IoT Healthcare Solutions Raise the Temperature at CES

Healthcare is one of the most important areas for innovation in the IoT. Even moving beyond personal health monitoring wearables (the effectiveness of which is in some doubt, still), doctors, nurses and hospitals can use various connected, smart devices to improve the health of their patients and even get services to people who otherwise would go without.

Many vendors are looking to meet these needs, and at this week’s CES, some of the best are showing off shiny new solutions. Let’s look at a few, shall we?

AT&T Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions
AT&T is already showing itself to be a master of the IoT, both in terms of connectivity and in the devices space. This week, the company unveiled its Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solutions that use connected devices to collect biometric data from sick and at-risk individuals outside of healthcare facilities and then send the relevant data to designated medical professionals and caregivers.

The devices are designed to provide accurate, near real-time biometric data about the individual and the company said they will decrease hospitalizations and help people feel more in control of their own care.

This is a Software as a Service (SaaS) play that lives in the cloud. Data is transmitted from the sensors via Bluetooth and can trigger automated coaching and reminders for preventative treatments through the provided interactive tablets. Finally, it is all highly-secure in order to support HIPAA compliance.

ReliefBand

At CES, ReliefBand Technologies has revealed its chief ReliefBand product, which is an FDA-cleared device for the drug-free treatment of nausea associated with motion and morning sickness.

This is one of the few wearables designed to actually treat a condition, rather than just monitor and report on it.

The ReliefBand works on a patented technology that sends programmed pulses with highly specific waveform, frequency, and intensity designed to stimulate the median nerve on the underside of the wrist. This “neuromodulation” blocks nausea, the company said.

The technology came out of beta testing at the end of 2015 and similar treatments have been in use by doctors for the treatment of morning sickness, post-operative nausea and sickness caused by therapies such as chemotherapy for nearly twenty years.

MOCAheart

MOCACARE, a heart health device manufacturer, has brought latest version of its MOCAheart device to CES 2016, and is showing off a new line of accessories for integrating heart health measurements into daily routines. MOCAheart measures blood velocity, which is correlated to blood pressure, as an alternative to traditional blood pressure measurement methods.

The device combines thumb scans with sophisticated algorithms to determine a number of important indicators of heart health, including heart rate and blood oxygen levels and provides a read out to users in a 1 to 5 scale from Low to Very High called the MOCA INDEX.

The MOCA INDEX is calculated from blood velocity. The company chose this metric because, as it says, “the faster blood travels through blood vessels, the more pressure the heart is under. Thus, higher blood velocity, meaning higher blood pressure, leads to a higher MOCA INDEX.”

The company is careful to say that its device is not a replacement for recommended medical testing, but positions it as an enhancement and an empowerment tool for people to track their health.

There’s lots more, but these are some of our favorites. Keep reading for more.