Featured Post
Hacking Health in Hamilton Ontario - Let's hear that pitch!
What compelled me to register for a weekend Health Hackathon? Anyway, I could soon be up to my ears in it. A pubmed search on Health Hack...
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Not why eHealth but when
I was reading COACH - Canada's Health Informatics Association "eHealth Convergence Forum Report: Addressing Key Issues in First Nations Health" report. Somewhere in there I read that the consensus or attitude towards eHealth among First Nations was no longer a question of why but when. eHealth representatives among First Nations have presented at recent eHealth conferences and I think it is a smart move on their part.
Friday, February 15, 2013
The Case of the Missing Data
This news story resonates on several different levels, not so much on the scientific merit of the research ( I recommend reading a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taub), but on the technology that is involved and the policies for research data. First, the 9-track magnetic computer tape found in a box in a garage - it was really difficult to find a machine to actually play it it is so out of date. Next around - it is an example of why the current "Open Access" policy, is so relevant. I still have a shoe box of 3 1/2 inch diskettes I keep wondering what to do with.
The case of the missing data
By Kelly Crowe, CBC News
Posted: Feb 11, 2013 4:36 PM ET
Last Updated: Feb 11, 2013 4:35 PM ET
Read 6comments6
| ||||||
| ||||||
| ||||||
|
External Links
- Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death, BMJ
- Photo of missing data reel
- JAMA warning on failure to publish clinical trials
- Medical journal amnesty
- Kamran Abbasi's editorial on compulsory registration of trials
- GSK trial registry announcement
- Study raises dietary fats and heart disease guidance, BMJ
(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)
Scientists don't always report everything they discover. Sometimes loose bits of data can be packed up in a box with a bunch of old books and research papers and left in a garage in Sydney, Australia. And that means intriguing, puzzling findings that didn't make sense back in the day, can slowly retreat into scientific oblivion, about to be lost to humankind for all eternity.
Except that, in this case, the phone rang and a determined scientist from Bethesda, Md. having managed to track down one of the last surviving members of a research team, asked Boonseng Leelarthaepin if he knew what happened to the dataset from the Sydney Diet Heart Study that wrapped up in 1973. Luckily Leelarthaepin is a packrat and he knew where to look.
It's now clear that there are multiple polyunsaturated fatty acids, and that each of them may have different biochemical and clinical effects, said Dr. Christopher Ramsden.
"I knew in my mind where it was" he told me. He went into his garage in Sydney and started moving piles of boxes. "It did take quite some time. I opened up all the boxes. There were a lot of old books and different things, like hard copies of published papers," he said. Buried deep in the pile, he found what Dr. Christopher Ramsden, back in Bethesda, was anxious to see. An obsolete 9-track magnetic computer tape from the original Sydney Diet Heart Study. It was an unremarkable looking brown spool with a faded 3M label that had the words "LEE 3" printed in blue ink.
"The recovery actually took a substantial amount of time because it was in a format that wasn't readable by today's standards," Dr. Ramsden told me. He's a researcher with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and he knew there was some potentially important information on that magnetic tape.
Dr. Ramsden tracked down some old equipment, recruited some experts, and after much technical handwringing, and format configuring, the data, that had originally been stored on punch cards, was translated into modern computer language so that it could be reanalyzed and interpreted. And what Dr. Ramsden found in that data made headlines this week.
It was a second look at an old clinical trial, first published in the 1970s, that had set out to measure the dietary effects of saturated versus unsaturated fat. It was assumed that if blood cholesterol could be lowered by reducing saturated fat in the diet, lives would be saved. But in this study, the subjects who switched to unsaturated fat had a higher risk of death.
"That was really unexpected," Leelarthaepin told me on the phone from Sydney. Because unsaturated fat can lower cholesterol, "in theory, survival would be better," he said. "But it was the other way around."
Back then, Leelarthaepin was a research assistant on the study and, at the same time, he was collecting data for his own PhD on a different aspect of the research. I asked him what they were saying to each other in the lab when they were faced with a puzzling increase in mortality. "We had no idea" he said. "We thought there must be some other factor influencing that." They adjusted the data, factoring in other risk factors like smoking, and still the observation held up. There seemed to be an increased risk of death from simply eating more vegetable oil.
"You control for age and all the other things, and that still did not explain it," Leelarthaepin said.
