The sensor, as Apple describes it, could be completely hidden from view, and the “electrical signals generated by the user can be transmitted from the user’s skin through the electronic device housing to the leads.”

Then, using these signals, the electronic device  as medical solution can “identify or authenticate the user and perform an operation based on the identity of the user. In some embodiments, the electronic device can determine the user’s mood from the cardiac signals and provide data related to the user’s mood.”

Source: link

Via: link

New patent applications revealed this week show that Apple has investigated technology with advanced physiological sensors for measuring workout activity from inside the user’s ear canal.

Apple currently has a number of fitness-oriented features available in its iPod line, but the Cupertino, Calif., company’s latest patent describes an extremely advanced system using unique technology. Among a number of described methods for measuring exertion during physical exercise include sensing light that travels through the user’s earlobe to determine blood oxygen levels.

In one of the examples provided in, an earbud could include infrared photodetectors that would measure the user’s body temperature, heat flux and heart rate.

Read more: link

(sensors for mobile phones, not ordinary Health 2.0  web portals )

As the editor of two medical software blogs for iPhone and Android, I can notice that there are the low share of apps and the low profit in medical and healthcare categories because of poor quality of majority of the apps . Therefore at the present time there is almost nothing innovative there from the user’s or technological points of view, isn’t it?

As an analyst I can conclude that the electronic medical records sphere could not reach the end-consumer still . Now it is just creating the solutions for the b2b market which is for sure potentially less than the mass-market.

By the way it’s clear to all industry leaders that no one normal consumer will enter somewhere the big database of his illnesses on his own, write down all his steps (what he eats, what drugs he has taken, what and how long something hurts) daily, take on trust the information from the ordinary medical web-portal without confirmation of his personal doctor etc.

What will save all these billions of investments and elevate the Health 2.0 sphere on the fundamentally new level?

It’s simple – Only new products which are really necessary for usual consumer.

What does consumer want?
He just wants to receive every day the reliable personal instructions/advices concerning health without any own efforts .
Yes, yes!
Without the tiresome fillings of forms, documents, papers and so on.
Without the searches at “doubtful” forums and sites.
Without the preliminary studying of 100 inconsistent opinions of anonymous users in “chat”.

He just wants the product, which KNOWS him and KNOWS what he does every second, to give out him accurate and simple advices, like «you may do it, you may not do that, it’s better to make/choose that thing, danger threatens you, it’s dangerous to eat that as you are diabetic etc.».

How is that possible?

For the creation of such product it is necessary mass production and integration of various mini – sensors for the mobile phones , which will study environment and generate corresponding recommendations and advices on the basis of global medical knowledge databases and a personal medical card of the consumer without the user’s troubles .

Do you think it’s unreal?Why?
Two leaders, Google and Microsoft, have already useful b2b infrastructure and medical knowledge databases(Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault).

Creation of the sensors, which are comprehensible to the consumer, though and slowly, but begins to develop:
- Recently NASA has created a sensor for iPhone, which allows defining poisonous gases in the air.

- The standard complete set of iPhone includes accelerometer, which allows to define movements of the person (it is already applied for monitoring of old people fettle)

– Recently it was put out the solution, which lets to use iPhone as a stethoscope;

Research and Development of the other, more advanced, sensors are held now. These sensors will become new sense organs for the human are conducted and will allow people to study environment every second more complex and detailed.

So it’s possible that in 3-5 years there will be tiny sensors which are capable to study structure of food , to learn the safety of environment, to analyze the key parameters of person’s health, his psychological fettle etc.

After It will be necessary just to collect all these data from sensors on the Internet servers, to “connect” data with a personal medical card of the person and to analyze them, giving out those or other recommendations on-line.

Do you imagine how perspective and profitable it is?

Author:
Vit Goncharuk,
Editor at iPhoneMedicalApps.com
CEO at VIactivity LCC[Software development, production and SEO for iPhone, Android, Symbian, Web-projects etc]

HealthFusion has announced the launch of a progressive mobile application that will enable physicians to utilize their BlackBerry or iPhone mobile smartphones to view office schedules and patient insurance eligibility status on-the-go. This is the first in a series of new products called HealthFusion Mobile Apps that are designed to allow physicians to leverage the most current technology in their efforts to improve patient care and increase profitability.

“The use of technology in physician practices can go a long way in addressing the challenges of today’s health care,” said Dr. Sol Lizerbram, Chairman of HealthFusion. “These new applications will give physicians the tools they need to treat patients, no matter where they are, and to help ensure they are reimbursed for their services. We at HealthFusion understand the challenges physicians face and are committed to providing cutting-edge technologies that help them meet today’s demands.”

