Garmin Connect customers logged double-digit increases in almost every category in the app last year, reported the company Monday, citing higher usage amid the emergence of new COVID-19 variants. Indoor activities logged by Garmin users on the Connect app doubled from 2020, and fitness sessions indoors rose more than 20%, led by Pilates and yoga, it said: Wellness activities swelled, with an uptick in breath work.
Sensor company Somalytics plans to unveil capacitive sensors at CES 2022 that are designed to “feel” human presence, the company said Wednesday. SomaControl, a 3D gesture monitor, allows users to interact with and control a digital device using hand movements with no contact. It’s designed for applications in CE, gaming, assistive technology, health and wellness, industrial safety and transportation. The SomaSense flexible 3D sensing floor mat observes, monitors and reports on human wellness factors including presence, gait and foot pressure to help individuals with balance, movement and other challenges, the company said. The company's LVCC Central Hall booth is #15879.
Health technology company Movano announced a smart ring it plans to debut at CES that provides health metrics and personalized feedback for women. Due for a beta release in second half 2022, the ring measures heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, respiration, temperature, blood oxygen, steps and calories, Movano said Monday. It’s designed to help users make connections between cause and effect and understand the correlation between how they feel and health areas including activity and sleep. The company is doing clinical trials with its proprietary, RF-enabled technology and developing algorithms to add medical data, including glucose monitoring and cuffless blood pressure, to its core product in the future. It also hopes to secure Food and Drug Administration clearances on the ring’s vital signs and monitoring capabilities including heart rate, oxygen saturation level and respiration rate.
The FCC Wireline Bureau approved an additional $42.7 million for round two of the COVID-19 telehealth program, bringing the total to $208 million so far, said a public notice Tuesday in docket 20-89 (see 2111090074). The additional funding will support 68 healthcare providers to, among other things, treat COVID-19 patients, high-risk patients, and rural and low-income patients, and to provide behavioral health services.
More state telehealth bills passed in 2021 than in any prior year, the Center for Connected Health Policy reported Tuesday. Across 47 states, 201 bills passed this year, nearly double the total in 2020, when 36 states enacted 104 bills, it said.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is among those to testify at a planned Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday on telehealth services’ role in this pandemic and “how to structure future deployment and policy to address the needs of underserved communities,” the Commerce Committee said Monday. University of New Mexico School of Medicine Project Echo Director Sanjeev Arora, Avel eCare President Deanna Larson and American Academy of Family Physicians President Sterling Ransone will also testify. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. in Russell 253.
Universal Music Group will open its catalog of recordings to MedRhythms for treating patients who lose function to neurologic disease or injury, said the digital therapeutics company Wednesday. The neuroscience behind the MedRhythms “prescription music” platform, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, demonstrates how recorded songs “can profoundly impact the human brain” by targeting “specific neural circuitry to enhance clinical outcomes and boost neuroplasticity,” it said. Providing patients with music they enjoy “is a critical component” of the care they receive, it said. Research that shows that “auditory rhythm” can be used to directly target the “human motor system” to treat walking “deficits” caused by stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and “cognitive impairment,” it said.
Harman will lend its remote patient monitoring expertise to Happy Mama, a virtual maternity care platform operated by “social impact” nonprofit Reach, said the partners Monday. Reach describes Happy Mama as a “comprehensive digital therapeutic solution that encourages clinical decision support” for expectant and new mothers.
Though telehealth adoption is expanding “dramatically” during the COVID-19 pandemic, so also is the “gap” between access to connected health services and service “efficiency,” a Logitech-sponsored survey found. It commissioned Escalent to canvass about 150 providers in 22 countries in July, finding 86% say telehealth lets patients receive care they otherwise might not access physically, yet 46% say video-based telehealth is more efficient than in-person visits. More than eight in 10 providers report technical issues with their video quality over the past year “that they deem serious enough to disrupt the quality of care that they are able to deliver.” And 92% worry that poor video quality reduces the likelihood of the patient attending future telehealth visits, while two-thirds fear that lousy video experiences could prompt their patients to seek out alternative providers. “The data show gaps in the telehealth experience that prevent it from producing the outcomes that the industry needs and to sustain its momentum,” said Logitech. “Virtual care has never been more important.”
Northwell telehealth services are accessible on the Walgreens Find Care platform in New York state under the digital component of a five-year “strategic affiliation” agreement announced Thursday between the national pharmacy chain and New York’s largest healthcare provider. The agreement also calls for expanding patients’ access to virtual emergency care services from board-certified doctors, they said.