InstaMD Headset’s Failed IndieGogo Campaign

I was really interested to watch and see how the InstaMD IndieGogo campaign would do. Here’s their video preview of the product:

I think the trend of making vital signs tracking easy is an important one. Although, I wasn’t sold on the use of an existing stethoscope with a headset being the modality that would be found interesting by users. The problem is that most patients don’t just have a stethoscope laying around the house. So, you have to buy the stethoscope and the InstaMD headset. Plus, those two items together with your mobile device feels quite cumbersome.

Considering the campaign only got 9 funders of their project reaching $546 raised, I have a feeling many others saw it the same way I did.

While InstaMD wasn’t a success on IndieGogo (and maybe they’ll find success outside of that platform), I think that much of their thinking is correct. We’re going to want to track our vital signs in a really simple, effective way. So, I guess it’s fair to say that I’m bearish on InstaMD’s technology, but I’m bullish on the future of personal health monitoring and personal health data tracking.

June 25, 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 .

Scan What’s In Your Food – TellSpec

I recently came across an IndieGogo campaign for a product called TellSpec. They describe TellSpec as “A revolutionary hand-held device that tells you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in your food.”

The concept is really interesting and they’ve already raised $116,826 from 650 people, surpassing their goal of raising $100,000 and they still have 24 days left for their campaign. Given those numbers, I guess many others are interested in this as well.

While I think the concept is beautiful, I’m a little skeptical of how good it will actually work. I’m interested to see if it really can produce the results that they describe. If it can, then no doubt there will be many interested in using such a product.

I do wish that it would identify both the chemicals and the portion sizes. If it could do both, then it would take food tracking to a much higher level of tracking. Maybe this will be an opportunity for TellSpec to partner with another company that has portion identification using something like a picture. The combined functions would make TellSpec interesting for a much larger market than just those interested in identifying chemicals in their food.

Another major challenge with what they’ve created is that it’s a separate device. One day this or something like it will be built into our cell phones. I don’t have to explain why people don’t want to carry two devices. Once it’s integrated with the smart phone I can already see the pre-meal ritual being to scan your food so that what you’re eating is captured and tracked.

I once heard someone say that one of the biggest factors influencing our health is the food we put in our body. Maybe TellSpec combined with other mobile health applications will get us closer to understanding the relationship between the foods we eat and are health.

November 6, 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 .

Breath Acoustic Headset in IndieGogo and Philips Innovation Fellow Competition

I’m always interested in the latest and greatest devices that are entering healthcare. So, I was really intrigued by this new All-In-One Breath Acoustic headset from Breath Research. The Breach Acoustics All-in-One headset includes:

  • Acoustic breath pattern analysis
  • Heart Rate
  • Pulse Oximetry
  • Altitude, Location and Barometric Pressure

Here’s the video they use on their IndieGogo campaign to introduce the product:

As of this posting, they’ve raised $11,872 on their IndieGogo campaign with a goal of $30,000. If you contribute $200 you will receive one BeathAcoustics headset. Plus, they have a number of other options available including a variety of coaching and training sessions from Breath Research CEO, Nirinjan Yee.

I’m a little leery on the claims that the headset together with HearZones USA will help you:

  • Alleviate stress
  • Improve athletic performance
  • Achieve weight loss goals
  • Get better sleep

I think their basing these claims on personalized health and fitness recommendations. So, in that respect their probably accurate. I think there are many studies that show that health and fitness can provide the above results. The question I have is whether this Breathe Acoustic headset will provide a significant change to someone’s health and fitness habits.

As they say in the campaign, athletes have been using personalized physiological data for years. The question I have is whether providing that data to everyone will really impact someone’s health. I certainly don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m excited to see Breath Acoustic bringing that analysis to the masses.

I also found it interesting that the above IndieGogo campaign is part of the Phillips Innovation Fellow Competition. Here’s a short description of the competition (done in partnership with IndieGogo):

Philips and Indiegogo are hosting the “Innovation Fellows” competition and are calling for innovators to submit their #BIGIDEA to address the current innovation gap in the areas of living well, being healthy and enjoying life. With its constant commitment to people-focused innovation, Philips aims to make a difference in people’s everyday lives, and is offering $100,000 of its own money, plus mentoring from Philips leaders, to help the best ideas come to market faster.

You can see the 37 entrants in this competition here. I’m really fascinated by the idea of someone like Philips working with IndieGogo for the competition. How smart is it to use actual customer driven purchasing to drive a competition? Certainly there’s more to innovation than customer purchasing, but that can be one indicator of something people actually care to use. I’ll be interested to see how this competition goes.

September 9, 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 .

Amiigo: A New Wearable Device About To Hit The Market

Wearable fitness devices are a dime-a-dozen. Whenever I go to the store, or read up on the latest mHealth news, I feel like I’m seeing another one. Just like I said about food diaries, the device really needs to have features that set it apart from others. Amiigo is one that’s just about to be released, and it definitely is something I think people are going to be interested in.

Started by a team of Salt Lake City Entrepreneurs, Amiigo is a Bluetooth fitness device that is be worn as a bracelet and shoe clip. The team was promoting it on Indiegogo and reach their initial goal very quickly. Now, the product is available for pre-order, and in hopes of reaching their $350,000 goal, the team is hosting a contest — the top twocolors voted for on their Indiegogo page will go to production if that goal is reached. They are only about $9,000 away, so if you are interested, be sure to go check out the page.

Not sure if you are interested in voting and investing? Here’s some information about this neat advice

Amiigo 5

Amiigo is sweat-proof and recognizes more than 100 exercises. The device had sensors in the bracelet that detect upper body movements, and the shoe clip detects lower body movements. It uses these sensors to determine what the users full body workout was, and sends the information to the mobile app.

Some other key features include:

  • Tracking Physiological Response: It tracks things like heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, and calories burned
  • Sharing With Others: Workouts can be shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where friends and family can post encouragement.
  • Power Saving and Comfortable: It has a battery charge of two or more days, and is adjustable so it fits comfortably on just about everyone

From what I can tell, this is going to be an awesome wearable fitness device. I like that it can automatically detect what exercise you are doing and calculate information based on that. It is also available for both Android and iOS. If I had the money, I’d definitely donate some to get this product out quicker, but if you do and this sounds like something you would like, head on over here.

February 14, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Bandu: Can Monitoring Your Stress Levels Help Lower Them?

The older I get the more stress I seem to have in my life.  Between work, education, family, and hobbies there is always something else I should be doing, but simply don’t have the time for.  The world we live in is increasingly filled with more demands than we could ever possibly meet.

We have amazing new technologies that help make our lives better, but there is little that can be done for how overwhelmed our society has become.  With all of the added stress that our lives bring, maybe the only way to really reduce our stress is to realize where it is occurring and then look to reduce it.

Neumitra is a company that is working to do just that.  They have developed a new wearable device that can monitor your stress levels in order to help you lower that stress and improve your life.

The Bandu looks similar to a wristwatch and tracks your stress levels tying them to specific locations so that you can physically see where your highest stress levels are.  Once you realize where those locations are you can take steps to lower your stress there.  In tandem with tracking your stress the Bandu can also alert you to when your stress level is rising and provide suggestions for ways to lower that stress.

This seems to be the next step in these types of devices.  We have been able to monitor various health indicators for quite awhile, but now these devices are also providing solutions to those problems.

For more information about the Bandu, including screenshots and a demo video, you can visit their indiegogo site.

You can also read an interview with the company’s founder, Robert Goldberg, at MedGadget.com.

October 30, 2012 I Written By