Practice Fusion has made a name for itself over the past few years by tapping into enormous demand for digital health information — particularly health records. From its inception in 2005, the startup has been on a mission to disrupt the slow-moving, archaic world of Healthcare IT by providing a free, web-based electronic medical records (EMR) platform to doctors and their practices. → Read More
When it comes to diagnoses and the possibility of undergoing serious medical procedures, we want second opinions (and trustworthy referrals) whenever we can get them. With 30 to 40 million Americans slated to receive insurance for the first time next year thanks to Obamacare — and with millions expected to experience higher costs and reduced coverage as a result — the system is in for a shock. → Read More
Ringadoc is one of a handful of young HealthTech startups that are on a mission to become “the frontline of primary care.” What does that mean? As we wrote in January, Ringadoc wants to let anyone with an Internet connection talk to a real, live doctor at any hour of the day — at an affordable flat rate. → Read More
Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into… → Read More
Today, thanks to the maturation of the web, digital tech, and smartphones now in seemingly every pocket, startups are finding it easier than ever before to build scalable solutions to finally address the many inefficiencies in our food manufacturing, production and distribution systems.
As interest in food tech balloons, one area in particular appears to already be at the tipping point: Online… → Read More
In a post on Google+ today, Google CEO Larry Page discussed for the first time publicly the voice problems he’s been experiencing. It doesn’t sound like Page is experiencing life-threatening medical problems, but it has become a topic of interest every time he speaks publicly. During the last earnings call, Page actually spoke for a long time, albeit a bit labored, and answered questions at the… → Read More
In November 2011, Identified emerged out of public beta on a mission to create a better professional job search engine. Built on top of Facebook data, Identified set out to nibble at LinkedIn’s lead in this space by giving both job seekers and companies a better way to connect — and find talent. To do that, the startup offered a product that it promised would become something akin to the “Google… → Read More
Since launching in 2010, HealthTap has been on a mission to bring the proverbial “house call” back to healthcare — virtually speaking, of course. With more than 80 percent of people turning to online resources (and to Dr. Google) for health-related information — from insurance to basic diagnostics — HealthTap set out to give people a better alternative to using Google or WebMD for their health… → Read More
A new federal database of hospital prices shows a massive disparity in medical costs. “Average inpatient charges for services a hospital may provide in connection with a joint replacement range from a low of $5,300 at a hospital in Ada, Oklahoma, to a high of $223,000 at a hospital in Monterey Park, California. Even within the same geographic area,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services… → Read More
Chef Sleeve has been selling its iPad-protecting plastic sleeves since 2011 to keep kitchen gunk off the iPad you’re using while you cook. They also make a chopping board with a built in iPad stand. But Chef Sleeve’s grand plan is to create a range of connected devices for the kitchen that link up with an iPad app to let people track their nutrition in a highly granular yet low hassle way. → Read More
During their work with patients, doctors will frequently contact colleagues with questions, to trade horror stories, or converse about treatment methods. There isn’t really a technological solution to streamline this daily back and forth, but that’s what SharePractice aims to bring.
Founders Dr. Andrew Brandeis and Benoit Carrier built an easy to use the mobile app to serve as a sort of… → Read More
The mobile health market is growing like a weed these days. According to mHealthWatch and eHealth Initiative, there are 31,000 health and medical-related apps on the market today. In fact, over the last year, the number of health apps jumped 120 percent, and hundreds of apps now hit stores every month. Yet, in spite of this exponential growth, the mobile health space is still in its “Wild West”… → Read More
Modern day eating habits are making us fat, stupid, and sick. Even for those high-octane health-nuts with the discipline to have a salad, rapid eating between meetings can cause weight gain, brain fog, illness, and fatigue. Now, a high-tech fork has bottled the “don’t eat so fast” wisdom of our mothers in an everyday object that buzzes whenever it detects users eating too… → Read More
Services like HealthTap have proliferated over the last year as a way to let anyone with questions about their health connect with real, licensed physicians online and avoid the pain of waiting in line at the doctor’s office. While HealthTap and others are building up their health information databases to let people quickly find answers to a variety of health questions, the demand for personalized… → Read More
According to a report published by the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging last year, more than 130 million Americans are living without dental insurance. That means more Americans have smartphones than dental coverage. (And they say the UK has bad teeth!) Yes, while robotics takes quantum leaps, millions of Americans forgo dentist visits each day because they don’t have insurance, or… → Read More
