The Scanadu Scout will be able to measure a person’s heart rate & ECG, blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate and oximetry (blood oxygen level) within 10 seconds. The stats are displayed and stored on your smartphone.

To bring the Scanadu Scout to the consumer market as a medical-grade device, the company has to file with the FDA. Scanadu’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the Scout provides participants early access to an exploratory version of the device, and invites them to opt in to what will be a usability study. The exploratory version will be used as a research tool and collect data that will be submitted in a marketing application to regulatory authorities.

The 30-day campaign, which ends Friday, June 21, 2013, will offer a variety of perks from Scanadu. Supporters can reserve a first-edition of the Scanadu Scout for as little as $199 USD with an estimated delivery of March 2014.

Scanadu is a Singularity University startup based at NASA Research Park in Moffett Field, California. As such, the device is built on the Micrium platform, NASA’s real-time operation system for SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) on the Rover Curiosity. The device uses a micro-USB adapter that you can hook up to a USB port and can be fully charged from low battery in less than an hour. When using it a few times a day, it will last for about a week.

The Scanadu app will come in Android and iOS versions. It will support Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Low Energy (LE). For more on the Scanadu Scout, check out the video below.

Source: Scanadu

According to the National Sleep Foundation, children aged 5 to 12 need 10-11 hours of sleep. However, at the same time there is an increasing demand on their time from school, extracurricular and social activities. In addition, school-aged children become interested in TV, computers, mobile devices and other media, all of which can lead to difficulty sleeping. Indeed, sleep problems and disorders are common at this age. How can parents ensure that their children are getting quality sleep?

Launched in August by the health information technology company Zansors and the University of Michigan Health System, Sleep Champ offers parents a unique, well-researched tool that identifies potential sleep and breathing problems in children, increases awareness, and provides helpful sleep resources. Using evidence-based technology from Dr. Ronald Chervin and the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center, the Sleep Champ app empowers millions of online parents who can utilize self-help digital tools to promote better sleep quality and wellness for their children.

Sleep Champ utilizes the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center’s sleep quality (SRBD) Scale technology. After answering some yes-or-no questions, parents are given a score. Sleep Champ then helps you understand what the score means, whether your child may be having trouble sleeping, and how to share your concerns with your pediatrician. The questions in the app have been researched most extensively among children aged 5 to 12, but should still apply between ages 2 and 18.

The Sleep Champ for Kids app costs $3.99 and is available for Apple and Android devices. The app allows you to create unlimited profiles and an unlimited number of questionnaires. Note that Sleep Champ is not designed to diagnose any medical condition, including sleep apnea, and is not a substitute for professional advice from your pediatrician or for professional testing that might be performed in a sleep laboratory.

The Sleep Champ video below will show you the different sections available, sample questions, and how to use the app.

At the HealthTap website, users post questions and doctors post brief answers. The service is free and the doctors aren’t paid. Instead, they are allowed to use the resource to enhance their real-life practice with more efficient patient visits (saving everyone time and money), as well as build their reputation and attract new patients.

The HealthTap app is available for Android, iPhone and iPad users, enabling them to connect to 14,000 U.S.-licensed physicians across 115 speciality areas. Questions are usually answered in less than 24 hours for free. Fellow physicians can show they agree with answers by clicking an “Agree” button and users can show their appreciation by clicking a “Thank” button.

If a person wants to ask a personalized question to a particular doctor or send along their charts, there’s a small fee of $9.99. Clarifying questions are free and two follow-up questions at $5.99 each are allowed. The questions are guaranteed to be answered within 72 hours or the person gets their money back. All correspondence is private and considered confidential.

Although the app isn’t the only one available that attempts to answer patient questions, it’s the only one that contains a HIPAA-secure feature for sending medical records, images or video.

Although $10 or $20 may seem expensive for a question, it’s less expensive than a co-pay to visit your doctor and much less expensive than the cost of a doctor’s visit for an average person who doesn’t have insurance (around $200). Check out the HealthTap experience video below.

From the Fooducate blog:

Fooducate’s philosophy is relatively simple, but the actual algorithmic implementation is quite complex. Fooducate grading [is such that] minimally processed, real foods with intrinsic nutrients will score better than processed foods that are poor in built-in nutrients. Fooducate’s  analysis is based on information that appears on a product’s package. This includes the nutrition facts panel and the ingredient list. Fooducate does not receive any additional input from manufacturers. The lowest grade in the system is a D, and the highest grade is an A. Products are graded based on their nutrients, ingredients, category, and processing.

For more information, check out the video below:

The app developers hope that having access to a simple food “grade” will help consumers make healthy choices without having to go through the process of learning about complex nutrition topics or keeping up with the latest research. When users scan a bar code corresponding to a food with a low grade, the app automatically suggests healthier alternatives. Currently, there is no algorithm that allows the app to gather information about the specific store or location at which the consumer is shopping (meaning that some of the suggested alternatives may not be available), but developers hope that over time, they’ll be able to add degrees of sophistication to Fooducate.

