Apple Inc. (nasdaq:aapl), Amazon.com, Inc. (nasdaq:amzn) - Apple's September 12 Event: New Products And The Tech Sector's Push Into Healthcare | Benzinga
Apple's September 12 Event: New Products And The Tech Sector's Push Into Healthcare Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) product launch event happened earlier this week, with the company debuting new iPhones, the Watch Series 3, Apple TV 4K and AirPower, a wireless charging pad that works with several of its products. While the iPhones were the main focus, The Apple Watch Series 3 and operating system drew attention for new features, which included expanded fitness and health-focused capabilities. There’s already a large number of smartwatches and wristbands on the market that are focused on health and fitness tracking. Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN ) produces a wide range of products and Android Wear, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG ) (NASDAQ: GOOGL ) operating system designed for smartwatches and wearables, is used by numerous brands in their product lines. In recent weeks, Fitbit Inc (NYSE: FIT ) has launched its new smartwatch, the Fitbit Iconic. Fitbit’s smartwatch also touts a bevy of health-focused features and the company’s foray into smartwatches comes as the wearables market continues to evolve. “The transition towards more intelligent and feature-filled wearables is in full swing,” according to Jitesh Urbani, senior research analyst for market research firm IDC. “Previous niche features such as GPS and additional health tracking capabilities are quickly becoming staples of the modern smartwatch,” Urbani added. He also highlighted growing interest from the medical industry to adopt wearables, saying “this is where companies like Apple and Fitbit have the potential to maintain their lead as their investments in the tracking and perhaps diagnosing of diseases will be a clear differentiator from low-cost rivals." According to IDC, the worldwide wearables market i Continue reading >>
'alexa, What's My Blood Sugar Level And How Much Insulin Should I Take?'
It's become a punchline in the tech industry that every start-up is out to change the world. When it comes to medical technology, however, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley are poised to do just that. Experts say we're at the dawn of a new era of personal technology for a variety of chronic conditions, including diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. "It really isn't a surprise you'd see companies like Apple and Google focusing on this," said Mike Matson, a senior analyst at the investment firm Needham & Co. "They're always looking for new opportunities for growth and healthcare is a big market." Type 2 is by far the most common form of diabetes, frequently associated with obesity. Roughly 95% of the nearly 30 million Americans with diabetes are Type 2. The Alexa challenge features a $125,000 grand prize for whoever comes up with the best diabetes app for the Amazon Echo, as well as $25,000 each for up to five finalists. Funding is being provided by the drug company Merck, manufacturer of the Type 2 meds Januvia and Janumet. Not surprisingly for the tech industry, the contest boasts a very fast pace. It was announced in April. The deadline for submissions was last month. Finalists will be announced in July. Demos of selected apps will be conducted in September and a grand prize winner will be announced in October. It's thus entirely possible that people with diabetes may be using some of these apps by the end of the year. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. "There's so much information for diabetes management available," said Sara Holoubek, chief executive of Luminary Labs, a New York consulting firm that's organizing the Alexa Diabetes Challenge on behalf of Merck and Amazon. "So why is it still so hard to get that information? Maybe we can change t Continue reading >>
Apple Watch Spots Diabetes With 85% Accuracy, Report Claims
A new study claims heart rate data collected by the Apple Watch can be used to successfully detect diabetes in those who wear the smartwatch. The study was conducted by Cardiogram, a company which produces an app able to break down heart rate data captured by Apple Watches. It is claimed the Watch can detect diabetes in patients previously diagnosed with the disease with an 85 percent accuracy. However, the company states this is only useful in spotting potential signs of diabetes, not for diagnosing the disease or providing advice on insulin requirements. The app looks out for variations in heart rate which are known to correlate with diabetes, but it cannot diagnose the disease outright. Without FDA approval, the system can only tell the Watch wearer that something is up and they should seek medical advice. The firm has previously claimed the Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rhythm with 97 percent accuracy, sleep apnea with 90 percent accuracy and hypertension with an accuracy of 82 percent . Cardiogram worked with researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and used the firm's DeepHeart neural network to determine that the Watch was able to spot the signs of diabetes in patients previously diagnosed with the disease. The data can spot irregular an heart rate which correlates to diabetes The study involved more than 200 million sensor measurements taken from 14,011 participants. A huge and growing problem in the US, it is claimed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that over 100 million American adults have diabetes or prediabetes. Of those, just over 30 million currently have the disease, amounting to 9.4 percent of the US population. If not treated, prediabetes often leads to type two diabetes within five years if not treat Continue reading >>
