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.

NEJM This Week on the iPhone or iPod touch

Now you can access the New England Journal of Medicine on your Apple iPhone or iPod touch. There's a medical app called "NEJM This Week." I installed it the other day and I was able to access many articles, images, and videos. Given that I have an active NEJM subscription, I'll probably continue to have access to the NEJM content on my mobile device. 

This app is a great example of a smartphone version of a medical journal. I'm sure we'll soon see every major medical journal offer smartphone apps so that busy health care professionals can access this content easily. Click here to access NEJM This Week

CaringBridge mobile features

CaringBridge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing free websites that connect family and friends during a serious health event, care and recovery.

iPhone Application

A free CaringBridge application is available for download from the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch users. This streamlined version of the website makes it easy to visit a personal CaringBridge site as well as leave guestbook messages.
A second release of our iPhone app will provide easier access for CaringBridge authors to manage their site, including adding journal entries and photos.

Coming Soon: Mobile-Optimized Website

The CaringBridge mobile website will provide a streamlined experience for anyone visiting CaringBridge from their web-enabled smartphone. It is formatted to fit smartphone screens and provide CaringBridge users with quick access to their loved one’s health news.

Learn more by visiting http://www.caringbridge.org

Apple iPads for every medical student?

This is being republished from MobileHealthComputing.com

We've heard of several medical schools requiring students to use either an Apple iPhone or iPod touch, but what about the iPad? Some schools have been experimenting with digital e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle. Medical textbooks are frequently filled with photos and other color-rich images, so the grayscale Kindle isn't the ideal e-book reader for medical students who wish to carry their textbooks electronically. This is where the Apple iPad could revolutionize the way medical students learn. Will some medical schools try to educate their students using digital technology? I'm sure it's bound to happen. What I don't know is whether the iPad will improve the way students learn medicine. Since I'm a technology advocate, I could make several compelling arguments to say that interactive learning is much more effective than traditional lectures and didactic education. I could also say that retention could be enhanced with the use of digital quizzes that occur at the point-of-learning. You can't do that with a text book, but you could do that with a digital version. I could argue that multimedia enhances the educational experience compared to static color images. But all these arguments could fail if students are not ready and willing to embrace technology to enhance their education. The average pre-med college student is probably tech-savvy and digitally connected via a smartphone, several social media accounts, and a laptop computer. If you hand that student an iPad filled with medical textbooks and multimedia resources, will that student learn effectively? I would think so.

Epocrates expanding their product line for the iPhone and iPod touch

Are you using Epocrates? Do you have an Apple iPhone or iPod touch? You may be interested in this story on MedicalSmartphones.com:
Epocrates Essentials Deluxe for the iPhone and iPod touch

I've been using Epocrates for many years and it's great to see how they've continued to serve the medical community with their software.

Apple iPhone in the hospital

You won't want to miss this: Memorial Hermann Healthcare System iPhone example

Medical apps for the Apple iPhone

The other day, I was thinking about the Apple iPhone.

Medical apps for the iPhone - how far have we come?

It's amazing how far we've come in 1 year.

What's the Most Popular Free Medical App for iPhone?

What do you think? Top Free Medical iPhone Application

Excited about the 2009 Apple WWDC

I'm very excited to see what's going to be coming out of the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that starts tomorrow. In particular, I'm eager to learn about 2 specific things:

1. Apple Tablet (will we see this revealed?)
   
2. Next iPhone (will it be cheaper and better?)

I envy those who are in San Francisco for the conference. I'm sure we'll see many tweets on Twitter about this. Will you be one of those people sending tweets (hopefully linked to plenty of photos and videos). Image source: iphonebuzz

Swine Flu iPhone Tracker

When SARS hit in 2002-2003, the iPhone (or iPod Touch) didn't exist. Today in 2009, we have millions of iPhone users around the globe. As we prepare for a potential swine flu pandemic, technologists are developing an iPhone Swine Flu Tracker to help you avoid catching swine flu. It's amazing where mobile technology is taking us. This application hasn't been approved as of yet, but if it does, I'm sure you'll be hearing about it through the Apple store. The software developer is IntuApps. Image Source: TechCrunch

Using Web 2.0 to Combat Swine Flu

Swine flu is hitting a country that has tremendous technology resources. As healthcare professionals, how can we leverage existing Web 2.0 resources such as wikis, RSS feeds, blogs, forums, and other social networks to battle this threatening epidemic? On Twitter, you can find many discussions related to swine flu. The same is going on at Sermo. Since more doctors are equipped with mobile communication devices such as iPhones, BlackBerrys, Treos, and other smartphones, there may be an opportunity to send mass messages to healthcare professionals who are constantly connected. The old days of simple alphanumeric pagers are starting to fade.

