Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Prognosis app available
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
NYTimes: To Fix Bad Breath, a Gadget Seen on YouTube
From The New York Times:
ADVERTISING: To Fix Bad Breath, a Gadget Seen on YouTube Orabrush’s funny videos about bad breath have been viewed 24 million times, a success that has changed the maker’s approach to marketing. http://nyti.ms/c9vAcj Take The New York Times with you on your Android or other mobile device, free of charge.For more information, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/services/mobile/apps/
Blaine Warkentine
574 377 7111
From phone pardon the errors
NYTimes: A Badge That Tells Consumers, 'Trust This App'
From The New York Times:
A Badge That Tells Consumers, 'Trust This App' TRUSTe, which gives a privacy stamp of approval to Web sites, now offers a similar service for mobile sites and apps. http://nyti.ms/cgmGcO Take The New York Times with you on your Android or other mobile device, free of charge.For more information, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/services/mobile/apps/
Blaine Warkentine
574 377 7111
From phone pardon the errors
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Imagine a world without oil.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Apple Files Patent for iPhone Embedded Heart Monitor
Apple has filed a patent for a seamlessly embedded heart monitor in what looks like an iPhone or iPod touch. The main purpose of the integration appears to be for authorization purposes. Using specific algorithms an EKG tracing can be used to identify individuals. The patent also states that the embedded monitor can be used to predict a user's mood, a feature of which we're a bit skeptical.
From the patent:
This is directed to an electronic device having an integrated sensor for detecting a user's cardiac activity and cardiac electrical signals. The electronic device can include a heart sensor having several leads for detecting a user's cardiac signals. The leads can be coupled to interior surfaces of the electronic device housing to hide the sensor from view, such that electrical signals generated by the user can be transmitted from the user's skin through the electronic device housing to the leads. In some embodiments, the leads can be coupled to pads placed on the exterior of the housing. The pads and housing can be finished to ensure that the pads are not visibly or haptically distinguishable on the device, thus improving the aesthetic qualities of the device. Using the detected signals, the electronic device 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.Mood ring features aside, having a heart rate monitor could be an interesting addition to Apple's devices. Exercise enthusiasts can use it to effortlessly monitor their heart rate. Biofeedback apps would most likely proliferate like wildfire. Apps could possibly become available that could diagnose more straightforward arrhythmia's like atrial fibrillation, heart block, premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), and ventricular tachycardia. The legal liabilities for applications like these would be an interesting discussion.
At this rate, Apple may not be too far off from developing the iTricorder.
(Hat tip: Engadget)
from phone:Blaine6103108104
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Mashable Shared Story
from phone:
Blaine
6103108104
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Hospital Outfits Staff with 100 iPads
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
iPad Kiosk Solutions - Secure, Water Resistant, Speaker, LandscapePortrait Hinge - iPad Kiosk Solutions
awesome solution
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Your next Book should be an app and not an iBook
Monday, April 12, 2010
Home health technology products
Wed May 5, 2010 5:30 PM Location: Foley Hoag Emerging Enterprise Center, Bay Colony Corporate Center, 1000 Winter Street, Suite 4000, North Entrance, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451-1436
Program Synopsis:
Join us in a conversation with industry thought leaders for a panel discussion on the rapidly growing category of home health care products and the technologies that are driving opportunities. Experts from the business sector, technology, and human-centered design will share key data, information, and point of views on trends affecting this space. Through these varied perspectives, panelists will discuss the emerging opportunities that are forming at the intersection of business strategy, enabling technologies and human-centered design and development.
Hear from entrepreneurs, technologists and adherence experts who are leading industry in the development of products and services targeting consumers and self managed health care. Panelists: Devorah Klein, Ph.D., Principal at Continuum
.
