Hospitals can be famously difficult to navigate, and conventional GPS mapping apps don’t really help get through an indoor maze. Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles is solving this problem with its own smartphone app. The new Cedars-Sinai app has a built-in interactive map that gives step-by-step walking directions between any two poin (Read more...)
Tag: Net News
Vayyar Imaging Launches Walabot Home, A Senior Care Smart Home Device for Fall Detection
This week, Vayyar Imaging, a player in 3D sensor imaging technology, announced the launch of Walabot HOME, a senior care smart home device. Walabot HOME is designed for fall detection without the use of wearables, through the use of low-power radio wave technology similar to Wi-Fi. Avoiding the need for cameras, the system allows users […]
Demystifying Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: Interview with Nicholson Center CTO Dr. Roger Smith
Continuing our series of conversations with healthcare thought leaders about the burgeoning world of blockchain technologies, Medgadget spoke with Chief Technology Officer of the Nicholson Center, Dr. Roger Smith. The Nicholson Center is a medical research and training center founded in 2001, which operates within the Florida Hospital network. (Read more...)
FDA Clears First App-Only Product for Detecting Atrial Fibrillation
FibriCheck, a Belgian firm, won FDA clearance for its smartphone application that is capable of spotting signs of atrial fibrillation, simply by using the phone’s camera. The user places a finger over the camera lens on the back of the phone and initiates the app to do its thing. The app utilizes photoplethysmography to optically watch [ (Read more...)
Ohio State Studying Medical Aspects of Video Games in New Esports Program
At Ohio State University there’s a new program to study various aspects of esports (competitive playing of video games), including medically related issues such as fatigue, long-term problems for players, and how the brain and muscles work together to achieve incredible feats of coordination. The Sports Medicine Movement Analysis and Performa (Read more...)
Withings Releases Tough Smartwatch with Advanced Fitness Tracking
Withings, the French company that sold itself to Nokia and then rescued itself back as an independent firm, has just put out its first product since the corporate separation. The new Withings Steel HR Sport watch looks much like a classic mechanical or quartz watch, but which is actually packed with multiple sensors and digital […]
dayzz, An Evidence-Based, Personalized Sleep Training App for Employers, Interview with CEO Amir Inditzky
In addition to fatigue, high blood pressure, and weight gain experienced by individuals with chronically poor sleep, productivity and performance in the workplace are also known to suffer. Sleep deprivation, for example, can cost employers up to six lost working days and $2,762 in financial impact annually per employee. Today, the American Academy (Read more...)
Apple Unveils New Watch with ECG Built-In
Apple just unveiled its latest smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 4, and it has one impressive new medical feature: a built-in single-lead ECG (electrocardiograph). The FDA has cleared it as a medical device, according to Apple, and we assume the clearance is for detecting certain cardiac arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation. Previously, t (Read more...)
Smart Prosthetic with Sensors That Talk Directly to Cellular Networks
Today’s smart medical devices, such as glucometers that keep a record of blood sugar readings, typically require a smartphone as a gateway to link them to the internet. This poses some drawbacks, as patients are required to maintain a paired smartphone nearby and to make sure the data is uploaded regularly to a healthcare provider’s [&h (Read more...)
Chatbots in Healthcare: Interview with John Fitzpatrick, VP of Media and Engagement at precisioneffect
Chatbots are increasingly common and a variety of websites use these automated chat systems to field user questions and provide direction and information. With advances in AI, chatbot interactions are becoming more sophisticated and have the potential to provide useful and meaningful engagement with a target audience. The technology has the advanta (Read more...)
G-Med, An International Social Platform for Physicians: Interview with CEO Ilan Ben Ezri
Scientific researchers commonly collaborate beyond their specific institutions, and sometimes even their field, with peers around the world studying related subjects and solving adjacent challenges. Physicians, on the other hand, are typically limited to their immediate practice or physician colleagues for input on complex cases or insights into ch (Read more...)
The Most Expensive Drugs in America: Interview with GoodRx Co-Founder/Co-CEO Doug Hirsch
United States healthcare policy is currently in the spotlight as the Trump administration seeks to weaken Obamacare with actions such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which removes the individual mandate that required individuals to carry health insurance. Another focus of the current administration’s plan is to lower drug prices with strategies (Read more...)
ResQ is Using Games to Fight Opioid Addiction: Interview with Dr. Paul Glimcher
Earlier this year at the Health 2.0 WinterTech Conference, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Catalyst @ Health 2.0 launched the RWJF Opioid Challenge, an initiative aimed at bringing together healthcare and technology innovators to solve a growing epidemic of addiction in the United States. A panel of 19 judges evaluated 97 initial (Read more...)
Apple’s Next Move in Healthcare is Breaking Down Health Record Silos
In an important step forward in the consumerization of healthcare, this week Apple introduced an update to its Health app (iOS 11.3 beta) which allows individuals to access medical records on their iPhone. Based on the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard, the company’s new Health Records API allows patient dat (Read more...)
Litesprite Helps Patients Manage Illnesses Through Gamification
Gamification is gaining recognition as a powerful tool for contexts far removed from gaming itself, and the approach has been used for applications as varied as advertising, to recruiting, to rewards programs. Litesprite hopes to expand gamification in a rather important sector: health. Litesprite’s mobile application, Sinasprite, helps patie (Read more...)
Klue Hand Tracking Tech for Behavior Change to be Tried at Stanford, Crossover Health
Klue, a Silicon Valley company that’s working to better utilize data gathered from wearable body trackers, is now working with Stanford University and Crossover Health, a primary care medical group, to study the effectiveness of Klue’s modules to affect change. The partnership with Stanford involves conducting a scientific study of Klue (Read more...)
App Interprets Cries of Infants to Help Deaf People Raise Kids
Being deaf while raising a child can be a serious challenge, in part because it’s impossible to know when your child is crying and to understand what that crying is supposed to imply. Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles have now developed software that listens to a baby’s crying and interprets it based on […]
At-Home Preeclampsia Testing with a Smartphone, BP Cuff, and Accelerometer
Preeclampsia is a frequent and dangerous complication of pregnancy characterized by an abnormally high blood pressure, coupled with signs of damage to the liver, kidneys, and other organs. While there is a fairly easy way to detect signs of preeclampsia, known as the supine pressor test, it requires patients to visit their doctor, something that [& (Read more...)
Researchers Use YouTube to Study Dog Bites
The causes of dog bites are poorly understood, but the topic causes quite a bit of emotion on all sides of the issue, be it dog owners, people who are afraid of dogs, or those that believe only certain species are dangerous. Researchers at University of Liverpool wanted to study this issue, so they turned […]
Amazon’s Alexa May Soon Answer Your Healthcare Questions
CNBC is reporting that Amazon has formed a team within its Alexa division, the one responsible for the company’s AI voice assistants, focused on health and wellness. It seems Amazon wants to make its technology applicable for healthcare applications, but a variety of hurdles will be in the way. Details at CNBC: Amazon is building […]