Kwatch Is A Device That Measures Glucose Painlessly
KWatch is a device that measures glucose painlessly Marko Maslakovic 2486 Views 0 Comments Health tracker A French health tech startup PKvitality is looking tolaunch of a $150 smartwatch that will allow you to monitors glucose levels without taking any blood. With415 millionpeople affected, 1 in 11 worldwide, diabetes is progressing rapidly. It is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, lower limb amputation and causes millions of deaths every year. Non-invasive glucose monitoring is considered to be the holy grail of diabetes treatment. Many companies have tried and failed to come up with something, and diabetes patients still have no accurate alternatives totracking glucose bypiercing the skin. Some diabetics still resort to loggingtheir results using pen and paper. Essential reading: Smart Glucometres, high tech options for monitoring your blood sugar There is no shortage of rumours that Apple is looking to upgrade its smartwatch with sensors to monitor glucose non-invasively . Whether this is built into the watch itsself or into its strap, or whether this ends up being a totally separate device remains to be seen.Tim Cook has evenbeen spotted with a portable glucose monitor prototype earlier this year. We sincerely doubt that we will see this in Apple Watch 3 which is due for release in a few months time. Shown off at CES 2017 at the start of the year, KWatch Glucose was among about two dozen products designated a winner of the shows Best of Innovation Award.Utilizing a revolutionary biosensor,the device works by tasting the skinrather than taking blood samples. Their proprietary system is composed of biosensors that use micro-needles to probe interstitial fluid for bio-chemical analysis. While the user will feel the slight pressure of th Continue reading >>
Study Shows That The Apple Watch And Other Wearables Can Detect Diabetes Early On
While the Apple Watch may never be able to non-invasively measure a users glucose levels, an intriguing and massive new study conducted by the health startup Cardiogram and the University of California San Francisco suggests that the device can accurately detect when a wearer has diabetes. The study specifically found that the Apple Watch and other wearables were able to detect the disease in previously diagnosed patients 85% of the time. All told, the study monitored approximately 14,000 Apple Watch and Android Wear owners over the course of many weeks. As for how the testing was done, the researchers explain that they used an avalanche of health sensor data to train a deep neural network by presenting it with samples from people with and without diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, atrial fibrillation, and high cholesterol. Incidentally, Cardiogram calls its AI-based algorithm DeepHeart. Don't Miss: Amazon has a $40 Apple Watch accessory youll wonder how you ever lived without As to how heart rate data is tied into the detection of diabetes, Cardiogram co-founder Johnson Hsieh explains: Your heart is connected with your pancreas via the autonomic nervous system. As people develop the early stages of diabetes, their pattern of heart rate variability shifts. Hsieh further cites a 2015 study wherein researchers discovered that a high resting heart rate and low heart rate variability is capable of predicting when individuals are liable to develop diabetes over a 12-year period. The research here is obviously incredibly important, especially as the number of individuals suffering from diabetes continues to grow. As the study notes, more than 100 million individuals in the U.S. alone either suffer from diabetes or are prediabetic. 1 in 4 of those with diabetes are undiagno Continue reading >>
Xconomy: Wellpeppers Voice-enabled Scale Wins Alexa Diabetes Challenge
Wellpepper’s Voice-Enabled Scale Wins Alexa Diabetes Challenge Seattle-based Wellpepper took the $125,000 grand prize in the Alexa Diabetes Challenge , a competition to develop voice technology specifically to help people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Wellpepper’s entry, called Sugarpod , is an interactive care and management plan, paired with a voice-enabled scale and foot scanner, that’s meant to help people with the disease integrate new behaviors into their daily routines. Wellpepper co-founder and CEO Anne Weiler tells Xconomy the win was a surprise. “We found that the caliber of the entries and the competitors was really high,” she says. Sugarpod was selected from a group of five finalists, winnowed from 96 entries in the competition, which was sponsored by Merck (NYSE: MRK ), and supported by Amazon Web Services. Luminary Labs, which ran the challenge, announced the winner Monday. “Our approach was to take an end-to-end solution that included IoT and really integrated into the fabric of somebody’s day,” Weiler says. She is proud of what her company accomplished during the three-month timeframe of the challenge. After conceiving of the idea, they went through four prototype scale designs and tested it in a clinic with real patients. The challenge helped Wellpepper, a five-year-old startup, quickly realize how voice could be used in diabetes management, as well as its care plans for other conditions, which help patients communicate with care providers via text message, email, and web and mobile apps. “We started thinking about voice differently because of the challenge,” Weiler says, adding that it will be “a key part of both patient and clinical experiences.” As Weiler explained in a previous interview with Xconomy, barriers remain Continue reading >>