Almost half a century passed, and the Sydney Diet Heart Study languished in the medical literature, occasionally surfacing with a passing mention as a confounding example of the mysteries of dietary fat.
"Back in those days, all polyunsaturates were sort of considered the same," Dr. Ramsden said. "Mainly because they lowered blood cholesterol." Today, scientists know that polyunsaturated fat is much more complex. "In the last few decades there's been an increased recognition, and advancement in the science of this field," Dr. Ramsden said. "And it's now clear that there are multiple polyunsaturated fatty acids, and that each of them may have different biochemical and clinical effects."
Those polyunsaturated fats include omega-6 fatty acids and and omega-3 fatty acids. Most vegetable oils contain a combination of the two, but some oils are almost exclusively composed of omega-6s. Both are considered healthier than saturated fats, from animal sources.
So why did the Sydney Diet Heart Study report an increase risk of death in a group that ate a supposedly healthier oil? As an investigator in the emerging science of nutritional biochemistry, Dr. Christopher Ramsden wanted to know more. His first question: what kind of vegetable oil were the men in the study asked to eat?
"So, in that context, knowing there was an increased risk of death in the past, I really wanted to find out, number one, which oils were used."
Safflower oil affords rare glimpse
What he found out provided a unique research opportunity, because the original trial used safflower oil, which contains only omega-6 fatty acids, instead of a combination of omega-3s and 6s. An oil with a significant amount of omega-3s would complicate things, because omega-3s have been shown to have positive effects on the body, while omega-6s might cause inflammation and have other negative effects on the arteries. So by choosing safflower oil, with its concentrated levels of omega-6s, the Sydney Diet Heart Trial became one of the only clinical trials to investigate what happens if saturated fats are replaced with omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
"This trial, by the nature of the oil it provided, only increased omega-6 fats, specifically linoleic acid," Dr. Ramsden said. "And therefore it's really a rare opportunity."
In 1966, when they designed the trial, the Sydney researchers had no idea they were testing a future omega-6 hypothesis. They were just trying to find out what happened when middle aged men who'd already had cardiac events tried to replace saturated fat with unsaturated fat in their diet. What happened is that they did lower their blood cholesterol. Why then did they have increased mortality? The Sydney authors had no answer.
"Because we couldn’t explain it," Leelarthaepin said, they reported the findings, and waited to "see if another study showed the same thing."
Forty years later, as Dr. Ramsden searched all of the scientific literature for research on polyunsaturates, the Sydney Diet Heart Study emerged as one of only three that were relevant to his meta-analysis. But there was a problem. While the other studies focused on death or illness from coronary and cardiovascular disease, for some reason, the Sydney authors didn't report the specific causes of death. Instead they the grouped the data into one large category: "all cause mortality."
Why didn't they analyze the mortality data in more detail? "The main reason is that we were running out of time, and had no funds," Leelarthaepin said. "We felt we had only one shot at it, and 'all cause mortality' was the one we chose." The other data was set aside. But now Dr.Ramsden wanted to see it.
"We recognized there was missing data from this trial that was stopping us from completing a thorough analysis," Dr. Ramsden said.
So that started the hunt through the boxes in Leelarthaepin’s garage, and ultimately led to the headlines this week: "Omega-6 Fats Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Disease." Because, when he updated the meta analysis, crunching the old Sydney numbers, Dr. Ramsden found there was "no evidence of cardiovascular benefit” when omega 6 was increased, "and a substantial signal for increased risk," he said.
There are limitations to the finding. Experts point out that the level of omega-6s in the Sydney Heart Diet Study was much higher than would be found in an average diet. But it was convincing enough for many to recommend taking a second look.
But there's another aspect to this study, one that has implications for the entire field of scientific research. And that is: what a difference missing data can make.
It prompted some finger wagging from the British Medical Journal, as an example of why all data from clinical trials should be made permanently accessible to the entire scientific community.
In a press release, BMJ editors said "We are … asking researchers to tell us about any other documented examples of missing data, to build a picture of the full extent of the problem which is undermining evidence based medicine worldwide."
It's a crisis of lost information. Even though people volunteer to be test subjects, and scientists complete years of research, a large amount of clinical trial data never sees the light of day.
"The current best estimate is that half of all the clinical trials that are conducted and completed are never published," the BMJ press release said. And even when trials are published, without a chance to see all of the raw data, other scientists are not able to do an independent analysis and come to their own conclusions about what it all means.
