A very Appy week!

March 8, 2014 | by

Although my fellow editor Chrys has done a great job of covering the Ofcom-sponsored report on attitudes and behaviours of apps users, and The Boss (aka Donna) has highlighted the HIMSS Analytics Mobile Study as well as covering the opposition to the PROTECT legislation, identifying a tax issue that might just be behind it all, there is still more to report on the apps front this week.

Beginning with that PROTECT legislation, the same Brad Thompson that Donna quotes also writes in Mobihealthnews of the recommendations of the FDASIA committee on how the FDA can improve the regulation of mobile health. The overall recommendation is that the “FDA needs to do a better job at (more…)

Canada’s generic road forward on health tech

August 28, 2013 | by

Canada’s federal government has stated that they have been thinking long and hard about extending digital health to more Canadians. In 2012, they commissioned and funded an independent organization, Canada Health Infoway (Inforoute Santé du Canada in the mandatory bilingual terminology) to study future healthcare needs, determine where digital health could make a difference and propose a strategic plan. After surveying 500 individual Canadians, clinicians, governments and health care administrators, national associations and vendors (a small number, it seems to this Editor), their report (PDF here) centers on five opportunities for action: (more…)

New book: Technologies for Active Aging

June 16, 2013 | by

“Technologies for Active Aging offers novel answers to a range of aging issues, from safety and mobility to cognition and continence. Written for the non-technical reader, the book examines the potential of information and communicative technologies such as pervasive computing, smart environments, and robotics to enhance seniors’ quality of life and encourage independent living, better care and self-care, and social participation.” We can’t give a recommendation as we have not read it, but it is edited by two respected people in the field: Andrew Sixsmith of Simon Fraser University, and Gloria Gutman of the Gerontology Research Centre, both based in Vancouver. Technologies for Active Aging (PDF flyer). US Amazon link. UK Amazon link.