New Diabetes Smart Watches At Ces 2017
We're sorry, an error occurred. We are unable to collect your feedback at this time. However, your feedback is important to us. Please try again later. Hey Diabetes Peeps, did you know that the term "complications" isn't always negative? Yep, it's a little known fact that in horology (the art of measuring time), a complication refers to any feature in a timepiece that goes beyond just simply displaying hours and minutes. That means day/date displays, alarms, stopwatch functions, etc. So finally, there are some diabetes-related complications we can all get behind! That is, lots of excitement this week about new glucose-tracking smartwatch features (err, complications) -- including a Dexcom-Apple Watch update and a new "Glucowatch 2.0" type device on display at the big annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that just wrapped up in Las Vegas. Earlier this week, Dexcom announced a new "complication" to its Apple Watch compatibility. Instead of having to touch an icon to open a separate screen to see your glucose data, it's now it's displayed right on the main watchface! There are four different ways to view your glucose data there, ranging from 1 to 6 hour trend graphs: Dexcom first announced Apple Watch compatibility in April 2015 with the Dexcom Follow app and watchface, and it later expanded that for all personal G5 CGM use on March 14, 2016. Now, this capability to see BG levels without pressing any buttons is a big change that many CGM users have been asking for quite a while. Currently, the new capability is only for the G5 Mobile app and Apple Watch, as the company hasn't yet updated the Follow app that lets users share their results in real-time with family members or others. Word is also that this new feature doesn't work with every single watchface, so if you hav Continue reading >>
Diabetics: Roche Says It Can Save You Big Money
Type 2 diabetes can wreak havoc on your health. While lifestyle changes can help keep diabetes under control, many patients require oral medications or insulin injections as forms of treatment, too. Watch the video for how diabetes affects your body. Time Pharmaceuticals maker Roche overhauled its blood glucose monitoring system and introduced a new discounting offer that it says could save uninsured diabetics by thousands of dollars per year. The move could help alleviate political pressure as the drug industry faces mounting scrutiny over prices. It also comes amid increasing competition among blood glucose monitoring makers as diabetes rates rise. The new system pairs a free blood glucose meter with a smartphone app and discounted test strips. With some diabetics paying as much as $2 a strip for other offerings, the new Roche system paired with a free savings card could cut costs to as little as 40 cents per strip in the first 50-count box, then 20 cents per strip in subsequent boxes. The nation's 29-million diabetics pay widely varying prices for testing products, in part because many of them are covered by insurance. Roches' move is likely to provide the biggest help to the uninsured. The average American diabetic paid $1,922 in out-of-pocket expenses for care in 2013, compared to $738 for someone without the condition, according to the Health Care Cost Institute. For "the average patient, managing diabetes and acquiring all of the testing and therapy supplies can be very difficult to navigate, really complex and very often very expensive," said Brad Moore, head of Roche diabetes care in North America. The new system offers a spill-resistant vial, a larger blood application area on upgraded strips and a light on the strip port for improved visibility when testin Continue reading >>
New Ways For Monitoring Diabetes
A few months ago, WT published an article about diabetes. The facts are simple and the consequences are rapidly effecting today´s generation. The statistics published by International Diabetes Federation are astonishing and should be a warning to all people. You can learn more about the numbers concerning some of the studies at, Modern Man Disease. Unfortunately, diabetes has no immediate cure. Thousands of people are diagnosed each day. There are many options for monitoring glucose levels; from old invasive and painful devices, to now non-invasive Blood Glucose monitoring devices. For diabetics that are interested in learn about new, noninvasive technology, keep reading for a short review of the latest trends. DIA-VIT is a non-invasive glucose self-monitoring device. It measures the glucose level in your blood. Their smartphone app keeps a diary of your daily data, so you can track patterns in your fluctuation glucose level. By monitoring your condition, you are then able to be more aware of your condition. SugarBeat is a non-invasive patch. It contains an electronic sensor that detects real time measurements. The patch is disposable and is about 1mm thick. Your glucose level is measured through the skin every 5 minutes. SugarBeat is connected to an app where also all the readings are forwarded. GlucoTrack clippes to your earlobe in order to test your blood sugar level. The device contains 2 parts: Main Unit (MU) and ear clip. The ear clip doesn’t hurt, in fact it’s really simple. Just clip it on and tap-da! Your glucose level appears on the MU. GlucoTrack uses three independent technologies, simultaneously: ultrasonic, electromagnetic and thermal. All measurements are combined by a unique proprietary algorithm, which calculates the weighted average and returns th Continue reading >>