"Missing clinical trial data may have an important impact on our overall ability to review the evidence base," Dr. Ramsden said.
Distorted scientific record
Two decades ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association published this warning: "Failure to publish an adequate account of a well-designed clinical trial is a form of scientific misconduct, that can lead those caring for patients to make inappropriate treatment decisions."
But so far efforts to recover missing data have failed. Back in 1997, dozens of medical journals offered an "amnesty," an open call for information about unpublished trials, so they could be tracked down and added to the international scientific record.
What happened? "Five years of industry resistance, government impotence and public confusion followed," Kamran Abbasi, acting editor of the BMJ, wrote in 2004.
"The failure to open up clinical trial data to independent scrutiny 'distorts the scientific record,' Abbasi wrote. "By suppressing negative findings and exaggerating positive ones, by downplaying harms and talking up benefits, healthcare decisions, are based on incomplete data and ultimately harm the patients."
So now 'open access' is being pursued once again. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and other public research funding agencies have put policies in place requiring open access to the data generated from studies they sponsor. But others warn that those policies do not apply to industry sponsored studies, "and cannot prevent biased publication and reporting of results from industry sponsored research."
There have been a series of well publicized examples of industry sponsored trials that failed to disclose potentially dangerous effects of the drug. Today, many scientific journals have a policy of compulsory registration, refusing to publish the results of any clinical trials that were not registered at the start of the study, with end points clearly defined, so everyone knows what the trial was setting out to investigate, and whether it worked, rather than choosing to highlight a secondary finding that was not part of the original inquiry.
But decades of research has already been lost, in the attics and basements and garages of scientists all over the world. Efforts to try to track it down have not always had the happy ending that Christopher Ramdsen was able to report. "And you know, we really think that's a testament to Leelarthaepin for his willingness to help us recover the data, go through it with us and help us evaluate it in detail," he said.
So how important is this missing data? In this case, the BMJ press office reported the relevance this way:
"The researchers conclude that recovery of these missing data 'has filled a critical gap in the published literature archive' and that these findings 'could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega-6 linoleic acid (or polyunsaturated fatty acids in general) for saturated fatty acids.'"
All of that because someone found an abandoned spool of magnetic tape sitting in a box in a Sydney garage.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Research Ethics Review for EMR Systems?
This article by Wes Fisher found on the KevinMD.com news captured my interest because what I think the author is saying is that we should have Research Ethics Boards (REB) or Institutional Review Boards (IRB in the United States) to review implementations of Electronic Medical Record systems. It is interesting because I am a research ethics professional and I have a graduate degree in eHealth. He compares developing and use of EMRs to human experimentation, and as we know today, no human research experimentation can be done without clearance by an REB or IRB. He uses quotes from the Belmont Report, which is one of cornerstone research ethics policies, to make comparisons for the need for human participant protection from possible harms from EMRs. In the United States there is a technology push for EMRs and a lot of money mandated for development of EMRs. This could and probably does lead to the development of systems that are not going to be successful, and possible pose harm for patients. The ethics discussed in the article is also more about economic ethics, or the ethics of pushing a technology in advance of knowing net benefits, user acceptability, user satisfaction.
I have recently been thinking that EMR systems should not only have Privacy by Design principles built into their conception, development, and implementation, but also Evaluation By Design. We know that IT systems are notorious for high failure rates - up to 70% of them. It is no different in Health IT. In Canada, Health Infoway does have a certification system for EMRs, which costs about $100,000 and several companies have obtained that certification. This is not same as having an REB review the system. As well, Health Canada can define some EMRs as class II Medical Devices, which require a certification. Class I medical devices only display or transport data. Class II devices manipulate the data for decision support purposes, and thus, act more like humans - prone to making error. This Health IT failure website has great case studies.
From what I have studied, a lot of private companies are developing innovative healthcare applications to help people with chronic conditions. Often these applications are tested with patients without having gone through an REB review, unless the companies are working directly with university or hospital researchers who have requirements for REB review. At minimum, the clinical efficacy of these systems needs to be proven in such things as controlled clinical trials, before governments and businesses decide to spend vast sums for patient healthcare. As Dr. Norm Archer in the McMaster School of Business says, the return on investment (ROI) in Healthcare has to be improvement in quality of life.