Dr. Lizerbram announced the launch of the new application in Boston at the ACG Private Company Showcase, which focused on high growth information technology companies that are working to fix and advance the healthcare system through innovative technologies. Dr. Lizerbram was invited to present at the conference to share HealthFusion’s efforts to not only provide the most advanced technology to physicians, but to provide it at very affordable costs.

http://www.healthfusion.com/

Read more: link

Most people would not want their doctors chatting on a Bluetooth headset during a checkup. But what if that technology could save patients thousands of dollars?

A first-of-its-kind stethoscope developed by Maplewood-based 3M Co. and Connecticut-based Zargis Medical uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly transfer sound waves from the heart and lungs straight to a computer. After 20 seconds of processing, software helps doctors identify heart murmurs or other ailments, Zargis CEO John Kallassy said.

The product cost around $11 million to develop, he said.

Zargis partnered with 3M Health Care, one of 3M’s six business segments, in October 2007 to pursue the project.

On Thursday, Popular Science named the 3M Littmann Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200 with Cardioscan software “Innovation of the Year.”

The stethoscope costs around $400, and the software is an additional $350.

Data from the stethoscope can help physicians decide whether to refer a patient for an echocardiogram, a heart-mapping procedure that can cost patients between $100 and $1,000 depending on their insurance plan.

The technology originated from speech-recognition software designed in the mid-1990s by Zargis’ parent company, Siemens Corporate Research, Kallassy said. Siemens and Speedus Corp. launched Zargis Medical in 2001; it is a majority-owned subsidiary of Speedus.

Read: link

Jing Li, a physical scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., along with other researchers working under the Cell-All program in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, developed a proof of concept of new technology that would bring compact, low-cost, low-power, high-speed nanosensor-based chemical sensing capabilities to cell phones.

The device Li developed is about the size of a postage stamp and is designed to be plugged in to an iPhone to collect, process and transmit sensor data. The new device is able to detect and identify low concentrations of airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The device senses chemicals in the air using a “sample jet” and a multiple-channel silicon-based sensing chip, which consists of 16 nanosensors, and sends detection data to another phone or a computer via telephone communication network or Wi-Fi.

Read permanent article: link

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has an online database called ClinicalTrials.gov that includes a registry of federally and privately supported clinical trials underway or completed. The database currently boasts more than 81,000 clinical trials from some 170 countries. As you might expect a couple dozen of those trials are testing wireless health solutions — mostly mobile phone applications — and their efficacy on health outcomes. MobiHealthNews rounded up 10 mobile phone-equipped clinical trials conducted by numerous academic institutions, world governments and big brand healthcare companies like AstraZeneca.

#1

United Kingdom: A Mobile Phone Based Structured Intervention to Achieve Asthma Control in Patients With Uncontrolled Persistent Asthma: Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

#2

Australia: A Randomised Controlled Trial Investigating a Mobile Phone Self-Monitoring Tool (Mobiletype) to Increase Emotional Self-Awareness and Reduce Depressive Symptoms in Young People.

#3

Austria: Bacterial Contamination of Anaesthetists’ Hands by Personal Mobile Phones Used in the Operating Theatre

#4

United Kingdom: A Multinational, Randomised Study of the Efficacy of the Diabetes Interactive Diary (DID), a Carbohydrates/Insulin Bolus Calculator and a Telemedicine System Based on the Communication Between Physician or Dietitian and Patient by SMS

#5

United Kingdom: Assessment of the Clinical Efficacy and Acceptability of the Think Positive (T+) Diabetes Management System in Insulin Requiring Diabetes

#6

Denmark: Assessment of the Health Related Effects of Compliance Optimization in Asthma Through Use of SMS (Short Message System) – A Controlled Trial

#7

USA: Text Messaging for Abstinence and HIV Risk Prevention: The 411 on Safe Text

#8

Spain: Effect of Daily SMS Reminders on Medication Adherence to Oral Antipsychotics in Patients With Schizophrenia

#9

Kenya: A Targeted Cell Phone Intervention to Improve Patient Access to Care and Drug Adherence in Patients Taking Antiretroviral (ARV) Medications in Kenya

#10

India: The Role of Information Technology in the Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes

Read full article: link

Complete listing of clinical trials(with using mobile phones): link

Read full: link

Scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBE) received the Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology Award at the 2009 Times Higher Education Awards ceremony. The IBE researchers were recognised for pioneering work that has led to new developments in medical diagnosis equipment, personalised healthcare devices, new regenerative medicine techniques and new medical imaging technologies.

The researchers are currently trialling a new digital plaster that is worn by patients to monitor their vital signs such as body temperature and respiration. Doctors can use their mobile phone to download information that is wirelessly transmitted from the digital plaster at any time, so that a patient can be monitored at home, instead of in hospital.

The team is also developing a range of other technologies, including silicon chip devices for patients with Type 1 diabetes that will mimic the role of beta cells inside the pancreas to regulate a patients’ insulin. Other devices in development include an implantable artificial retina made from silicon chip technology that will be used to improve the sight of the visually impaired.

Read more: link