News & Updates
With CES underway, new consumer health care devices are center stage this week.
Withings debuted a new WiFi and Bluetooth-enabled baby and toddler scale. They also unveiled a new health and wellness cloud platform and online dashboard that integrates data from Withings devices, as well as a number of other connected devices including the Zeo Sleep Manager and Runkeeper.
European semiconductor maker, STMicroelectronics NV (STM), unveiled a smart-suit prototype with motion sensors sewn in. The suit translates the wearer’s movements into a digital model to help people with injuries recover faster and enhance the performance of athletes.
ZOMM debuted its “Lifestyle Connect” hub which syncs with a range of Bluetooth-enabled medical monitoring devices and can alert family members and medical personnel in case of an emergency. The device costs $199 with an additional monthly fee thereafter for monitoring services.
iHealth Lab unveiled three new devices - the iHealth Smart GlucoMeter, Wireless Body Fat Scale, and Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor. The (non-wireless) glucometer is accompanied by an app that allows users to chart their historical glucose measures. Similar to the Withings devices, the new scale and blood pressure monitors transmit data wirelessly and should be on the market late 2012 pending FDA approval.
Tinke debuted a iPhone attachment that measures heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation level by using infrared light to measure pulsations in the tiny blood vessels of your fingers.
RedBrick Health announced the launch of RedBrick Mobile, allowing its users to access its suite of wellness tools including health assessments, personalized coaching, and competitions on their phone.
A new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan finds that the mHealth market earned revenues of $230 million in 2010 and is estimated to reach $392 million in 2015.
Qualcomm and the X Prize foundation announced the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize. The first team to create a mobile platform that most accurately diagnoses a group of 15 diseases across 30 patients in three days will be awarded $10 million dollars.
UnitedHealth announced a strategic partnership with CareSpeak Communications, Lose It! and FitBit. LoseIt (a mobile app for weight loss) and CareSpeak (a text-messaging service that prompts patients to take their medication regularly and manage their disease) will be used as part of UnitedHealth’s wellness programming while Fitbit will be integrated with the OptumizeMe(R) mobile health app developed by UnitedHealth Group’s health services company.
The FDA issued a call to vendors to submit applications to develop a new drug interaction app that will capture images of skin reactions, video/audio of patient information, and GPS location of where adverse events took place, for public health mapping.
Happtique (which debuted its healthcare-focused appstore at Health 2.0 last fall) announced plans to create a certification program to help the medical community assess the clinical and technical soundness of health-related mobile apps. The certification process will be overseen by an expert panel whose members include orthopedic physician Dr. Howard Luks and Dave deBronkart (ePatient Dave).
Independa introduced a new initiative called Health Measures which will allows caregivers at home and at senior-living facilities to record and transmit biometric data via conventional telephony. Health Measures does not require cellular, broadband or wireless access, enabling those in rural areas with poor cellular coverage or wireless access to still benefit from remote monitoring.
CareCloud debuted its first EHR, CareCloud Charts. The EHR has already achieved ONC-ATCB certification as a “complete EHR” and has also been certified by SureScripts as a fully-functional ePrescribing tool.
Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist have joined the ZocDoc advisory board to help the company as it rapidly grows its online doctor visit scheduling platform.
Continua Alliance has made its Design guidelines freely available to the public. The consortium seeks to establish and build consensus around standards to promote interoperability between connected health devices.
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