Three Free Healthcare Apps That Empower Patients | TechCrunch

The significant adoption of smartphones among physicians has not only led to an explosion of medical apps aimed at healthcare providers, but it has also cultivated an emerging trend of health and wellness apps aimed at empowering patients.

While great innovation is happening in the health and wellness mobile ecosystem, it’s difficult for patients and physicians to navigate through the large database of apps to find ones they can actually use. My experience reviewing health and medical apps as a writer, combined with my experiences in a high volume Emergency Department that sees a diverse patient population, has allowed me to get a unique sense of this space.

(via Xprize and Qualcomm will offer $10 million for the Tricorder Xprize)

The Tricorder X PRIZE is a $10 million prize to develop a mobile solution that can diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians. The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm seeks to achieve this by combining advancements in expert systems and medical point of care data such as wireless sensors, advancements in medical imaging and microfluidics.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. Especially since many of the components to really achieve this is available in myriads of small research projects, not to mentionen embedded in different apps.

via futuramb

iPhone/Android app allows doctors to quickly diagnose stroke | KurzweilAI

Doctors can now make a stroke diagnosis using an iPhone/Android app with close to the same accuracy as a diagnosis at a medical computer workstation, researchers from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine have shown in a new study.

The Resolution MD Mobile app lets physicians view and manipulate remote medical images in high-resolution 3-D on the iPhone or Android phone, allowing for a quick diagnosis for the treatment of stroke, cardiac arrest, or other emergencies. The app allows for real-time access to specialists such as neurologists, regardless of where the physicians and patients are located, and is particularly well-suited for rural medical settings.

 Ultrasound tool, dubbed the ‘new stethoscope,’ to monitor critically ill patients

Vanderbilt cardiothoracic anesthesiologists and surgeons are pioneering the use of a tool that many in the cardiac field are calling the “new stethoscope” when it comes to monitoring critically ill patients.

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a diagnostic procedure that involves feeding an ultrasound probe through a patient’s mouth and into their esophagus to evaluate heart function. Because the esophagus is close to the heart, TEE can generate high-resolution images as the organ pumps. TEE is invaluable in locating cardiac blood clots, masses and tumors and can detect the severity of valve problems, congenital heart diseases and aortic tears.

Vanderbilt’s cardiothoracic anesthesiologists have more than 15 years of experience using TEE for patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Now, smaller, disposable TEE probes are being used to monitor the hearts of critically ill patients in intensive care units for as long as three days.

Take Two Digital Pills and Call Me in the Morning - WSJ.com

Proteus Biomedical Inc., is testing a miniature digestible chip that can be attached to conventional medication, sending a signal that confirms whether patients are taking their prescribed pills. A sensing device worn on the skin uses wireless technology to relay that information to doctors, along with readings about patients’ vital signs.

Defense Tech: REPLACEMENT ARM, GOOD AS NEW

Darpa, the Pentagon’s blue-sky research division, now wants to ratchet that work up about ten notches, by developing a “neurally controlled artificial limb that will restore full motor and sensory capability to upper extremity amputee patients. This revolutionary prosthesis will be controlled, feel, look and perform like the native limb.”