EHRs and the iPhone

Read about how more EHR/EMR (electronic health/medical record) providers are developing a platform that is compatible with the Apple iPhone at MedicalSmartphones.com. Will the iPhone dominate the mobile EHR space?

Multi-Touch Screens on a Tablet PC

The phrase "multi-touch" has gotten confusing in the tablet PC industry. My Lenovo Thinkpad X200 tablet is considered to have a multi-touch screen because I can use my active digitizer pen or my finger as an input device. However, I can't use two fingers on the screen because it is a passive screen (not a capacitive touch screen like the iPhone or BlackBerry Storm).

I was walking through Best Buy today and I played with the convertible tablet PC made by HP. It was the HP tablet TX2Z that features a capacitive multi-touch display (which means that you can use two fingers on the screen and perform gestures).

Windows 7 will include the capability to use some of those cool multi-touch gestures. Apple already leverages this technology on the iPhone and on their MacBooks.

Epocrates has a Surprise Waiting for iPhone Users!

I can't say much more. If you're an iPhone user, wait to hear about some exciting developments from the folks at Epocrates. I've been a long-time Epocrates user and I'm glad to see that they're keeping up with all the different smartphone platforms.

Sensei Launches iPhone Application for Diabetes

If you have diabetes, you're probably used to gadgets. If you have type 1 diabetes, you probably wear an insulin pump and you're really familiar with gadgets. In the world of diabetes, you have glucose monitors (from companies like Accu-Check. LifeScan, and others), insulin pens, insulin pumps that look like pagers, and even continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems (from companies like Medtronic, Abbott, and DexCom). It's great to see advances in healthcare technology and medical devices. I always had a passion for the medical device industry and as a kid, I thought that I would be a biomedical engineer.

The iPhone is a great medical smartphone and there is now a new diabetes application for diabetes. Sensei (a subsidiary of Humana) has released My Diabetes Guide. Looks pretty cool! LifeScan is also coming out with a diabetes application for the iPhone that may sync glucose readings from blood glucose monitors (glucometers). Hopefully, all these gadgets for diabetes will ultimately help patients improve glucose control.

Smartphone Use Among Physicians on the Rise

According to a recent study by Manhattan Research, the use of smartphones among physicians is now at 64%. The study is titled, "Taking the Pulse v9.0." The use of mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry increased by 20% in one year. It's not a surprise that the number of physicians who use the iPhone more than doubled in the past year. Now with the availability of the touch screen BlackBerry Storm, I anticipate that more doctors will be using the BlackBerry. Overall, physicians are spending more time online and are using both computers and smartphones to stay current and access medical information. They are also using mobile devices to access CME activities. So smartphones have a bright future ahead in the medical industry. As these devices become more powerful and ubiquitous, they will permeate the healthcare space and play an even larger role in the daily workflow of medical students, residents, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.

I currently use a Windows Mobile device (the Verizon Wireless XV6800, also known as the Sprint Mogul and the HTC Titan). If I were on the AT&T network, I'd be an iPhone user. If I had to buy a new phone on Verizon, I'd probably get the new BlackBerry Storm that will have Wi-Fi. If I were on T-Mobile, I would get the G1 running Google Android.

iPhone Application for OB/GYN

If you're on your OB/GYN rotation and you have an iPhone, then you should take a look at this application if your hospital has the Airstrip application. AirStrip Technologies has developed an iPhone application called AirStrip OB. Looks like a great application for those sleepless nights on the OB floor.

Google Android 1.5

Google has an operating system for smartphones called Android. The latest announcement on their developer site includes information about Android 1.5. Some of the most exciting features include:

• On-screen keyboards
• More widgets
  
• Video recording
• Stereo Bluetooth (so you can practice your cardiac auscultation skills with both ears)
  

The most popular smartphone that runs Android is the T-Mobile G1. Will Google Android offer features that are unique enough to set it apart from the iPhone?

FREE Epocrates Cardiology through Cardiosource

Are you a member of the ACC (American College of Cardiology)? Do you use Cardiosource? You may be happy to know that Epocrates and Cardiosource have joined forces up to provide a FREE one-year, one-time subscription to Essentials for Cardiology. Visit Cardiosource and look for the information about Epocrates by clicking here. More and more physicians are abandoning Palm and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile and moving to the iPhone and BlackBerry, so it's great to have Epocrates for these mobile devices.

HTC Touch Diamond Now on Verizon Wireless

The HTC Touch Pro has been available through Verizon Wireless for a while now. Well, they're moving backwards and they're now offering the HTC Touch Diamond (the slim version without the slideout keyboard). It still has TouchFLO™ 3D, so it's touch-friendly and it looks like a great phone for medical students, residents, and physicians who want something small, thin, and light. It's a shame that Verizon Wireless doesn't offer the Apple iPhone, but I suppose this allows other companies like HTC and RIM to market phones like the Touch Diamond and the BlackBerry Storm.