Brain Computer Interfaces & connected medical devices

The 29-year-old CEO of My.Flow, Amanda Field, had the idea for the device during a class project on wearable technology at UC Berkeley. Field went on to pitch her idea to HAX, the world’s largest hardware accelerator, after graduation. She was sent to China to develop the prototype with friend and future co-founder, Jacob McEntire, who was then working on a “smart vibrator.”

Physicians with access to the QardioMD portal can invite patients to share their blood pressure and heart rate information with them. The platform is HIPAA compliant and actually shares more than just blood pressure information. Qardio has also created the QardioBase and QardioCore devices. QardioBase is a weight scale and QardioCore is a 3 lead ECG. Information from these devices can be evaluated by physicians using the app as well.

Cooey is an end-to-end health-monitoring IoT platform provider that allows the users to collect, store, analyze and share their medical summary with a doctor. It provides insights and personalized health tips to patients based on their medical profile. Further, it helps connect users with various healthcare service provides to get personalized services, viz., medicines, lab tests, or homecare services, delivered to their doorstep.

You may never have heard of Validic, but if you’ve ever sent your doctor data from your Fitbit, smart scale, glucose meter or another wearable device or health tracker, chances are Validic was involved. The North Carolina-based startup connects with more than 270 of the myriad health-monitoring devices on the market, collecting data from more than 223 million people across the world who have agreed to let Validic’s customers monitor their fitness and wellbeing.

Target is entering the connected healthcare space.
The retail giant will begin placing connected healthcare devices in 550 U.S. stores, according to TWICE. These devices encompass 14 medical-grade products, such as wireless scales and blood pressure monitors.

The fight to drag the healthcare system kicking and screaming into the 21st century often overlooks the little picture in favor of larger systematic fixes. But for many users on multiple meds, the only thing standing between them and an incorrect or missed dosage is a big, plastic box from the drugstore sporting embossed letters of the days of the week.

“This round of funding will allow Nima to deliver on its mission of creating a range of devices that test food for various proteins and substances beyond gluten, helping as many people as possible live their healthiest lives,” Nima CEO Shireen Yates said in a statement. “The Nima brand is widely accepted and synonymous with our company and products, and this focus will strengthen our marketing approach as we prepare to launch new products on the Nima platform.”

Medisafe, a company with offices in Boston, MA and Haifa, Israel is releasing a new smart pill management system that keeps tabs on when you take your meds and reminds you when you don’t. The Medisafe iConnect lets you choose to use the Bluetooth equipped iCap, that screws onto regular pill bottles instead of the original caps, or the iSort weekly pill organizer that also talks to your smartphone or tablet over a Bluetooth wireless connection.

NHS patients with long term illnesses could soon be able to monitor their conditions remotely through high-tech clothing and wearable gadgets which will link directly to their medical records, under new proposals announced today.

The problem with doctors is you only see them after you're sick. Prevention is preferable. A new generation of wearable sensors is finally living up to that promise by letting patients get constant, personalized care wherever they go. The convergence of several innovations—small, efficient electronics, smartphone-enabled telemetry and digital patient data—is now opening the way, defeating past barrier

BioMonitor 2 is inserted subcutaneously through a minimally invasive process under local anesthesia. The device provides a flexible antenna and positioning, adapting easily to a patient's anatomy, while providing unmatched sensing amplitude that ensures reporting accuracy. BioMonitor 2 also features BIOTRONIK's ProMRI technology, ensuring patients have access to full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (both 1.5T and 3.0T) as needed throughout their lifetime.

Although connectivity among medical devices is not new, the Internet of Things (IoT), or the Internet of Medical Things if you will, is gaining traction as the healthcare industry has been increasing efforts to improve quality and the continuum of care.

IDC’s latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker said global shipments will reach 110 million units in 2016 with vendors taking advantage of increased consumer awareness. Wearables will experience double-digit growth throughout the next five years and there will be 237.1 million devices shipped in 2020, IDC said.

After several years in development, the MC10 BioStampRC went on sale this week. It’s a waterproof, band-aid-like sticker loaded with some of the most sophisticated tracking sensors ever created. It provides real-time access to a person’s vital signs and activity, in an entirely unobtrusive way.

Today’s health and/or fitness trackers are but a prelude to much more interesting devices that will go beyond step counting and heart rate monitoring. The fitness wearables commercially available today are nothing more than fancy electronic pedometers that have been around for roughly 30 years, with the added pizazz of wireless connectivity to send data to the cloud. Nice features for sure, but they don’t add much in the way of medical usefulness. Furthermore, while there are many FDA-approved medical devices on the market today, such as insulin monitors and blood pressure monitors, these items perform a single function and most could hardly be described as “wearable”. Done right, next generation medical wearables might just prove to be the key catalyst for revolutionizing how healthcare is delivered.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has hit many industries, government, and certainly the lives of consumers. We now have the ability to remotely turn our appliances on or off, and to monitor what goes on in our homes when we are away. Industries can detect machinery issues and repair them remotely. Smart cities are being planned which will provide for everything from easing traffic to controlling lighting, and even to melt our streets when snow and ice threaten transportation and public safety. Another area in which IoT has amazing possibilities is health care.