Health Tech Weekly

Hi-Tech Nano-sponges Scrub Blood Stream (Video)

admin — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:23:45 +0000

This week on Health Tech Weekly is a really cool piece of new technology where researchers have engineered tiny cell-like sponges that can “scrub” toxins directly from the blood stream. Now you all know how much I love a good health tech story.

Tiny Sponges Mop Up MRSA

The folks at the University of California, San Diego, have come up with tiny nano-sponges shaped like red blood cells that have the ability to absorb toxins that attack red blood cells like MRSA and snake and bee venoms. MRSA is one of those superbugs or skin eating bacteria you hear about. Because these nano-sponges work against a range of toxins, they can be more easily deployed in numerous locations.

Currently, specific anti venom varieties must be used based on the type of toxin encountered. Since these sponges work against a wide variety of toxins they are much more effective. They are already proven to work in the lab on mice. When pre-dosed in mice who later received a lethal toxin dose, 86% survived. When the nano-sponges were administered after the toxin, survival rate was still 44% despite the lethal dose.

Game Changing Health Technology

This could change how we treat or even prophylactically manage exposure to certain toxic substances or situation. It also points to other more advanced treatments using similar engineered nano-technologies. Stay tuned for more on this one.

I urge you to check out the entire article that talks about how they removed the membranes from red blood cells and then wrapped them back around the cell shaped sponges. Just fascinating. Because the sponges are covered in the person’s own cell membranes, the immune system ignores them and leaves them to do their job before being broken down by normal body metabolism.

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That will wrap up this episode of Health Tech Weekly. Make sure you follow up over at out website, HTWeekly.com, for more information on this and all of our episodes. There are additional resource links, links to trusted resources for living a healthier lifestyle and more. If you have a comment on this week’s episode please get back in touch with me either over at HTWeekly.com in comment links for each article or shoot me an email at podmedic@mac.com.

Home Health Monitoring With Ideal Life (video)

admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:40:00 +0000

Ideal Life is a fairly mature platform in a business-to-business model where we’ve been selling to health plans, insurers, hospital groups, home care agencies for managing people with chronic conditions like congestive heart failure, COPD, diabetes, et cetera. They’ve developed a complete end-to-end solution of wireless biometric monitoring devices like you see behind going through a very low-cost gateway up to our software which is a cloud-based collaborative care system. So it allows them to get real-time data that becomes actionable for sending back questions and getting survey data and building alerts and interacting before people have a visit the ER or the hospital and reduce their cost of care.

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United Health Care Leads Dance Dance Revolution in Schools (video)

admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:02:19 +0000

UnitedHealthcare has an interesting initiative looking at getting kids more active in the schools. They have announced a new partnership with Konami where they’re bringing the popular DanceDance Revolution Classroom Edition into a number of schools. Brian Landwehr from United Healthcare says these are schools with which they already have an existing relationship, “that we help with their health curriculum, and what they do with childhood obesity and anything that they need to for their kids’ health at their school.”

“With this particular initiative, one of the things that – and the reason we’re here really is to talk about how healthcare can kind of reach out to people where they’re already are, what they’re already doing things. You’re already using mobile device. Kids are already playing video games. How do we actually take those existing activities, make them more for healthcare, make them more functional and manageable and actually convince people to do the things they need to do by engaging them at things that they already are doing. So these kids are already playing videogames and people are already trying to manage their healthcare costs.”

“What we’re doing here today is kind of saying, “How do we actually bring that in to existing setup and make it easier, make it more convenient, make it more fun and engaging to actually do the things you’re supposed to do anyway?” With the classroom edition, the great thing is that it actually ties directly into the way school curriculum are built. We worked with Konami and with the University of South Florida. They actually put together a professional curriculum around this that can be integrated directly into all the curriculum setup. The schools that we’re working with.”

“We already have some coordinators we work with. So that then gathers a bunch of data from the dancing that can go up to a portal that allows the educators, the kids, the parents, to actually see progress throughout the year. As each kid in the system gets a smart card at the beginning of the year that tracks their own personal data that they actually bring in. They can keep track of it in the system. So it allows them to see their progress throughout the year and get excited about it and their parents even get excited about it.”

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Dakim Brain Fitness Improves Memory, Mental Agility (video)

admin — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:22:43 +0000

Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera here at CES 2013 joined by Dan from Dakim Brain Fitness.

Dakim Brain Fitness is the leader in development of brain fitness products to help boomers and seniors maintain their cognitive performance as they age. As you can in the booth here, baby boomers are looking forward to living a long life in being very productive and it’s very important for them to keep their brains sharp throughout the rest of their lives. The programs are clinically tested. They provide a broad range of cognitive stimulation activities designed to help people improve their memory, language abilities, attention, focus, and concentration. With continued use over time, to help protect them against cognitive decline.

They have several platforms. For the senior living industry, assisted living, et cetera, Dakim Brain Fitness has an integrated hardware and software solution. They also have software for health care professionals: neurologists, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, et cetera. They’ll be introducing in March a web-based service for consumers.

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Ergotron’s Sit-Stand Desk System Keeps You Healthy at Work

admin — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:36:53 +0000

Hi, Jamie Davis from Health Tech Weekly here at the Tech Podcast Network, Tpn.tv. I want to thank Ergotron for their gift of a rolling, sit-stand desk of my own to continue my own healthy work lifestyle. Check my video on the new desk and how I use it in my studio. This desk is a great addition to any healthy workspace and can improve your core strength and balance just by helping you work standing up for part of your day. Check it out!

