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" We argued in an article for H&HN (Hospitals & Health Networks) that payers and policymakers ought to consider embracing medical technologies rather than fighting them all the time. A new long-life power source for implants illustrates the potential financial benefit, as does continual glucose monitoring in diabetics, provided the manufacturers of continual monitoring devices do […]
Verizon is risking US$1 billion to bring bring fiber to a million homes and businesses this year, but we predict the need for bandwidth will continue to soar as “5G” services, such as those we reported NTT DoCoMo to be working on (in the May issue), take off, and wireless bandwidth so far has always […]
With globalization and technology leveling the playing field in the apparel industry, Third World garment workers have much to fear from a new scanner that may enable custom-tailored clothing to be made in the US as cheaply as ready-made clothes are churned out in China. There will likely come a day when a scanner like […]
An early candidate for diapeutic convergence may be a set of products under development to both diagnose and treat cancer and atherosclerotic plaque. Another is an injectable “DNA computer” from Israel’s Weizmann Institute that can detect a cancer and then produce a drug to treat it. The scale and success of the targeted drug strategy […]
Managed care has helped break the bond of trust between doctor and patient, and in the process is reducing the major field of primary medicine into the minor elite niche of VIP medicine. Technology might help the floundering primary care practice by reducing the complexity of primary care practice, but the initial cost will likely […]
If America is to catch up with the rest of the civilized world in healthcare, it must stop kidding itself that it has “the best health care system in the world,” as Hillary Clinton claims even while presenting powerful evidence to the contrary. And while America argues itself out of the stem cell therapy business, […]
As oil and gas grow increasingly less credible as earth-friendly, sustainable, and economical energy sources for a modern civilization, alternative energy technologies such as cold fusion and fuel cells — until recently considered incredible and even disreputable — grow more credible by the day. Some of the energy produced will likely power a new loom […]
Imaging continues to make great strides: fMRI is being successfully applied to the understanding and diagnosis of sexual dysfunction. Scanning for the presence of cancer in a patient is about to become more accurate and sensitive, and probably cheaper, than current screening methods. A new imaging technique will also greatly improve the sensitivity of non-invasive […]
A small scanner can tell whether and how well a worker has washed his hands. E-books are back again; this time, looking more like the real thing. The Star Trek-ish communicator badge from Vocerawows a hospital that bought it. An electronic magnifier for the vision impaired is a major step up from glass magnifiers. As […]
A new and ultra-fast method of computing produces order from chaos. Perhaps it will get CPUs past Moore’s Law, which after all is only a rule of thumb, not a universal constant, and is routinely flouted by graphics chip makers. Health Futures Digest, which is edited in and runs on open source software, likes to […]
