EKG As A Password

I’ve heard a lot of different biometric passwords in my day, but I hadn’t heard of using your EKG as a password until Dr. Patricia Salber pointed it out on her blog, The Doctor Weighs In. Here’s a video of Dr. Salber talking about the new technology called the Nymi.

I can see problems with using the EKG as a password, but I still love that they’re working on it. Maybe it won’t be the cure to passwords that we all want, but this could also be a continuous EKG monitor, no? My feeling is that by digging into the uniqueness of the EKG for personal identification, we’ll discover and learn a lot about our personal EKG.

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April 3, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Gadgets  Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Wearables
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Racy Video Promotes New Smartphone Pulse Oximeter

Next week I’ll be enjoying a wave of smartphone medical devices at the International CES conference in Las Vegas. I can already tell from the press releases that a number of companies have made big progress in making these devices great for the consumer.

I did recently get a pitch from a company called Safe Heart USA which is marketing the iOximeter, a smartphone pulse oximeter. I guess in order to stand out (which is necessary at a show like CES) they created this somewhat racy and humorous video called “Fifty Shades of Blue. You can see the video below:

What do you think? Did they go too far or do we need to lighten up and just enjoy a humorous approach to marketing a product as exciting as this?

I have to admit. If I see them at the show, I’ll probably stop by and see the people behind a video like this. Considering the volume of pitches I’ve gotten, it was an interesting way to get my attention.

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January 3, 2014 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
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Bridging the Fitness Apps and Device Trackers with the Medical Community

Next week I’m going to the International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. Obviously, being a consumer show, the health applications are very much consumer focused. They have a whole section of the show dedicated to digital health and it’s been growing each year (up 60% this year I’m told).

I’m on the press list and I’ve been really interested in the wave of fitness devices that have passed through my inbox. They come in all shapes and sizes and record everything from steps to heart rate to blood pressure to every in between. Basically, I see a whole plethora of applications and devices that are measuring various aspects of our health. The wave is here. Who’s going to win this race isn’t all that clear to me, but the fact that we’re going to have devices measuring our health is clear.

What’s also not clear is how these measurements are going to bridge over to the medical community. Sure, there are targeted pilot programs where some of these devices are used by doctors or hospitals. However, most of these consumer monitoring and device companies aren’t thinking about the medical implications. In fact, many of them are staying far away from it as they avoid any sort of FDA oversight.

While I understand the desire to not have to make the bridge to the medical community, I don’t think most of these devices and apps will make it without making the bridge. If I’ve already recorded all of my blood pressure data on my iPad using a blood pressure cuff at home, I’m going to want an easy way that I can provide that data to my doctor.

Maybe this is an opportunity for an innovative company to provide that bridge. I’m sure most of these mobile health developers would be happy to tap into a public “utility” that would connect their data to the medical community. The problem is that it’s not sexy to be a utility.

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December 30, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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I recently acquired a pair of Google Glass. It’s been quite an interesting experience wearing them around. I haven’t worn them many places. In fact, I took them to the mHealth Summit in DC and barely took them out. As I considered it, I found it really pretentious to have on a pair of Google Glass. Even when I did wear them, I’d usually flip them up on my head so people knew I wasn’t using them.

I imagine over time this will change as more and more people wear some sort of eyeware that contains computing power like Google Glass. However, of all places, you’d think that wearing them at mHealth Summit people would generally know what they were and not be so phased when you had them on. It was interesting to see the looks people gave you.

I will say that wearing Google Glass is a good attention getter. Random people will come up to you and ask to wear them or try them. This can be a great thing at a conference where breaking the ice can be hard. However, you just have to be sure to bridge the conversation to something more than Google Glass. For some reason, women seemed particularly interested in them.

I have CES (Consumer Electronics Show) coming up in a few weeks. I think I’ll wear Google Glass around some just to see what people do. At a show like CES I’m afraid I’ll end up meeting a lot of people that I don’t necessarily want to meet (do I really care to hear about your iPhone case company?).

I’m still torn on Google Glass. I think the technology is a really amazing experience. It’s just hard for me to see it as an every day type of accessory like your phone. Maybe I’ll hop on eBay and sell mine off.

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December 26, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Eyeware Computing  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Wearables
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Digital Health at CES

For those not familiar with CES (Consumer Electronics show, which they prefer I call International CES), it’s the mecca of consumer electronics in Las Vegas each January. It’s only held in Las Vegas, because it’s the only city big enough to hold such a HUGE show.

I’m sure that many of you are thinking you’ve been to big conferences before. I’m pretty sure that there is no other conference in the world as big as CES. It’s amazing to see the millions of dollars vendors have spent on their booth (millions for just one booth for those keeping track at home). It’s literally a circus and who doesn’t enjoy the circus?

I’ve been going to CES for about the past 8 or so years. When I first started attending, I attended as a techguy interested in the tech side of things. However, over the years, the Digital Health section of CES has really grown and matured. In fact, I just got a message that the Digital Health Exhibit space has grown 40 percent over last year. Last year it felt like it grew 50% as well. Needless to say, there is a lot of attention being placed on the Digital Health space at CES and around the world.

I won’t get to see much of the CES technology until January, but I’m excited to see what’s new. A lot of companies bring out their best stuff at CES, but it’s also possible that I’ll just get to see the same players with bigger booths. I’ll be sure to report on the experience.

If you’re going to be at CES in Las Vegas, I’d love to meet and chat.

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December 2, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Health Care  Healthcare IT  mHealth  Mobile Health Care
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1 Million Prescription Text Alerts Using Walgreens Prescription App

I really love when people say that mobile healthcare is never going to happen. Of course, many people really don’t mean what they’re saying. What they’re really trying to say is that there’s not a full industry for just mobile healthcare apps. Instead, they argue that mobile will play a role in healthcare, but it will likely come from existing healthcare industry players.

I think this news coming out of Walgreens is an example of that. Last week, we got word that 4 months after its launch, the Walgreens prescription refill by scan has over 1 million subscribers to the prescription text alert service.

I saw this application at the CES conference (or maybe it was from one of Walgreen’s competitors). Sweet and simple. Just like consumers want in their apps. Props to Walgreens for launching their Refill by Scan application on both the iPhone and Android app marketplaces.

Here’s a quote from Walgreen’s President of e-Commerce, Sona Chawla:

“Our customers have enthusiastically adopted our mobile applications and we’re continuing to bring innovative technology to our online and mobile platforms to enhance the customer experience,” Sona Chawla, Walgreens President of E-commerce, stated in the company release. “With refill by scan, prescription text alerts, unique photo features and the ability to shop or browse products all available on a mobile device, we’re adding new levels of choice, control and convenience for our rapidly-growing numbers of mobile customers.”

I’m still interested to see how all of these mobile health applications evolve. Are we going to end up having 20-30 apps on our smart phones? Or is there going to be a few apps that take over and do most of the heavy lifting for mobile healthcare? Either way, I can tell were at the very beginning of what will be an exciting change for smart phones in health care.

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March 7, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 6000 articles with John having written over 3000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 14 million times. John also manages Healthcare IT Central and Healthcare IT Today, the leading career Health IT job board and blog. John launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: and and .

Filed Under: Android  Apple  Health Care  Healthcare IT  iPhone  mHealth  Mobile Health Care  Smart Phones
Tags:        Mobile Health