A consulting firm dealing with long-range, leading edge technological innovations and their consequences and implications for healthcare policy and practice.
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alt="http://hfdigest.com/wp-content/gallery/pics/robomed2.jpg" A list of market strategies outlined by a maker of a “disruptive” hearing health technology is indicative of the challenge facing healthcare executives as more technologists adopt such strategies. It is salutary to be reminded that forces other than technology shape the future of healthcare. A pundit points to major potential disruptions from: the hospital […]
Synthetic diamond is a promising material for friction-free artificial hips, knees, and other joints. The doctor�s white coat could soon be recharging her wireless tablet PC and other portable electronic devices, eliminating the risks and hassle of battery drain. Diamond Joints Orthopedics company Biomet and synthetic diamond maker Diamicron will jointly develop and distribute total […]
We reported last month that Swedish researchers have confirmed in animal experiments the theory that mitochondrial mutations are one of the causes of age-related illnesses. The discovery of genetic mutations in mitochondrial DNA responsible for Alzheimer’s would seem to further support the theory. Nearly 18 months behind Europe, the US FDA has approved a software […]
Sensors are well on their way to becoming as small, and ubiquitous, as dust. They are already taking jobs away from engineers at Intel. A new technique takes surround sound to a new level of realism. The problem will be in getting film makers and theatres to buy it. Surgery to fix a malfunctioning pacemaker […]
Artificially intelligent chess programs are growing more intelligent and less artificial. Software in general is growing more intelligent, and within a few years may be able to configure and fix itself when it goes wrong, rather as the body does. That�s assuming Microsoft does not get in the way of yet another innovation. Speaking of […]
We’ve barely begun writing about the potential for implanted RFID chips, yet now find they are already implanted in the attorney general of Mexico, and his staff. RFID�s first major application, though, is for tracking shipments and inventory. A writer for Wired magazine took a close look at the German �Future Store� supermarket we first […]
Substantial investments by pharmaceutical firms in biotech firms that are developing cancer drugs is bad news for cancer, as are major efforts to improve on the first generation of anti-angiogenesis drugs, such as one that destroys a tumor’s blood supply without affecting the patient’s normal blood vessels, and an Abbott Labs cancer drug showing promise […]
New York cyborgs are reaping substantial benefits from their implanted “brain pacemakers” in the form of significant relief of Parkinson’s and other tremors. Epileptic cyborgs implanted with similar technology are proving that thought control of remote objects is getting closer to becoming a real therapeutic tool. Even before “telehaptics” (transmitting the sense of touch remotely) […]
The personal computer revolution, you may recall, started with a kit PC sold through an amateur electronics magazine. A humanoid robot kit just out on sale in Japan could ignite the robotics revolution. PCs changed life and business drastically in just a few decades; robots will do it again, and faster. In a reverse of […]
If the AMA does not publicly display that it understands the urgency of more widespread IT adoption in medicine (which apparently it does not), what hope is there of persuading AMA members to adopt IT? Britain’s equivalent of the AMA — the BMA — is at least showing an interest in the topic of IT […]