Traditionally, healthcare managers — whether they be health plans, care organizations, brokers or employers — have struggled to get their members to engage with their wellness programs and heath tools. Founded in 2009, Denver-based startup, WellTok, has been on a mission to help health plan providers boost engagement by providing a suite of Web and mobile social media-based solutions. Through a… → Read More
“It’s absurd that people won’t go to a restaurant unless they’ve read reviews but they won’t do that for their healthcare.” That’s why top electronic medical records startup Practice Fusion’s CEO Ryan Howard said his company built Patient Fusion, a site where you can compare reviews of nearby physicians and book appointments as soon as within an hour. You could call it Yelp meets Uber for doctors. → Read More
Unless you’re reading this while using an inhaler, this fact may surprise you: According to the CDC, 26 million Americans currently have the chronic respiratory disease we know as asthma. Not only that, but the CDC tells us that the disease costs the U.S. $3,300 per person annually, and medical expenses associated with asthma have increased to about $56 billion (thanks to hospitalizations… → Read More
Back in January, we reported that GE would be partnering up with healthtech startup incubator StartUp Health and selecting 13 consumer healthcare startups (originally 10) to participate in a three year program designed to nurture and accelerate their growth. After a two month screening process, today they’re announcing those 13 finalists. → Read More
Zeel launched in early 2012 to bring the Zocdoc model to alternative healthcare providers. In other words, just as Zocdoc makes it easy to search for doctors based on specialty, proximity and insurance coverage and book appointments directly, Zeel aimed to do the same for the other half of the market: From massage therapists and personal trainers to nutritionists and acupuncturists. → Read More
UK startup DuoFertility is tackling a really tough problem: infertility. The company has built a sensor-plus-service business to predict the most fertile days of women who are having difficulty conceiving to improve the chances of conception — hence its tagline: “assisted natural conception”. There is no invasive technology involved, just a lot of number crunching. → Read More
Once unfathomably expensive, thanks to scientific and technological advances, the cost of genome sequencing for your average Joe is dropping fast on its way to a big, historical benchmark: The $1,000 genome. We’re not quite there, but we’re getting close. This is exciting for a host of reasons, but particularly because it has the chance to usher in an era of personalized medicine, in which it will… → Read More
Google, the world’s largest search engine and one of the most powerful tech companies around, is now using its muscle to search for something new: social entrepreneurs. Today, the company is announcing the Global Impact Challenge, a new prize that will award £2 million ($3 million) between four non-profit startups based in the UK that are using technology for social good in areas like education… → Read More
Back in December 2011, Omada Health grabbed $800K in seed funding from a long list of notable investors, including NEA, Aberdare, Kapor Capital, TriplePoint Ventures and Esther Dyson. After a year of testing, the funding enabled the startup to launch Prevent, its flagship product and the “first-ever online diabetes prevention program for the general public,” Omada Health founder Sean Duffy said at… → Read More
I thought it was impressive that Withings now offers an affordable home scale that tracks your body fat percentage and heart rate, but scientists have developed a tiny Bluetooth-capable blood monitoring device that resides comfortably under the skin, according to the BBC this morning. It’s likely to go into testing with intensive care patients soon, but it’s an example of how intense home health… → Read More
Withings has built quite a name for itself since launching its first Wi-Fi Body Scale in 2009, and the new Withings Smart Body Scale is perhaps the biggest update yet released for its original connected scale tech. The new hardware monitors and tracks not only weight, but also body fat percentage, blood pressure and environmental air quality. I tested the Smart Body Analyzer over the course of… → Read More
When you have a health question, what do you do? Likelihood is that you either search Google for the answer, WebMD, try to call your doctor, or set up an appointment. For most people, the latter two options would be preferable, because, after all, you’re more likely to trust a human being than Dr. Robot or some crowdsourced health resource. → Read More
Samsung’s S Band and updated S Health apps are new features added to the Galaxy S 4. The updated S Health app improves upon the S Health design that debuted in the Galaxy S III. It takes advantage of a new built-in pedometer for tracking steps, as well as ambient temperature and humidity, and the app also tracks food nutrition information from a database. → Read More
That problem where you’re meeting someone for the first time, maybe to pick up something you bought through Craigslist? Google Glass can help with that. A new app designed for Google’s upcoming smart-mounted computer will be able to identify people based on what they’re wearing.
The so-called InSight project is funded in part by Google and developed by University of South Caroline and Duke… → Read More
Back in November, Basis officially took on Jawbone, Nike and Fitbit, releasing its long-awaited wrist-based mobile health tracker. Capitalizing on the popularity of the Quantified Self Movement, the $200 sensor-happy Basis band its accompanying web dashboard allow novices and fitness enthusiasts alike to easily track their activity, skin temperature, heart rate, calories burned, sleep patterns and… → Read More
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