You can find more about healthy initiatives and standing up while working at JustStand.org.

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Heartmath App Promotes Inner Balance (Video)

admin — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:26:29 +0000

Hi, Jamie Davis from Health Tech Weekly here at the Tech Podcast Network, Tpn.tv. We’re here at CES 2013. I’m here in the HeartMath booth and we’re talking with Catherine about “Inner Balance.” It’s a heart rate monitor, a skin monitor, whatever, that’s really helping me find my inner stress points, I guess, you’d say.

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Feedback Improves Inner Balance and Wellness

It’s helping you to restore your inner balance by measuring your heart rate variability. So when you’re stressed, your heart rate variability looks a little like earthquake tracing. So what we help you to do is synchronize your breathing, your heart and your brain together. You do that through empowering positive emotions and also this feedback.

The device itself is clipped to your ear and plugs into your smartphone or tablet. You got the ear sensor there. It’s very highly accurate, measuring heart rate variability and how smooth your heart rhythm is. It’s actually using a breath pacer. You see here, this will move in and out and you want to focus the attention in [the inner] of your heart and then you want to breathe – nice, slow deep breath – and you can use a breath pacer to do that. Feeling better already?

Improve Your Workouts and Active Lifestyle

It does make a difference. Now to really engage that and anchor that and you want to feel a positive emotion. So once you feel the positive emotion, it puts you in a coherent state. That coherent state is when you are at your best – mentally, physically and emotionally – and when you want to feel more love and appreciation during the day.

You get calm and aware. The top of the app shows your heart rate variability at the top and then as you get more and more coherent, it gives you a little indicator. You just change from red to blue and then you go from blue to green. So it’s green on the inside and really being able to feel positive all the time no matter what’s going on around you. Even at CES, you can have inner balance.

Integrated Web App for Tracking Available Now

The sensor itself is $99.00 and the app is free. Download from iTunes store and using on iPad, iPhone, iPod, Touch. So you can use on any of your I-accessories.

Stay Tuned for More From CES 2013

I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. I’ll be back soon with more health technology for you. In the meantime, remember that improving health takes small, simple steps that over time all add up to a healthier you. Why don’t you take a healthier step today?

Remote Heart Rate Monitoring Changes Healthcare (Video)

admin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:53:40 +0000

Hi, Jamie Davis from Health Tech Weekly. Here with the Tech Podcast Network at TPN.tv. This week, in another segment recorded at CES 2013, we bring you Randy from the Omron Booth and the Omron Remote Heartrate Monitor.

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Changing Habits, Improving Lifestyle

This is an amazing little heart rate monitor you wear around with you. It’s not that strap you wear on your chest anymore. It’s a strapless, continuous heart rate monitor. Instead of wearing a strap, you just wear it on your wrist. The optical sensors are reading your blood flow in the capillaries and calculating your heart rate for you.

You can wear it all day long. It’ll do eight hours of workout for the battery life. But if you wear it all day long and only turn it on for your heart rate during your workouts, it’ll last you over a week.

Improve Your Workouts and Active Lifestyle

You can make your workouts more effective. If you’re just walking and you’re not walking at a pace where you’re doing cardiac burning, you’re not getting all the benefit of that 30 minutes you may have. If you only have 30 minutes a day, make sure you walk hard.

The best way to do that is to check your heart rate. See that wet zone you’re in. Get in to the cardiac burning zone or the fat burning zone and you’ll have a much more effective workout then.

Integrated Web App for Tracking

It integrates with OmronFitness.com web application where you can upload your heart rate information, also upload the distance you walked, your calories burned. If you’re using one of our pedometers, it’ll have your steps. It all uploads to a graphic format so that you can see it at any time. So you can go back in history and look and see – “What did I do yesterday? The day before? Am I making progress in my goals?”

It is available now for $149.95 at Omronfitness.com store and soon after, in many major retailers and online stores.

Stay Tuned for More From CES 2013

HAPIfork Changes Bad Eating Habits (Video)

admin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:06:26 +0000

Hi, Jamie Davis from Health Tech Weekly. Here with the Tech Podcast Network at TPN.tv. We are here with Philippe, co-founder of HAPILabs to talk about the HAPIFork.

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Changing Habits One Bite At A Time

The HAPIFork basically tracks three different types of data: the time you start eating and end eating, so therefore, the duration of your meal. Second is the number of fork servings you take during the meal. And even more important for us to track is the time interval in-between fork servings. For example, you eat, you wait a few seconds then you make the next bite. The idea is to help you increase this time interval to slow down the way you eat.

Subtle Vibration Tells You to Slow DownHow’s it work? You’re going to touch this, this part, and you’re going to feel a gentle vibration when you eat too fast. Let’s say, if the system says, “Okay, you should eat with time interval of six or seven seconds,” if you go under this, you will feel the gentle vibration. If you’re over this you won’t feel it, you won’t feel anything.

Vibration Slows You Down

It’s just the subtle signal that tells you, “Hey, I need to slow down my eating.” Of course, we know that slowing down our eating habits is going to really change our health habits because we eat less when we eat slowly.

