Smart phone app futurists take heart -- your blood pressure (is/may be/isn't) trending up (down). So this week's Pew Research Smartphone Ownership Survey reports that 24% of the 50-64 age group and 11% of the 65+ population have smartphones. That's good, they are incredibly useful -- navigation, Internet searches, e-mail/chatting, maps, reading a book, and on and on. But meanwhile, while they are still ramping up, it seems that the world is going a bit mobile healthy crazy, which will not help those most in need of these apps until adoption further grows, never mind trusting health data transmitted through a phone. The NY Times (April 25) expresses concern: Can a smart phone save your life? (Congrats to Independa for its senior monitoring mention.) Maybe, but there are problems. Watch a video of Eric Topol at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Yes/no, oops, let me restart this app!) And last, but definitely not least, IBM's new report about IBM scientists 'envisioning' a number of 'future' devices for better self-management of health and monitoring of seniors that will encompass diet support, caregiver notification, blood test and mobility.
San Diego, Calif. – June 28, 2011 – GreatCall, Inc., a leader in developing wireless services focused on keeping people connected, safe and healthy and the creator of the Jitterbug cell phone, today announced the immediate availability of its first iPhone application called MedCoach -- designed to make medication management easy! MedCoach joins the company’s growing portfolio of award-winning products and services. The application will help customers better manage their overall well-being for free, directly from their iPhone or iPad.
It may look like your typical lounge chair, but seniors at LaGrange Pointe independent retirement community in downtown La Grange, are reaping the benefits of the Health-E-System and its remote monitoring capability.
Forbes says health IT is hot -- although not yet profitable. A title of a Forbes article caught my eye recently: "Health IT entrepreneurs, now is your time." It went on to note that "the sector is being energized thanks in large part to government subsidies which reward doctors and hospitals for buying electronic health records (EHRs)." The article then talks about VC investment plans, who's investing, and offers a few examples of startup ideas. Think about this request from the "government's Health Data Initiative, which invites entrepreneurs to develop applications based on their mounds of health data collected by the government." Oh yeah, that would be extremely helpful to the government -- perhaps to refine rankings focused on hospital readmissions -- which really are about seniors -- heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia readmissions that cost Medicare $12 billion per year. But think what it means to have better reports, more rankings, more granular punishment to providers. That's good for the government -- under the theory that if one reports and punishes at the far end of the health care process, perhaps the beginning of the process of care will just fix itself.
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of WinterGreen Research, Inc.'s new report:“Tele-Health Monitoring: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2011 to 2017”