I have been doing some research lately on information system success models, such as the DeLone and McLean model. This model for IS success has been well tested and measure in information systems studies, but I don't know how it has been applied to healthcare. I have seen the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) used, but I am told this model is overused and many journals don't accept articles anymore using it. I am going to look into how the Delone and McLean model is used in Healthcare, because it could be one of the cornerstones for an Evaluation by Design model for EMR systems. I also want to think more along the lines of this article by Dr. Fisher, and think about how the Canadian policy for research ethics, the Tri-Council Policy Statement, could apply to the review of EMRs.
I have recently been thinking that EMR systems should not only have Privacy by Design principles built into their conception, development, and implementation, but also Evaluation By Design. We know that IT systems are notorious for high failure rates - up to 70% of them. It is no different in Health IT. In Canada, Health Infoway does have a certification system for EMRs, which costs about $100,000 and several companies have obtained that certification. This is not same as having an REB review the system. As well, Health Canada can define some EMRs as class II Medical Devices, which require a certification. Class I medical devices only display or transport data. Class II devices manipulate the data for decision support purposes, and thus, act more like humans - prone to making error. This Health IT failure website has great case studies.
From what I have studied, a lot of private companies are developing innovative healthcare applications to help people with chronic conditions. Often these applications are tested with patients without having gone through an REB review, unless the companies are working directly with university or hospital researchers who have requirements for REB review. At minimum, the clinical efficacy of these systems needs to be proven in such things as controlled clinical trials, before governments and businesses decide to spend vast sums for patient healthcare. As Dr. Norm Archer in the McMaster School of Business says, the return on investment (ROI) in Healthcare has to be improvement in quality of life.
I have been doing some research lately on information system success models, such as the DeLone and McLean model. This model for IS success has been well tested and measure in information systems studies, but I don't know how it has been applied to healthcare. I have seen the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) used, but I am told this model is overused and many journals don't accept articles anymore using it. I am going to look into how the Delone and McLean model is used in Healthcare, because it could be one of the cornerstones for an Evaluation by Design model for EMR systems. I also want to think more along the lines of this article by Dr. Fisher, and think about how the Canadian policy for research ethics, the Tri-Council Policy Statement, could apply to the review of EMRs.
The ethics of EMR: How unproven technology affects patients
The implementation of the electronic medical record (EMR) in American medicine gained a powerful foothold in medical care with the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in 2009. With the passage of this act came the promise of improved efficiencies, safety and ultimately reduced cost delivery for health care. Also, some $18 billion dollars in financial incentives were offered to physicians to offset costs to deploy these systems nationwide. To assure adoption, if the systems were not implemented by 2015, doctors and care providers will suffer payment penalties from the government. For physicians who care for Medicare patients, there was no alternative than to deploy these systems.
In 2010 alone, the EMR market was pegged at $15.7 billion dollars, a cost that is ultimately passed to all Americans. In addition, despite all of the changes that health care reform has brought to date, people in some states continue to see their insurance premiums mushroom over 20% in 2013 from the preceding year. Simply put, patients are finding health care anything but “affordable.”
We should acknowledge that there might be cause, ethically, to deploy a technology that truly benefits patients at some cost. After all, you have to break a few eggs to make a good omelet. If interoperability of EMR systems between facilities were commonplace and clinical data were shared with ease while patient privacy was vigorously upheld flawlessly, the cost of these systems might be ethically justified.
But the promise of improved efficiencies to our health care system, improved patient safety and (especially) reduced cost for our health care system remain elusive. More importantly these goals remain unproven. In fact, examples that the opposite is occurring abounds as doctors struggle to enter ever-increasing amounts of information of no relevance to the patient’s presenting problem just to prove they’re using the EMR in a “meaningful” way, health data security breeches continue, data-mining of patient information is occurring not just for patient care, but for marketing purposes, and the direct costs of health care for patients continues to rise, not fall. Proponents of these systems will argue these issues are nothing more than “growing pains” of these novel systems.
So should we step back for a moment and ask ourselves if we are being ethical to patients with the deployment of this technology? Does the ends of presumed cost savings to our national health care system justify the deployment of poorly integrated, difficult-to-use systems? Are patients being subjected to new risks heretofore never considered with the adoption of this technology? Could a tiny programming error occur that negatively impacts not just one patient, but millions? If so, what are the safeguards in place to prevent catastrophic error? Who will be responsible? Who is the oversight body that assures the guiding principles of the Belmont Report (respect for persons, beneficence and justice) with respect to EMR deployment are followed? The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services or a more nebulous body like Congress?