By the way, it’s going to be released in April. It will come with an application for Android and iPhone, with an online dashboard to track all data for any of your meal. It’s going to come as well with a coaching program to take after your eating habits and a social game to eat with your family and to improve the way the children are eating as well. The HAPIfork will cost $99.00.

Stay Tuned for More From CES 2013

Virtual Reality Surgery Trains Doctors (Video)

admin — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:47:53 +0000

Good day and welcome to Health Tech Weekly, the show on technology that helps create a healthier you! I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. Before we get into this week’s health tech item, make sure you check out the links here at HTWeekly.com for links to everything covered in this episode, contact information and more.

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Virtual Surgery Practice Before the Show

So how many of you have had surgery before? How about played video games? Well this time on Health Tech Weekly I bring you a new training project that is bringing those two activities together. Enter Surgical Theater, a revolutionary virtual reality surgery training tool that is being used to allow surgeons and surgeons in training to practice difficult surgeries while watching on a virtual patient screen.

This is not that far from the reality of many surgeries which are conducted using remote instruments and video from inside the patient via tiny incisions in the skin. According to the website at SurgicalTheater.net allow physicians to plan, rehearse and tele-mentor surgery.

“Tele-mentor?” That sounds more like a cartoon super villain than a method of training the doctors of the future.

Whatever the words they use this is pretty cool. The system is featuring specific neurosurgeries including modules for cerebral aneurysm, pituitary tumor and meningioma (a form of brain cancer) according to an interview with Surgical Theater’s president Moty Avisar from Medgadget.com. The system takes flat two dimensional images from CT scans and X-rays and translates them into the three dimensional anatomical geography of the brain so that surgeons can prepare for the structures they will actually see during the real operation.

Coming Soon To A Hospital Near You

The system has received initial FDA approval to move forward and has been purchased by several hospital systems including University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. Once final FDA approval has been received, the system will operate side by side in real surgeries allowing surgeons to practice difficult moves just before they do it for real, similar to the way athletes warm up before a race or competition.

As the system continues to roll out to other hospital programs, the surgical theater could be coming to a surgery near you. Early adopters include the Mayo Clinic, UCLA medical center and more.

Grandcare Systems Innovates Elder Adult Care (Video)

admin — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:38:19 +0000

Chris Montera steps in as guest host with Health Tech Weekly and he talks to Eric, the medical director from GrandCare Systems. It’s an in-home digital telemonitoring device initially created for increased socialization. To make sure that medical professionals could help interact with their patients because maybe they can’t always see the patient when they want to see them.

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Home Telehealth Monitoring Solution

Grandcare systems

As the technology has developed and advanced, they’ve realized that there’s a role for collecting medical data, being able to capture that onsite and remotely, and then being able to use that information and interpret that to change the way that health care professionals treat patients and how they can better take care of the patients in their home.

Patients who are using this device know that even when their doctor or home care nurse doesn’t see them, they can continue to be taking care of them. Eric’s specialty is Emergency Medicine and so he spends a lot of time taking care of patients who he doesn’t probably know very well when he’s first seeing them. Something like the GrandCare System device has the capability to collect a lot of data, present it to him in a way that he’ll be able to use it meaningfully. Even without knowing the patients, it’ll give Eric access to their primary care providers. It’ll let him know what medications they’re taking, when their medications have been changed, if they’ve been taking their medications. So it’s a lot of really useful real-time data.

Remote Caretaker for Our Elderly Relatives

GrandCare Systems understands that there are realistic practical reasons why we’re not available to be able to be our relative’s caretakers all the time. This helps us to become more involved. You want to know if your relatives hasn’t been taking their medications. What we love about this device though is that it actually goes one step further when it recognizes that the patients aren’t taking their medications, it’ll actually put up prompts on the screen to try and gather more information about why they’re not taking medications. To us, that’s really useful because knowing they’re not taking their medications is one thing, but trying to come up with a treatment plan to make sure that they are taking their medications going forward is much more helpful.

GrandCare Systems devices for the home are available now at GrandCare.com. Price is variable based on region and services needed.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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MedFolio Home Medication Reminder System (video)

admin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:26:14 +0000

Chris Montera steps in as guest host with Health Tech Weekly and he talks to Julie in the Medfolio booth about their amazing product that will tell you when to take your medicine. And it customizable and refillable with all kinds of new meds for any home health care situation.

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Developed by Experienced Pharmacist

MedFolio Pill Box

Julie Mason is a pharmacist and president of MedFolio LLC. She has been a pharmacist for many years at the VA System and worked with many patients about medication adherence, going into their homes and trying to work with them to manage their medications effectively. Through all those experiences and all those patients that she’s dealt with, it all kind of came in to this one product to help them manage their medications.

The MedFolio Pillbox is built off a basic pillbox system because that’s what consumers are most familiar with. Julie and the MedFolio team took the old-fashioned pillbox and transformed it to the 21st century. It has a built-in software system and after you enter all your medication information, it sets off a series of alerts, reminding you to take your medications. Each compartment will light up when it’s due. The MedFolio will also beep when the medications are due and this innovative medication reminder system will also email and text message reminders for when you’re on the go.

Portable For Patients On The Go

They’ve also ensured that patients stay independent and active as possible, by making it very portable in the sense that the device is portable and these daily pillboxes are removable so that they could go out with a day with them. This is where the email and text message reminders come in. People can take their daily pills with them from the container and then get their reminders by email and text message to their mobile devices.

