Category: Tech

Smart beds and sleep apps: Don’t sleep on their data collection practices

Your bed could be watching you. OK, so not with a camera. But if you have any of a variety of “smart beds,” mattress pads or sleep apps, it knows when you go to sleep. It knows when you toss and turn. It may even be able to tell when you’re having sex….

Would you trust Alexa with your patient data?

Amazon has opened a new health care frontier: Now Alexa can be used to transmit patient data. Using this new feature — which Amazon labeled as a “skill” — a company named Livongo will allow diabetes patients — which it calls “members” — to use the devi…

How non-video telehealth can be a cure for overprescribing antibiotics

When Dr. Fleming found penicillin mold in his Petri dishes in 1928, he had no idea of the impact he — and it — would have on global health. Penicillin and the antibiotic revolution that it triggered have saved countless lives and change world history. …

Electronic medical record interoperability is a total mess

Just the other day, while I was in the middle of seeing a morning schedule full of patients, I opened one patient’s chart and was thrilled to see a whole bunch of new icons in Chart Review in the electronic health record that I had never seen bef…

Are we making artificial intelligence biased?

The tale is told of a large realm, of 1.4 billion, the largest nation in the world. It has a culture that is old, rich and grounded. A citizen’s worth can be understood, determined, exalted or decried. In modern times said country has a visionary leade…

The effect of mobile devices on our collective psyche

During a recent walk at Crystal Cove, a splendid California State Park with miles of pristine coastline, I encountered two young women sitting on a bench with a magnificent view of the ocean.  Yet their only view of interest was their cell phone screen…

AI in medicine: Separate hype from reality

As a physician trying to keep up with all the new information about artificial intelligence, I want to know how machine learning and deep learning are impacting medicine now and to separate the hype from reality. Here’s a look at some ways AI is …

Digital health and artificial intelligence provide solutions to the global crisis in surgical care

In many countries around the world, women giving birth still face substantial risks to their own lives and that of their baby. Women travel for days to reach facilities that are understaffed, unsafe, and unequipped to provide life-saving surgical care….

Telehealth education: What do we actually need for our clinical practice?

As we go through our careers, we are given the responsibility of educating the next generation of students and residents to become proficient and competent in medicine. In telehealth, which also requires training my colleagues, is it necessary? If so, …

Why virtual visits may be an important tool for your practice

Telemedicine has been available now for a number of years. Despite being widely accessible, it still struggles to maintain a foothold in the minds of many traditional practitioners. There are many reasons for this, including gaps in knowledge related t…