Smartphone Programs To Provide Health Tips, Monitoring Services

More smartphone application developers are looking to release a variety of health care-related applications and accessories aimed at monitoring health, preventing disease and promoting healthy lifestyles, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

In the past, these types of technologies would have been too costly to develop because they would have required hardware and support networks. However, the growing prevalence of new smartphone devices — such as Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry — has made it easier for developers to embark on such projects.

Some hardware and software developers say the iPhone is particularly well-suited to new health-related applications because it is a low-cost platform that has broad appeal and a significant amount of power.

Some of the health care-related applications being developed for the iPhone and other smartphone devices include:

• ProScope Mobile by Bodelin Technologies, which submits photos from a handheld digital microscope to an iPhone;
• A stethoscope-like attachment from AUM Cardiovascular, which claims to offer a non-invasive method for detecting life-threatening coronary artery disease;
• Shepherd, an application by Vista Institute, which aims to help restaurants and farms track food safety data and store the information in secure web databases; and
• A product marketed by PedalBrain that would wirelessly gather a bicyclist’s heart rate, speed, cadence power and other statistical data before delivering it in real time to an iPhone and a website that could be accessed by the bicyclist’s family, friends and physician.

The Mayo Clinic and mobile application developer DoApp have partnered to launch a new mobile and Internet services provider called mRemedy. Later this summer, mRemedy plans to involve a small group of hospitals in a beta test for a new application that would allow patients to:

• Send messages to their physicians;
• Look up a physician or specialist based on their needs; and
• Track various aspects of their medical care data (Bisping, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/12).

 Source: iHealthBeat

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