This is my dumping ground for quotes and other stuff relating to the wonderful world of digital & communications.
a program called GLEAM (Global Epidemic and Mobility Model) that divides the world into hundreds of thousands of squares. It models travel patterns between these squares (busy roads, flight paths and so on) using equations based on data as various as international air links and school holidays. The result is impressive. In 2009, for example, there was an outbreak of a strain of influenza called H1N1. GLEAM mimicked what actually happened with great fidelity. In most countries it calculated to within a week when the number of new infections peaked. In no case was the calculation out by more than a fortnight.
doctors miss early stage lung cancer diagnoses about half the time. Watson, on the other hand, is able to get the right diagnosis on these same cases 90% of the time. Although, Watson will still hedge its bets: When a medical professional consults the system, they will receive results on an iPad or computer in about 30 seconds with possible courses of action sorted by confidence level
69% of U.S. adults track a health indicator like weight, diet, exercise routine, or symptom. Of those, half track “in their heads,” one-third keep notes on paper, and one in five use technology to keep tabs on their health status.
iCouch, a New York-based service that offers counseling and therapy via online video or chat on a PC or mobile
The 10-foot clinic houses a private medical room that feels like a well-lit outhouse. Inside is a scale, chair, and television dashboard, as well as locked bays on each side for medical equipment. After a medically certified assistant helps patients through a kiosk check-in, users are greeted by a friendly doctor who guides them through the use of common medical tools, such as a stethoscope. Vitals are displayed graphically over the doctor’s head throughout the visit.
HealthSpot is currently being piloted in Ohio urgent care and children’s hospital… HealthSpot argues there’s a host of underutilized medical professionals, such as semi-retired doctors who can see patients from the comfort of their homes or nurses in low-traffic rural hospitals who can be beamed into busy urban emergency rooms.
HealthSpot plans on selling stations to hospitals and retail outlets for around $10K to $15K, with a $950-a-month prescription.
Cancer Research UK has launched an online interactive database of cancerous cell samples and is inviting the public to help lab researchers investigate the two million images… Each sample in the database has been stained to highlight the differences between ordinary cells, such as white blood cells, and irregular, cancerous cells
Beam Toothbrush claims to be the “first app-connected toothbrush” that allows users to track their dental hygiene habits
Watson is in medical school. The computer is working with many health care organizations to learn medical data so it can diagnose cancer, and that is just the beginning. It has so far ingested 80 percent of the world’s medical data.
Happtique is launching a voluntary program in the fall through which developers can submit their apps to be reviewed for certification. The idea is that the certification would serve as a kind of seal of approval.
The certified apps would then be offered through a service called mRx that would allow health practioners to prescribe the programs to their patients.
MRx is itself an app that can be loaded on a doctor’s smartphone or tablet. Once a suitable health aid is located, the doctor can select the “prescribe” command to send the app to a patient by e-mail.
I’m not sure why this wouldn’t work for people too?
With this technology, for the first time, we can work at the same scale as the unit of biological system without interrupting it. Ultimately, this is about merging tissue with electronics in a way that it becomes difficult to determine where the tissue ends and the electronics begin.
Happtique is creating a system to allow doctors to prescribe apps… “We’re basically saying that pills can also be information, that pills can also be connectivity.” Simple apps that track users’ personal fitness goals have already gained wide traction. Now medical professionals and entrepreneurs want to use similar approaches to dealing with chronic ailments like diabetes or heart disease
Much like 23andMe … the Cat Ancestry test – developed by Dr. Leslie Lyons and the Lyons’ Feline Genetics Laboratory in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Population Health and Reproduction – can determine which of eight major ancestral groups a given pet cat descends from
The service, expected to be launched by the (Indian) government in August, will be available throughout the country…. Once the person sends a text message of the prescribed brand of drug to a particular number from his mobile, he will receive two to three options of the same medicine, along with the price differential. Say, a patient is prescribed a popular anti-infective like Augmentin (GlaxoSmithKline). He types in Augmentin and sends the SMS to the designated number. He would get a return SMS, possibly mentioning Moxikind CV (Mankind), which is substantially cheaper.
Researchers at UCLA have created an online crowdsourcing game designed to let players help doctors in key areas of the world speed the lengthy process of distinguishing malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones… So far mostly undergraduate UCLA volunteers have played the game, and have collectively been able to accurately diagnose malaria-infected red blood cells within 1.25% of the accuracy of a pathologist performing the same task, resesarchers said.
