Health

Like nearly everything before it, healthcare is turning to mobile. But unlike nearly everything before it, healthcare has long been viewed as a hands-on industry, one where interactions happen in person, allowing healthcare providers to use both their clinical knowledge and intuitive senses to treat the patients before them. Despite healthcare’s hands-on history, Zebra’s “The […]

Technology has changed communication and consumerism so fast that we barely notice it anymore. Less than a decade ago, most people couldn’t imagine things like smart homes and augmented reality. Now, they’re regular consumer products. In healthcare, though, technology’s impact hasn’t been so subtle. As costs rise at nearly unbearable rates and patients become more involved in […]

By all accounts, nature is good for you. But nature can also be bad for you: In some parts of the world, pollution levels are actually getting worse, despite everything we know about chemicals, car exhaust, and reducing our carbon footprint. In fact, more than 2,100 cities worldwide exceed recommended pollution levels, accelerating climate change. And air quality isn’t […]

Is it better to treat an illness or prevent it altogether? While most people would prefer to never get sick in the first place, today’s healthcare system focuses its attention on treatment-based care. And who can blame doctors? Prevention is far more difficult than treatment. While the medical field is beginning to understand the importance […]

Every year, it seems as if there’s a defining technology that emerges in the healthcare space and makes a name for itself. This year, there hasn’t been a single technology that’s emerged – rather there’s been a list of different tools, systems, and innovations that have changed the face of the industry. Strategic implementation of […]

By now it’s clear that the structural shift in healthcare is well underway. One of the best articles I’ve read lately to capture this was Dave Chase’s Forbes piece: “Health Plan Industry’s Worst Nightmare: Employers Realizing They Are Actually The Insurance Company,” where he argues that “any company over 100 employees or so is an insurance […]

The trend of bringing your own device (BYOD) to work in healthcare is based on efficiency. Being able to communicate on devices they’re familiar with can help doctors, nurses, and care teams respond faster, which translates into better experiences for patients. In fact, it’s widespread enough that calling BYOD a trend might not be accurate […]

Women are being heard like never before, and it is absolutely incredible. The #MeToo movement has created a domino effect of sorts, as company policies that address women’s needs and long-shuttered opportunities for women are increasingly flooding into the mainstream. That includes the tech world, where a newfound emphasis and expectation on coding, software development, […]

For the past decade, wearable devices have been marketed in the health and fitness niche as providing numerous advantages to the wearer. But how effective are these devices? Are they just for show, or do they yield tangible benefits? The Origins of Wearable Devices Wearable devices – i.e. those with digital displays and internet connectivity […]

In February 2017, the Transformations Autism Treatment Center learned that one of its former behavioral analysts had breached its security. According to his indictment, Jeffrey Luke illegally accessed a TACT Google Drive account and stole protected health information from more than 300 current and former patients. TACT’s cyber breach is especially concerning because Luke had […]

The concept of wellness in the workplace is continually evolving. From in-office employee fitness challenges to midday meditation breaks, studies show that these programs not only benefit employees, they’re also cost effective. As reported in Health Affairs, a critical meta-analysis of the literature on costs and savings associated with wellness programs found that medical costs […]

There isn’t a single sector that has not been revolutionized by Technology in the past decade. Everyday conversation, commute and companionships have changed. Nevertheless, the Healthcare industry has come a long way than any other industry could have imagined. To say that technology has transformed the healthcare industry would be an understatement in many levels. […]

We’re sure you’ll agree when we say: traditionally, the insurance industry worldwide has been dominated by massive national brands and legacy product lines and age-old technology. The change is already here and more changes are expected to disrupt the global insurance industry. The rapid evolution of insurance technology or insurtech that’s making waves in the […]

What was the promise of reduced admissions and improved health outcomes in patients? This goal has not been achieved and is not happening how we thought it would. Usage of mobile devices in healthcare is basically what mHealth is. App development for healthcare. Using the continuous mHealth-powered, patient-provider connection — is what drives the mobile […]

Nutrition has long been a problem in both the developed and developing world. In the developing world, the central problem is malnutrition, and accessibility of the right foods in the right quantities. In the developed world, countries are dealing with the fallout of a deep-seated obesity epidemic, and the dubious world of unregulated and poorly […]

Blockchain has become a hot topic of discussion these days as it has made its way into a number of industries. From finance to infrastructure, blockchain or distributed ledger has found interoperability in every sphere of work. Healthcare is another realm that has found a widespread implementation of the technology. This collaboration has changed the […]

Thanks to an influx of exciting new technologies and partnerships, patient experience and the healthcare industry as a whole are rapidly changing. The impact of additional research, new data developments, and cutting-edge treatments on the healthcare industry is truly impressive. Major medical providers around the world must now embrace the future of medicine so they don’t fall behind […]

Maybe you’ve seen one of those Norman Rockwell paintings of kids in a physician’s office that make it seem as if taking your child to the doctor is an oil-painted slice of Americana. In reality, a pediatrician’s office can be a nightmarish place, rampant with germs and interminable waits. One reason a visit to the […]

Lutron Electronics has added its Caséta Wireless system to the growing list of devices that support Amazon Alexa range, which includes the Echo, Dot, Tap, and Fire TV. The Caséta Wireless system features various connected LED lights that can change color or brightness on demand. The integration of Alexa allows users to change the lights […]

