Monday January 9 2012 marked the opening of the Consumer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas.
Among the carnival-like presentations both on the exhibit floor and in conference were many medical applications in hardware and software. After all,, medical practices and physicians are consumers.
Connectivity is high on the list of presentations.. Physical security of the mobile hand held devices was important, however the real value is the software and data in the device.
Consumer oriented health monitors were also on the list:
This one is from Zensorium. and intended for iOS. (iPhone)
RFID for security is available with small tags on laptop cases, smartphones, iPads and the like “Tags” are available for pets and even children to keep them from wandering off. It could even be used for ‘colleagues’ and peers to keep from losing each other even significant others or spouses. (in an extreme case).The potential for use in hospitals is great to locate patients who may be roaming to special testing. Physicians hate going to an empty room when they expect to see the patient.
Digital healthcare was no stranger at the CES. From Panasonic to Allscripts medical applications are being mainstreamed even in the consumer retail market place. COSTCO offers the Allscripts My Way EMR which can be purchased at any Costco warehouse.
In addition to mobile apps and advances in display technology the merger of automobile connectivity within the vehicle and also externally for safety features are being emphasized as selling points for vehicles
Ford, Microsoft, Healthrageous and BlueMetal Architects announced an alliance to research technology to help people monitor and maintain health and wellness while on the move during the “Doctor in Your Car” keynote address at the Digital Health Summit at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
An interesting statistic (Pew)
More people now visit online health sites than go to the doctor’s office, making health and wellness the most popular activity on the Web after email and general searches.
Social media was also a large component of the CES. Reporters, presenters, and observers were all well connected via email, im, twitter, FB and Google +. Multi-tasking was a necessity on the floor and in the booths. The infrastructure to support this seemed to be better than in most previous CES’ The learning curve from previous event was obvious and the ‘show’ ran smoothly There appeared to be little difficulty with broadband access nor bandwidth. Convention centers seem to have caught up with the never ending growth of demand for wider ‘pipes’.. I watched much of #CES from the comfort of my desk , at C-net, Ustream.tv and Techcrunch,and Twit.tv .
It eliminated the challenges of air travel, TSA and DHS.
