Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 05/25/10 by Mobile Future Team
If you didn’t catch 60 Minutes on Sunday night, you missed an amazing segment on how mobile apps will revolutionize our lives. The show profiled Marty Cooper, grandfather of the cell phone, who at age 81 is still among the top futurists of our mobile future.
Take mobile technology and healthcare. As Cooper told Morley Safer:
“Healthcare is going to be revolutionized because you will have sensors at various points on your body measuring different things. And a computer somewhere or maybe a doctor will be examining you all the time…. If you could measure [vital signs] all the time, you could predict heart failures. You could predict diabetes. And you could prevent all these things.”
In one sense, the mobile healthcare revolution has already started. See here and here as examples. But as everyone from Marty Cooper on down would agree, mobile technology has only started to scratch the healthcare surface.
For two-minute version of the 60 Minutes show on YouTube, click here. For the complete 60 Minutes interview, click here.
Posted: 04/22/10 by Jonathan Spalter
Cross-posted from Huffington Post
Earth Day is this week so what better time to take stock of the ways that mobile products can help make a greener planet.
A 2009 national traffic survey concluded that Americans wasted 4.2 billion hours and 2.8 billion gallons of gas stuck in traffic jams. But some areas are starting to get a more efficient handle on traffic thanks to wireless. Take Los Angeles County, which has recently deployed a wireless monitoring system across more than 1,000 intersections.
The wireless system allows traffic managers to change traffic light timing instantly to reflect changing traffic conditions, including rush hour patterns and accidents. The result has been a reduction in commuting times by as much as 20 percent.
Speaking of saving gas, look at the environmental impact from the decision by Arizona Public Service (APS), Arizona's largest electric utility, to install wireless utility transmitters on homes and offices. With more than 160,000 wireless smart meters already installed, APS has estimated that its savings include 150,000 fewer field visits. The utility has committed to deploying about 1 million wireless meters by the end of 2012.
Even beyond green benefits of fewer trucks on the road, the integration of wireless monitoring systems into a home or building electrical system pays almost immediate dividends. Let's say you left on a week's vacation and forgot to turn off the AC or water heater. No problem: There are smartphone apps for different mobile operating systems that let you turn off (or on) the heating, AC, water heater, or security cameras. For a few options, click here.)
Closer to home, wireless technologies are increasingly saving patients from having to drive to a doctor's office, not to mention providing better care. For the elderly and the infirm especially, these can be major benefits.
Also encouraging, wireless users are also seeing more evidence of the convergence of mobile phone chargers, so that you won't need to throw out a charger when you switch phones. All the major phone manufacturers have committed to this by 2012 and it looks like consumers may not even have to wait that long.
But for all the benefits of recycling, the best way to help the environment is by giving your old phone to someone who needs it. Cell Phones for Soldiers is a great organization that will take your old phone, wipe off any data and uses the sale proceeds to purchase at least an hour of calling time for soldiers abroad.
Finally, are you the type who leaves your phone charging all night and then leaves the charger plugged in even after removing the phone? Based on research into "standby" electricity consumption by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, if there are 50 million phone adapters in the U.S. left plugged in all year, that uses more than 100 million kilowatts of electricity - or enough for the average yearly electrical needs of 25,000 Americans.
Take an Earth Day resolution right now: Unplug your chargers!
Posted: 04/01/10 by Mobile Future Team
At CTIA Wireless 2010 last week, the newest and coolest mobile products and services were on display. There were lots of interesting ones, including many amazing mHealth applications.
Here’s a look at some innovative apps:
PillPhone
A mobile application that helps consumers better manage their medication.
LookTel
An application that helps the visually impaired recognize objects.
MedApps
A mobile outpatient monitoring solution that proactively alerts doctors and nurses to potential health problems.
Posted: 03/23/10 by Mobile Future Team
As I’m confident you’re aware, the House of Representatives voted to pass healthcare reform Sunday evening after one of the most grueling and public legislative debates in our nation’s history. Earlier this morning, President Obama signed the bill into law. Whether you consider yourself conservative or progressive, Americans are united in their belief that this sweeping piece of legislation will have far-reaching effects on a variety of industries and enterprises.
The wireless industry is no different, as is illustrated by the mHealth initiatives playing a leading role at this week’s CTIA show in Las Vegas. And thankfully for consumers, the adage “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is not applicable to the exciting new wireless health technologies being unveiled daily.
The passage of healthcare reform in conjunction with the recent release of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan provides for expanded opportunities in wireless health technologies, an industry whose market will reach an estimated value of $4.6 billion by 2014. According to a report (summarized here) released Friday by CSMG, the mHealth market is currently expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 25%, with the potential for increased acceleration over the next few years.
Wireless health technologies posses the capacity to revolutionize the way American’s access healthcare. Providing services like low-cost sensors and wireless remote monitoring that translate into the right care at the right time, mHealth can help drive down costs and make overall industry operation more effective.
Posted: 03/15/10 by Mobile Future Team
Did you forget to take your medicine today?