The Fda Has Approved A Blood Sugar Monitor That Doesn’t Require A Finger Prick
Further proof the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been warming up to modern technology — it has just approved the first continuous blood sugar monitor that doesn’t require the user to prick themselves over and over for a blood sample. Today, the FDA cleared Abbot’s FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System, a device that uses a small sensor wire inserted under the skin to determine glucose levels in adult diabetics. Another wand-like device is then waved over the sensor to measure and give a readout of those glucose levels. This is a milestone move for the FDA as diabetes affects nearly 30 million people in the United States who currently have to test their blood sugar by pricking themselves several times throughout the day and every time they eat. However, the idea for a prickless blood sugar monitor isn’t new. Tech companies have increasingly shown an interest in the massive diabetics market over the past few years. Apple is rumored to be working on such a device and its CEO Tim Cook has even been spotted wearing a possible prototype that could connect to the Apple Watch. Other companies endeavor to build something similar, including Glucowise, which has a device still under development. However, it seems it’s not so easy to create a needleless blood sugar detector. Google tried to build a contact lens that could detect glucose but it seems the project has gone nowhere since drug company Novartis licensed the tech in 2014. Another FDA-approved device for glucose monitoring without the prick called the GlucoWatch was approved in the early 2000’s, but consumers found it cumbersome and it happened to cause a bad rash in some. But there’s new hope today that the Freestyle monitor has worked out all the kinks. The device is intended for those 18 a Continue reading >>
- Abbott wins FDA approval for diabetes device that doesn't require routine finger pricks
- Abbott wins FDA approval for diabetes device that doesn't require routine finger pricks
- Tiny sensor placed under the skin to replace finger prick tests for diabetes: Smartphone app will alert patients if their blood sugar level drops or is too high
Apple And Amazons Moves In Health Signal A Coming Transformation - Surgical Intervention
THE past decade has seen the smartphone become a portal for managing daily life. Consumers use their pocket computers to bank, buy and befriend. Now this array of activities is expanding into an even more vital sphere. Apple has spent three years preparing its devices and software to process medical data, offering products to researchers and clinical-care teams. On January 24th it announced the result. The next big software update for its iPhone will include a feature, Health Records, to allow users to view, manage and share their medical records. Embedded in Apple’s Health app, the new feature will bring together medical data from participating hospitals and clinics, as well as from the iPhone itself, giving millions of Americans direct digital control of their own health information for the first time. Apple’s fellow tech giants are also on the march into medical services. On January 30th Amazon announced a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to create a not-for-profit health-care company for their own employees that promises to employ technology to provide cheaper care than conventional health insurers offer. For the past year, the e-commerce giant has also been exploring a venture to use its logistical prowess to start selling drugs online. Alphabet, Google’s parent, has just launched a third health-care firm, Cityblock Health, to operate alongside Verily, a subsidiary based in San Francisco, and DeepMind Health, an arm of its London-based artificial-intelligence (AI) firm (a fourth company, Calico, is working to extend human lifespans, but does not provide health-care services). Alphabet already claims to be able to use AI to predict possible deaths of hospitalised patients two days earlier than current methods, for instance, allowing more Continue reading >>
Preventing And Reversing Diabetes Naturally(2010)
Preventing and Reversing Diabetes Naturally features Dr. Gary Null along with the world's top Medical Doctors, Psychiatrists and Psychologists who will show your viewers the latest, most powerful natural and conventional approaches to prevent or reverse Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome. Written by Gary Null & Associates Continue reading >>
Apple Watch's Heart Rate Sensor Can Detect Diabetes, Cardiogram Study Finds
