Category Archives: Health

Wearable Body Monitors get Smaller

CES 2013, Health,

bodyMediaLogoBody Media is a lifestyle management company tracking activities and calories – having been in the business since 1999.

Their new multi-sensor technology is patented, and stores data for up to ten days. The unit has accelerometer, galvanic response skin conductivity monitor, skin temperature and heat flow.  It provides Bluetooth download of information through smartphone to log and report your activity online. The report helps you set goals on weightloss, activity, or health goals.

In conjunction with IBM, Body Media is initiating recommendations based on the data to help subscribers become more active. There are commercially oriented applications as well.

TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews and Don Baine, The Gadget Professor.

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Whee Me: Robot that Massages Your Back

CES 2013, Health, , ,
Whee Me
Whee Me

I sat down and talked with Cobi about Dream Bots and Whee Me. Whee Me is a massage robot that helps relax the back, buttocks and legs. Whee Me can  work its way around the back without falling off. The wheels, tentacles lightly touch the body to bring out relaxing feelings. Whee Me also will vibrate to loosen muscles and relax you.

Dream Bots is a company that makes items such as Whee Me.

Cobi talks about how they have other projects getting ready for release although nothing he can specifically talk about.

Whee Me is sold in Europe and is available online in the US for $69. (www.wheeme.com)

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Medfolio Medication Reminder System

CES 2013, Health, , , , ,
Medfolio Pill Box
Medfolio Pill Box

What if you had a pillbox that could tell you when it’s time to take your medicine? The Medfolio Medication Reminder System at CES 2013 is set up to help patients with multiple medications remember their medications through multiple forms of reminders.

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Julie Mason from Medfolio chats with Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera about how she started the program and product development for the the medication reminder system. She’s a pharmacist who worked for many years with the Veterans Administration. In the past she has spent time working with patients on medication adherence and going into their homes to help them develop tools to remember their pills.

Basic Pill Box Enters 21st Century

The Medfolio system is build around a basic pillbox system because that is something consumers are familiar with. The device has been upgraded to the 21st century with built in software that allows patients or caregivers to enter medications and times into the system. When it’s time for a medication, that compartment will light up in the box and an alert chime will sound.

When coupled with an online reporting system, the Medifolio Medication Reminder device can trigger email or text alerts to both the patient and their caregivers.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Grandcare Systems Help Elderly Stay at Home Longer

CES 2013, Health, , , ,
Elderly Care Given From Home
Elderly Care Given From Home

The area of home health care is exploding in our nation because of the aging population. Here’s a brand new solution from Grandcare Systems that is eHealth Tech worthy.

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Dr. Eric, the Medical Director for Grandcare Systems, joins Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera to talk about this in-home tele health monitoring device. It was initially created for increased socialization opportunities for shut-in populations among the elderly. As the technology was continuously developed, there was an opportunity to begin to collect health and medical data using the system.

Using that information from the patient’s home gives caregivers and medical providers more opportunities to treat problems among the aging population of users before these problems become serious. Even when the patient is not seen in the doctor’s office, they can be safely and effectively monitored from a distance by family and health professionals.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Dakim Brain Fitness Helps the Aging Brain

CES 2013, Health, ,
Dakim Brain Fitness Improves Cognition
Dakim Brain Fitness Improves Cognition

Have you ever wanted to know how to make your brain more powerful? We’ll show you that here from CES 2013 with Dakim Brain Fitness system.

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Dan from Dakim Brain Fitness joins Health Tech Weekly guest host, Chris Montera to talk about how their system helps older adults maintain brain fitness and agility. It helps baby-boomers and senior citizens maintain their cognitive performance as they age. Older members of the community look forward to being engaged and vibrant members of the community and using tools like the one from Dakim Brain Fitness, they can expect to.

The Dakim Brain Fitness System is clinically tested with a broad range of stimulating activities designed to help people improve their memory, language abilities, attention, focus and concentration. With continued use over time it can help protect them from the deleterious effects aging can have on cognitive function.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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United Healthcare Puts Dance Revolution in Schools

CES 2013, Health, , , , ,
Dance, Dance Revolution Classroom Edition
Dance, Dance Revolution Classroom Edition

Kids need to dance and play. We’ll find out what United Healthcare is doing about that in this report from CES 2013 in Las Vegas.

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Brian Landwehr, Director of Innovation and R&D for United Healthcare chats with Jamie Davis about the latest initiative to combat childhood obesity from United Healthcare. They are funding a pilot program for multiplayer, school based versions of the popular dancing video game, Dance, Dance Revolution. It’s already changing lives for the better.