If we accept that the benefits of the EMR are at least uncertain to patients in terms of risk and cost, we should demand they be studied before deploying them. The guiding medical ethics tenets would demand nothing less. So, would not such study qualify as human research? After all, we should remember that the United States and other countries have a precedent of human research programs performed by government agencies that were usually highly secretive, and in many cases information about them was not released until many years after the studies had been performed.
From a sentinel paper in 1966 by Henry J. Beecher, MD on Ethics in Research:
I should like to affirm that American medicine is sound, and most progress in it soundly attained. There is, however, a reason for concern in certain areas, and I believe the type of activities to be mentioned will do great harm to medicine unless soon corrected. It will certainly be charged that a mention of these matters does a disservice to medicine, but not one so great, I believe, as a continuation of the practices cited.Experimentation in man takes place is several areas: in self-experimentation; in patient volunteers and normal subjects; in therapy; and in the different areas of experimentation on a patient not for his benefit but for that, at least in theory, of patients in general.
While Beecher’s paper was addressing ethical research errors in general, his words are oddly prescient for EMR development. Ethical errors, as he pointed out, “are increasing not only in numbers but in variety.” He points to one of the biggest drivers of ethical conflict: money.
Of transcendent importance is the enormous and continuing increasing in available dollars for research, as shown below:
Money Available for Research | ||
Year | Massachusetts General Hospital | National Institutes of Health |
---|---|---|
1945 | $500,000 | $701,800 |
1955 | 2,222,816 | 36,063,200 |
1965 | 8,384,342 | 436,600,000 |
These data, rough as they are, illustrate vast opportunities and concomitantly expanded responsibilities.
Taking into account the sound and increasing emphasis of recent years that experimentation in man must precede general application of new procedures in therapy, plus the great sums of money available, there is reason to fear that these requirements and resources may be greater than the supply of responsible investigators.
The need for “responsible investigators” remains significant; funding for all of the National institute of Health in 2011 was $142.5 billion dollars. Annually, EMR companies have received the equivalent of 11% of the entire NIH annual research budget from US citizens without having to prove their safety or value to patients.
Again, from Beecher’s paper:
The ethical approach to experimentation in man has several components; two are more important than others, the first being informed consent. The difficulty of obtaining this is discussed in detail. But it is absolutely essential to strive for it for moral, sociologic, and legal reasons. The statement that consent has been obtained has little meaning unless the subject or his guardian is capable of understanding what is to be undertaken and unless all hazards are clear. If these are not known this, too, shall be stated. In such a situation the subject at least knows that he is to be a participant in an experiment. Secondly, there is the more reliable safeguard provided by the presence of an intelligent, informed, conscientious, compassionate, responsible investigator.
Because EMR deployments are cloaked in intellectual property, non-disclosure and restrictive hospital employment agreements, doctors are often prohibited from voicing specific concerns about an EMR system publicly. In addition, by adopting EMR systems as cornerstones of the American health care system, Congress, the President and the ARRA side-stepped patients’ informed consent regarding the short-comings of these systems, advertising only their desired benefits instead. Furthermore, rather than Congress turning to “conscientious, compassionate, responsible investigators,” they turned to lobbyists when deciding to fund the deployment of unproven EMR systems. As a result, doctors were relegated to becoming nothing more than stewards of data entry subject to new, ever-evolving documentation requirements as these systems evolve for cost-saving benefits and care “efficiencies.”
Patients and doctors alike understand the need for improved efficiencies and value in our era of exploding health care costs. We must strive to find a solution to our health care cost crisis that is transparent, cost-effective and ethical. Without such an effort, our health care system will collapse. Only recently has the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology recognized the problem and opened their Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan for public comment. This plan asks the EMR companies and interested stakeholders to develop their own methods to assure patient safety and reporting systems – a move that approaches the same ethical standards as equivalent of asking the foxes to watch the henhouse. Nonetheless, we should acknowledge their efforts.
But we should be cautious of EMR systems as we move forward. After all, these clinical systems have not been subjected to the same cost-benefit and ethical scrutiny as other clinical tools we use in health care. The scrutiny of EMRs should be no different than that found with pharmaceutical or medical device research where Institutional Research Board approval and proof of no conflict of interest is demanded. Why should clinical EMR systems be any different?