Apple Watch's heart rate sensor can detect diabetes, Cardiogram study finds Another way Apple Watch can save your life. Use commas to separate multiple email addresses The tiny Apple Watches on our wrists have already saved lives . Not only do they keep us more active, they can also detect a variety of heart diseases without needing any additional bands or accessories. But a new study by Cardiogram is taking it one step further. The mobile health data companys deep learning network, DeepHeart, already uses data from the Apple Watch ($429 on Apple.com ) heart rate sensor to detect atrial fibrillation , hypertension, and sleep apnea. Now its adding a new disease to the list: diabetes. While Apple and Google have been rumored to be working on hardware capable of monitoring glucose levels , Cardiograms study used nothing more than machine learning and the Apple Watchs heart rate sensor to detect whether a user has diabetes. The heart rate sensor that you wear already from the Apple Watch may actually be able to detect signs of diabetes, Cardiogram co-founder Brandon Ballinger told Macworld. In the end, the final accuracy was 85 percent, which is pretty high for performing wrist applications." [ Further reading: Everything you need to know about iOS 11 ] The impact on you at home: Apple is selling more watches than ever, and the vast majority of people are using them mainly for their health and fitness benefits. Weve heard numerous stories of how Apple Watchs heart rate sensor has saved people from heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms, and Cardiogram's research on atrial fibrillation last year ended up mirroring Apple's own study in watchOS 4. But diabetes detection ups the ante considerably. If we can start extrapolating the heart-rate data from Apple Watch to detect ailm Continue reading >>
Voice-powered, In-home Care Platform Wins Amazon Alexa Diabetes Competition
Industry Market Trends, Research & Analysis Voice-powered, in-home care platform wins Amazon Alexa diabetes competition Seattle-based Wellpepper , developers of a digital patient engagement service, have been announced the winners of the Alexa Diabetes Challenge for their voice-enabled diabetes support platform Sugarpod. Consisting of a scale, foot scanner, and mobile interface along with a Amazon Alexa voice functionality, Sugarpod is designed to support type 2 diabetes care plans by integrating engagement and regular screening into a patient’s daily routine, Wellpepper CEO and Cofounder Anne Weiler explained. The prototype platform does so by living in the home, and permitting numerous engagement interfaces via SMS, email, web, mobile app, and voice. “There are times when voice is a fantastic interface, and times when voice is not the right interface,” Weiler told MobiHealthNews. “We see this as one of many interfaces that you can use to engage people and meet them where they are.” Weiler said that the inclusion of prototype hardware in the scale and scanner was new ground for her team, whose existing Wellpepper platform is software-based. However, they pursued the concept when they realized that having both the scale and the scanner in a diabetes patient’s home offered a unique opportunity for regular home check-ins. “First thing in the morning, [a user] steps on the scale. It takes her weight and then it also asks if it can take pictures of her feet, and then it puts those through a machine-learning image classifier that looks for problems,” Weiler said. “It’s basically looking for early indication of diabetic foot ulcers. Diabetic foot ulcers cost the health system $9 billion a year, and people who have them are at greater risk of amputat Continue reading >>
Pkvitality
painless blood-free glucose monitoring K’Watch Glucose is the first wearable tracker that measures your glucose effortlessly, painlessly and in just a matter of seconds. K’Watch allows diabetics to self-monitor their glucose levels without the need for cumbersome and painful blood-based tests. K’Watch Glucose requires no calibration, just a simple press gesture on the watch to display the glucose level. How does it work ? K’Watch Glucose is equipped with K’apsul®, utilizing a revolutionary biosensor which, when in contact with the skin, tests glucose levels without the need of blood samples. Quite imperceptible and totally painless, K’apsul can take unlimited measurements within a 30-day period with results being displayed on the K’Watch screen as well as synced to its dedicated app. No bulky material, K’Watch Glucose can be discreetly worn all day long and in all conditions. Monitoring your blood glucose in every social setting becomes possible, whether you are at work or even when exercising – when glucose level are prone to spike. K’Watch Glucose can also track steps taken, distance traveled and calories burnt. K’Watch Glucose makes a diabetic’s life easier. In order to better monitor their health, users can connect K’Watch Glucose with its dedicated iOS and Android app to show a complete data history over time and share those results with a relative or a professional. K’Watch can also send alerts to remind users to check their glucose level. Diabetes is characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia, which is an excess of sugar in the blood. With 415M people affected (1 in 11 worldwide), diabetes is widespread and is progressing rapidly. It is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke, lower limb amputation, and 1.5 mill Continue reading >>
