Best in Healthcare For 2013

2013 was a great year for consumer healthcare technology. This year, 95 million Americans have used mobile phones as health tools or as search devices to find healthcare information, paving the way for a more connected and health conscious 2014.

To continue with my annual Year in Review, I present some of my favorite companies and posts in 2013.

A big thank you to my readers for your support, ideas and input.

-Alexis

Best New Entrants into Wearables:

• Misfit Wearables — Self-tracking wearable, incredibly elegant and striking
• Withings Pulse — Self-tracking wearable, Withings’ first entry into the physical activity tracker space
• Goji Play — Self-tracking indoor cardio wearable, transforms any cardio machine into an interactive gaming workout
• OnTheGo Platforms — Smart glass app development platform that focuses on exercise apps and more
• Updated versions of the Jawbone UP, Fitbit Force and Nike+ FuelBand SE

Best Smart Fabric Concepts:

• Athos — Athletic apparel made with smart fabric and sensors to measure every muscle exertion, heartbeat, and breath
• OMsignal  — Embedded sensors in the apparel monitor your heart rate, breathing, and activity

 Best Fitness Apps:

• RunKeeper — GPS app to track outdoor fitness activities
• Moves — GPS app to track daily activity continuously, shown on a timeline
• Charity Miles — GPS app that tracks and lets you earn money for charity when you walk, run, or bike

 Best Personalized Coaching:

• Sessions — Simple, individual, and thoughtful fitness program to help you get healthy
• Wello — Online workouts with a Certified Personal Trainer in real-time on your mobile device over live video

A New Twist to Common Items:

• HAPIfork — An electronic fork that monitors eating habits and alerts you when you eat too fast
• Beam Technologies — A smart toothbrush that monitors oral hygiene and reports habits to a smart app
• Withings Blood Pressure Monitor — Measures, calculates and tracks changes in blood pressure on graphs

Best Up and Coming:

• PUSH — Tracks and analyzes performance at the gym; measures power, force and balance
• Emotiv Insight — Multi-channel, wireless headset that monitors brain activity to optimize brain fitness and measures cognitive health and well-being
• Scanadu Scout — Medical tricorder to measure, analyze and track vitals
• MC10 — Stretchable electronics that conform to the shape of the body to measure and track vitals

Best for Healthcare Providers:

• Pristine — Develops Glass apps to help hospitals deliver safer, more coordinated, more cost effective care
• Informedika — Marketplace for electronic test ordering and results exchange between healthcare providers
• IntelligentM — Data-driven hand hygiene compliance solutions for hospitals to dramatically reduce healthcare-acquired infections

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:

Proteus: Ingestible Sensors – The New Age of e-Pills

Proteus Digital Health makes ingestible sensors, embedded in the medications you normally take. The sensor is powered by your stomach fluids (works like a potato battery) and captures information regarding the foods you eat and how your body reacts to them. You wear a separate disposable patch, which acts as a receiver, and it takes the data from the ingested sensor and sends that information to your mobile device. The patch also measures your heart rate, activity, and rest.

This past July, Proteus received FDA market clearance and has been used without adverse events in multiple clinical trials. Still too science fiction for your taste? The sensor doesn’t stay in your body – it passes like high-fiber food, and the patch has a life span of seven days. The company is working on making the sensor provide more detailed feedback on how your body reacts to daily food and medication intake, both of which can lead to more effective and individualized treatment plans.