There is also a medication identification lid and it’s the only one of these products that has this type of feature. A sheet of paper gets printed off from the software system and then you put your sample pills in, so you can easily see which medication is connected to the name and what it’s for. The idea is we give it a carry case. They can take it to their doctor’s office. They can just lift the lid and say this is what I’m taking. So it really puts all the healthcare providers, the patient and the caregiver on a level playing field. Everyone knows what’s going on at the same time.

MedFolio System Easy to Set Up

Award Winning Design

When you get the pillbox, it comes with a CD that you download into your computer and it puts a desktop icon there. Then you hook up the MedFolio device with a USB cable to your computer. When the software comes up, it will ask you is if you need to add a new medication, you’ll click the “new medication” button and it’ll ask you which medication you’re taking. This makes it simple to use and maintain by both patients and caregivers.

For the relatives that live far away, there is a wireless version of the MedFolio medication reminder system. Every time your mom takes her medication, it will be transmitted up to a cloud server and then you can go on remotely at your home and see if she’s been taking it or not. You can see if she’s taking it on time. If it’s been late or if she’s actually missed a dose. So if she’s missed like three days in a row, it’s time to call her, right?

MedFolio System Available Now

The MedFolio medication reminder system is available now at MedFolioPillbox.com. The regular version is $248.00. The wireless version of the pillbox is $298.00. We don’t charge any monitoring fee unless you’d like to enable the text and email feature, then it’s $8.00 per month. It’s both affordable and easy to set up and maintain.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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Body Media Fit Tracks Fitness and Health (video)

admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:45:08 +0000

Health Tech Weekly went to CES 2013 with the Tech Podcast Network, TPN.tv. Jamie Davis stopped at the Body Media Fit booth while at the CES Unveiled event to chat with Erin about the Body Media Fit Link Armband.

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Wireless Bluetooth Fitness Tracking

Body Media Fit LINK Armband

The LINK armband is a bluetooth-enabled armband. It tracks your calories-burned, steps taken, physical activity and your sleep, all with over 90% accuracy. The most accurate calorie-burn tracking in the market. The Body Media Fit LINK Armband takes all of these through four different sensors back here. Puts it in an online activity manager or a mobile app and gives you a view of your data and how you’re doing.

The armband can tell you, if you’re somebody that’s just getting started, who wants to start slow, you can see your curve ramping up where you’re getting better and better, more and more fit. You can also see everything from what exercises burn the most calories to keeping track of your calories-burned versus your calories consumed so that you can see what your deficit looks like. There are also really great integrations with MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper and integration with SparkPeople coming soon. Really great integrations to just give you a full picture of your health.

Sleep Tracking for Health

The Body Media Fit is also a sleep monitor. How does it monitor your sleep? There’s an accelerometer and a skin temperature sensor. Those are the two of the sensors along with the heat flux sensor and the galvanic skin response sensor that all work together to detect when you’re lying down and when you’re actually asleep. When you’re sleeping your skin temperature changes. You’re not moving as much. Those sensors all work together to be able to detect that you’re sleeping or just lying down.

Wear LINK Armband all day

The data you get back will tell you how you slept at night. You can use that data analyzing your sleep patterns to look at things like your diet and activity levels. Hopefully, you’ll know that if there’s a night when you had too much coffee, too close to bedtime and you didn’t sleep that well. So it really breaks it down and gives you a sleep efficiency number. The Body Media Fit LINK Armband will say, for instance, you had 86% sleep efficiency. That allows you to sort of get a glimpse of maybe what behavioral changes you can make to get better sleep.

Body Media Fit Available Now

Right now the Body Media Fit LINK Armband is available on bodymedia.com, Amazon, Best Buy. Body Media CORE Armband, the smaller armband will be seen on “The Biggest Loser” this season. Also you’ll find these devices in a variety of our other retailers, Target stores and also in select Walgreens stores. Excellent. Currently, this LINK armband is $149.00. It’s available right now. There is promotional pricing for a limited time on bodymedia.com for $119.00.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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Siemens Aquaris Micon Waterproof Hearing Aids (video)

admin — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:21:05 +0000

A new product line coming out for people who need hearing aids. This week on Health Tech Weekly, we’re looking at a completely waterproof, dust-proof, and shock-resistant hearing aid. Eric from Siemens tells us all about it in this segment from the CES Unveiled event at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.

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Wear Hearing Aids Anywhere

Aquaris micon – hearing aid range

This is the Aquaris Micon from Siemens Hearing Instruments. It is, waterproof, dustproof and shock-resistant. So now there’s no really limits for somebody who wants to go out and go swimming, work in the woodshop. Doing any of these things that they may have felt – “I need to take this out and protect the electronic instrument.” Now they don’t need to. It is a waterproof hearing aid and completely sealed so they can live their lives.

That’s so important as our population continues to age. This is going to be an increasing issue and we want our parents and our grandparents to be able to hear what we’re saying to them. Communication is priority for us. So now we want to have good communication, good intelligibility and still maintain good sound quality and not make any compromises with the environment.

Top Quality Processors and Programming

The Aquaris Micon hearing aid is using the new micon BestSound platform so more enhanced processing and just introduced in November. This brings all the bells and, I would say, whistles, but there’s no whistling with this hearing aid. Anybody who’s ever dealt with somebody with whistling hearing aid feedback will understand that.

