By Margaret Jules

The usage of technology has been increasing in various fields and this has occupied a prominent place even in medicine. Mobile devices are widely used by health care professionals at work and such practice is termed as “mhealth”. Mobile health or mhealth is managing public health using a mobile device.

Mhealth usage is increasing due to their reliable performance which includes increased patient care, cost control effects along with the fulfillment of government and industry regulations. There are wide varieties of mobile devices which include smartphones, tablets, push-to-talks, connected devices.

The devices used by the professionals vary based on the objective they need to accomplish. Say for instance, a patient can share any diagnostic image or data with the professional at any place with the help of a tablet. Priority is given to mhealth due to its accessibility, credibility and portability.

Mobile devices are used to perform three important activities. They are as follows:

• Increased patient care
• Treatment communication
• Data collection

Increased patient care: Here, with the help of any mobile device, professionals can access the patient information. In turn, valuable and credible services can be provided to the patients. Say for instance, providing a helpline through which patient can receive service by just making a call to the given phone number. The additional benefit here is that patient can receive suggestions at the comfort of their homes just with a device.

Treatment communication: Mobile devices enhance communication between service provider and patient. Knowledge transfer plays a major role in treatment communication. In this, patient sends an image or information regarding the disease or infection to the professional. Then, professional diagnose and transmits the information to the experts for further clarification. As a result, patient receives a valuable suggestion with regard to the treatment of disease.

Data collection: Mobile devices help to collect the information and access it across nations. Here, surveyors collect data regarding infections or levels of diseases in various locations. An example of this is survey conducted on malaria infected people in 20 locations.

This information is further transmitted to the government organizations so that necessary solutions such as providing medical facilities to such locations can be taken. This in turn, helps to reduce infections or diseases prevailing in such locations.

Mobile devices are used by many physicians so as to store medical information of patients. Information may include glucose readings, blood test results, and periodical medication and so on. But, the information must be secured as per Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Hence, it helps to access PHI (Protected Health Information) of a specific individual. It stores and retrieves secured information, whenever needed. Costs can be reduced as a single USB stores 25,000 records which cannot be in case of paper printing.

There is a limitation that using unsecure mobile devices may fail to secure health information. Hence, professionals may face problem as it is their burden to secure information as per government regulations.

It can be concluded that mhealth is an opportunity for everyone to receive credible health services irrespective of location. A single device facilitates to get appropriate and fast treatment from experts without moving from your place.

About the author: Margaret Jules is a blogger by profession. She writes about environment and health.

Officials at McLaren Health Care announced today the rebranding of its subsidiaries to a common name–McLaren.

“The rebranding initiative is part of McLaren’s strategic plan,” said Philip Incarnati, president and chief executive officer of McLaren Health Care. “Using one name will enable us to have a single identity that reflects the scope and impact of our organization across the state. It’s a testament of our commitment to make individuals healthier and communities stronger.”

As one of the largest health care systems in Michigan, McLaren is able to provide residents–within their own communities–greater access to high-quality medical care and the latest, most advanced technology.

“Letting area residents know that their local hospital is part of McLaren, part of a larger health system, is one of the goals of the rebranding,” added Incarnati. “Although the names have changed, our patients can expect the same award-winning care.”

Subsidiaries with new names include:

Former name: New name:

• Bay Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Bay Region
• Bay Special Care Hospital: McLaren-Bay Special Care
• Central Michigan Community Hospital: McLaren-Central Michigan
• Great Lakes Cancer Institute: McLaren Cancer Institute
• Ingham Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Greater Lansing
• Ingham Regional Orthopedic Hospital: McLaren Orthopedic Hospital
• Lapeer Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Lapeer Region
• McLaren Health Care Village at Clarkston: McLaren-Clarkston
• McLaren Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Flint
• Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Macomb
• POH Regional Medical Center: McLaren-Oakland

The initiative was announced internally in September 2011 after conducting focus group sessions among consumers across the state to investigate how a potential name change might be perceived. There was an immediate affirmative reaction.

“We were amazed by the amount of positive feedback we received,” said Kevin Tompkins, vice president of marketing for McLaren Health Care. “The focus group participants said that changing the name of their local hospital to include the name McLaren would be a true advantage. Their input was very important in guiding the decision to move our health system to a single unified brand.”

Participants identified greater access to higher quality health care, more advanced technology and better doctors as primary reasons a name change would be advantageous.

