SkinVision: Track Changes in Your Skin

SkinVision is a mobile app that tracks changes over time for various skin conditions, such as benign moles that may become atypical and thus have a higher chance of developing melanoma. Since the majority of melanoma is affected by UV radiation, the app also shows the UV Index for your location.

The app has a mathematical algorithm developed by a team of dermatologists, mathematicians and computer scientists. The algorithm analyzes the picture of your mole and lets you know how you should proceed – stay alert, monitor changes, or notify a doctor in the area. The app can then pull doctors near your location and can also remind you when to take another snapshot of your mole – say in 3 or 6 months.

While certainly not a substitute for a doctor when you have a concern, the app does a great job of keeping track of potential issues long term. It serves as a preventative measure, and one we should all take.

Get to Know: Sproutel

Sproutel makes interactive toys for children with chronic illnesses like type-1 diabetes. The company currently has a toy bear named Jerry for type-1 diabetes patients, and is working on products for children with asthma and obesity. Jerry’s expected release date is Feb/March 2013, and from the looks of it, can not only teach children how to live with diabetes, but can also make them feel normal again.

 

Goalpost: The Social Way to Quit Smoking

Goalpost is an online solution that brings a social aspect to quitting smoking. As the site says, “Research has shown people are much more likely to quit with the help of their friends and family.” You can invite friends to help support you through Facebook and/or email, plus there is an online community ready to keep you motivated.

When you sign up, you can enter a “Quit Date” which will show up on your website interface and you can also create challenges and goals for your friends.

Vitality – GlowCaps: Prescription Reminder Pill Caps

Vitality is the maker of GlowCaps, pill bottle tops that you put on your prescriptions. These tops than transmit data about your medication adherence and remind you to take your meds when you forget.

How it works:

1) Your pharmacist puts your medication in a GlowCap

2) You plug in the reminder light at home

3) Every day, the GlowCap reminder light will flash and play a ringtone until you open the GlowCap

4) And, if you ultimately forget, Vitality will call to remind you

5) You get a progress report in a weekly email and a monthly printed report

6) The underside of the cap has a “Push to Refill” button, which lets your pharmacy know immediately when to refill

Vitality’s AT&T-connected GlowCaps require no additional wifi or broadband services and one reminder light connects to all your GlowCaps. And what problem does GlowCaps solve? The high cost of low adherence, as per the GlowCaps website:

Article Share: “25 Apps Doctors are Prescribing for Patients”

Friends at Medical Billing and Coding have recently published an article on the top 25 apps that doctors are prescribing for patients.

Check out the full article here: 25 Apps

My favorites are RxmindMe (medication management), HealthySteps (health goal tracker), and my Allergy Cards (your allergies in multiple languages).

 

Meddik: Finally, An Organized Health Forum

In May, Meddik raised $750K in seed funding to build a social online healthcare community. You ask questions and get answers from people who’ve been in similar situations, and learn from the collective experience of other users. Posts range from serious to funny, but all seem pretty helpful – I would love to see what they have on the back-end to make sure that every post is kosher.

 

Health 2.0: Healthcare Innovation and Transformation

One of the liveliest conferences I’ve been to, this year’s Health 2.0 Annual Fall Conference did not disappoint with new product launches, lots of startup funding money, and yes, even an onstage skit. Speakers ranged from CEOs of large billion dollar companies – Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, self-made mega-brand entrepreneurs – Jillian Michaels, and BIG DATA personalized predictive health start-ups – Chris Hogg, CEO of 100Plus. The conference ends on Wednesday with DC to VC, a pitch-fest organized by Morgenthaler Ventures and Health 2.0.

Some facts from Health 2.0:

• $1.03BN in healthcare funding raised in 2011
• $1.13BN in healthcare funding raised in the first 9 months of 2012
• Biggest growth areas in healthcare startups: patient/provider communication and self management tools

BetterDoctor: Find the Right Doctor for You

BetterDoctor wants to help you find the right doctor, faster. The redesigned website is clear and crisp. You can bookmark favorite doctors and easily share their profiles with friends and family.

My only issue is that signups are done through Facebook. Most websites have an option – sign up through Facebook or use your own login. My personal preference is to keep my Facebook and the rest of my online presence separate. But, I’d love to hear from readers about their experience with BetterDoctor.

 

1. Save your favorite doctors, find ones that accept your insurance plan and are close in proximity to you, and share your doctors with friends and family.

2. Integration with Yelp: This is exactly what I want and takes a step out of the process of checking Yelp myself.

Medicine X: The Future of Medicine and Technology

I spent the weekend at the Medicine X conference at Stanford University. For those of you who missed the exciting conference, you can check out some of the taped speakers at MedX Videos and Talks.

Here are a few startups I found particularly interesting:

Aidin was created for discharge planning professionals to make the process of finding post-acute care for their patients, efficient and easy.

SwiftPayMD is a payment system for physicians to capture and post charges for each day’s services, for quick and correct billing.

Symcat takes BIG DATA (hundreds of thousands of patient records) to estimate what your ailment might be through a series of questions.

 

Definitely looking forward to Medicine X 2013. See you there!