Many of us are impatient for a future where telehealth reduces our visits to health professionals. Whether you are geographically isolated, tired of waiting hours in a waiting room for an overdue appointment or simply have felt the pain of dragging yourself from your sick bed to a doctor’s surgery to acquire a sick note […]

There’s no doubt that AI has usurped big data as the enterprise technology industry’s favorite new buzzword. After all, it’s on Gartner’s 2017 Hype Cycle for emerging technologies, for a reason. While progress was slow during the first few decades, AI advancement has rapidly accelerated during the last decade. Some people say AI will augment humans and […]

When we talk about the wearables and healthcare industry together, a round of feelings begins to move like any picture frame. While on one side the benefits they offer, on another the level of dependency which can be seen these days. If you are the one planning to/have come with a healthcare wearable, you might […]

Fitbit is on schedule, as its boss James Park keeps reminding us, to launch its next smartwatch by the end of the year. We don’t know what the smartwatch will be called, though Blaze 2 seems likely, but thanks to leaks we know its design and some of the hardware improvements. Images obtained by Wareable […]

The Apple Watch could soon be sold discounted or free to Aetna’s 23 million members, as a way to improve health outcomes and lower insurance costs, according to a CNBC report. Apple held a series of meetings with Aetna executives and hospital chief medical information officers, discussing the possibility of a plan that included the […]

Fitbit has confirmed the company’s next smartwatch will come with a software development kit (SDK) for developers, and users will be able to download apps from a dedicated store. Fitbit CEO, James Park, told The Verge that it would launch the smartwatch with a select few apps, before opening the SDK to all third-party developers. […]

IoT growth is skyrocketing, with an annual growth rate of 23%. The number of IoT devices is on track to surpass the number of smartphones to become the largest category of connected devices by 2018. The low cost and wide availability of sensors and radios used to connect everyday objects, like traffic signals and thermostats, to the […]

Did you get the memo? We’re living in the future. But despite being in the middle of the 4th Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0), we’re not seeing the increase in productivity we’re used to seeing with the previous revolutions. Labor productivity growth is at a historical low, in defiance of the increased fetishization of productivity, countless […]

Fitbit has been hit with a lawsuit from Immersion, a developer of haptic feedback technology, claiming that the Alta HR and Charge 2 maker has infringed on its patents. Immersion asks for Fitbit to cease manufacturing of all infringing devices, which, we suspect, includes all fitness trackers currently on the market. Fitbit makes use of […]

A group of Japanese scientists have created an “inflammation-free, lightweight, stretchable” e-skin sensor capable of lasting for up to a week, published in Nature Nanotechnology this week. The new development could open the way for medical wearables that track heart-rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar throughout the week, without being invasive to the user. See […]

Higher education has always been fertile ground for the creation of new, boundary-pushing technology. While VR software and hardware innovation have been, to date, largely the domain of startups and large tech companies, it’s colleges and universities that are using the technology in some of the most interesting ways. Professors and students alike are exploring […]

After four years of investing, incubating, discovering, gathering and researching the field, we believe that the Internet Of Things, commonly referred to as IoT or the industrial Internet, will represent the most powerful force for business transformation since the birth of the Internet itself. But what exactly is IoT? What is included in the industrial […]

Long past the buzzword stage, both AI & IoT have surged to the forefront of corporate consciousness. But what do the two acronyms have to do with one another practically? For a chance to discuss AI and IoT in person, get your IoT Revolution Symposium ticket In a presentation tonight hosted by Western Digital in […]

With the increasing popularity of wearables, like Fitbit trackers and Apple Watches, people are starting to understand their fitness levels much better. By wearing Apple Watches, for instance, we can figure out our average heart rate while exercising; by wearing smart sport jackets, we can tell if our motion tails are correct — frequent use of wearables will […]

Samsung has patented a wireless charging smartphone case, capable of powering a separate wearable device, like the Gear S3. In the patent released last week, it showed how the case would be able to send energy from the smartphone to the wearable, as a top up. It is another solution Samsung has proposed to fix […]

The wearables market, outside of smartwatches, is still in its infancy stage. Research firm IDC expects to see its sales double in four years, with smart clothing and hearables expected to be the two new trends. Smartwatches will remain the dominant driver of wearable sales, going from 71.4 million sales currently to 161 million in […]

Nokia has rebranded all Withings products and will be retiring the brand, a year after acquiring the French health-tech company for $191 million. The three wearables, Go, Steel, and Steel HR, will remain part of Nokia’s portfolio. Go is a simple E-Ink activity and sleep tracker with one year charge, available for $50. Steel does […]

To develop an idea into a business, incubation seems to be the new industry “normal.” There are thousands of incubators worldwide and each year that number is continuing to grow. There are private, public and corporate incubators, many with a distinct focus on local economies, global, communities, or a specific vertical. At this point, it […]

The cloud computing pricing war is nothing new. In 2014, Microsoft, Google and Amazon entered a fight with the aim to gobble up the biggest slice of the market share by matching each other’s falling prices. What ensued was a price slashing spree in a few days’ span, in some cases dropping cloud computing product premiums […]

Fitbit has sponsored a study that it says validates the ability of several of its fitness wearables to accurately track different stages of sleep. This study, which involved the Fitbit Alta HR, Blaze, and Charge 2 devices, was independently scored by polysomnography technicians. “With our sleep tracking tools, Fitbit has transformed what people can learn about […]