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Social Network Keeps Seniors Connected

Care Innovations, a joint venture between GE and Intel, has released Connect, a service designed to address social isolation in seniors.

Connect software runs on a touch screen device and features social networking, as well as health management and reporting tools. The system has been undergoing a successful user trial at a nursing home in Michigan since last year.

More about Connect from the announcement: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Technology And Home-Based Healthcare

Eric Dishman, a behavioral scientist who works at Intel, discusses how technology can impact home-based healthcare. From TEDMED 2009:

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

NHS Tests At-Home Health Telemonitoring System

The perpetually struggling British National Health Service (NHS) is testing a telemonitoring system from Philips in hopes that it will help moderate the cost of providing care to the elderly. The Philips Motiva is a device that hooks up to a television and displays interactive prompts for patients to perform certain tasks, like measuring blood sugar. Via a broadband connection, readings are then sent out to the clinic for overview by a healthcare professional. NHS is hoping that the system will help it reduce the number of in-person patient visits to the hospital, freeing up time for more pressing issues to get their turn.

From The Times of London:

Some 400 patients are being monitored in Newham. Each is provided with diagnostic equipment, such as an SPO2 meter for blood oxygen, which clips on the patient’s finger. The meter is attached to a set-top box linked to the patient’s television. The readings are sent to healthcare staff of the Primary Health Trust, who contact the patient if the readings cause concern.

The Newham trial includes patients with diabetes, heart disease or breathing problems, known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, a condition affecting a million Britons. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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