Category: Apps

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Apps mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Smartphone as handheld biosensor

http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0523iphone_biosensor_BrianCunningham.html

University of Illinois researchers have developed an iPhone cradle and app that uses its camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules.    Professor Brian Cunningham, the team’s leader, discussed healthcare applications:  “A lot of medical conditions might be monitored very inexpensively and non-invasively using mobile platforms like phones. They can detect molecular things, like pathogens, disease biomarkers or DNA, things that are currently only done in big diagnostic labs with lots of expense and large volumes of blood.”

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Apps mHealth Monitoring Pharmaceuticals Seniors Sensors

Ingestible sensors alert doctors and caregivers when a pill is taken

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/04/16/the-newest-high-tech-pill-will-text-when-swallowed/

Proteus Digital Health is creating a new category of products, services and data systems that have the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of existing pharmaceutical treatments.  Called Digital Medicines, these new pharmaceuticals will contain a tiny sensor that can communicate, via a digital health feedback system, vital information about an individual’s medication-taking behavior and how their body is responding.

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Apps Monitoring Seniors

Google Glass for frail seniors

http://www.zdnet.com/old-age-is-the-killer-app-for-google-glass-7000014602/

Google Glass applications can benefit the aging population in many ways:

– Sensors can track a person’s gait, and identify mobility problems that signal a potential fall and broken bones. Early warning signs can trigger preventative treatments and healthcare providers could try stop a fall before it happens.

– Reminders for taking medication can be scheduled and double dosing prevented.

– For those suffering from dementia, the device could recognize family members and offer simple messages such as, “This is your son, his name is John. Say, “Hello John, how are my beautiful grandchildren?”

– Google Glass-type devices could enable family members to patch into what seniors are doing, even what they are seeing. If there were a problem, emergency aid would be on the way in seconds.

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Apps mHealth Monitoring Pregnancy Sensors

Mobile monitors for expectant mothers

http://www.fiercemobilehealthcare.com/special-reports/mobile-monitors-expectant-mothers

AirStrip OB is a mobile patient monitoring solution for women in labor. The system, developed by San-Antonio-based AirStrip Technologies, captures vital patient waveform data, including fetal heart tracing and maternal contraction patterns, in “virtual real time” and sends it to a physician’s mobile device.

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Apps Eyes Monitoring

Monitoring app for deteriorating eye, retinal conditions

http://www.healthtechzone.com/topics/healthcare/articles/2013/04/12/334081-new-fda-approved-myvisiontrack-medical-device-provides-hope.htm

Using a proprietary patented shape discrimination hyperacuity (SDH) test, myVisionTrack enables patients to regularly assess their vision function. myVisionTrack stores test results, tracks disease progression and can automatically alert a healthcare provider if it suspects significant deterioration of visual function in the patient. Clinical studies demonstrate that myVisionTrack’s shape discrimination hyperacuity test has comparable or higher sensitivity and specificity compared to clinically available standard visual function tests for detecting advanced maculopathy from high-risk moderate maculopathy.

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Apps mHealth Monitoring

Obamacare positions mHealth as a remedy for chronic hospital readmissions

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=affordable-care-act-technology

The Obama administration introduced the ACA in 2010 to move health care away from a fee-for-service model to one that promotes preventative care and overall wellness. Beginning this October the ACA will reinforce this approach by penalizing hospitals with chronic readmission problems by cutting Medicare reimbursement payments to those facilities. This policy initially targets patients suffering from three health conditions—heart failure, pneumonia and heart attack—but penalties will apply to additional conditions beginning in 2015.

Remote health monitoring systems have patients wear sensors that wirelessly collect, store, analyze and transmit health-related data. One of several approaches is the Wearable Wellness System from Italy’s Smartex, essentially an undershirt with embedded sensors and a processor that can monitor heart and respiration rates. Although not as fashionable, the Metria wearable sensor, from Vancive Medical Technologies, a medical division of Avery Dennison, can be adhesively bound to the body to measure heart rate, respiration, sleep duration and activity levels.

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Apps mHealth Monitoring

Top 7 doctor recommended health apps

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/309765/doctor-recommended-7-top-health-apps/1

PCMag visited seven specialists—an allergist, a dermatologist, a pediatrician, and a nutritionist—and asked which apps they recommend to their patients.

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Apps Diabetes mHealth Monitoring

Self tracking for diabetes — more efficient, still complicated

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/the-diabetics-paradox/274507/

Diabetes patients have been self monitoring for years.  Advances in mHealth have made the process more efficient, though still complicated.

The iPhone can improve the functionality of glucometers; last month the FDA approved LifeScan’s VerioSync glucometer; the device automatically sends blood sugar levels to an iPhone via Bluetooth (fewer steps mean fewer mistakes and less anxiety). The iBGStar is a similar patient-centric tool.

The ultimate goal is a non-invasive glucose monitor, which will allow patients to check their blood levels without drawing blood. We aren’t there yet.  When such devices can connect to automatic insulin pumps, which adminster insulin into a patient’s bloodstream subcutaneously through an open line rather than an injection, some of the hassle and stigma of diabetes may be lessened.

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Apps fitness Heart mHealth Monitoring Sensors

8 new sensor based health tracking devices

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/gallery/wearable_trackers/

An overview of 8 new sensor based health tracking devices.  Some predict that 400 million such products will enter the market by 2014.

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Apps Heart mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Study charts heart risk in 1M adults in real time

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324323904578368572640617966.html

The Health eHeart Study will use smartphone apps, sensors and other devices to gather data on a wide variety of measures associated with cardiovascular health—including blood pressure, physical activity, diet and sleep habits—in real time.

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Apps Heart mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Fujitsu facial imaging technology measures pulse

http://www.sys-con.com/node/2582171

A Fujitsu research lab has developed software that can accurately measure a subject’s pulse using the small digital cameras attached to smartphones and tablets.

The technology is based on the fact that the brightness of an individual’s face changes slightly as their heart beats, due to their blood flow. Hemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body, absorbs green light, so analyzing the change in color of parts of the face reveals their heart rate.

As most image sensors capture pixel information in red, blue and green, they have the ability to detect hemoglobin built in. Fujitsu’s technology keeps track of specific regions of the face over time to take pulse measurements.

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Apps Diabetes Heart mHealth Monitoring Sensors Sleep

A move toward aggregating health data from various devices and apps

http://gigaom.com/2013/03/15/tictrac-emerges-to-help-make-health-tracking-more-mainstream/

It seems that every day a new app or device promising the ultimate in health or fitness monitoring enters the market.  A startup has created a personal analytics dashboard which gives people a big picture view of their own aggregated data and underlying patterns, helping them make sense of the numbers.