David Rose, Chief Executive Officer, Vitality David M. Barash, M.D., President, Concord Healthcare Strategies Ben Rubin, Co-founder and CTO of Zeo Frank McGillin,Vice President Marketing Communications, Philips Healthcare
================================================================
Registration Fee:
Members: $20 (PrePaid), $30 at the door
NonMembers: $30 (PrePaid), $40 at the door
Register for this event:
https://web.memberclicks.com/mc/quickForm/viewForm.do?orgId=meg&formId=22649 <http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb%2Ememberclicks%2Ecom%2Fmc%2FquickForm%2FviewForm%2Edo%3ForgId%3Dmeg%26formId%3D22649&urlhash=L6LP>
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Big kudo for ipad
Monday, April 5, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
How Don Berwick Will Run CMS
The CMS administrator job has always been exceptionally challenging, but the recently enacted health overhaul will create new ones for whomever eventually fills the post. For starters, the overhaul contemplates expanding Medicaid to cover 16 million more people, and squeezing nearly $500 billion out of Medicare over the next decade.I know Don well, having worked closely with him on several projects from 1987-1995. I helped his team develop and teach “Improving Health Care Quality,” the flagship course for Don’s National Demonstration Project (which later became the Institute for Healthcare Improvement). We even published a paper together back in the day.Don has had a tremendously positive impact on my career. I can say more about that, but what I prefer to do instead is speculate a bit about how Don will approach his new challenge. (For other takes on Don’s nomination, see here, here and here.)Don Will Create a Vision for CMS-He probably has ideas for this already, but Don will consider his ideas to be a starting-point. He will develop them into final form by seeking input from CMS staffers at all levels of the organization. That process will be egalitarian and collaborative. When it is done, nearly all 4,400 people at CMS will have had a chance to give input. As a result, nearly everyone at CMS will own the vision. They will be deeply motivated to make it happen.Ultimately, the Vision Will be Driven by Customer Need-CMS has millions of customers, including beneficiaries, providers and taxpayers. Their needs often conflict. Don will be at ease with this and will work with his teams to sort them out. In the process, he will reinforce and expand the commitment to customer-service for every CMS employee.
Don Will Use Process Performance Metrics to Assess Progress in Meeting Customer Needs-He will work with staff to identify the processes at CMS that have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. As the Administrator, Don might only see a top-level “Report Card” of these metrics, but he will make sure that successive layers of his organization have identified which of their own processes contribute to the metrics he sees. In this way, Don will assure that everyone at CMS understands how their work contributes to overall performance of the organization, and ultimately to making its customers happy.CMS Employees will Love Working for Don-Don will help them see that when errors do occur, they are almost always caused process design failures and not the people who work in these processes. That insight will encourage people to improve the processes in which they work, a supremely empowering concept that brings out the best in people while accelerating process improvement across CMS.Beyond this, Don will listen to his people and value their input. He knows they are his most valuable asset. He will make his people believe this, too.Don Will Use Benchmarking to Improve CMS Performance-There might be a state agency, or even a city or county agency that has achieved performance breakthroughs in an area relevant to CMS. Don will ask his people to learn from those agencies. His people will understand it’s OK to learn new ways and accept new ideas, including those from agencies that may have nothing to do with health care.Don Will Approach HIT Using these Same Principles-Don knows it is hard to implement EHRs hospitals, which are among the most complex sociotechnical systems in modern society. He knows that process knowledge holds the key to successful EHR implementation in such settings, and that when things go wrong it may or may not be caused by the EHR, or the people that use them. And to be sure, Don will emphasize the EHRs’ role in patient safety. Don will also assure that providers’ concerns about Meaningful Use are aired, understood and acted upon.There’s more, but this is the gist. Don is going to be great. He has been training his whole career for a role like this. Don Berwick to CMS is a brilliant move by President Obama. Good luck, Don!Glenn Laffel, MD, PhDSr. VP Clinical Affairs, Practice Fusion
Is HITECH Working? #1: Hospitals are grumbling but are playing in the game; success is not guarante
by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA
The rationale for hospitals having to play in the HITECH game is straightforward: the financial carrots through 2015 are helpful, and the financial sticks after 2015 will be very painful.
We’ll discuss:
- Financial Impacts on Hospitals
- Survey Data Showing Hospitals Will Play
- Why Success is Not Guaranteed
Financial Impacts on Hospitals
Even prior to HITECH, most hospital executives already had passed the threshold decision and concluded that they need to implement EHR technology. Thus, the issue for most hospitals isn’t “whether” to implement EHR technology, but “when”, “at what cost”, and “how”. (more…)
Article Series - Is HITECH Working?
- Is HITECH Working? 7 Observations Mom Could Understand
- Is HITECH Working? #1: Hospitals are grumbling but are playing in the game; success is not guaranteed.
Tags: CCHIT, certification, EHR, EMR, HIE, HIMSS, HITECH, hospital, meaningful use, Medicare, privacy
Another checklist victory
Quote from NPR on iPad, its the reason for the device at time zero. Next year is for the techies.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A big surprise
www.boelud.info is a good website which sells electronic goods in
China.my friend has got the notebook only in one week.And the company
will deal with the tariff. We can enjoy the happiness of shopping.
A big surprise
www.boelud.info is a good website which sells electronic goods in
China.my friend has got the notebook only in one week.And the company
will deal with the tariff. We can enjoy the happiness of shopping.
Posted via email from RidRx
A big surprise
www.boelud.info is a good website which sells electronic goods in
China.my friend has got the notebook only in one week.And the company
will deal with the tariff. We can enjoy the happiness of shopping.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Should join
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Littmann 3200 Stethoscope to Be Marketed to Consumers, Says Bluetooth. Not So Fast, Says 3M.
Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), an industry organization that develops and promotes Bluetooth wireless technology, raises an intriguing possibility for bringing remote monitoring to homes. In an article lauding the 3M Littmann 3200 stethoscope that can wirelessly transmit recordings to a PC, Bluetooth SIG makes the following point:
Future versions of the device are anticipated to interact with mobile phones, an expansion that would bring this technology to the consumers and provide opportunities for improved home health care.
We immediately imagined a patient's husband placing the diaphragm of the scope on her back with the doctor guiding and listening to respiratory sounds live via a headset. We contacted 3M asking whether they might soon be targeting the consumer market with their stethoscope, but they replied that they currently have no plans to do so. Nevertheless, it seems that much of the underlying technology that can realize virtual home examinations is already here. Let's hope that someone can develop a product and service that can utilize it effectively to create an alternative for many expensive and time consuming visits to the clinic.
Link: Bluetooth SIG on Littmann 3200 Stethoscope...
Product page: Littmann 3200...
(hat tip: mobihealthnews)
Posted via email from RidRx
Surgeon in Haiti Learns Which Tools Come in Handy Following Serious Disasters
Read on for the rest: A First Responder's Top 4 Items Of Medical Equipment: Lessons From Haiti...
A Doctor’s Problem With Electronic Records
As a resident fresh out of medical school, Friedman was working an an ememrgency room switching over to electronic medical records, he writes in a guest column on WSJ.com. Checking boxes and inserting codes required by the new system became the focus rather than tending to the patient, he says. As a result, he adds:
I often stood turned away, typing on the computer mounted against the wall, occasionally turning my head over my shoulder to make eye contact. I used a pre-emptive apology — “I’m sorry. I apologize for having my back to you” — but knew the excuses didn’t make up for the rudeness. A patient in pain or worried about her pregnancy deserves attention.
Friedman says EMRs are designed to communicate with insurers, not for care providers to communicate with each other. At the same time, he notes the success of the Veterans Administration’s electronic system in producing dramatic care improvements, as cited in a 2003 NEJM study.
But he sees the VA’s broad effort to apply electronics for improving accountability, integrating services and improving patient safety as an exception to how most systems are designed. “If electronic records are only used to optimize billing and improve chart audits, patients will see little benefit,” he says.
Image: iStockphoto
The Night I Met Einstein - by Jerome Weidman
This story is from Jerome Weidman, with no known copyright info. Thanks to Akshar Smriti for posting it. I'm only re-posting to update the formatting.
When I was a very young man, just beginning to make my way, I was invited to dine at the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist. After dinner our hostess led us to an enormous drawing room. Other guests were pouring in, and my eyes beheld two unnerving sights: servants were arranging small gilt chairs in long, neat rows; and up front, leaning against the wall, were musical instruments. Apparently I was in for an evening of Chamber music.
I use the phrase “in for” because music meant nothing to me. I am almost tone deaf. Only with great effort can I carry the simplest tune, and serious music was to me no more than an arrangement of noises. So I did what I always did when trapped: I sat down and when the music started I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts.
After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right.
“You are fond of Bach?” the voice said.
I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclear fission. But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein.
“Well,” I said uncomfortably, and hesitated. I had been asked a casual question. All I had to do was be I equally casual in my reply. But I could see from the look in my neighbor’s extraordinary eyes that their owner was not merely going through the perfunctory duties of elementary politeness. Regardless of what value I placed on my part in the verbal exchange, to this man his part in it mattered very much. Above all, I could feel that this was a man to whom you did not tell a lie, however small.
“I don’t know anything about Bach,” I said awkwardly. “I’ve never heard any of his music.”
A look of perplexed astonishment washed across Einstein’s mobile face.
“You have never heard Bach?”
He made it sound as though I had said I’d never taken a bath.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to like Bach,” I replied hastily. “It’s just that I’m tone deaf, or almost tone deaf, and I’ve never really heard anybody’s music.”
A look of concern came into the old man’s face. “Please,” he said abruptly, “You will come with me?”
He stood up and took my arm. I stood up. As he led me across that crowded room I kept my embarrassed glance fixed on the carpet. A rising murmur of puzzled speculation followed us out into the hall. Einstein paid no attention to it.
Resolutely he led me upstairs. He obviously knew the house well. On the floor above he opened the door into a book-lined study, drew me in and shut the door.
“Now,” he said with a small, troubled smile. “You will tell me, please, how long you have felt this way about music?”
“All my life,” I said, feeling awful. “I wish you would go back downstairs and listen, Dr. Einstein. The fact that I don’t enjoy it doesn’t matter.”
