Researchers at the University of Alabama have developed a diet-tracking sensor that collects information based on the wearer's chewing.
The sensor, called Automatic Ingestion Monitor, or AIM, is fitted around the user's ear and monitors vibrations from jaw movement. AIM is programmed to ignore jaw motions from talking. This data, paired with pictures the user would take of their meals, would give...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded an $10.8 million grant to launch a new initiative, called Mobile Sensor Data-to-Knowledge (MD2K), which will see a team of researchers working to better understand and develop tools that leverage data from health sensors and wearables. The team of researchers will be led by University of Memphis computer scientist Dr. Santosh Kumar.
This...
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has re-issued two grant opportunities from September 2011, to encourage new mobile health app developers to apply for grants.
One is a research grant, for projects with some preliminary testing behind them, while the other is an early stage exploratory or developmental grant. Both are aimed at "stimulat[ing] research utilizing Mobile Health (mHealth) tools...
Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies, a company using tablets and wearable sensors for Parkinson's diagnosis and therapy, will use a recent $1.5 million NIH grant to start a move toward direct-to-consumer marketability. This is the latest in a long series of NIH grants for the company since 2005 and brings the company's total grants to $14.2 million.
The system, called Kinesia HomeView, is currently...
A recent survey of 150 federal government executives working in the healthcare space found that just shy of 60 percent of them think their agency's mission objectives will depend on successfully using big data in five years.
The study, conducted by public-private partnership MeriTalk and underwritten by the EMC Corporation, found federal government workers saying big data would help them in...
As the number of self-tracking health and fitness tools available to consumers continues to climb, a persistent question has been whether the data they collect might be useful to health researchers. Along with that: Are people who self-track comfortable sharing their data with researchers?
A new, must-read report from San Diego's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information...
Chevy Chase, Maryland-based startup MyOwnMed raised $1.3 million in funding this past December, according to an SEC filing from late last year.
The company, founded in mid-2013, is headed up by Founder and CEO Vicki Seyfert-Margolis, a former senior advisor of science innovation and policy to the FDA Commissioner's Office who has also worked in non-profit medical research circles, academia, and...
Dr. Eric Topol
Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI), the San Diego-based collaboration between Scripps Health and the Scripps Research Institute, has received a $29 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant, called the Clinical and Translational Science Award, is the largest single grant the NIH issues, according to Scripps Health Chief Academic Officer Dr. Eric...
Software developer Ringful Health, developers of the first mobile health app to integrate with the now-defunct Google Health, has teamed up with Consumer Reports to create an app to help patients choose the most effective, and often cheapest, prescription drug for their conditions.
The app, called Best Drugs for Less, lists the best drugs based on "comparative medical research into effectiveness...
Dr. Robert Kaplan
The research community appears to be relishing the challenge of producing enough scientific evidence to prove or disprove the efficacy of mobile health technologies while also remaining open to new methods of evaluation that can keep pace with rapid innovation.
"The literature has really mushroomed in the last couple of years," Robert M. Kaplan, director of the Office of...
