Health care

Can tech make us healthier?

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--While it's unlikely that we can tweet our way out of the obesity epidemic, social media does offer some opportunities to shift some of the factors that have led to our society's expanding waistlines.

Already there are plenty of services aimed at creating online communities for dieters or for people to post their workout successes online. And it's clear that Twitter and Facebook offer opportunities for positive reinforcement, online community and peer pressure to encourage healthier choices. But, despite a lot of innovation, just how to best harness social media is still a tricky … Read more

Law makes tech easier for blind, disabled (podcast)

The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which President Obama is expected to sign on Friday, would make it easier for people who are visually impaired, deaf, or have other disabilities to access smartphones, TV programming, and other technology products. This would include making sure that devices could, when possible, be used by people who may not be able to see a screen.

The act is designed to assure that closed captioning, which is required on TV broadcasts, also applies to Web TV programming, and it would require that TV and Web-video interface devices, such as remote controls, be … Read more

Medicare, veterans to get downloadable health info

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--The U.S. government is adding a new "blue button" to the Medicare and Veterans Affairs Web sites that will allow veterans and seniors on Medicare to download their health records onto their own computers. The program, though live already, is set to be formally unveiled by the White House tomorrow, CNET has learned.

For some time, the government has allowed both Medicare recipients and veterans to view their medical records or claims history, but is only now adding the download option, Health and Human Services department CTO Todd Park said in an interview today … Read more

Father: 'We are the drug dealers right now'

Nine middle school children were taken to a hospital in Bremerton, Wash., yesterday after taking drugs such as the painkiller Oxycontin that had been distributed by two boys but were prescribed to a parent.

None of the students were seriously harmed, but nearby Scott Depuy, whose son Ryan overdosed in 2008 on a mixture of painkillers, cough syrup, and anti-anxiety pills at the age of 17, decided it was time to talk to the press:

The drug dealers are in our houses now. We are the drug dealers right now. We're very good about locking up our firearms. People … Read more

Melinda Gates: Recession pressured global efforts

The tough economic conditions of the last few years have strained efforts to achieve global goals such as reducing poverty, improving health, and addressing environmental concerns, says Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Realistically in a recessionary time people do pull inward and I think it does become more difficult for certain," Gates said in a telephone call with reporters last week, held as the world marks 10 years since it set the Millennium Development Goals.

Gates said the goals she and the Gates Foundation are focused on--the ones related to reducing poverty and … Read more

Turning fog into potable water in arid Morocco

Six students from Rice University have spent the past month in Morocco figuring out how best to capture drops of water in the foggy Atlas Mountains so that nearby villagers have better access to safe drinking water.

Working in Sidi Ifni, Morocco, with the Dar Si Hmad Foundation--which was founded by 1998 Rice graduate Jamila Bargach--the students used structures resembling volleyball nets with a polyethylene mesh to capture tiny droplets of water that drip down the nets into tubes and then (thanks to gravity) down larger pipes that lead to a water storage tank at the bottom of the … Read more

New hydrogel stanches blood flow fast, cheaply

A synthetic new gel made of water and the fibrous polymer acrylamide kick into gear the blood-clotting protein known as factor VII, thereby stanching blood flow from deep wounds in just minutes, report researchers from the University of Maryland in College Park.

"You just apply it to the surface of a wound," says Brendan Casey, a biomedical engineer at the university who began investigating polymeric hydrogels in 2007 and presented his latest findings from experiments on sheep at this week's American Chemical Society fall meeting.

Hydrogels are by no means novel, but many are made of biological … Read more

Got 9 extra pounds of ab fat? Read this

There's no gentle way to put this, so I'll just come out with the cold, hard message from the Mayo Clinic this week: Letting even a small amount of weight creep onto our abs increases the risk for coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events, and furthermore, should not be considered a normal part of aging.

The Clinic studied 43 healthy volunteers with a mean age of 29, measuring blood flow through arm arteries to test the health of the inner lining of their blood vessels.

Over an eight-week period, some volunteers were instructed to maintain their weight, and … Read more

FDA OKs new type of diabetes-monitoring system

In development for more than five years, WellDoc's DiabetesManager System has just received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 510(k) clearance to be marketed to health care providers and adult patients with type 2 diabetes, the company announced.

A mobile health system, DiabetesManager will offer automated clinical coaching based on real-time patient data, enabling patients and health care professionals to set parameters and manage the disease outside of office visits.

WellDoc announced that it intends to commercially launch the system in early 2011, and will be an exhibitor in the inaugural Mobile Health Pavilion at the … Read more