The Aquaris is currently available. In terms of price point, you work with a hearing care professional, an audiologist or a hearing instrument dispenser. Their fees and services generally for an instrument, this can range between $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 per instrument. It can depend on the area that they’re in. So pricing can vary but it includes the product and the services of the hearing care professional.

Changing Lives of Hearing Aid Users

This device give the hearing aid wearer additional flexibility and functionality on their lives. You don’t need to take it out in the rain. You don’t need to take it out in a humid environment. And, with wireless capability, you can listen to the TV without competing with the other people in the room. Get the TV sound directly streamed into the instrument. There’s a lot of flexibility for the wearer.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor at CES (video)

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:07:42 +0000

While at CES 2013, I spent some time in the iHealth booth talking to one of the reps there, Adam, about the wireless blood pressure monitor they have, that integrates with an iPhone or iPad via their iOS app. Adam tells us a little about this device.

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Track Blood Pressure

iHealth Blood Pressure Monitor

Adam told me it’s an FDA-approved product. The iHealth Blood Pressure device shown is actually their second generation of that product. The first one is actually a docking device. This one being wireless, with Bluetooth, they are not only going to be Apple iOS, they can actually can go to other platforms as well. This could be used in health care applications where a nurse might use it to integrate with a tablet but it’s a great tool for mom and dad or other members of the family to monitor our blood pressure quickly and easily using devices we are already using.

This is for consumer health. We have a really simple application that you download for free and basically once you put on the blood pressure device itself, apply it, take the measurement, it goes to the application. That application comes with a free cloud service as well. With the cloud service you can pretty much mirror exactly what you’re doing on the application itself.

Cloud Health Tracking

The beauty of the cloud is that if something happens to your device, your data is not lost. So it’s restored. In addition, because they’re partnering with many third-party healthcare services, this allows the iHealth BP cuff to integrate with other parties as well. That integration means if your doctor wanted to access your health record information and you’re monitoring the blood pressure daily, they could do that without having you come into the office.

The iHealth Blood Pressure Cuff and other iHealth devices are currently at many retail outlets. They are available with Apple and Best Buy now and they’re going to be rolling out to other retailers as well, such as Walgreens and other health and big box retailers. For this particular device, this is the full arm-based blood pressure monitor, so this one is actually $99.00 retail. IHealth also has a wrist monitor that came out recently and that’s $79.00.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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Withings Smart Body Analyzer at CES Unveiled (Video)

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:14:24 +0000

I interviewed Alexis from Withings at the CES Unveiled event at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). He was there talking about their Withings smart body analyzer. It’s not just your ordinary bathroom scale. It’s actually a new device, a new body scale for home usage. It was awarded with the CES Innovation Awards this year and the reason for this is that it’s a scale that also measures your heart rate.

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Track Heart Rate Along with Weight

You step on this scale like you will do on any bathroom scale. It will actually give you your weight, obviously, and also body fat, but it also reads your heart rate while you’re standing on it. That’s the very first time heart rate measurement is offered in a customer scale. The other new feature in the scale is the monitoring of the air quality. Withings advises you to put the scale in your bedroom since it’s the room in your home where you spend much of your time at home. While there, the scale detects carbon dioxide levels and temperature levels.

“What can we add to that scale for it to be even more useful for people to manage their body conditions, to stay in shape?”

Carbon dioxide is something that builds up if you don’t ventilate your room enough. If you sleep with closed windows and closed doors, it’s going build up and it can be bad for your health. Withings had this scale out for a few years already and they were thinking, ”What can we add to that scale for it to be even more useful for people to manage their body conditions, to stay in shape?” Monitoring air quality was really something they believe is very useful and a good breakthrough for the way you can take care of your home and living with better health.

Availability: March, 2013

The Withings Smart Body Scale will begin shipping in March, 2013 with a retail price of $149.00 and it will be available from major online retailers and electronics stores.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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Masimo iSpO2 New Consumer Health Tech (Video)

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:44:25 +0000

Those of you who follow my healthcare professional shows know Masimo very well. This is one of their first ventures into the consumer marketplace. It’s a pulse oximeter for monitoring at home. Hi, Jamie Davis here at CES Unveiled with Max from Masimo and he’s here to tell us about the iSpO2.

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Track Blood Oxygenation

This is Masimo’s first consumer product. It’s called “iSpO2.” It’s currently for sale at Amazon.com and iSpO2.com for $249.00. Basically, when you put it on your finger, the very first thing you see on the bottom is your pleth waveform. It starts immediately showing you your perfusion index, your pulse rate and your oxygen saturation level.

With this product, you can track and trend your performance, your data. You can send it to your clinician. You can see your progress. We think everyone should have one. If you are a mountain climber, you should definitely have one. You don’t want to climb too fast and not let your body get acclimated. If you’re a pilot, you might want to have one. If you’re a fitness buff, and you are into interval training, you want to tune your body and measure your oxygen level, et cetera. You ought to have one.

Masimo Technology Inside iSpO2

Masimo has been a leader in innovation especially reading through low perfusion and through motion. When people are in distress, their hands shakes, they’re in pain. When people have low perfusion in their extremities, it’s very difficult to get an accurate reading.

