April showers, right? This week in mobile health news brings what appears to be the departure of a company MobiHealthNews has tracked since we published our first issue: AllOne Mobile (AOM). AOM and its partner Diversinet have been in court for the past few months discussing the appropriate breakup fee to dissolve their five-year agreement, which only made it to year two. Diversinet appears ready to pick up the slack once AllOne Mobile officially disintegrates, but nothing seems likely to become official until late next month when the case may come to a settlement.
In more productive news, iVisit, which powers the Wound Technology Network, and recently launched an impressive "seeing aid" for the visually impaired, announced a deal with personal health device maker Ideal Life. iVisit has stitched together a suite of applications and devices for remote patient monitoring, which it demonstrated in a new YouTube video. Appropriate enough for a video-centric company like iVisit.
On the regulatory front, Proteus Biomedical has won 510(k) clearance for part of its intelligent medicine system: Raisin, the wireless, adhesive bandage that should connect to the company's smart pills. (The "smart pills" have yet to gain the FDA's blessing.) Proteus aside, our contributing columnist Bradley Merrill Thompson has penned the seventh of eight features on wireless health regulation. This one is especially relevant for our core audience: Will the FDA regulate mHealth care providers?
The funding news continues this week as the Vodafone Americas Foundation and the mHealth Alliance awarded prize monies totaling $150,000 to MIT-based start-up, Sana, formerly MocaMobile. The company is working on a mobile, open source platform.
Loose ends and lost iPhones: Technology blog Gizmodo had what it believed to be the next-generation iPhone, which featured a front-facing camera. Who knows if it's a premonition of a future iPhone, but Apple's counsel did demand it back. Some believe Gizmodo was "punk'd" by Apple. In any case, a front-facing camera could mean good things for video calls and some telemedicine apps. AT&T has had video calling capabilities for a while now -- it's about time they enabled them for iPhone. Question is: Could AT&T's network handle it?
Meanwhile, India's 3G networks set to go live soon and health apps top the list. Cleveland Clinic's website (the hospital site with the most traffic by some accounts) has gone mobile. Triple Tree announced the finalists for its I Awards.