Health care

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Bill Gates was feeling pretty good Monday night, though the Microsoft chairman said he's still honing his pitch to convince college students to change the world.

"I can always say to myself, 'Hey, I could have answered that question better.'" Gates said. "I'll get better as time goes on."

But Gates, who travels to Chicago on Tuesday before wrapping up the three-day tour in Boston on Wednesday, said he is pretty pleased with how things have gone so far.

"There's only so much you can squeeze into a day,&… Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Microsoft may be known for PowerPoint, but Bill Gates' college tour has just one slide in it.

In his effort to convince students to devote more time and energy to society's big problems, Gates points to one chart--the decline in death rates of children during the past 50 years. In 1960, roughly 20 million kids younger than five died each year, a figure that has dropped to less than 9 million due in large part to vaccines.

Already Gates said, more people are focusing on global health, something he said is making a difference.

"I … Read more

BERKELEY, Calif.--While the world faces enormous challenges feeding its populations, developing clean energy, and fighting diseases, many of its best and brightest citizens are focused on other issues.

That notion was reinforced for Bill Gates several weeks back as he sat with several friends who were engaged in a passionate discussion on two key topics: March Madness and the reforms being debated for Wall Street.

The philanthropist and Microsoft chairman said he would like to see some of this brain power shifted to issues like education.

"How possible is it that we could be having this same intense … Read more

BERKELEY, Calif.--The University of California at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall is still empty, but that won't last long.

In just over an hour, Bill Gates will kick off a three-day speaking tour of college campuses. While such gigs were frequent during his days at Microsoft, this is the first such tour that Gates has done in his role as full-time philanthropist.

"On our way to Berkeley & Stanford for day 1 of the college tour," Gates said Monday, in a post on Twitter. "I am very excited to talk with students and see the work … Read more

Bill Gates is going on "American Idol."

No, the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist won't be singing on the show. Rather, he and wife Melinda will talk about the importance of giving and the impact it can have.

It's part of the "Idol Gives Back" program, in which the singing competition show raises money for various charitable organizations. The episode airs Wednesday evening on Fox. Two of the beneficiaries--Malaria No More and the United Nations Foundation--are organizations that work closely with the Gates Foundation.

Gates noted recently on Twitter that he had met with Seacrest … Read more

Bill Gates is going back to college, and Beyond Binary is going along for the ride.

Next week, the Microsoft chairman and philanthropist is doing a three-state college tour, meeting with students and faculty to encourage more people to join efforts to solve society's biggest global challenges.

In a blog post this week, Gates noted that he's done similar tours during his time at Microsoft, but that this is the first time he's done it in his capacity as head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"I'm most looking forward to my conversation with … Read more

SIMsystem, hailed as the world's first electronic underpants, are being rolled out across Australia's largest state--New South Wales--following what have been deemed successful trials.

Resembling its politely named predecessor, the incontinence pad (not to be confused with the iPad), SIMsystem's new-and-improved skivvies come equipped with a sensor strip that alerts caregivers to wetness via text message or, as if the situation couldn't get any more embarrassing, over a facility's paging system. All without ever zapping one's private regions!

The above diagram really says it all. When the "event" occurs, the sensor strip … Read more

A research project in Europe is bringing together a multidisciplinary team to create a robot, wearable smart sensor system, and alarm-and-reporting system in the hopes that together they'll enable more elderly people to live independently for longer.

Researchers at the University of the West of England at Bristol (UWE) plan to work with companies such as Robosoft out of France and Smart Homes out of the Netherlands to investigate the best technologies to meet the unique needs of elderly people living alone at home.

Various oft-independent systems, such as health reporting, home alarms, voice-recognition shopping, and nutritional/medication schedules, … Read more

A systematic review of 28 clinical trials, which appears today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, finds that computer reminders to physicians regarding prescriptions yield smaller improvements than expected.

The study shows that computer reminders sent to physicians during routine electronic ordering or charting improve process of care by a median of 4.2 percent, with the best outcome showing a median improvement of 5.6 percent--numbers that are "below thresholds for clinically significant improvements," writes Dr. Kaveh G. Shojania, director of the University of Toronto's Centre for Patient Safety.

The authors conclude that further research should … Read more