Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston and founder and director of Partners HealthCare's Center for Connected Health, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Future of Health Technology Award for his pioneering work in connected health.

The Future of Health Technology Award is given annually by the Future of Health Technology Institute, based in Hopkinton, Mass., to "breakthrough thinkers whose work can help reduce suffering, maximize the potential for self-realization and extend human potential with technology."

The award will be presented Oct. 1 during the annual Future of Health Technology Summit in Cambridge, Mass.

Kvedar, a dermatologist, in 1995 founded what has become the Center for Connected Health, working with Harvard University teaching hospitals, including Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General hospitals, among others. The center's programs that provide patients with technology-based feedback on heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions, are now being integrated across the Partners HealthCare network.

In 2010, based on the technology platform developed at the center, Healthrageous, a personal health technology company, was founded. Kvedar is a co-founder and serves as chair of the company's Scientific Advisory Board. Healthrageous launched the hypertension self-management employee benefit program to help employees make healthy lifestyle choices and improve blood pressure. Another program developed at the Center, Partners' Step It Up, incorporates technology, educational feedback and a team-oriented virtual foot race, and helps inner-city Boston school children to be more aware of the importance of daily activity, nutrition and good health, while tracking daily activity. Step It Up was launched in 2011 at two Boston Public Schools and this year was expanded to six additional elementary schools.

Kvedar also launched the first physician-to-physician online consultation service, Partners Online Specialty Consultations, which links patients all over the world and their health providers with leading specialists at Harvard-affiliated hospitals. He has written more than 70 publications on the subject of connected health and the application of communications technologies to improve patient care.