All posts by Jamie Davis

Fitbug KiK Programs Provide Individualized Health Planning



fitbug-orbChris Montera, on loan to the Health Tech Weekly podcast, talks with the folks at Fitbug while attending the International CES conference earlier this month in Las Vegas. Fitbug is debuting their new KiK initiative that pairs their fitness tracking devices with a new interactive program to provide individualized health care planning along with helping you meet your activity goals.

Fitbug founder Paul Landau, a fitness enthusiast and former management consultant, chats with Chris Montera about how the Fitbug device works with the new KiK program to help you meet all your fitness and health goals. It includes help with setting nutrition and other wellness goals through links to webcasts and other online resources that work with your Fitbug activity program to provide you ongoing encouragement. This greatly improves your chances of successfully meeting your goals, creating a healthier you!

The Fitbug device tracks steps, calories burned, distance traveled and works with an integrated mobile app that puts that information in the Fitbug cloud system and allows the Fitbug KiK system to start making suggestions to help you meet your stated goals. In addition to tracking activity, the Fitbug also tracks the quality of your sleep patterns, an often overlooked part of a healthy lifestyle program.

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Follow all the digital health coverage from CES 2014 here at the Tech Podcast Network at over at the Health Tech Weekly podcast with Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


The Vision Council Advances Technology for Healthy Eyes and Eyewear



LogoVisionCouncilThe Vision Council is a not for profit that is dedicated to really focusing in on all of the things that we can do to make our lives better through glasses. Maintaining healthy eyes through better designed eyewear is a passion for them. Chris Montera, guest correspondent for the Health Tech Weekly podcast chats with Mike in the Vision Council booth at the International CES show this year and they discuss how people can improve their eye health with the use of new, high-tech coatings for their corrective lenses, prolonging their eyesight.

One of the big things today in eye care  is what they call HEV or High Energy Violet light. Studies have shown that there’s a correlation between that and age-related macular degeneration by not blocking that light range out. Many of our computer screens put out a lot of this blue light range and it can cause damage to your eyes if it’s not filtered out by your lenses. Even people who do not use glasses could benefit through the long-term use of an HEV coating on a set of clear, non-corrective lenses to protect their eyes before the deterioration begins.

You can find out more about this and other initiatives from the Vision Council at their website, TheVisionCouncil.org. There you’ll find the latest in eyewear technology and eye health from this trade group representing your local eye care professionals in your communities.

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Get more segments and coverage from the digital health pavilion at CES 2014 here at the Tech Podcast Network and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast with Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.


Jamie Davis, Host at Health Tech Weekly, Going to CES



Hi, I’m Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, host of the MedicCast, the Nursing Show, and the Health Tech Weekly podcast and coming up this January I’ll be joining the Internatinoal CES 2014 coverage team from the Tech Podcast network for the third year, focusing on medical technology and digital health products. Together with the other tech podcast network hosts, we’ll be covering CES 2014 so you’ll feel as if you were there yourself!

HT_Weekly_iTunesThe digital health pavilion is nearly 40% larger this year and I’m going to be even busier than I was last year with getting all of the great health, wellness and fitness items covered. But I plan on doing it. I love new technologies in health care and even more, I love bringing the best of them to you! As a nurse and a paramedic, from the ProMed Network, TPN’s sister network, I bring the viewpoint of the health professional to the various medical, health and fitness devices and services presented at the show. I’ve already picked out some amazing standout health care gadgets to show to you as part of the TPN coverage and I’m going to be looking for more as I roam this huge event.

Make sure you follow my picks and coverage over at HTWeekly.com and the Tech Podcasts Network live CES 2014 coverage over at TPN.tv during the show where our entire CES team will be bringing you the best, the most innovative, and newest tech gadgets to you LIVE! So join us and millions of fellow viewers. Visit us at TPN.tv for the live stream and for releases after the show of our best of picks. That’s TPN.tv for all the live coverage and nearly 300 best of picks from our team. And don’t forget to check out my shows for at NursingShow.com, MedicCast.tv, and the brand new Health Tech weekly show at HTWeekly.com.


Padcaster iPad Studio Mobile Recording Setup



Padcaster Basic Setup
Padcaster Basic Setup

Put together a mobile video studio using your iPad with this unique solution from CES 2013. Chris Montera checks out the iPad Studio.

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John from Padcaster talks with Chris Montera about this mobile studio rig he brought to CES this year. You pop your iPad into the rig which has a lens adaptor and mounting screws for microphone, lights, and monopod or tripod. It can also be used in a hand held mode.

Because of the versatility of the iPad and installed software, the Padcaster rig becomes a complete studio with recording, production, editing and distribution all in one place. The lens adaptor allows for different lens configurations.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


Stern Pinball Games for the Consumer



Stern Pinball Releases Consumer Versions
Stern Pinball Releases Consumer Versions

You like pinball games as much as we do so stick around and see what the pinball pros at Stern are doing to bring pinball machines to home consumers.

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This is Stern’s first venture into consumer pinball machines. They are the only company in the world currently manufacturing pinball machines and now they’re bringing them into people’s homes. Stern wants to begin training a new generation of pinball enthusiasts by making the games more available to them.