Along with the name changes, the logo identity has been redesigned. Care was taken to maintain the basic color of McLaren’s logo to retain its brand equity as a strong and stable health care services provider. The new logo, however, better expresses McLaren’s strong momentum and forward-thinking principles. The “dual infinity” icons, critical elements of the new logo, represent McLaren’s balance of serious medicine and compassionate care, along with, of course, its endless possibilities.

A new marketing campaign is set to launch in late January. Officials have begun changing signs, name badges, uniforms, collateral and more to reflect the new name.

East Lansing-based Publicom, Inc., McLaren’s marketing partner since 1997, developed the new identity and marketing communications campaign.

Subsidiaries currently operating under the McLaren name will continue to do so, including McLaren Health Plan, McLaren Homecare Group and McLaren Medical Group.

About McLaren-Flint

McLaren-Flint is a nonprofit, tertiary teaching facility with 416 beds located in Flint, Michigan. MRMC is affiliated with Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine in its medical residency programs, including family practice, internal medicine, general surgery, orthopedic surgery and radiology. McLaren-Flint also maintains a hematology/oncology fellowship program in partnership with MSU and a surgical oncology fellowship. McLaren-Flint is certified as a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiac Center of Excellence and as a Center of Distinction for Hip and Knee Replacement and Spine Surgery. The medical center is also designated as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence and is certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center. Other service line centers of focus include cancer, neurosciences, and minimally-invasive surgery.

About McLaren Health Care

With headquarters in Flint, Mich., McLaren Health Care is annually recognized as one of the top Integrated Health Networks in the nation. McLaren is one of the largest health care providers in the state with a system that reaches more than half of Michigan residents through more than 200 locations, 17,000 employees and 11,000 network physicians. McLaren Health Care had net revenues of $2.1 billion in 2011 and has experienced double-digit growth each year since 1989. The nonprofit system includes medical centers in Bay City, Flint, Lapeer, Lansing, Mount Clemens, Mount Pleasant, Petoskey and Pontiac. Additional health care services are provided at McLaren–Clarkston; McLaren-Bay Special Care in Bay City; McLaren Orthopedic Hospital in Lansing; and McLaren Proton Therapy Center in Flint (beginning late 2012). McLaren Health Care also operates McLaren Medical Group, an employed physician network; McLaren Homecare Group, an award-winning home health, hospice and medical supplies provider; McLaren Health Plan, a licensed HMO offering benefit plans for commercial businesses and Medicaid recipients; and McLaren Cancer Institute, the largest cancer care network of its kind in the state. For information, visit mclaren.org.

SOURCE: McLaren Health Care

The Pearl Griffin Memorial Latch Key Program has been operating for years, providing much needed after school care for kids. For years, Latch Key has been operating with a particular font lettering of the Latch Key name rather than a logo to identify them. To be more recognizable, the organization needed a logo – something that the community could identify them with and something that could convey their services.

Early this year, the Latch Key board adopted a final logo design, featuring a tree with a key in the trunk and two children standing beside it. This simple, yet modern, design conveys the values of the Latch Key Program. The new logo was unveiled to coincide with the start of a new school year.

Having a logo gives the program branding that is necessary in fundraising, allowing Latch Key to be recognized upon seeing the logo. The logo, according to Weckworth, is one that everyone can identify with and one that on a t-shirt might start a conversation about the program.

Founded in 1983, the Pearl Griffin Memorial Latch Key Program is located at 2411 Coggin Avenue in the First Christian Church in Brownwood, Texas. The program serves children (Pre-K through 6th grade) who qualify from low income families to have after school care so that the children are not left home alone.

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By: Lisa Tipton

Source: Brownwood News, Latch Key Identifies with New Logo

Kellogg Co. has requested San Ramon, Calif.-based Maya Archaeology Initiative to quit using a toucan in its logo, claiming the image infringes on Kellogg’s Toucan Sam character and games. In the statement, Sarah D. Mott, legal counsel for the nonprofit, denied any infringement exists, saying the trademarks don’t resemble each other and the two entities are not in competition.

“MAI’s trademark is made up of iconic images,” she said, according to Bloomberg. “Its toucan is based upon a realistic toucan endemic to Mesoamerica. Kellogg provides sugary cereal and entertainment through Toucan Sam, his cousins and a make-believe world that pretends to reflect something real.”

Toucan Sam is a cartoon character Kellogg introduced in 1963 to promote its Froot Loops breakfast cereal. The long-established character’s multicolored beak reflects the multiple hues of the “O’s” in the product.