Given the profit motives and market consolidation occurring amongst the purveyors of these EMR systems and the potential for lethal EMR errors both from software and human interface issues, doctors and patients must especially question the ethics of the movement to deploy untested, novel technology on our patient population under restrictive covenants. As part of informed consent, patients should have full understanding of how and where their clinical data are used, including when it will be used for direct-marketing campaigns, prioritizing care delivery, or for research. Patients should be able to opt out of the use of their clinical data for these or any other purpose if desired, without restricting payment for care. Finally, physician and patient concerns about EMR systems should be allowed to be vetted publicly and without threat of professional or personal reprisal or the withholding of payments for care rendered, especially and particularly if these disclosures are performed in the best interest of patient care.
To do otherwise is unethical for our patients and the public at large.
Wes Fisher is a cardiologist who blogs at Dr. Wes.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
TAGGED AS: HEALTH IT
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Singularity University Future Med 2013 Autodesk Innovation Lab & Demos
I am just copying and pasting the whole page - endlessly interesting:
FutureMed has an Innovation Lab and Demonstration Room for participants and faculty speakers to use during the entire FutureMed program.
FutureMed 2013 Demos
Make rounds with the latest mobile telepresence robots from 9th Sense and AnyBots
Visualize realistic 3D anatomy with Anatomage’s amazingly interactive Virtual Dissection Table
Achieve better understanding of oral care behavior with BeamBrush, the world’s first app-connected toothbrush.
Experience the latest in high tech robotic surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System by Intuitive Surgical
Learn how Bespoke Innovations 3D Scanning Technology is changing the world of custom tailored prosthetics.
Visualize realistic 3D anatomy with Anatomage’s amazingly interactive Virtual Dissection Table
Achieve better understanding of oral care behavior with BeamBrush, the world’s first app-connected toothbrush.
Experience the latest in high tech robotic surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System by Intuitive Surgical
Learn how Bespoke Innovations 3D Scanning Technology is changing the world of custom tailored prosthetics.
From Star Trek to Future Med, check out the new “tricorder” prototypes by MedSensation and Scanadu – futuristic devices that accurately measure body metrics and allow data to be transferred wirelessly.
Make DNA analysis and interpretation more accessible and less expensive by using the new DNA Guide Genome Browser for iPAD.
Turn your smartphone into a digital first aid kit with CellScope.
Learn how Ekso Bionics Exoskeletons can be used to augment human mobility and capability.
Check out Esteem, the world’s first and only fully implantable hearing restoration device that doesn’t rely on a microphone or speaker.
Make DNA analysis and interpretation more accessible and less expensive by using the new DNA Guide Genome Browser for iPAD.
Turn your smartphone into a digital first aid kit with CellScope.
Learn how Ekso Bionics Exoskeletons can be used to augment human mobility and capability.
Check out Esteem, the world’s first and only fully implantable hearing restoration device that doesn’t rely on a microphone or speaker.
Take a look at GE Healthcare’s amazing Vscan, a pocket-sized visualization tool with ultrasound technology.
Check out the technology behind the Genome Compiler, the next generation of computer-aided design tools for synthetic biology.
Meet the folks at Health Tech Hatch, a company providing platforms for start-up fundraising, and usability feedback on healthcare concepts and prototypes.
Use Intellisense’s innovative new technology to measure data, to video-document research, or to measure soft touch, pulse, and pressure metrics.Learn about the latest in Deep Infrared Thermography and its current use in the early diagnosis of breast cancer.
Try out “m3d”, an intuitive clinical and biomedical search engine, now being billed as the new “Google for Healthcare”
Monitor your fitness with Lark, Larklife, & Lark-Pro, three cutting edge wearable health and wellness tracking devices.
Be the first to view the next generation of Ultra-Thin Flexible Endoscopes created by Lightscan Technologies.
Sit up and take notice with LUMOback, the smart, wearable sensor and a mobile app that provides feedback on posture and movement.
Take a close look at CATRA, a low-cost, snap-on, mobile phone eyepiece that provides precise maps of cataracts in the eye.
Check out the technology behind the Genome Compiler, the next generation of computer-aided design tools for synthetic biology.
Meet the folks at Health Tech Hatch, a company providing platforms for start-up fundraising, and usability feedback on healthcare concepts and prototypes.
