Category: Healthcare

As nations across the globe brace for an impending surge in their aging populations, a profound shift in elderly care approaches is underway. From Japan to the United States, the challenge of supporting an ever-increasing number of seniors looms large. Overcrowded nursing homes and staffing shortages underscore the urgency to seek alternative solutions for aging with dignity. Amid this landscape, a promising contender emerges: Artificial Intelligence (AI).

David Moss, CEO and co-founder of Care Daily, envisions a future where healthcare is personalized and centered within the home. Care Daily, a pioneering B2B AI SaaS (Software as a Service) company, stands at the forefront of this revolution. Their creation, the AI Caregiver, serves as a sophisticated software that orchestrates a symphony of devices and products. It gathers a wealth of behavioral and biometric data, seamlessly transmitting insights to both family caregivers and professional healthcare providers.

Continue reading… “Revolutionizing Elderly Care: The Role of AI in Independent Living”

GigXR, a pioneering company, has unveiled an innovative approach to integrating medical imaging into healthcare education. This cutting-edge technology, referred to as ‘hyper-immersive,’ is designed to empower nursing and medical students by enhancing their ability to visualize and interpret medical imaging scans with remarkable accuracy.

Unlike other scientific fields that have benefited from technological advancements, conventional medical imaging in healthcare institutions has lagged behind. GigXR’s breakthrough technology harnesses the power of eXtended Reality (XR), a high-fidelity immersive technology encompassing virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. By deepening anatomy and pathophysiology knowledge, GigXR has created immersive digital experiences that enable learners to connect key concepts across various courses and disciplines.

Continue reading… “GigXR Revolutionizes Medical Education with Hyper-Immersive Imaging Integration”

Ingestible video capsule endoscopes have been revolutionizing medical diagnostics, but their limitations in control and movement have hindered their full potential. However, researchers at the GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences have recently unveiled a groundbreaking solution: a pill-shaped capsule named NaviCam, which can be remotely controlled throughout the digestive system, offering a promising alternative to traditional endoscopy.

The NaviCam employs an external magnet and video game-style joysticks, allowing physicians to steer the miniature video capsule with precision. By visualizing and capturing images of potential problem areas, this technology presents an innovative approach to screening for health issues such as ulcers or stomach cancer in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Andrew Meltzer, a professor of Emergency Medicine at the GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences, highlighted the advantages of magnetically controlled capsules over invasive procedures, stating, “A traditional endoscopy is an invasive procedure for patients, not to mention it is costly due to the need for anesthesia and time off work.” The introduction of magnetically controlled capsules could provide a quick and non-invasive method for health problem screening.

Continue reading… “Breakthrough in Remote-Controlled Ingestible Video Capsule Technology Expands Diagnostic Possibilities”

A team of engineers from Stanford University has achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of wearable technology with their creation of a soft electronic skin that directly communicates sensory information to the wearable tech, surpassing previous iterations that relied on external devices. The Stanford experts have also showcased a spray-on skin capable of understanding hand gestures and a smart bandage that transmits wound-healing progress to a CPU.

While previous electronic skins transferred data to chips or external devices, the soft e-skin developed by the Stanford team converts temperature and pressure sensations into electrical signals suitable for direct communication with the brain. This innovation mirrors the nerve impulses generated when the skin’s nerve endings perceive sensations.

Continue reading… “Stanford Engineers Develop Soft Electronic Skin for Direct Brain Communication””

The wearable ultrasound sensor is roughly the size of a postage stamp, can be worn for up to 24 hours, and works even during strenuous exercise.

By Dr. Chinta Sidharthan

In a recent article published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers described a wearable ultrasonic device that allows cardiac function to be assessed directly in real-time, with improved coupling between human skin and the device, making the examination of the left ventricle during motion possible from different views.

The continuous monitoring of cardiac function is essential for detecting cardiac dysfunction and managing cardiovascular disease in surgical and critically affected patients. However, the real-time measurement of cardiovascular health is difficult with existing non-invasive methods, either due to the bulkiness of the devices or because wearable devices can only detect the signals on the skin.

Continue reading… “A wearable ultrasound sensor provides real-time cardiac imaging”

By Giles Bruce

A “headline-grabbing” health system/digital health company merger? Less digital health investment from hospitals? More virtual healthcare workers to meet staffing shortages?

These are some of the predictions health system chief digital officers made for the industry in 2023. Here are those digital health forecasts for the new year, as told to Becker’s by nine executives:

Continue reading… “Virtual nurses, bots, AI: Digital health predictions for ’23”

Dentaverse is a virtual environment where users can interact with one another, attend and host events and even present and learn about dental treatments and products.

By Jeremy Booth

BRUSSELS, Belgium: On 1 December, dental professionals from around the world gathered for the launch of a new, virtual reality (VR) environment called Dentaverse. Based on Web3 technologies, Dentaverse aims to create a meeting point for the global community of dentists, dental students and dental industry professionals. According to its founder and CEO, Martin Ravets, the platform has the potential to bridge the gap between physical and virtual oral care and to overcome the barriers of time and distance in order to create a truly inclusive international dental community.

