Even health is 'smart' - ANSA.it

In the future we will be able

supertechnological relieve back pain with an emitter of microdischarges, analyze our lifestyle with a disposable patch, wear a vest to undergo Holter pressure but also contact lenses to monitor Diabetes . And this future is not that far away. After Google Glass and smartwatch wearable technology is invading the medical experiments – as he showed us the last CES in Las Vegas – which until a few years ago were unthinkable.

The latest news is Google: is testing a prototype contact lens that is inserted a microchip the size of a glitter able to improve the daily lives of people with diabetes, according to monitoring glucose levels. Even Apple is being applied to medicine: he enlisted experts in the field to add, most likely, his iWatch (the clock-pc long overdue) functions such as monitoring of pressure and metabolism. Functions that perhaps we could also see the iPhone where there is already a fingerprint recognition and tomorrow maybe the scanner of the retina (also under study on the Samsung Galaxy S5). And yet the Microsoft tries: is testing a bra with removable sensor capable of ‘understanding’ the mood of the wearer and adjust the nervous hunger. It microchip placed on a paralyzed arm can read the stimuli of neurons and translate them into movement and in the future also improve the sense of touch (I have explained researchers at Case Western Reserve University to MIT Technology Review).

Between the weirdest gadgets seen the last CES in Las Vegas there was a strange coat, vest type, worn over a t-shirt: it’s the Wireless Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor, a new gadget dedicated to the continuous measurement of blood pressure to be sent to your smartphone via bluetooth. But the technology fair also appeared a small device, such as phone handset, for tele-rapid diagnosis of arrhythmias: leaning on the bare chest and sends on the phone, and then the doctor, an ECG tracing. Hollywog is instead a device to relieve back pain: an emitter of microdischarges to be placed in the lumbar area that acting on the nervous system stops for a few hours the transmission of pain. Noteworthy is also the InteraXon Muse: a wearable headband which incorporates seven sensors that read our brainwaves. The purpose of the device: learning to ‘know’ our mind to control fatigue and concentration. Finally, the physical form not only monitors with bracelets (by Nike Fuel to Jawbone Up), there is also the Metria H1, a sensor encapsulated in a plaster able to measure for a week the data related to the lifestyle that then the doctor can analyze.

The flourishing of this kind of device indicates that the health sector ‘smart’ is growing: in 2013, has sold more than 40 million products, including bracelets and other sensory devices , and it is estimated that 142% in the next five years (data released at CES in Las Vegas). Not to mention the armature of the app health: according to Research2Guidance there are currently about 100 thousand each day that generate more than 4 million downloads.