He shook his head and scowled, as though I had introduced an irrelevance.
“Tell me, please,” he said. “Is there any kind of music that you do like?”
“Well,” I answered, “I like songs that have words, and the kind of music where I can follow the tune.”
He smiled and nodded, obviously pleased. “You can give me an example, perhaps?”
“Well,” I ventured, “almost anything by Bing Crosby.”
He nodded again, briskly. “Good!”
He went to a corner of the room, opened a phonograph and started pulling out records. I watched him uneasily. At last he beamed. “Ah!” he said.
He put the record on and in a moment the study was filled with the relaxed, lilting strains of Bing Crosby’s “When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day.” Einstein beamed at me and kept time with the stem of his pipe. After three or four phrases he stopped the phonograph.
“Now,” he said. “Will you tell me, please, what you have just heard?”
The simplest answer seemed to be to sing the lines. I did just that, trying desperately to stay on tune and keep my voice from cracking. The expression on Einstein’s face was like the sunrise.
“You see!” he cried with delight when I finished. “You do have an ear!”
I mumbled something about this being one of my favorite songs, something I had heard hundreds of times, so that it didn’t really prove anything.
“Nonsense!” said Einstein. “It proves everything! Do you remember your first arithmetic lesson in school? Suppose, at your very first contact with numbers, your teacher had ordered you to work out a problem in, say, long division or fractions. Could you have done so?”
“No, of course not.”
“Precisely!” Einstein made a triumphant wave with his pipestem. “It would have been impossible and you would have reacted in panic. You would have closed your mind to long division and fractions. As a result, because of that one small mistake by your teacher, it is possible your whole life you would be denied the beauty of long division and fractions.”
The pipestem went up and out in another wave.
“But on your first day no teacher would be so foolish. He would start you with elementary things - then, when you had acquired skill with the simplest problems, he would lead you up to long division and to fractions.”
“So it is with music.” Einstein picked up the Bing Crosby record. “This simple, charming little song is like simple addition or subtraction. You have mastered it. Now we go on to something more complicated.”
He found another record and set it going. The golden voice of John McCormack singing “The Trumpeter” filled the room. After a few lines Einstein stopped the record.
“So!” he said. “You will sing that back to me, please?”
I did - with a good deal of self-consciousness but with, for me, a surprising degree of accuracy. Einstein stared at me with a look on his face that I had seen only once before in my life: on the face of my father as he listened to me deliver the valedictory address at my high school graduation.
“Excellent!” Einstein remarked when I finished. “Wonderful! Now this!”
“This” proved to be Caruso in what was to me a completely unrecognizable fragment from “Cavalleria Rusticana.” Nevertheless, I managed to reproduce an approximation of the sounds the famous tenor had made. Einstein beamed his approval.
Caruso was followed by at least a dozen others. I could not shake my feeling of awe over the way this great man, into whose company I had been thrown by chance, was completely preoccupied by what we were doing, as though I were his sole concern.
We came at last to recordings of music without words, which I was instructed to reproduce by humming. When I reached for a high note, Einstein’s mouth opened and his head went back as if to help me attain what seemed unattainable. Evidently I came close enough, for he suddenly turned off the phonograph.
“Now, young man,” he said, putting his arm through mine. “We are ready for Bach!”
As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee.
“Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.”
It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort he had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world.
When the concert was finished I added my genuine applause to that of the others.
Suddenly our hostess confronted us. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Einstein,” she said with an icy glare at me, “that you missed so much of the performance.”
Einstein and I came hastily to our feet. “I am sorry, too,” he said. “My young friend here and I, however, were engaged in the greatest activity of which man is capable.”
She looked puzzled. “Really?” she said. “And what is that?”
Einstein smiled and put his arm across my shoulders. And he uttered ten words that - for at least one person who is in his endless debt - are his epitaph:
“Opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty.”
-- story by Jerome Weidman
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Emergency? Call the PT
This profile in innovation on the AHRQ Health Care Innovation Exchange website is a nice reminder of a new and growing niche for PTs, primarily staffing (or on call) ERs as a consultant for patients with musculoskeletal conditions. There are a couple of recent publications (here and here) that have described the potential role of PTs in emergency rooms, but it's still a very new (and I suspect uncommon) opportunity in practice for PTs. Since ~15% of all individuals presenting to an ER have complaints of musculoskeletal conditions amenable to PT, there is lots of opportunity to decrease unnecessary imaging, drugs, and referrals to specialists for invasive procedures. Carondolet St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson, AZ has certainly been an innovator in this areas. Curious to hear if others have started similar programs in their communities.
John