Dental Tribune International (DTI) spoke with Ravets just hours before the launch using video call technology that connected DTI’s editorial office in Leipzig in Germany with Dentaverse’s headquarters in Brussels. Popularised during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, streaming and video call platforms can only take connectivity to a certain point. Commenting on the immersive experience that Dentaverse offers—including through the use of VR headsets—Ravets said: “If we were meeting there, we would have eye contact and you could see and follow my gestures and body language, and I yours. It would be a completely different type of interaction.”

Let us take a step back and explain exactly what Dentaverse is. Popular community-based web tools—such as Instagram and LinkedIn—underpin the platform, and these are mixed with new Web3 technologies, like blockchain, metaverse and cryptocurrency payment, in order to create a virtual environment where users can interact with one another, attend and host events, and even present and learn about dental treatments and products.

Continue reading… “Introducing Dentaverse, a virtual reality platform that is changing the future of dentistry”

By Haje Jan Kamps

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of needing continuous EKG monitoring, you’ve probably used a Holter monitor. It’s like carrying a 1980s walkman made of metal with a bunch of wires going from it to your chest. If that sounds uncomfortable, and as if you won’t sleep or enjoy showers much for the two weeks you need to carry it around, you’ve neatly stumbled across the use case for the Mawi Heart Patch. The company just released its product, a two-lead cardiac monitor that can be read in real time.

There are consumer-grade products that can do EKG readings, including the Withings ScanWatch (and its fancier-looking sibling, the ScanWatch Horizon), and there are other patches on the market, such as the Zio patch, but Mawi claims to have done something unique, and suggests that its Heart Patch is the first ever single-use, two-lead cardiac monitor to reach the market.

The company describes it as “a stick-and-go, wireless solution” and further suggests that the disposable nature of the device is a benefit; it means that cardiologists can run tests on as many patients as they need to without having to wait for reusable Holter monitors to come back from other patients and get sanitized and maintained between uses.

Continue reading… “Mawi launches a patch to track your heart health faster and in real time”

Creating a system distributed by the internet the same way Bitcoin exists could create accessible healthcare for everyone.

By VISHVAS GARG

THE CURRENT GLOBAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS BROKEN.

Over 6.2 million people have died of COVID-19-related deaths as of June 13, 2022. This is despite $8.9 trillion or 9.8% of global GDP spent on healthcare in 2019 worldwide.

More broadly, half the world lacks access to essential healthcare services. Furthermore, the current healthcare system leaves out the most vulnerable groups of people, leading to health disparities and inequities.

Health is a fundamental human right. It should be so for everyone.

Today, healthcare is delivered in one of two ways:

– Insurance-based healthcare systems: Generally, economically strong countries have insurance-based healthcare systems that may or may not offer universal coverage. Furthermore, health disparities and inequities are widely prevalent even among the most well-covered groups of people. As an example, in the United States racial and ethnic minorities, economically weaker sections of the population, and people who live anywhere other than in large, fringe metropolitan counties continue to experience worse quality healthcare.

– Out-of-pocket healthcare systems: Economically weaker countries usually have out-of-pocket healthcare systems. It is important to note that even in economies that have insurance-based healthcare systems, the most vulnerable group of people may still have to consume healthcare out-of-pocket. In the majority of the world where out-of-pocket systems are common, corruption, favoritism and lack of accountability is deep-rooted.

Both systems have one common attribute: intermediaries that control patient access or create inefficiencies or both.

Continue reading… “BITCOIN CAN FUND HIGH-QUALITY, EQUITABLE, HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE”

Video is the future of healthcare, and computer vision breakthroughs are the key, says Coryn Ramirez, director of marketing at Presage Technologies. With new cutting-edge signal and image processing methods, it’s now possible for an ordinary phone camera to measure everything from heart beats to electricity, even under the most challenging conditions, including highly variable motion and lighting. Right now Presage Technologies is applying that capability to a broad range of emerging applications in healthcare and beyond.

“We want to increase the equity and the accessibility of healthcare for both provider and patient,” says Ramirez. “We see some of the barriers here where access to remote medicine or vitals shouldn’t be a $400 Apple Watch. We want to tap into the power of video to make it more efficient, more cost-effective, and safer for all parties.”

Presage Technologies has applied these advances in computer vision to a vitals by video platform that can capture and analyze vital signs, no matter where a patient is or what they’re doing. It’s continuous, passive video monitoring that’s also contactless – there’s no need for any type of wearable. Continuous monitoring means all the data is put into context, as a patient moves through their day and various levels of exertion. The technology can currently identify and track heart rate and heart rate variability, respiration rate and respiration quality. They’ve demonstrated the ability to capture oxygen saturation, and they’re working on blood pressure measurement now.

It’s a huge game changer for the healthcare industry in a broad array of applications, addressing industry concerns about safety, cost, equipment, environment and other unique scenarios. Yet it has applications outside the healthcare industry too, says Dr. Aya Eid, director of biomedical imaging at Presage.

“Wherever physiology has informative significance, we can provide value there,” Dr. Eid says. That includes applications that range far outside a doctor’s office.

Continue reading… “Advances in computer vision are set to disrupt the healthcare industry”