These products are half the price of the least expensive commercial version but with commercial grade bumpers and flippers so that it doesn’t feel like a toy or cheap pinball machine. There are two consumer versions available now, Transformers and Avengers branded machines. They include multiball and many other “pro” features for half the price.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


Medfolio Medication Reminder System



Medfolio Pill Box
Medfolio Pill Box

What if you had a pillbox that could tell you when it’s time to take your medicine? The Medfolio Medication Reminder System at CES 2013 is set up to help patients with multiple medications remember their medications through multiple forms of reminders.

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Julie Mason from Medfolio chats with Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera about how she started the program and product development for the the medication reminder system. She’s a pharmacist who worked for many years with the Veterans Administration. In the past she has spent time working with patients on medication adherence and going into their homes to help them develop tools to remember their pills.

Basic Pill Box Enters 21st Century

The Medfolio system is build around a basic pillbox system because that is something consumers are familiar with. The device has been upgraded to the 21st century with built in software that allows patients or caregivers to enter medications and times into the system. When it’s time for a medication, that compartment will light up in the box and an alert chime will sound.

When coupled with an online reporting system, the Medifolio Medication Reminder device can trigger email or text alerts to both the patient and their caregivers.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


Grandcare Systems Help Elderly Stay at Home Longer



Elderly Care Given From Home
Elderly Care Given From Home

The area of home health care is exploding in our nation because of the aging population. Here’s a brand new solution from Grandcare Systems that is eHealth Tech worthy.

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Dr. Eric, the Medical Director for Grandcare Systems, joins Health Tech Weekly guest host Chris Montera to talk about this in-home tele health monitoring device. It was initially created for increased socialization opportunities for shut-in populations among the elderly. As the technology was continuously developed, there was an opportunity to begin to collect health and medical data using the system.

Using that information from the patient’s home gives caregivers and medical providers more opportunities to treat problems among the aging population of users before these problems become serious. Even when the patient is not seen in the doctor’s office, they can be safely and effectively monitored from a distance by family and health professionals.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


Dakim Brain Fitness Helps the Aging Brain



Dakim Brain Fitness Improves Cognition
Dakim Brain Fitness Improves Cognition

Have you ever wanted to know how to make your brain more powerful? We’ll show you that here from CES 2013 with Dakim Brain Fitness system.

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Dan from Dakim Brain Fitness joins Health Tech Weekly guest host, Chris Montera to talk about how their system helps older adults maintain brain fitness and agility. It helps baby-boomers and senior citizens maintain their cognitive performance as they age. Older members of the community look forward to being engaged and vibrant members of the community and using tools like the one from Dakim Brain Fitness, they can expect to.

The Dakim Brain Fitness System is clinically tested with a broad range of stimulating activities designed to help people improve their memory, language abilities, attention, focus and concentration. With continued use over time it can help protect them from the deleterious effects aging can have on cognitive function.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


United Healthcare Puts Dance Revolution in Schools



Dance, Dance Revolution Classroom Edition
Dance, Dance Revolution Classroom Edition

Kids need to dance and play. We’ll find out what United Healthcare is doing about that in this report from CES 2013 in Las Vegas.

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Brian Landwehr, Director of Innovation and R&D for United Healthcare chats with Jamie Davis about the latest initiative to combat childhood obesity from United Healthcare. They are funding a pilot program for multiplayer, school based versions of the popular dancing video game, Dance, Dance Revolution. It’s already changing lives for the better.

United Healthcare is partnering with Konami, makers of the popular dance game, to bring the classroom version of Dance, Dance Revolution to a number of schools that already have a relationship for health curriculum with United Healthcare. This type of initiative can have a positive effect on the whole family and, indeed, the community.

Healthcare Changes One (Dance) Step at a Time

Healthcare systems can reach out to people where they are and find ways to innovate in order to encourage and promote fit activities and behaviors. Kids are already playing video games. How do we take those existing activities and make them more health focused? Helping people become fit through activities in which they already participate helps create habits and lifestyle changes that will last throughout the patient’s lifetime.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).


Omron Healthcare Heart Rate Wrist Monitor



Omron Heart Rate Wrist Monitor
Omron Heart Rate Wrist Monitor

Monitor your heart rate anywhere you go, whatever you do with the Omron Healthcare Heartrate Monitor. Ranndy Kellogg from Omron took a few moments to talk with Jamie Davis, the Podmedic at CES 2013 in the Digital Health Pavilion.

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This amazing little heart rate monitor can be worn on the wrist instead of the chest bands used by many fitness places in the past. This is a strapless continuous heart rate monitor with optical sensors that read the blood flow in your capillaries and calculate your heart rate for you. It can be worn all day long with up to 8 hours of battery life for continuous monitoring during workouts. With periodic monitoring during workouts, battery life can last over a week.

Monitoring Heart Rate Improves Fitness

Checking your heart rate during workouts makes those workouts more effective. Even when walking, if you’re pace is not vigorous enough to stimulate a rise in heart rate, there is not as much benefit to the activity. To really see that benefit, you need to get your heart rate into a target range that burns calories and to do that, you must use some sort of heart rate monitoring technique or tool.

Video by Jamie Davis, the Podmedic from Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).