2011 Top medical innovations: Cleveland Clinic ranks telehealth monitoring for individuals with heart failure or "Implanted Wireless Cardiac Device for Monitoring Heart Failure" as number 6 on its list of top 10 medical innovations for 2011. I wonder if the recent national reimbursement rate CMS announced for mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry had anything to do with this group making the list. Cleveland Clinic

Clinical trials for activity monitor: BodyMedia announced two recent clinical studies about is activity monitor device and program: One "nine month clinical study by Blair which included 197 participants showed that combining a lifestyle intervention program and a body monitoring device tripled their weight loss." Release

Qualcomm supports 3G-enabled mHealth project in In South Africa: the AED-SATELLIFE Center for Health Information and Technology, used grants from Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative and the Henry E. Niles and John M. Lloyd Foundations to design, plan, and implement a mobile health information systems project. The collaborative effort included input from Eastern Cape Department of Health, the Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex, MTN-South Africa, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the project funders. Details in the Release

iPads for Medtronic: Medtronic bought 4,500 iPads for its employees to use in sales demos and other marketing tasks. MedCityNews

Comparative effectiveness study for Vitaphone: Canadian researchers are testing whether a new device called Vitaphone, which monitors heart functioning around the clock, can detect incidents of irregular rhythms and help alert care providers to impending stroke. The device uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a satellite phone, according to a report. Windsor Star

NHIN: Helpful explanation about the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) for those not familiar with it. Two implications highlighted are particularly of interest for mobile health: "Eventually, your medical records will auto-magically follow you around the country, appearing when they are most needed in a moments notice." and "New innovative services will appear, that leverage the Health Internet data channel to create applications that were previously unthinkable." Good read: Fred Trotter