Masimo has been basically the first company to solve that problem. This problem solving design is called signal extraction technology. All of that is in the pillbox built into the iSpO2 cable between the sensor and your smartphone. The consumer gets a lot of technology for $249.00 and a lot of consumer health technology history here for $249.00.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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HIV Medication Delivery Via Contraceptive Mesh (Video)

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:59:49 +0000

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HIV Medications Delivered by Female Condom

This week on Health Tech Weekly, I take a look at new ways medications are being delivered. Medication delivery devices are coming to a bunch of strange places including the bedroom. Researchers at the University of Washington are using electrospun fabrics to embed medicines into female condoms.

According to the press release from U.W., the only way currently to prevent against both HIV and unwanted pregnancy while having sex is by using a condom. However, for many males, condom use is not always a popular option and they put pressure on their partners to have unprotected sex. By using this new technology in creation of a female condom, the team at the University of Washington hopes to include medications that prevent fertilization and help prevent HIV transmission.

Electrospinning Fiber Weaving

Electrospinning uses an electrically charged fluid jet to lay tiny fibers into a mesh so small that medication molecules become trapped in the fabric created there. The process can be tuned to allow for permeability, solubility and geometry. It is believed that due to this process, medication delivery is more reliable than other methods used today like gels, or pills.

The team created a stream containing HIV combating anti-retroviral agents while weaving a mesh fine enough that sperm cannot pass through it. While this does not provide the only answer to preventing the spread of HIV during sexual contact, it is one of the steps in the right direction. Researchers hope that by providing multiple options to couples having sex, choices will be made easier to engage in safe sexual activity.

Gates Foundation Funding

The group at University of Washington has recently received a Gates Foundation grant to increase their efforts to come up with a final product and will be purchasing a larger electrospinning machine to make larger sheets of the medicated material and continue testing and development. But this technology could be coming to a drugstore shelf near you soon.

LifeProof Protects Mobile Devices in Healthcare Settings (Video)

admin — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:43:37 +0000

Life Proof Mobile Cases

You’re bleeding all over your nurse’s iPad but it’s not a problem because she’s got a LifeProof case on that mobile device. Join Health Tech Weekly host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic as he chats with LifeProof CEO Gary Rayner in their booth at CES 2013 last week.

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Protect Your Devices From Life

LifeProof is all about the things that happen in your life and making sure you don’t have to worry about your mobile devices, like your iPad or iPhone, during them. The LifeProof cases make your device waterproof, dirt proof, snow proof and shock proof to military specifications so that when you’re on the job, you don’t have to worry about dropping your iPad or iPhone to the floor or in a dirty medical environment.

LifeProof Tactical Case

Any spills or cross contamination on your device can be wiped or washed off and disinfected just as you would any other piece of equipment and the functionality and features of the tablet or phone are completely undiminished. The LifeProof cases also have available accessories like hand straps and shoulder straps as well as stands and mounts for use in the hospital or ambulance environments.

Features Similar Cases Lack

Many similar cases that advertise being waterproof are very bulky but the slim design of the LifeProof case and the way it seals directly to the glass face of the device makes it similar in weight and profile to most standard cases. It’s more of a conversion for your mobile device than a case. The rubber bumpers and gaskets are completely bonded to the case body leaving no gaps in which pathogens can hide.

The LifeProof cases are currently available for iPhone 5, iPhone 4/4s, 3rd or 4th generation iPad, and the 4th generation iPod Touch. There will be a Samsung Galaxy S III case coming soon.

Find LifeProof cases at Amazon.com or other popular retailers. Prices begin at $79.95.

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Follow all of the Tech Podcasts coverage of CES 2013 over at TPN.TV.

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FitBit One Monitors Fitness Around the Clock (Video)

admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:44:38 +0000

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Monitor Fitness Around the Clock

A few weeks ago I covered the misfit shine fitness monitor. This week, I look at the Fitbit One wireless fitness and sleep monitor. Yep, I said sleep monitor. The Fitbit One purports to not only monitor you daily activity but it also will monitor you sleep quality, provided you clip it onto your PJs when you hop in to bed at night.

The device will monitor steps taken, distance traveled, stairs climbed, calories burned and for your sleep schedule, hours and quality of sleep. Now it doesn’t measure water based activity like the misfit shine monitor covered previously but the Shine doesn’t measure sleep quality so if you’re not a big swimmer, you’re ahead of the game.

When you’re sleeping, the fitbit one measures your activity at night including the number of times you stir in your sleep and hours of sleep to give a sleep quality score. According to their website, the fitbit one’s data can be used over time to improve your sleep score by applying what is learned to improve your sleep habits. It’s kind of vague on this but any information on sleep habits is probably helpful for the average person.

Wakes You Up Before You Go-Go

The FitBit One will even wake you in the morning at a prearranged time with a gentle vibration that will not wake any bed partners. Handy for those seeking a silent escape or dealing with a cranky spouse. It syncs with either your computer or a host of mobile devices like the iPhone or iPad via a FitBit app and your free account on the FitBit.com website. The Fitbit One is available for $99 from most online and big box retailers. Visit the Health Tech website and the show notes for this episode for a link directly to Amazon for their best prices right now.

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Saliva Monitor for Diabetes Blood Glucose (Video)

admin — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:21:07 +0000

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New Diabetes Monitor Technology

On the show his week in Health Tech I look at what many consider the holy grail for diabetes glucose monitoring, a non-invasive way to check blood sugar. By non-invasive, I mean a way to check blood sugar without pricking their finger or otherwise drawing blood.