Well, a new wireless technology can help remind you if you did.
A St. Louis pharmacy-benefit manager is testing the "GlowCap," a pill container that is equipped with a wireless transmitter that notifies patients when it is time for a dose of their medicine.
Daniel Touchette, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explains the importance of the wireless transmitting technology:
"Only about half of patients who are prescribed a medication for a chronic condition are still taking the drug regularly after a year and the most effective programs combine education and reminders".
Posted: 03/12/10 by Mobile Future Team
While Savannah, New York City, and Seattle gear up for St. Patrick’s Day this Wednesday, March 17, telecom enthusiasts nationwide will have their eyes turned to the nation’s capital, as the FCC presents its long-awaited National Broadband Plan to Congress. The day before it hits the Hill, the FCC will unveil the plan at an Open Commission Meeting, finally disclosing its contents after a 13-month-long process involving online workshops, town halls, and hearings across the country.
Keeping pace with the transparency surrounding the National Broadband Plan’s creation, Youtube’s Steve Grove will interview FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski immediately following the public meeting. In this session, Mr. Grove, head of news and politics at Youtube, will ask the Chairman questions submitted by the public spanning across a range of topics, including broadband’s potential impact on health care, education, and job creation. Announcing the interview, the FCC stated, “No topic is off-limits… we want to know what Americans have in mind for Internet innovation in the 21st century.”
The blog at broadband.gov encourages the public to join in the discussion using Citizen Tube and submit individual questions for Chairman Genachowski via Google Moderator. The deadline for questions is Sunday evening at midnight on the west coast.
Posted: 02/09/10 by Mobile Future Team
Last week, the White House unveiled a great step forward in the fight to reduce birth defects. It's a public-private effort called the Text4baby campaign and according to the Associated Press, it is the U.S.'s first free, pre-natal education program to use mobile phone text messages.
Expecting parents should text "BABY" (or "BEBE", for Spanish texts) to 511411. They'll receive weekly texts geared to the baby's birth date that cover nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention. The texts, which have been vetted by government and nonprofit health experts, continue through the baby's first birthday.
An added benefit: Several major wireless carriers have waived text fees for the service.
For more information, click here
Posted: 01/20/10 by Mobile Future Team
Out of the devastation in Haiti have come extraordinary stories of survival. One amazing first-person account is of Dan Woolley, a Denver-native, who found himself trapped beneath the rubble of his hotel in Port-au-Prince. The tool that saved his life? His iPhone. Through his wireless connection he was able assess his injuries and diagnosis a broken leg.
Woolley used the light from his iPhone to show him his injuries and diagnosed it properly as a broken foot. Then, he used the instructions from the app to treat the excessive bleeding from cuts on his legs and the back of his head.
Furthermore, he was able to figure out his location within the building using GPS and find an elevator shaft—which lead him to safety. A true testament of personal ingenuity in the face of catastrophe.
Posted: 12/14/09 by Mobile Future Team
With the exception of
reducing the Digital Divide, probably the greatest social benefit from wireless
technology is its potential to improve access to more affordable
healthcare. We've blogged a lot about
this (see here, here and here) and now
thanks to Venuri Siriwardane at the Newark Star-Ledger, there's
even more evidence.
As
an example, Siriwardane cites fuzzy bedroom slippers with pressure sensors in
the soles which wirelessly transmit movement data, including information that
the wearer may be more likely to fall.
Of
greater potential benefit, researchers are pouring research funding into the
development of cost-effective wireless audio and video consultation services so
doctors may interact remotely with patients in real time.
The
reason for this is not hard to discern:
Remote
patient monitoring alone can generate between 20 percent to 40 percent in
savings, said Chris Wasden, managing director of health industries strategy and
innovation at PricewaterhouseCoopers....
Wasden [explained] that telehealth is much more common in developing
countries such as India, where cell phones enable people to receive health care
in remote areas that once lacked access to modern medicine. "They've already
developed the ability to deliver mobile health care to their people, but we're
behind the times on that."
Better
healthcare. More affordable access. That's the mobile future.
Posted: 12/04/09 by Mobile Future Team
As Washington focuses on
healthcare legislation, here's a sobering statement from Dr. Pauline Chen,
author of the New York Times' "Doctor & Patient" column:
"Nonadherence,
or the failure to follow medical advice, is the most important cause of
organ rejection in long-term transplant
survivors."
Teenagers are at
especially high risk, she writes this week, citing studies suggesting that a
majority of teen liver transplants fail and that teen patients are four times
more likely than adults to take their medications at the wrong time or to forget
to take them.
So how to reach
today's hard-to-reach teens? Last month, researchers at researchers at
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York published a study showing the remarkable
effectiveness of texting in improving success rates among young liver transplant
patients.
During a
year-long test, patients receiving texts were more likely to take their
medications. One result: while 12 of the young people experienced rejection
episodes in the previous year, only two did so during the
study.
The next time a text message appears on your phone, it may be your doc giving you an important
reminder.
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