Health records

All right, people, I hate to be the bearer of such grave news, but resolution season is almost upon us. If you're wondering how to make 2012 the year you finally shed those extra pounds, start choosing the apple over the fries, floss every day, etc., read on.

As of late last night, there's an app for all that--and it's free. Called Macaw, the app for iPhone and Android phones could just be the health and fitness app game changer.

Developed by U.S. Preventive Medicine alongside wireless health network provider Qualcomm Life, design firm Fjord (… Read more

Mobile health technology continues to prove itself. The latest example comes in the form of on-the-go diabetes management.

In a recent small trial, 30 patients with type 2 diabetes spent 12 months using a smartphone app that provided real-time feedback on their blood-sugar levels, prompted them when to eat or take other action, and sent digital logbooks of their readings back to their doctors.

The surprising result: these patients had 58 percent fewer ER and hospital visits over the year of the study than they'd had the previous year.

It's important not to overinterpret that result. Not only … Read more

Highly sophisticated robots are being used in a variety of ways: think tsunamis, earthquakes, and land mines, to name a few. In the case of wildfires, though, they wouldn't survive long in the heat of battle.

So a team of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Cincinnati is testing a tiny new aerial system designed to fly above fires to calculate the scope of damage and the anticipated path the fire will take.

"What we are designing is a complete system," says Kelly Cohen, associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, in a news release. &… Read more

What does it take to make it to 100 years old? The Archon Genomics X Prize hopes to find out.

As I've researched "extreme" aging in recent years--that is, the genes and lifestyles of centenarians (100 and older) and supercentenarians (110 and older)--a common refrain I hear from my younger peers is, "I don't want to get that old. It sounds miserable."

Whether or not that's true is something most of us will never find out. The reality is that those who make it past 100 are an exceedingly rare breed of … Read more

Houston, we have a health problem.

About 30 percent of adults in the U.S. have at least two chronic health conditions. Roughly half of a panel of surveyed patients are not complying with doctor's orders. And more than half of Americans could be obese by 2030.

In the coming years it's going to be more important than ever for doctors' offices to be able to automatically track their patients across a variety of parameters, from age and ethnicity to conditions and diseases, and even to compliance levels. Dallas-based health management firm Phytel is hoping that the platform it's unveiling today … Read more

Engineers at the University of Illinois today unveiled novel, skin-mounted electronics this week whose circuitry bends, wrinkles, and even stretches with skin.

The device platform includes electronic components, medical diagnostics, communications, and human-machine interfacing on a patch so thin and durable it can be mounted to skin much like a temporary tattoo.

What's more, the team was able to demonstrate its invention across a wide range of components, including LEDs, transistors, wireless antennas, sensors, and conductive coils and solar cells for power.

"We threw everything in our bag of tricks onto that platform, and then added a few … Read more

Since 2010, Facebook users have been able to list family members on their profiles. In February, the social-networking site added "in a civil union" or "in a domestic partnership" to its relationship status line.

Now, Facebook lets people announce that they are expecting through a status update that includes anticipated date of birth and name(s). (Being a twin, I am compelled to point out that some will be entering multiple babies/names.)

An obvious debate quickly ensued, and will likely rage for a good week or two before everyone forgets that there once was a time when such an option was unavailable.

Among the currently trending questions: Is this just another way for Facebook to add to its data pool? Is it at all appropriate to announce pregnancy (or adoption) online? Does this simply serve our growing ability to self-aggrandize? Et cetera.

Immediately after Facebook launched the feature, it was discovered that a technical glitch enabled pranksters to enter their Facebook friends' names as the expected children, but that has since been fixed.

Of course, the beauty of the system is that the user gets to decide whether to take advantage of the new status option. If you like it, use it. If you don't, then don't. And people can still let everyone know in their preferred way first, before releasing the news in one fell swoop via Facebook.… Read more

A New York City hospital is using patients' palms, not insurance cards, to pull up their records, according to a new report.

The New York University Langone Medical Center started scanning palms last month to reduce paperwork and prevent identity theft, the New York Daily News reports, using a device that images the veins in a patient's hand.

Shaped like a butter tray, the black PatientSecure device uses infrared light to scan palms, then links the unique biometric trait to a patient's electronic health records.

That's right: no need to pore through a purse for an insurance … Read more

For the seeming handful of people who signed up to use the soon-to-be-shuttered Google Health online medical records service, Microsoft has an answer: join its service.

Microsoft released a tool today that lets Google Health customers transfer their personal health information to a Microsoft HealthVault account. To protect patient privacy, the tool uses the Direct Project messaging protocols established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that authenticate and encrypt the data, sending it only to known, trusted recipients.

On June 24, Google announced plans to euthanize the three-year-old Google Health. The company said it will shut … Read more