The SMART belt (Photo by: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
Epilepsy is one medical condition where the constant monitoring capability of a wearable sensor could save lives, providing an early warning when a person with epilepsy has a seizure or even predicting seizures before they happen. Surprisingly, though, it hasn't been an overly popular target for mobile health entrepreneurs. For developers...
Although disposable body-worn wireless medical sensors have barely begun to see usage in healthcare, research firm ABI is predicting they will rise to prominence very quickly. By 2018, ABI analysts say, disposable Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) sensor shipments will hit 5 million. Previously, ABI reported that 160 million wireless wearable health devices, of which disposable sensors are a sub-...
Jawbone UP's new Android app.
Jawbone UP made its latest move last week in the increasingly crowded wearable activity tracker field: The company introduced an Android companion app for its wristworn tracker and also launched the UP in Europe, with Asia, Australia, and the Middle East to come.
The multinational launch includes additional support for 11 languages to the iOS app, and the bracelet...
Crowdfunding platforms can be the last refuge of a desperate entrepreneur or the go-to market strategy for an appealing consumer product. When a product does well, it does really well, smashing records and even outstripping its own ability to deliver on the goods. When it does badly, well, it often fades away, or at least the company realizes that D2C might not be their best channel.
It's no...
The Misfit Shine is an example of a partially passive wearable sensor.
The future of sensors won't be handheld devices like Star Trek's tricorder. It will be invisible sensors in your shoes, floorboards, and cars that quietly collect your health data, analyze it, and alert you, your doctor, or your loved ones only when something goes wrong. That's the prediction in "Making Sense of Sensors: How...
The National Center for Telehealth and Technology (T2), an agency of the Department of Defense, has been introducing online and mobile health tools for people in the military, veterans, and their families since 2008. Their newest offering, BioZen, is an effort to get ahead of the trend of personal sensors and provide a free mobile tool to help people use those sensors to improve their health...
Lumo Body Tech, the company that makes the Lumoback posture sensor has raised $5 million in its first round of funding, with Madrona Venture Group leading the round. Also contributing were Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang and Innovation Endeavors, Google chairman Eric Schmidt's investment fund, which also contributed to Lumo's $1.1 million seed round April. With the $200,000 from their...
The Nike+ Fuel Band
According to ABI research, nearly 30 million "wireless wearable health devices" were shipped in 2012, a 37 percent growth from 2011. Jonathan Collins, lead analyst on the study, told MobiHealthNews that the report only looked at devices worn on the body (nothing subdermal), with some form of wireless connectivity, and related in some way to monitoring health.
The 30 million...
iHealth Labs, a subsidiary of China-based Andon Health that produces wireless health monitoring devices, announced partnerships with EHR-maker Practice Fusion and with popular memory-aid app Evernote.
Practice Fusion is the first EHR-maker to partner with iHealth, Adam Lin, general manager of iHealth Labs, told MobiHealthNews. The first phase of the partnership will allow physicians who use...
Photo: SINTEF/Astrid-Sofie Vardøy
A wireless sensor system created for medical rehabilitation has been shown to be useful in assessing health risks of "smoke divers," firefighters who have to enter burning buildings.
Researchers in Norway recently tested a U.S. Army-funded warning system called ESUMS that measures body movement and vital signs to help determine "heat stress" and other...