Source: Surgeon General’s Healthy Apps Challenge

In an attempt to prevent mishap as much as possible without limiting the public’s access to information, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the same organization responsible for approving and regulating over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals — is attempting to regulate apps that claim to diagnose medical conditions or offer medical advice. The overarching philosophy behind the FDA’s move to regulate is that the medical apps — like any other medical devices — must be shown safe and effective before receiving the organization’s stamp of approval. Information content aside, the FDA notes that there are concerns specific to mobile platforms, as they note in a draft guidance:

As is the case with traditional medical devices, mobile medical apps can pose potential risks to public health. Moreover, mobile medical apps may pose additional or different risks due to the unique characteristics of the platform. For example, the interpretation of radiological images on a mobile device could be adversely affected by the smaller screen size, lower contrast ratio, and uncontrolled ambient light of the mobile platform; FDA intends to take these limitations into account in assessing the appropriate regulatory oversight for these products.

There are, as yet, no hard and fast rules regarding mobile apps; the FDA is still working to finalize their guidelines. However, in all likelihood, apps will need to identify a target audience — that is, healthcare practitioners or laypeople — and may need to modulate their claims accordingly.

Source: FDA

A company called Tawkon (pronounced “talk on”) has developed an app for the Android phone that can predict — not detect, since phones don’t have the ability to detect radiation — when a phone is most likely to be emitting high levels of RF on the basis of internal measurements, such as how strong the cell signal is.

From the Tawkon website:

Utilizing patent pending technology tawkon calculates the phone’s radiation level and hence the user exposure — SAR (Specific Absorption Rate, a universal measure for the amount of radiation being absorbed by the user). Our technology is calibrated in an FCC certified RF (Radio Frequency) lab with state-of-the-art equipment. With this information, we provide alerts and suggestions to keep your radiation exposure low.

The app manufacturer is careful to avoid referring to RF as dangerous, and emphasizes that suggestions for reducing RF exposure are only for those who feel such a reduction is important. Still, for individuals who are disconcerted by the current lack of information available on the effects of routine RF exposure, such apps may be useful.

Source: Tawkon

References

1. Volkow et al. Effects of cell phone radiofrequency signal exposure on brain glucose metabolism. JAMA. 2011 Feb 23;305(8):808-13.
   View abstract

Mobile apps are only as valuable as they are useful. We’ve advanced the user experience of our world-class drug reference app and added a singular channel to discover, store and access reliable tools. Furthermore, this is a fresh foundation for new partner engagements and opportunities to deliver even more value-add resources to our network.

While Epocrates is intended for clinicians, patients may also find the information contained in the application useful. For instance, Epocrates can check whether two medications interact with one another, which can help consumers avoid potential dangerous drug overdoses associated with combination medicines available over the counter. The app also provides safety information for prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, including safety during pregnancy and lactation.

While Epocrates is a powerful healthcare tool, it’s a reference tool; essentially, a set of computerized reference books. The app is not a substitute for diagnostic ability in a physician, or a visit to the doctor by a layperson.

Source: Epocrates

LowestMed’s proprietary technology effectively makes prescription drug pricing transparent. The LowestMed app includes more than 1,000 of the most popular brand name and generic drugs, which comprise more than 95% of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the nation.

According to Brad Bangerter, CEO of LowestMed:

Most consumers don’t realize that prices can vary widely by pharmacy, and that up until this point the only way to do price comparisons on a local level was to go to each pharmacy and submit an insurance claim. With the LowestMed app, for the first time consumers are empowered with the full transparency to identify the least expensive drug prices in their area. We do for the pharmacy marketplace what Travelocity or KAYAK does for the travel industry, providing a one-stop, fast, convenient and easy way for consumers to maximize savings on their medications.

The app also includes a free LowestMed discount card, which when displayed at the point of sale provides savings of 10 to 85 percent off of retail prices.

In addition to the mobile app, users can also compare prices and lookup thousands of additional drug price comparisons at the LowestMed website.

Source: LowestMed

Powered by TeleThrive software, an instant connectivity platform built for the healthcare industry, Ringadoc enables patients to easily and quickly call doctors when facing a non-urgent medical illness. The iOS app and Android app are currently free.

You can call a doctor whenever you have a medical question — in the middle of the night, on weekends, or on holidays. In the time it takes you to research wellness remedies online, you could already have advice from an experienced doctor and a proven treatment plan. Ringadoc doctors can also prescribe antibiotics, antihistamines, and more at the time of your call.

Ringadoc uses advanced Internet and phone security technologies to protect your information. You control who has access to your electronic health record.

Most importantly, Ringadoc physicians are licensed, board-certified and prescreened by a professional credentialing team. All of them hold 10+ years of experience.

Pay-as-you-go consultations cost $39.99 per doctor call. Pre-paid plans are less expensive (per doctor call). Users record an audio summary of their medical history and a video describing their medical concern, which the doctor consults before speaking with the patient.

Source: Ringadoc