Many options have been proposed and are under testing or research at this time including monitoring sweat, tears, and saliva. Having to draw blood 3 or 4 times a day just to manage your diabetes is a big reason many health professionals have seen that people are not good at managing their disease. Scientists at the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute of Tehran University have released version 3 of their saliva testing device that seems to have overcome many of the primary problems with using saliva as a blood sugar monitoring medium, among them is the sensitivity needed to read and measure the minuscule amounts of glucose or sugar in saliva when compared to blood.

The latest version of the saliva testing device is dubbed as the final version and is in final stages of testing. This could be released to the world marketplace for testing very soon. This is hugely important in the health tech arena as 25.8 million americans are affected by diabetes a number that equals over 8.3% of the population. Seven million of them are considered undiagnosed or untreated diabetics.

Diabetes Epidemic Major Cause of Disease

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and a major cause of heart disease and stroke in the U.S. according to the CDC fact sheet on Diabetes. Anything that will improve testing of individuals for blood sugar levels and helps people manage their disease more effectively is a big deal indeed! The marketplace for new technology for managing diabetes is large and with direct medical costs for diabetes in the U.S. nearing $120 billion dollars a year a new management tool like this will be a big deal. Look for more segments on the technology and gadgets surround diabetes management in the future here on Health Tech Weekly as I continue to monitor this nationwide issue and the gadgets and apps that help to manage it.

Third World Wheel Chair Innovation (Video)

admin — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 11:03:07 +0000

Good day and welcome to Health Tech Weekly, the show on technology that helps create a healthier you! I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. Before we get into this week’s health tech item, make sure you check here at HTWeekly.com for links to everything covered in this episode, contact information, and more.

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This week in Health Tech I wanted to feature a story that underlines the purpose of this program as well as what is, I believe, the underlying purpose of the health technology industry: To improve the health and lives of individuals in fundamental ways.

Leveraged Freedom Chair Changes Third World

This week we feature the Leveraged Freedom Chair, a project from a member of MIT’s health engineering team to bring a cost-effective solution to a need for multi-terrain wheelchair design. In many parts of the world, individuals who need wheelchairs are unable to use the standard designs to navigate the terrain encountered in their daily lives. Amos Winter from MIT sought to solve this problem through simple technology and engineering design. The design uses a variable length lever design to vary torque and range of movement based on the amount of work needed to traverse various types of terrain.

What he developed was an all-terrain wheelchair that is powered by levers mounted on a bicycle style assembly that allows easier and faster transport over all types of terrain commonly encountered in the third world. The cost was kept under $200 although there is a high end prototype being developed here in the U.S. for the developed world health marketplace. The design went through several iterations as it was tested with end users in Africa, India and Central America. The wheelchair is lightweight, sized to fit indoors or out, and is repairable using local resources and technologies. Everywhere has a bike repair shop and the materials, sprockets and chains are produced everywhere in the world.

Low Tech Design Makes Big Improvement

While you might think of this as a low tech device to be featured on a health technology program like this, it exemplifies what health technology should do. Whether low tech or high tech, a device must meet a fundamental need and improve health care in ways that can be easily used by the average patient. I won’t always be focusing on third world solutions like the Leveraged Freedom Chair but I think it’s a great example of how fundamentally simple health improving technology can be. That is what Health Tech Weekly will be all about.

Misfit Shine Tracks Daily Activity (Video)

admin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 10:16:06 +0000

Good day and welcome to Health Tech Weekly, the show on technology that helps create a healthier you! I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. Before we get into this week’s health tech item, make sure you head over to our site at HTWeekly.com for links to everything covered in this episode, contact information and more.

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Sleek, Chic, Fitness Tracking

In this episode of Health Tech Weekly, I thought we’d talk about something very simple. How active are you? How do you know if you’re even meeting your fitness goals? Pedometers are ok but don’t always measure all activity and don’t always deal well with water based activities. The Misfit Shine is calls itself “an elegant, wireless activity tracker.”

The Shine clips on a belt or can be paired with optional accessories to allow it to be worn on the wrist or on a necklace. The shine is powered by a watch battery with a projected 6 month battery life and boy is it tiny. It’s about the size of two quarters back to back and weighs even less. The Misfit Shine pairs with an iOS device app that tracks all activity including swimming, cycling, and other non-walking activities unlike a pedometer. The Shine is designed to be sturdy and long-lasting with an all-metal casing for the most active person you know.

Check Fitness Progress on the Go

You don’t have to check your iPhone or iPad to see where you stand on your daily activity goal. Tiny micro holes around the edge light up with a tap to show how far you are for the day. When you complete the circle of lights, you’ve met your goal. That’s pretty cool.

The Misfit Shine is scheduled to begin shipping to the first customers in March 2013 with the second round shipping in April, according to the funding page on Indiegogo. It’s priced at $99 with family and even company pricing available. If you’ve been looking for a way to help you reach your daily activity goals with a sleek and elegant device that looks really cool, too, the Shine just might be for you. You can find a link to the Misfit Shine development page in the show notes for this episode at HTWeekly.com or on their funding page at IndieGoGo.com.

I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. I’ll be back soon with more health technology for you. In the meantime, remember that, even with technology and advanced medications, improving your health still takes small, simple steps that over time all add up to a healthier you. Why don’t you take a healthier step today?

Wireless Thermometer Connects to Smartphone (Video)

admin — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:06:14 +0000

Good day and welcome to Health Tech Weekly, the show on technology that helps create a healthier you! I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. Before we get into this week’s health tech item, make sure you head over to our site at HTWeekly.com for links to everything covered in this episode, contact information and more.

