News & Updates

January 10, 2023 - By Deb Linton

- O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention (OSCON) has announced a call for participation. Encouraged proposal topics include: Doing more with less; Open source in smart phones; Cloud computing; Geek lifestyle, hacking, quantified self, inbox zero, maker culture; Best practices for building a business around open source; Open source in democracy, politics, government, and education. More details about proposal guidelines and presentation tracks can be found here.

- Withings announced its Smart Baby Monitor at CES this weekend. Coming this March, the Smart Baby Monitor will let’s parents watch their baby remotely from an iPhone. Parents will be able to use their mobile device to control The BabyMonitor and receive alerts when their child is about to wake up. The platform will allow parents to track their baby’s sleep patterns by monitoring temperature and movement over time. Best of all, Smart Baby Monitor will feature an infrared LED camera. Because - really - what is parenting without night vision.

- SoloHealth recently signed a deal with Safeway and will be launching their newest SoloHealth Station in Texas late February.  The have raised $4M and have plans to announce a $3M investment from a large publicly traded company. SoloHealth aims to empower consumers to take control of their health care through free interactive health screening kiosks placed in high traffic retail locations and other non traditional medical environments.

- Independa launched its first phase of solutions at CES this weekend as apart of the Qualcomm booth. The company has developed a web-based suite that combines telehealth and social tech to help boomer caregivers assist aging parents living independently. Through a concise web dashboard, caregivers can manage a shared calendar, track medication, customize alerts and schedule courtesy call reminders for their parent. But the most notable feature of Independa is their Life Stories telephone-based recording system. This social-component encourages care givers to document shared moments and conversations for future generations. Recordings can be downloaded to a hard drive and will soon be uploadable to Facebook.

- Check out The Health Care Blog for a post calling for a PCAST-inspired patient portal written by Adrian Gropper, MD

- iTriage, Healthagen’s mobile app, has announced partnerships with Colorado’s Adventist and Littleton Adventist to provide the service to their patients.  iTriage allows consumers to search symptoms, find appropriate locations for treatment, access a Google Health PHR and more. The app has helped Colorado patients save time by allowing them to send critical information while they’re on their way to the hospital to better prepare staff for their arrival. iTriage is currently free and available for Android, Blackberry and Apple devices.

- DiabetesMine.com has become part of Alliance Health Networks, a family of social media websites serving a growing community of people living with a wide variety of chronic conditions. According to their website, DiabetesMine will continue to operate as an independent news source, aiming to embody the voice of the informed and curious patient.  However, the partnership will bring with it a new design team and additional writers.