In the first half of 2014, digital health funding reached $2.3 billion, according to a report from accelerator Rock Health. The report included data from 143 digital health companies that have raised over $2 million during the past six months.
Funding in the first two quarters of 2014 surpassed total funding for all of 2013, which was $1.97 billion. Deal growth was driven by early-stage companies...
Medical device giant Covidien has acquired sports and medical wearables company Zephyr Technology, MobiHealthNews has learned. The company has raised more than $13 million since its founding in 2003 -- back when health-sensing wearables were a relative rarity. Zephyr's investors included 3M New Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners and Motorola Solutions Venture Capital.
Neither Covidien nor Zephyr has...
I've long been skeptical about the direct-to-consumer approach in digital health and of those who push slick apps and gadgets to a market that wants simple rather than flashy. "The vast majority of healthcare spending comes not from workout freaks and the worried well, but from chronic diseases and acute care," I wrote in a particularly inflammatory column in February.
Now I'm starting to believe...
Qualcomm, through its Wireless Reach initiative, is embarking on a 50-patient research project which will use mobile health technology to help show asthmatic children and teenagers where and how their worst asthma attacks occur. Zephyr Technology, maker of wearable vitals monitoring system BioHarness, is providing technology for the program, as is Asthmapolis, a startup that makes GPS-enabled...
Wexford, Pennsylvania-based Rijuven has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its CardioSleeve device, which turns a doctor's stethoscope into a mobile-enabled 3-Lead ECG device with digital auscultation. That is, it includes a clinical decision support system that helps doctors evaluate heart murmurs.
According to the company's website, with the CardioSleeve device attached, the stethoscope records...
Someday soon having to remember to put on your digital health tracking device in the morning might no longer be an issue. If the latest crop of health-minded wearables companies succeed, health sensors will make their way into things we are already wearing -- like undershirts, underwear, and socks.
Digital health wearables are slowly but surely making their way into clothing.
One longtime digital...
An example of remote doctor visits: meVisit's app
Telehealth holds enormous potential for transforming healthcare, but, to telemedicine pioneer Dr. Jay Sanders, the primary barrier is not financial. Instead, physician and patient attitudes about healthcare and health itself must change, said Sanders, who often has been called the father of telemedicine.
"The critical issue is really not...
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...
The history of wearable computing goes back at least 50 years, back when the military began developing displays built-in to headgear worn by pilots. A decade later brought wearables developed to determine how fast roulette wheels were spinning and the 1979 saw the launch of Sony's WalkMan. Jody Ranck's latest report for GigaOm covers this past, the present and potential future for wearable...
Want to empower consumers to improve healthcare and their own health status? Build a Tricorder and convince youngsters to "be like Mike."
Those were the takeaways from a high-level session featuring Dr. Leslie Saxon of the University of Southern California Center for Body Computing and Qualcomm's Don Jones at the third annual Digital Health Summit at 2012 International CES last week in Las Vegas...