Use Intellisense’s innovative new technology to measure data, to video-document research, or to measure soft touch, pulse, and pressure metrics.Learn about the latest in Deep Infrared Thermography and its current use in the early diagnosis of breast cancer.
Try out “m3d”, an intuitive clinical and biomedical search engine, now being billed as the new “Google for Healthcare”
Monitor your fitness with Lark, Larklife, & Lark-Pro, three cutting edge wearable health and wellness tracking devices.
Be the first to view the next generation of Ultra-Thin Flexible Endoscopes created by Lightscan Technologies.
Sit up and take notice with LUMOback, the smart, wearable sensor and a mobile app that provides feedback on posture and movement.
Take a close look at CATRA, a low-cost, snap-on, mobile phone eyepiece that provides precise maps of cataracts in the eye.
Make first response safer, more efficient, and cost-effective using the MEDIVIEW cloud-and-client platform
Use the BrainBot brainwave headset to literally read someone’s mind.Capture, compare, and share medical images for easy analysis using CaptureProof
Learn how CliniCast’s ARTO enables providers to improve outcomes and reduce costs through predictive analytics.
Manage your HR benefits more strategically using Benefitter Exchange
Use the BrainBot brainwave headset to literally read someone’s mind.Capture, compare, and share medical images for easy analysis using CaptureProof
Learn how CliniCast’s ARTO enables providers to improve outcomes and reduce costs through predictive analytics.
Manage your HR benefits more strategically using Benefitter Exchange
Improve your health with Prevent – an online program that uses digital tracking, personalized coaching, and social support to promote healthy behaviors.
Learn the many ways that Moxe Health aims to improve access to care for the underserved.
Learn how Neural ID’s Intelligent Waveform Service uses data pattern recognition to streamline and improve research.
Use OncoSec’s Medical Electroporation Device to specifically target cancer cells during chemo and immunotherapy
Size yourself up with Poikos, a smart-device technology that can quickly and accurately measure your body habitus.
Learn the many ways that Moxe Health aims to improve access to care for the underserved.
Learn how Neural ID’s Intelligent Waveform Service uses data pattern recognition to streamline and improve research.
Use OncoSec’s Medical Electroporation Device to specifically target cancer cells during chemo and immunotherapy
Size yourself up with Poikos, a smart-device technology that can quickly and accurately measure your body habitus.
Think you have an idea that can change healthcare? Meet the team of Rock Health, a business incubator company with a long, successful track record in nurturing Start-Up’s
Not sure that rash is serious? Take a moment to consult Virtual Nurse, an interactive new age application that helps triage your need to see a doctor.
Check out the latest in remote vital signs monitoring using the ViSi Mobile® System
Learn how researchers, providers, and payers use genomics to improve medical outcomes using the Discovery Biomedical Data Platform
Use Inside Tracker to identify the nutritional, supplemental, lifestyle, and exercise interventions most needed to improve your health
Give your patients a personalized medical video using Telesofia Medical, a platform aimed at increasing patient compliance and reducing health care costs
Sequence your microbiome using citizen science with uBiome.
Get the benefits of a two-hour workout in only 20 minutes with Vasper System’s SA-1Learn how the Due Date Plus mobile health platform is making pregnancy healthier, safer, and cheaper.
Not sure that rash is serious? Take a moment to consult Virtual Nurse, an interactive new age application that helps triage your need to see a doctor.
Check out the latest in remote vital signs monitoring using the ViSi Mobile® System
Learn how researchers, providers, and payers use genomics to improve medical outcomes using the Discovery Biomedical Data Platform
Use Inside Tracker to identify the nutritional, supplemental, lifestyle, and exercise interventions most needed to improve your health
Give your patients a personalized medical video using Telesofia Medical, a platform aimed at increasing patient compliance and reducing health care costs
Sequence your microbiome using citizen science with uBiome.
Get the benefits of a two-hour workout in only 20 minutes with Vasper System’s SA-1Learn how the Due Date Plus mobile health platform is making pregnancy healthier, safer, and cheaper.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
Anxiety about coronavirus can increase the risk of infection — but exercise can help Stress about the coronavirus ...
-
I have tried several meditation apps and online meditation programs. I started out reluctantly because I didn't think the electronic...
-
FEB. 2, 2023 MEET THE SCIENTISTS WHO WANT TO MAKE MEDICAL DEVICES WORK FOR EVERYONE, FINALLY In the early months of the pandemic, Ashr...