United Healthcare is partnering with Konami, makers of the popular dance game, to bring the classroom version of Dance, Dance Revolution to a number of schools that already have a relationship for health curriculum with United Healthcare. This type of initiative can have a positive effect on the whole family and, indeed, the community.

Healthcare Changes One (Dance) Step at a Time

Healthcare systems can reach out to people where they are and find ways to innovate in order to encourage and promote fit activities and behaviors. Kids are already playing video games. How do we take those existing activities and make them more health focused? Helping people become fit through activities in which they already participate helps create habits and lifestyle changes that will last throughout the patient’s lifetime.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Omron Healthcare Heart Rate Wrist Monitor

CES 2013, Health, , , ,
Omron Heart Rate Wrist Monitor
Omron Heart Rate Wrist Monitor

Monitor your heart rate anywhere you go, whatever you do with the Omron Healthcare Heartrate Monitor. Ranndy Kellogg from Omron took a few moments to talk with Jamie Davis, the Podmedic at CES 2013 in the Digital Health Pavilion.

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This amazing little heart rate monitor can be worn on the wrist instead of the chest bands used by many fitness places in the past. This is a strapless continuous heart rate monitor with optical sensors that read the blood flow in your capillaries and calculate your heart rate for you. It can be worn all day long with up to 8 hours of battery life for continuous monitoring during workouts. With periodic monitoring during workouts, battery life can last over a week.

Monitoring Heart Rate Improves Fitness

Checking your heart rate during workouts makes those workouts more effective. Even when walking, if you’re pace is not vigorous enough to stimulate a rise in heart rate, there is not as much benefit to the activity. To really see that benefit, you need to get your heart rate into a target range that burns calories and to do that, you must use some sort of heart rate monitoring technique or tool.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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iHealth Blood Pressure Monitor

CES 2013, Health, , , ,
iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure Wrist Monitor
iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure Wrist Monitor

The iHealth Blood Pressure monitor is part of a series of app connected tools that improve a person’s health awareness. Adam from iHealth talks to Jamie Davis, the Podmedic about these home health devices.

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The iHealth Blood Pressure monitor is an FDA approved product and is now in its second generation with wireless bluetooth connectivity allowing connection to more mobile devices via a wider array of app offerings. This makes it a great option for families who want or need to monitor their blood pressure on a more regular basis.

Cloud or App Based Health Tracking

The application from iHealth comes with a free cloud service that allows you to store data online for retrieval later on a web browser instead of the mobile device. Via the app or the cloud, all of the data can be tracked and trended to give users a view of health progress and changes over time.

The iHealth suite of health monitoring tools is available now from a variety of retailers.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Ideal Life Wireless Health Monitoring

CES 2013, Health, , , ,
Ideal Life Wireless Health Monitors
Ideal Life Wireless Health Monitors

What are your vital signs? Monitor them from anywhere with wireless health assessment tools from Ideal Life. Steve Wheeler from Ideal Life talks with Jamie Davis, the Podmedic about wireless biometric monitoring devices at CES 2013.

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Ideal Life has been providing these wireless health care tools to the medical community for many years. Monitoring these devices from a distance helps manage care of patients with chronic illness in a way that doesn’t require frequent hospital re-admissions.

Security Tied to Health Monitoring

Now Ideal Life has partnered with ADT home security solutions to provide these tools to the consumer marketplace. This will give individuals with sick relatives peace of mind, knowing they can check on their loved ones and connect them to medical or nursing services when needed. These wireless biometric monitoring devices are powerful options to provide oversight and offer better patient outcomes in this time of health care reform.

The wireless monitors are available now via prescription from a patient’s health care provider as part of a home care follow-up plan. Direct to consumer options will be available soon through ADT.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Heart Math Provides Inner Balance

CES 2013, Health, , ,
Heart Math Inner Balance App
Heart Math Inner Balance App

He’s not just wearing fashionable ear-wear, host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic is trying to find his inner balance with the new Heart Math Inner Balance app. We’re syncing breathing and heart rate to reduce stress at CES 2013.

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Heart Math Inner Balance helps to find that balance by measuring heart rate variability. When we’re stressed the variability of our heart rate is higher than when we’re calm. The app gives a visual representation on the screen when connected to the ear clip sensor.

Visual Cues Trigger Balance

Using the visual cues, the user attempts to calm breathing and heart rate variability so that a uniform green color is displayed on the color wheel. The app tracks progress and a favorite photo can be tied to positive results to trigger later periods of balance.

The sensor clip and the app will both be available in February, 2013.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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