The nonprofit project was established in early 2010 to defend indigenous Maya culture and the Guatemalan biosphere. The toucan in its logo is a somewhat more realistic bird, shown in front of a Maya pyramid. The image appears on T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs and baseball hats given as premiums to the group’s donors, Bloomberg News reported. The image also appears at the top of the nonprofit’s website at www.mayaarchaeology.org.

“The goal of the initiative is to help both indigenous Maya culture and the children who share that heritage,” initiative spokesperson Sam Haswell told the Enquirer on Monday. “It’s a small NGO (nongovernmental organization) doing good in the world. Our logo has absolutely nothing to do with Kellogg. So I just think it’s beyond the pale for Kellogg to say it has the sole trademark on all images of toucans.”

The initiative, a project of the California-based World Free Press Institute, focuses on foster education for Maya children, protecting antiquities and defending biodiversity in the Guatemalan rainforest, according to Bloomberg.

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By: John C. Sherwood

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer, Kellogg Co. wants nonprofit to quit using toucan logo

After 25 years, the former Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations, based in Northeast Portland, has changed its name to Venture Portland. The organization is hoping to make stronger the city’s diverse neighborhood business communities.

The name change reflects a push to encourage people to “venture out” into the city’s 50 neighborhood business districts, according to the group’s leaders. The name also aims to remind residents that neighborhood business districts provide more than 200,000 jobs and contribute to the city’s economy.

Another part of the new branding effort to is to tell the story of local business districts. Every neighborhood business district reflects its community, he said, whether it be Belmont, Goose Hollow, St. Johns, or emerging districts such as University Park, Burnside East, or North Williams.

The private nonprofit began in 1986, when business district leaders came together to work collectively. Today, representatives from 34 business districts across the city, from the Hawthorne Business district in Southeast to the Beaumont Business District in Northeast, participate.

The group, which is overseen by volunteer representatives from those neighborhood business district boards, makes its money through donations and fees from its members. The group’s goals are to strengthen neighborhood business districts, support emerging ones, sponsor training and connect districts with government grants, as well as private money.

Last year, the group distributed $80,000 in city grant money to 39 business districts which have helped pay for projects such as the recent Alberta Street Fair and the upcoming 42nd Avenue Fair. The nonprofit also helped leverage $150,000 in private money to business district associations.

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By: Larry Bingham

Source: The Oregonian, Venture Portland, formerly Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations, changes name but continues mission to support city’s 50 business districts

Valley Medical Center and UW Medicine, located in Renton, Washington, have formed a new alliance and unveiled a new logo.

It’s the new logo that Valley Medical, UW Medicine and other parts of UW Medicine , such as Harborview Medical Center, will use to brand or market themselves individually or together as parts of UW Medicine’s “family.”

The co-branding, which could take 18-14 months to complete, is a way to quickly indicate which medical services, special events or programs are offered at each of UW Medicine’s institutions.

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By: Dean A. Radford

Source: Renton Reporter, Valley Medical Center unveils new logo for alliance

SCORE, a nonprofit organization of retired executives who mentor small business owners, has launched a national re-branding effort to promote a more accurate understanding of the organization. The new logo, The Helping Hand, and the tagline “For The Life of YourBusiness” are designed to bring a fresh look to the organization. SCORE is also updating their volunteers’ titles from counselors to mentors.

Through its new logo and tagline, SCORE’s leadership hopes its clients will understand its long-term commitment their success. Nationally, SCORE has more than 364 chapters with 13,000 mentors specializing in more than 500 skill sets designed to help startups and existing businesses. Each business owner has the option to select a mentor with the experience that fits his or her situation, and all consultations are confidential.

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Source: Savannah Morning News, Score unveils new logo

To help address misperceptions about the organization and gain a fresh start, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest County, California unveiled a new logo and motto. The new motto, “Great futures start at The Clubs,” is intended to help convey the organization’s ability to change lives, not just babysit children. The new logo, featuring a more streamline and up-to-date look, eschews the traditional clasping hands for a logo without pictures simply reading the new motto.

While the organization’s national office tends to create ads that depict children living in urban slums going to the club to escape gangs, this is not the norm for the regional club located in in southwest Riverside County. The leadership in Southwest County wants parents to know there children have a better alternative to coming home alone and playing video games.

The club offers a digital art program, art lessons, ballet and hip-hop dance classes and guitar lessons. They also work with the children on humanitarian projects, such as passing out blankets to the homeless in Los Angeles, and after-school tutoring.

The club serves 65 schools in southwest Riverside County with four clubs: two in Temecula, one in Murrieta and one in Lake Elsinore.

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By: Peter Surowski

Source: Murietta Patch, Boys & Girls Club Announces New Logo, Motto