Posted: 11/08/11 by Mobile Future Team
As CIO reported, a new iPad app seeks to help doctors better communicate with patients regarding cardiovascular issues. CardioTeach replaces the traditional diagrams, posters, and models that doctors use to explain heart illness and treatment options to patients. The app also lets users draw and add images so patients can enhance their understanding of the heart.
To learn more, click here.
Posted: 09/27/10 by Mobile Future Team
The Wall Street Journal released its Technology Innovation Awards today, and the ground-breaking advancements featured here will surely improve the quality of life for many people around the globe.
Wireless innovations received several important mentions, from software called Connect that enables health care providers to exchange health information electronically, to Vidyo Inc’s high-resolution videoconferencing system that works on both laptops and smartphones and travels over the Internet or 3G and 4G cellular networks. (A complete list of winners in the wireless category can be found here).
As Scott D. Anthony, managing director of Innosight Ventures and one of the judges of the awards said, “A number of the applicants have the potential to literally change the world.”
Posted: 09/08/10 by Mobile Future Team
In the United States, the treatment of chronic disease accounts for more than 70 percent ($1.7 trillion) of the country's $2.4 trillion in total healthcare spending. But continued proliferation and adoption of mHealth technologies can help people stay on top of their healthcare regimen and alert a specialist in case of a problem.
That’s the conclusion from a new report released by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. The report cites some interesting examples:
• Researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Colorado discovered that 58 percent of hypertension patients using mPHRs (personal health records embedded in mobile communication devices) lowered their blood pressure to healthy levels within six months, compared to 38 percent receiving conventional treatment.
• At the Cleveland Clinic, diabetic and hypertensive patients who used smartphones to transmit vital signs reduced their number of doctor’s office visits as compared to patients who did not track readings.
• Austrian investigators found that congestive heart failure (CHF) patients, who typically require extensive hospitalization, had fewer and shorter hospital stays when they used a wireless system to transmit vitals, medication information and health status to their physicians.
The potential for wireless to expand cost-effective healthcare solutions has been a favorite topic of our’s for years (See here and here.) Moreover, as The New York Times reported nearly two years ago in an article on seniors’ attempts to avoid nursing homes, the cost of a wireless monitoring system is about $100 a month, compared to a nursing home, where the costs to taxpayers can exceed $200 a day.
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:
A mobile application that helps consumers better manage their medication.
An application that helps the visually impaired recognize objects.
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
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Tags: Consumer Awareness, Consumer Benefits, eHealth, Innovation, News, Telehealth, Wireless Devices, Wireless Innovation