Last week we shared 12 new companies unveiling their innovative ideas at Health 2.0’s Launch! event this year. Back in the exhibit hall, a few more early stage businesses were also leveraging Health 2.0 to kickoff new programs and technologies. One of these was the official launch of Ria Health‘s mobile app solution to help people […]
Tag: Net News
Smartphone Using Its Camera Can Assess Heart Health
A group of researchers in California has developed a smartphone app that can be used to evaluate some aspects of heart health, potentially replacing in some cases more complicated procedures like ultrasound or MRI. In patients with heart failure it is important for doctors to assess how effective the heart is at pumping blood around […]
Algorithm Makes Smartwatches More Effective Movement Trackers
Researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK have devised an algorithm that helps smartwatches track activity more effectively by learning new movements as they happen, rather than just having a limited number of pre-programmed activities they can recognize. Wearable devices to track movement are currently very popular. At the moment, these devices can recognize […]
Novel Smartphone App for Bilirubin, Pancreatic Cancer Screening
Pancreatic cancer patients have one of the lowest five-year survival rates, due in large part to the disease going undiagnosed in its early and intermediate stages. There are no overt symptoms during the critical early period, and non-invasive screening tools for identifying early pancreatic tumors before they metastasize have yet to be developed and translated […]
Microsoft Seeing AI App for Blind People Describes The World Around
Microsoft has released an iPhone app for blind people and those with significantly decreased vision. Seeing AI, as the app is called, does its magic when the user points the smartphone’s camera at something and it reads out what it’s seeing. For example, pointing it at a person, it tries to identify if it’s someone […]
iGlucose Glucometer with Built-In Cellular Connectivity and API Interoperability
Smart Meter Corporation, a New York firm, won both FDA clearance and European CE Mark approval for its iGlucose system, a blood glucose meter that features built-in cellular connectivity. Diabetics using the iGlucose will have the convenience of seeing their readings automatically uploaded to the company’s web portal, from where their doctors and caretakers can […]
MDCalc Launches Long-Awaited Android App: Exclusive Interview
MDCalc, makers of popular online clinically useful calculators, has been around for over 12 years, and is still owned and run by the two practicing docs who founded it, Dr. Graham Walker and Dr. Joe Habboushe. Interestingly, MDCalc has seen its largest growth in the past three years, adding dozens of new calculators and swelling […]
MDCalc Launches Long-Awaited Android App: Exclusive Interview
MDCalc, makers of popular online clinically useful calculators, has been around for over 12 years, and is still owned and run by the two practicing docs who founded it, Dr. Graham Walker and Dr. Joe Habboushe. Interestingly, MDCalc has seen its largest growth in the past three years, adding dozens of new calculators and swelling […]
Artificial Intelligence System to Diagnose Skin Cancer: Interview with Stanford Scientist Andre Esteva
Scientists at Stanford University have developed a deep convolutional neural network that can diagnose skin cancer by examining images of skin lesions. Skin cancer is the most common human cancer, and one in five Americans will be diagnosed with it at some point in their lives. At present, skin cancer is primarily diagnosed through an […]
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Adaptive Virtual Reality Headset for People with Common Vision Disorders
Virtual reality headsets are expected to become very popular in the coming years. IMAX is even opening up theaters dedicated to this medium. A problem is that VR headsets are optimized for people with perfect vision, so those that wear glasses can have a lot of discomfort during long VR sessions. The screen in standard […]
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D-EYE Digital Ophthalmoscope Proving Itself in a Clinical Trial for Diagnosing Glaucoma
Last year we reviewed the D-EYE digital ophthalmoscope, an attachment for iPhones that rivals traditional devices in size, cost, and ease of use. We were very impressed by how little skill is needed to view the vasculature and the optic disc, even being able to do a self exam on an undilated eye. Now a study […]
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Withings Now Offers Hy-Result BP Assessment Software
Withings, maker of smart scales, activity trackers, wireless blood pressure cuffs, and other devices, has released a new in-app offering to better interpret blood pressure readings. The Hy-Result algorithms were developed at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris to replicate how a physician would study the numbers. In a recent study in Blood Pressure Monitoring Journal, the […]
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Opternative Online Test Gets You a Glasses/Contacts Prescription from Comfort of Home
If you’ve been wondering whether you need glasses or perhaps may require a new prescription, you can now take a professional-quality exam online and receive a prescription, all for $40. Opternative is a new service that takes a patient through a series of visual tests and hands those over to an ophthalmologist to review, along […]
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Smartphone App Identifies Eye Conditions, Directs Patients to Specialists
A team at Mexico’s Medical and Surgical Center for Retina, a small firm of about a dozen people, has created a smartphone software that can help general medical practitioners spot eye conditions that currently require a specialist to diagnose. The app is not intended to replace ophthalmologists, but was designed instead to help direct patients to receive a professional screening.
