A free tool against substance abuse. Northwell Health and the Center on Addiction have jointly launched a health care app specifically designed to guide providers when screening patients for substance use disorder. Called the SBIRT (Screening, Brief, Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) for Health Professionals app, the tool contains a standardized set of questions to ask patients when trying to identify problematic behaviors, and guidance on how to discuss these issues with patients should the need arise. The app is currently a free download for iOS, with versions for Android and computers planned for the future.
Sleeping on it. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine released a statement broadly criticizing the lack of validation against the gold standard in consumer sleep technologies. Writers of the statement went on to say more FDA oversight, future validation, and access to raw data and algorithms are needed in the future. The release did say the technology could be used to enhance patient-clinician discussions.
Can I check your watch? I want to see what’s on your mind. A researcher from the University of Houston is looking to see if wearables can detect stress and a user’s mental state. The idea is that a wearable could track skin conductance data for arousal and cortisol data for fatigue.
"With our measurement of cortisol we could see that a patient is at risk of developing chronic fatigue syndrome before it occurs, for example. This way instead of waiting to go see the doctor, the patient would have information that they need to be seen sooner," Rose Faghih, an engineer leading the project, said in a statement.
Faghih has been awarded $175,000 by the National Science Foundation to work on the project.
Giving everyone a voice in care. The University of Southern California Center for Body Computing will be hosting a hackathon from July 12 to July 13 that tasks participants with creating new tools for those with disabilities to maintain control over their healthcare. Submissions will incorporate the use of personal voice assistants, and comes with a $10,000 reward as well as an opportunity to collaborate with the center on developing the idea.
Measure once, fund twice. An internet-connect measuring tape for fitness developed by South Korean startup Bagel Labs has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The PIE smart measuring tape looks to help users accurately measure and record their body sizes, and is outfitted with sensors that more accurately measures, displays measurements on the device’s screen, and sends the data to an accompanying app. The campaign has a set goal of $30,000 to initiate device manufacture.
A good report card. Diabetes management company Glooko announced the results of how endocrinologists and diabetes educators viewed CGM data collected through the company’s platform. After assessing CGM data from 10 Type 1 diabetes patients, these participants most endorsed the platform’s hypoglycemia and variance features, and more than 70 percent of the participating clinicians endorsed use of three or more of the platform’s CGM data features for patients.
