telemedicine

Once upon a time, people saw primary care physicians -- and often in the comfort of their own homes. These "house calls" are rare enough today to conjure Rockwellian images of doctors with stethoscopes leaning over little Junior's sweaty brow.

While these intimate visits are largely a relic, the ability to reach a caregiver quickly is getting easier and more sophisticated thanks to video chat technology. And now, online care provider American Well is joining a burgeoning number of providers (TelaDoc, Hello Health, and 3G Doctor, to name a few) that are bringing their online services to mobile devices.… Read more

While unmanned air vehicles are putting pilots out of business, a new U.S. Army-funded robot could do the same for rescuers and stevedores.

The humanoid BEAR (Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot) can locate victims in a mine shaft, battlefield, toxic spill, or earthquake-damaged structure. And then it can lift them up and then carry them over long distances to safety, according to the manufacturer Vecna Robotics. And it does this without risking any more lives (PDF).

The challenge was to enhance search and rescue while reducing the time military, police, and emergency response personnel have to risk their lives each day. … Read more

The current health care crisis has some experts saying that telemedicine's time has finally come.

While technology companies have been touting the use of virtual technology to allow doctors to remotely examine and monitor patients for decades, up until recently the business case for deploying these expensive systems was hard to justify. But now as lawmakers in Washington, D.C. look for ways to fix the broken health care system, technologies, such as high-definition video conferencing and telepresence, are getting a second look.

Last week, technology giant Cisco Systems and a major U.S. insurer UnitedHealth Group announced a … Read more

Hawaii's qualified uninsured women and Kaiser Permanente members are about to get free health care from some of the most state-of-the-art technology available in the U.S.

Kaiser Permanente is sending over its first mobile health vehicle that's wired to the hilt with a digital mammography machine and computers set up to access electronic health records and use remote video capabilities.

"We have an entire network on wheels," says Lisa Victor, the IT service delivery manager for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. This almost 500-square-foot futuristic semi-trailer sets sail from San Francisco to Hawaii's Big Island on … Read more