The software was created in collaboration with the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and is able to detect diabetic macular edema and a few other conditions. The researchers hope that besides assisting in-clinic physicians with diagnoses and referrals, the app can also serve people living in remote areas that normally don’t have easy access to ophthalmologists.
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Rice mobileVision Device Lets Patients Image Their Own Retinas (VIDEO)
Engineers at Rice University have developed a prototype device that may one day allow patients to screen their eyes for signs of macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Modern ophthalmoscopes can already be connected to smartphones for easy image sharing, allowing remote ophthalmologists to help with diagnosis. Yet, properly aligning the instrument with the eye is still a matter of skill, so the Rice team have been working to help automate this process so that just about anyone can exmine the retina.
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Fitbit’s New Heart Rate Monitoring Trackers Now Available
Fibit just has just announced that it’s making available two new fitness trackers with heart rate monitoring capabilities. The Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge, like other heart rate wrist worn trackers, use green LEDs on the rear to detect the pulse as blood flows through the veins and capillaries. You must have solid contact with the skin for a few seconds for this to work, so we’d be skeptical about it working consistently while jogging. On the other hand you can always sample the heart rate during quick stops for a breather.
The Charge HR is a smaller, more basic version that costs $150, while the Surge is being promoted as “the ultimate fitness super watch” with GPS capabilities, ability to control music playing on your smartphone while showing you any text messages you may receive, and a battery life of up to seven days.
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ZEISS Digital Lenses to Help Reduce Eye Fatigue from Using Mobile Devices (VIDEO)
There’s a good chance that you’re reading this text on your tablet or smartphone, holding the device a short distance from your eyes. Often you just glance at your phone to check the time or send a quick text message, and doing this hundreds of times a day can be pretty stressful on the eyes. To help people fight so called Digital Eye Strain brought on by the modern age, ZEISS is releasing new eyeglass lenses that reduce fatigue caused by repeatedly switching between looking near and far.
Designed for people with normal vision and those that typically wear spectacles, the lenses feature an area toward the bottom that magnifies nearby objects. Distance vision remains unaffected, while a short transition zone makes it easy to quickly switch from near and far viewing.
Google and Novartis Combine Expertise to Produce Smart Contact and Intraocular Lenses
Back in January of this year, Google unveiled an electronic contact lens that it’s been secretly developing by its X research group. The device is capable of measuring glucose levels in the wearer’s tears, a technology that may one day replace finger pricks for millions of diabetics. Additionally, there are plans to embed LED lights into the lens to automatically warn the user when glucose is outside of healthy levels. But Google is not a medical company, so it has partnered with Alcon, a division of Novartis, to turn the device into a real product.
Besides commercializing a glucose monitoring lens, the collaboration also aims to develop a solution for presbyopia, an eye condition that prevents the natural lens from properly auto-focusing. Such a device will either be an accomodative contact lens or intraocular lens implanted during refractive cataract surgery. The collaboration hopes that by bringing together Google’s experts in electronic design and manufacturing with Alcon’s expertise in physiology and lens design, we’ll be seeing commercialized products within as little as five years. It’s not exactly a time frame Google is used to, but as Larry Page noted recently, “.. it’s just a painful business to be in.”
Cheap Smartphone Eye Exam System Rivals Professional Equipment in Field Trials
Last year we covered a new smartphone-based eye exam system that was being tested in Kenya as an alternative to traditional, costlier equipment. The PEEK (Portable Eye Examination Kit) combines the power of a smartphone, including its camera and flash, with a 3D printed clip-on adapter that makes taking eye exams a snap. Here’s Andrew Bastawrous, a Kenyan ophthalmologist that’s the lead on the project, showing off the technology and discussing how it completely changed the way eye exams have been performed in the field trials.
PEEK App Uses Smartphone Technology to Bring Eye Exams to Developing Countries
Smartphone camera quality may sound like a first world issue, but camera-equipped cell phones may be the key to treating the eyes of over 250 million people with visual impairments who live in third world countries. A new application called PEEK (Portable Eye Examination Kit) puts a number of standard tests on a standard smartphone. The phone’s camera can be used to scan the lens of the eye, while the LED flash is bright enough to illuminate the retina. The phone’s screen can be used to conduct various vision tests, and all the data can be geotagged using the phone’s built-in GPS, compiled into a patient record, and sent wirelessly to a doctor.
PEEK is currently undergoing trials on 5,000 patients in Kenya, but the early results are promising and have so far allowed doctors to provide further treatment to over 1,000 patients.