, stocked with all the instruments a virtual practitioner might need to diagnose run-of-the-mill illnesses or dole out common prescriptions. On the wall, there’s a roughly 3-foot-tall video screen where a nurse practitioner can pop up for a chat. There’s a high-resolution camera on a cord, waiting to drop down from the ceiling if a provider needs to see a problem up close. And there’s even a hidden little robotic pharmacy — the highly secured vault — stocked with basic prescription medicines, plus a credit card reader that lets patients pay for them. (Thielking, 11/8)
Modern Healthcare:
October-Reported Healthcare Breaches Exposed 311,000 Patients' Data
More than 300,000 people had data exposed in healthcare breaches reported to the federal government last month. In October, providers, health plans and their business associates reported 47 data breaches affecting 311,430 patients to HHS' Office for Civil Rights, the agency that maintains the government's database of healthcare breaches. The 36 data breaches reported in September, by contrast, compromised data from nearly 2 million people. (Cohen, 11/7)
