A growing plethora of wearable activity and fitness trackers at #CES2014

You don't have to be in Las Vegas to realize that the Consumer Electronics industry is exploding with wearable activity and fitness trackers. This year at #CES2014, there are a plethora of wearable gadgets that are attempting to differentiate themselves from the 1st and 2nd generation quantified self (QS) wearable activity trackers: Fitbit, Nike+, Jawbone UP, etc.

Follow updates on FitnessTechMD.com to read about some of the latest wearable gadgets designed to motivate people to live healthier, more active lifestyles.

Digital Health Summit at #CEWeek in NYC

Don't miss the Digital Health Summit at #CEWeek in NYC later this month:

Digital Health Summit
June 26, 2013
11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Pavilion | 125 W 18th St. NY, NY

The event will cover the booming markets of next generation medical devices, remote monitoring, mHealth apps and products, cloudbased medical services, and wellness and fitness devices.

Three exciting upcoming conferences in healthcare

2013 is kicking off with three very exciting conferences:

Digital Health Summit at CES (Jan 9-10 in Las Vegas)
iHT2 Health IT Summit in Phoenix (Jan 15-16 in Phoenix)
GETHealth Summit (Feb 6-7 in New York City)

I really wish I could be there, but I won't be attending. Of course, some world-famous speakers will be at these events, so you won't want to miss them!

CES On The Hill Brings Innovative Technology To Nation’s Capital

CEA’s Digital Patriots Dinner to Honor Senator Tom Coburn M.D., Representative Anna Eshoo and Dr. Robert Kahn as Technology Leaders

What:

CES on the Hill, produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® and scheduled for May 10 at Eastern Market in Washington, D.C., provides a first-hand look at some of the newest and most innovative technologies at the center of today’s policy debates. This event will showcase and demonstrate the top policy issues and challenges affecting the consumer electronics industry, such as mobile broadband, accessibility, safe driving and sustainability.

Digital Health at the Consumer Electronics Show

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

Fantastic. Useful. Strange. What?

Those were the words that came to mind as I walked down the aisles of the trade show's Digital Health section.

iHealth and Withings were there. You may remember them from when we wrote about their newest inventions, a blood pressure cuff that attaches to the iPhone. Seeing the devices in person and trying them out really was exciting. It made me become hopeful for having a truly portable, good-looking, accurate device in my travel medical bag for house calls.

Among the useful were a slew of slim-lined fitness sensors based off of ANT+ technology, a small chip requiring ultra-low power to wirelessly network with applications. You could run, cycle, row and be able to record your cadence, power, speed, and heart rate in real time and then review the information on a mobile platform or website. Good for those who are into fitness and training.

The Digital Health Summit recap

Author: Thuc Huynh, MD

I attended the Digital Health Summit last friday and had a great time. The room was completely packed with avid listeners. It was standing room only in the back. It was that popular.

And for good reason. The Summit covered trending topics like mobile health, remote monitoring, and patient empowerment.

Dr. Cheryl Pegus, Chief Medical Officer for Walgreens, spoke to the audience about their plans for improving medication management ranging from e-prescribing, drug interaction, and telephone support. Those aren't new or innovative ways of changing the medication management space but they are helpful additional resources for a large population of patients. The most interesting new thing Walgreens is developing is a mobile app that utilizes barcode scanning. Patients will be able to scan a barcode at any time and have their medications refilled at a Walgreens of their choice. That's pretty convenient.

By far my favorite moment of the Digital Health Summit were Dr. Harry Greenspun's analogies:

Why is that when we visit a doctors' office, we feel like we’re in an episode of the Flintstones? Why can't we have the same quality service that our cats and dogs have? Why is it that you can order a Chipotle Burrito on your iPhone app, have it paid and waiting for you, but if you get hit by a bus, good luck trying to find an orthopedist who will accept your insurance?!

Lifecomm to Preview Next Generation Mobile Personal Emergency Response System at CES

Joint venture of industry leaders Hughes Telematics, Inc., Qualcomm Incorporated
and American Medical Alert Corp.

LAS VEGAS, January 5, 2011 – Lifecomm LLC will unveil its vision for the next generation Mobile Personal Emergency Response System (MPERS) at the Digital Health Summit, 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The stylish, technologically advanced device is expected to be commercially available by the end of 2011.

Lifecomm is a joint venture of Hughes Telematics, Inc., (HTI) (OTCBB: HUTC, HUTCW), Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) and American Medical Alert Corp. (Nasdaq: AMAC) and operates as a majority-owned subsidiary of HTI.

Digital Health Summit 2011

The Digital Health Summit at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show focuses on the booming market of consumer-based health and wellness innovations that sit at the convergence of technology and healthcare.

In addition to diagnosing and battling disease, today’s generation of high-tech healthcare products and services will be the catalyst for better managed healthcare, patient/doctor communication, shorter hospital stays and faster recovery time, lowered costs for health insurance, early prevention and detection, digital patient information records, medical attention over distances, and so much more. A robust industry is developing to serve the healthcare market. The Digital Health Summit and Exhibition is here to serve as its epicenter.

What You’ll See:

* Telehealth Systems
* Therapeutic & Diagnostic Medical Devices
* Remote Monitoring Devices
* Mobile Health Applications
* Secured Wireless Communication Medical Devices
* Medication Monitoring Equipment
* Mobile Health Devices
* Robotic Prosthetics
* Personal Health Records
* Communications Networks
* Telemedicine Systems

Where: At the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

Exhibit Jan 6-9, 2011
Conference Jan 7, 2011

Learn more about the Digital Health Summit  here.

What's Happening at OQO?

There are many rumors floating around the web about the future of OQO. I've had an OQO model 02 for a while now and I love this tiny little device. It's a fantastic micro PC (or ultra-mobile PC if you prefer) and I hope that the company survives these economic times of uncertainty. The OQO has been piloted in various healthcare settings and as more patients require digital monitoring and electronic devices, ultra-mobile PCs are needed in the clinical setting. I hope we see the model 02+ that was revealed at CES this year.

CES 2009

Now that CES is over, I have time to write about topics that are probably a bit more medically relevant. I'm eager to see how netbooks and other mobile devices get incorporated into the healthcare field.

• Will the uptake on UMPCs increase as prices fall and as more physicians adopt EHRs?
• Will touch technology revive the tablet PC industry? Many doctors probably aren't used to writing on a digital screen, so they use their convertible tablet as a standard laptop.
• Will mobile smartphones become more powerful and replace devices like the iPod, GPS, and PDA?
• Will doctors give their lectures using micro projectors?
  

2009 is a very promising year for mobile technology. If the Apple tablet gets released this year, then the tablet buzz will definitely get revived.

CES 2009 - Wishlist

Based on the reports from CES 2009, I've started creating a wishlist. I'm really just dreaming, so I may as well call it a dreamlist:

• Sony Vaio VGN P500: Sony's entry into the netbook arena. Will this run Mac OS X?
• OQO model 02+: cheaper, faster, OLED and touch screen
• Powermat: wireless charging. Get rid of all those cables!
  

This isn't part of my dreamlist anymore, but they would be considered some of the major highlights from CES 2009 (at least from my perspective):

• Netbook convertible tablets: ASUS seems to have the edge here
• Palm Pre: WebOS platform. The survival of Palm hinges on its success
• Windows 7 beta: well, it was going to get released, but now it appears delayed

So will CES be worth attending in 2010?