Personal fitness trackers are the rage right now. One of the hopes for these types of devices is that the data will be able to be used by physicians to keep their patients healthy. But will the data generated be of any use to the healthcare ecosystem? A recent article in Venturebeat suggests not: “… sources [...]
There is an interesting story at MedCity News. Seems that CVS is trying to get their employees to take an active role in their own health by encouraging them to live more healthy lifestyles. Several groups are calling the CVS program an invasion of privacy. I believe that we will be seeing more companies adopt [...]
Intuitive Automata, Inc. will be introducing a robot – Autom – that will act as a personal weight loss coach. Medgadget has the details. This is the latest development in harnessing technology for wellness. Previously, we’ve noted that companies were turning toward applications that use gaming and reward systems to encourage attainment of health goals. It [...]
If you’re involved in medical product design, Medcity News is an excellent resource for keeping up with what’s happening in the medical device industry. Here is a link to an important article about patients and connected care that speaks to health data/information technology, electronic medical records and most importantly, preventative care.
We’ve been hearing a lot about “gamifiication” to get people to engage in a variety of behavior-change exercises. Does turning something into a game provide sufficient motivation? For some people it probably does. For others, not so much. MIT’s Technology Review recently ran a story about a company that is developing devices and a virtual [...]
There was a story in my local paper recently about how a nearby town’s (Wake Forest, NC) wellness program has helped decrease the town’s insurance rates by 4.3%. Since the wellness program started in 2007, the town has gotten $75,000 in insurance credits, high-dollar claims have decreased and annual health care costs have leveled off. [...]
Our health care system is expensive largely because it is reactive, attempting to correct problems that have already occurred. And those problems are often the result of long-term neglect on behalf of the patient. Our health care system would be much less expensive if its focus became predominantly proactive: aimed at keeping people healthy. This [...]
The TedMed 2012 conference was held last week. I was not able to attend, but the reports I’ve read indicate that preventative health was a big topic. In fact, of the 50 challenges proposed in TedMed’s Great Challenges program, the challenge voted number one was “inventing wellness programs that work”. From the TedMed.com challenges brochure: [...]
PBS has documentary about several health systems in the US that are delivering quality health care to all citizens at the lowest cost. You can watch it here. There are a number of aspects that make these systems work in reducing health care costs. Chief among them is the fact that they focus on providing [...]
Medtech Insider points to a study just released by Ernst & Young that provides more evidence that what we have been saying for some time now is gaining acceptance: the best way to drive down health care costs is to engage in preventative care so that people remain healthy longer. The E&Y report emphasizes that [...]
I was going to wait until next week to post on the many recent developments that have come to the fore regarding non-invasive sensing of physiological functions and how that will impact medical device design. But this article by Frank Moss from yesterday’s NY Times is too timely not to give a shout-out too. It’s also [...]
P4 Medicine – Predictive, Preventative, Personalized, Participatory – is where healthcare is headed. In the near term, as the bulk of the population ages, there will still be a large portion of the industry devoted to treating disease. But more and more of medicine’s focus will be on neutralizing problems before they occur. Advances in [...]
What are the emerging trends in healthcare, and how can medical device designers prepare for them? Sustainability. There will be a drive to reduce waste in all areas of health care delivery. Reducing packaging and moving away from disposables and back to re-usables will become the mantra. Self-care. The high cost of conventional modes of [...]
Medical device design is primarily focused on treating problems, not on preventing them. In the future, containing health care costs will increasingly rely on maintaining wellness rather than curing once a problem has arisen. Also increasingly, people will be involved in managing their own self-care. Rather than individual medical devices, they’ll need an integrated system [...]