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iPhone App Calms Anxious Parents

In this episode of Health Tech Weekly, let’s look at a useful tool for parents with sick children. Parents with young children don’t always know when their child’s temperature spikes and their fever goes up. This can create a lot of angst and sleepless nights for parents. Enter the Raiing Wireless Thermometer a thermometer that can alert a mobile device when at child gets a fever. This device just received FDA approval for children aged 2 and older.

The device is worn under the armpit attached by an adhesive strip. The child can wear this when sick and temperature fluctuations are communicated and tracked by the app on the mobile device. The app is currently available in the iOS app store. The wireless thermometer connects via bluetooth or WiFi network and according to the company website it “delivers the real time body temperature to you as if you were always at bed side.”

App Alerts When Fever Strikes

The App can be set to alert the parent when a target temperature is reached meaning that nighttime medications can be managed when they are needed without waking the child or parent up to take a manual temperature. And because the monitoring is in realtime even if a worried parent wakes up, they can quickly check to see if their child is feverish without ever getting out of their own bed.

The adhesive that holds the monitor in place is non-toxic and hypo allergenic and the wireless thermometer itself can store up to 72 hours of data without synchronizing to an iPhone or iPad and there is a cloud based service that can be used to tie in with remote healthcare monitoring as well making this a perfect solution of monitoring in certain home health care situations like the health of elderly parents and relatives. The company has no other products listed but reportedly has other wireless health monitors in the works that would presumably work in a similar fashion.

That’s the Raiing Wireless Thermometer and it should be showing up in pharmacies and the health care aisle of your local markets soon. Find out more information at the company website links in the show notes and at RAIING.com.

Stay Tuned for More Health Tech

HT Weekly Goes to CES 2013 (Video)

admin — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:58:00 +0000

Coming up in January I’ll be joining the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013 coverage team from the Tech Podcast network for the second year, focusing on medical technology and digital health products. Together with the other tech podcast network hosts, we’ll be covering the consumer electronics show so you’ll feel as if you were there yourself!

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Last year, we streamed live from the exhibit hall during all four days of CES, interviewing vendors, technology leaders and providing commentary on the event. All the while, multiple camera teams were out combing the floors of the various exhibit halls to give you hand picked coverage of specific technology gems personally selected by your favorite TPN podcasters.

As a nurse and a paramedic, from the ProMed Network, TPN’s sister network, I bring the viewpoint of the health professional to the various medical, health and fitness devices and services presented at the show. I’ve already picked out some amazing standout health care gadgets to show to you as part of the TPN coverage and I’m going to be looking for more as I roam this huge event.

CES is a Huge Event

With more than five football fields of gadgets to comb through, we’re going to cover more ground, gathering the best gadgets and new technologies of the show, in a way you could never manage on your own. We’ll have the TPN experts on all sorts of technology there, from my health focused coverage, to home theater, photography, travel and even geocaching, the TPN team will be your one stop shop for the best from CES!

So join us and millions of fellow viewers for live coverage from CES 2013. Visit us at TPN.tv for the live stream and for releases after the show of our best of picks. That’s TPN.tv for all the live coverage and nearly 300 best of picks from our team.

And don’t forget to check out my shows for at NursingShow.com, MedicCast.tv, and the brand new Health Tech weekly show here at HTWeekly.com. You can also follow what I’m doing at CES on Twitter at Twitter.com/podmedic. I’m Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, and I’ll be coming to you soon from CES 2013 with the rest of the Tech Podcasts team. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned here to TPN.tv!

Portable Bladder Scanner a Game Changer? (Video)

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 06:34:45 +0000

Good day and welcome to Health Tech Weekly, the show on technology that helps create a healthier you! I’m your host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic. Before we get into this week’s health tech item, make sure you head over to our site at HTWeekly.com for links to everything covered in this episode, contact information and more.

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Why a Bladder Scanner?

In this episode of Health Tech Weekly, I wanted to look at a new USB Bladder Scanner that recently received FDA approval. Ewwwww, really a bladder scanner? Yeah, a bladder scanner. I know it seems kind of gross but the part I wanted to pay attention to is the USB part of it.

Vitacon, a company out of Trondhiem, Norway was founded in 1985 and has been producing bladder scanning ultrasound devices for some time. The advent of the USB based system is important because it can work with any windows based computer with a usb port and the installed software. This brings the bladder scanning tool into a much more affordable target marketplace including smaller and rural health centers and the home health care arena.

Home Health Care Applications

As the population continues to age, bladder dysfunction will continue to be a growing problem. The Vitascan LT USB system joins many other basic diagnostic tools, formerly limited to hospital and specialist use, into the home health and primary care systems of care.

As we continue to focus on healthcare reform and cost reduction in the U.S. diagnostic and assessment tools like this and those attached to mobile applications will continue to be popular options for those who previously had to order diagnostic tests in outpatient or specialist settings just to rule out problems that could be easily diagnosed with a portable scanning system like this this one.

More Health Tech to Come

Look for more coverage on these types of tools moving forward so you can recognize the tools your health care professionals are using to assess you. If you want to watch the full Vitascan video, check out their website at Vitacon.com. That’s VITACON.com. You can also follow this and other health tech updates like this one I found at MedGadget.com.