Short takes on news snippets from just about everywhere. It’s been that kind of a week. (Picture: the famous Raymond Loewy-designed ’49 Studebaker Commander, of which it was joked ‘you can’t tell whether it’s coming or going) Google-owned YouTube has decided to take a more organized approach to healthcare content with the hiring from CVS Health of Garth Graham, MD, who will serve as its director and global head of healthcare. At CVS, he was chief community health officer and president of the Aetna Foundation. His portfolio will include the development of content from providers including the Cleveland Clinic, the... Continue Reading
Search Results for loewy
A short but canny look at consumer behavior as a driver of health technology
Whether the global ‘smart home healthcare’ market actually totals $30bn by 2023, as a Research and Markets study trumpets, is debatable, but one thing that this Editor agrees with is that successful home health devices need to take a chapter from Steve Jobs’ Apple and famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy’s playbooks (search our Loewy references here) and design for how the consumer lives and would use their product. It isn’t flashy design awards, but how that technology can not only fit into a person’s life but also be an asset that they’d miss if someone took it away–a point often... Continue Reading
Comings and goings: CVS-Aetna finalizing, Anthem sued over merger, top changes at IBM Watson Health
What better way to introduce this new feature than with a picture of a Raymond Loewy-designed 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, where wags of the time joked that you couldn’t tell whether it was coming or going? Is it the turkey or the stuffing? In any case, it will be the place you’ll be going for the Pepto. The CVS-Aetna merger, CVS says, will close by Thanksgiving. This is despite various objections floated by California’s insurance commissioner, New York’s financial services superintendent, and the advocacy group Consumers Union. CEO Larry Merlo is confident that all three can be dealt with rapidly,... Continue Reading
The Theranos Story, ch. 51: how Holmes wasn’t Steve Jobs despite the turtlenecks–a compare and contrast
...unlike other visionary founders to pivot to what was possible. Jobs tempered his vision by using methods and technologies which already existed to leverage Apple into what he envisioned. (Jobs also had his fair number of stumbles, such as the Newton tablet where the vision exceeded the available technology. It was also too advanced, violating the Raymond Loewy maxim of ‘most advanced yet acceptable’.) Delighting the customer? Where Jobs excelled in this not only with end users but also with developer partners, Holmes failed and more. With deceptive blood testing, she hurt sick patients and doctors who depended on accuracy.... Continue Reading
Samsung’s $8bn Harman buy: what’s the digital health implications? (UPDATED)
...the more near-term area like partial assistance in driving), there is a chicken-egg dynamic on cabin enhancements–what can be done versus what should be done. (Designer Raymond Loewy’s MAYA–most advanced yet acceptable.) What connected technologies are helpful and valuable to the driver and passengers? Which ones increase safety, autonomy and security? Which ones add to the driver ‘load’ of distractions and increase danger to the driver and others? Pilots term this a too-busy cockpit. Remember that drivers aren’t pilots and don’t go through checklists and walkarounds before and after driving. We want to turn the key, tune the radio and... Continue Reading
Older adults anticipate their relationships with ‘helper’ robots: study
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Penn-State.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]How older adults (65+) respond to the idea of ‘helper robots’ which may be a part of their future lives span a wide range. The key seems to be that they are ‘most advanced, yet acceptable’ (designer Raymond Loewy’s MAYA dictum) when they perform passive ‘physical, informational and interactional’ tasks–‘helpers and butlers’ in the researchers’ terms. Robots which kick it up a notch and are more autonomous, making its own decisions without direction, are far less acceptable and perceived as ‘robot masters’. “Seniors do not mind having robots as companions, but they worry about the potential loss... Continue Reading
‘Déjà vu all over again’ or critical mass? NYTimes looks at older adult care tech
...call it) turned the corner of acceptability? More than that, has it arrived at what industrial designer Raymond Loewy dubbed MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) in keeping older adults safer and healthier at home? The DIY-installed Lively! system keeps an eye on a hale 78 year old painter’s daily activity for a daughter in Norway; the safety and personal tracking watch form factor is more than acceptable to Mom. Startup Honor and CareLinx are cited as connecting and vetting caregivers with older adults online. And some of this is catchup to what was too advanced at introduction. California long-term care... Continue Reading
UnaliWear Kanega assistance watch makes Kickstarter goal
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Unali-Kanega-new-iteration.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]The UnaliWear Kanega assistance watch [TTA 18 Feb] on Wednesday closed its Kickstarter crowdfunding over the top at $110,154. It has several features to promote safety for older people or the disabled, with fall detection, GPS and stand-alone cellular/Wi-Fi connectivity, but the most unique is voice recognition and command/response. Its latest prototype is half the case size as previously, with a more attractive analog watch face, which makes it a lot more MAYA (most advanced yet acceptable–Raymond Loewy), and a major improvement in form over your typical PERS or most GPS watches. With our usual caveat (if... Continue Reading
Assistive tech for older adults gets fresh developer interest, funding
...interest in backing due to the participants (but no prize money). Lift Labs was purchased by Google X last year. Caremerge is in 125 communities and is backed by GE Ventures, senior housing funding powerhouse Ziegler and Ziegler VC arm Link-age [TTA 1 Aug 14]. GeriJoy has been featured developed considerably in its focus and offerings yet is still in angel funding. Whether for ‘aging in place’ or in longer-term care facilities, these represent a step forward; what is still nonexistent for this market is a critical mass of products and services with MAYA–most advanced yet acceptable, in Raymond Loewy’s... Continue Reading
Humanoid robots and virtual humans in the ‘uncanny valley’
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/uncanny_2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]One of the challenges that designers of both robots and ‘virtual humans’ in online simulation settings is to make them, in the dictum of pioneering industrial designer Raymond Loewy, MAYA–‘most advanced yet acceptable’. The MAYA of robotics appearance was stated about 40 years ago by Professor Masahiro Mori at the Tokyo Institute of Technology; the more human and less machine-like the appearance, the more positive a real human’s emotional response will be. But as simulated humans have progressed in commercial animation and in online settings to ‘almost human’, there is a ‘creepiness factor’ that emerges when they... Continue Reading
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