Every once in a while, there comes innovative technology that has the potential to revolutionize howhealthcare is administered. Intelligent skin patches are quickly proving to be just that with GENTAG becoming one of the leaders in this niche industry.
The skin patch is a low cost, passive and customizable technology that does not require battery power tofunction. The skin patches are in fact a combination of an adhesive patch with an embedded RFID chip.

Initially, the skin patches found application as tools for identification. For instance, hospitals could usethe skin patches to reduce potentially life threatening errors involving surgery-patient mismatches,mother-child mismatches after child birth and patient-medication confusion.
The skin patches have also found application in amusement parks and similarly crowded locations wherethe possibility of children getting lost after being separated from their parents is high.
But now GENTAG is moving the application of skin patch technology a step further – RFID diagnosticskin patches. The diagnostic skin patches are simply ID skin patches but now with sensors based onGENTAG’s proprietary RFID chip technology.

These new skin patches facilitate the real time diagnosis, geo-location and health condition monitoring via smart phones, PDAs, laptops and PCs that can read RFID chips. Using these readers, the data can bequickly transferred from or to authorized persons whether it is a doctor or a close relative.
So far, patents have been filed for the diagnostic skin patch’s glucose level sensing, fever monitoring, UVexposure checks and temperature/pressure sensing. The adhesive used on the diagnostic skin patch isFDA approved and can last for up to 2 weeks depending on the wearer’s skin type.
Once the patch is removed, it cannot be re-used. Since the chip contains some sensitive information including a link to one’s medical records and a picture, this un-reusability is meant to reduce thelikelihood of the details of the previous wearer being used to execute fraud. That being said, the RFIDchip can be protected with a pass code just in case.

The GENTAG skin patch is shower proof, flood proof and does not trigger any allergies. Consistent with ISO standards, each RFID chip has a unique ID.
As a tool that makes health care more efficient than before, GENTAG is likely going places if it cancontinue to grow the number of health conditions that the patch can be used to diagnose. Theorganization is currently developing diagnostic skin patches for new conditions in conjunction with anumber of corporate partners.
Overall, the fact that the technology can be customized to diagnose a wide array of medical condition simplies that the opportunities for this product are vast.

Related articles

• What’s next for RFID? (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• Treating ADHD With a Skin Patch (everydayhealth.com)
• Edible RFID Tags Describe Your Food [Republished] (gizmodo.com)
• How a Carmaker Let Consumers Like It on Facebook – Without a PC or Phone [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Ortho-Tag Uses RFID To Identify Your Implants [Science] (gizmodo.com)

While technology has served a crucial role in directly advancing the frontiers of medicine, one
organization has ventured into less conventional waters. HopeLab is a not for profit organization that
uses technology to find ways of improving the health of kids grappling with some of the most common
debilitating medical conditions.

Established in 2001 by Pam Omidyar and headquartered in California, Hopelab.Org is geared towards
the development of innovative solutions founded on rigorous research.

For years, the role of the mind and positive affirmation in how fast a patient handles or recovers from
an illness has been recognized by health professionals. This is the reason why even though doctors and
nurses are under obligation to fully disclose medical conditions to each patient, medics must also ensure
the patient receives positive affirmation and continuous encouragement. HopeLab.Org simply takes this
concept a little further.

The organization’s first project was to find ways of healing process of cancer patients. As someone who
enjoyed using computer games to relax after a hard day’s work and with a software engineer husband,
Pam believed that computer games may be just what young cancer patients needed to not only get their
minds off the pain and treatment but to also strengthen their self belief in overcoming the disease.

This marked the birth of Re-Mission.Net, a video game that creates a virtual world where one can travel
throughout their body exterminating the cancer cells. The video game is provided free of charge to
cancer patients.

The second of Hopelab.Org’s two most prominent projects so far is Ruckus Nation. While Re-Mission.Net
was primarily a project for kids with cancer, Ruckus Nation fixed its eyes on another fast growing and life
shortening medical condition – obesity. While hereditary factors may play a role predisposing certain
kids to obesity, the two main causes of obesity can be drilled down to a poor diet coupled with little or
no exercise.

In this regard, Ruckus Nation was a worldwide competition that invited ideas on ways through which
children could be more active and therefore reducing the likelihood of gaining excess weight.

Ruckus Nation was a resounding success with over 400 entries received from 37 countries. Winners
were announced in March 2008 and Hopelab.Org has already hit the ground running to find ways of
implementing the best ideas from the competition.

Cancer and obesity are just two of the medical conditions Hopelab.Org has devoted its efforts to. The
not for profit organization also has its eyes on autism, sickle cell disease and major depressive disorder.

As long as the organization can muster adequate funding and volunteering man hours, Hopelab.Org.
And if the Vivendi, Cigna and LiveStrong partnerships the organization has so far managed to muster are
anything to go by, the organization can only look up.

	Zamzee Explore the online rewards platform for teens powered by physical activity.
	Re-Mission Discover the groundbreaking video game for young people with cancer.
	Ruckus Nation See how Ruckus Nation, HopeLab’s international online idea competition, generated new ideas for products to get kids moving.
	Digital Storytelling Workshop HopeLab held a workshop that encouraged children with cancer to utilize their storytelling skills.

Related articles

• Using game mechanics to solve healthcare problems (news.cnet.com)
• Games for Health: Benjamins, Fundreds and Exergames…oh my! (gamification.co)
• Let’s Game Physical: Fighting Obesity with Game Mechanics (blogs.cisco.com)
• Gamification of Health and Events at Internet Week New York (gamification.co)

For instance, making a decision to drink at least eight glasses of water each day is easy – consistently sticking to that routine for consecutive months and years is the hard part. Worse still is not having any quantitative data that can show you how well you are faring against your target.

Greengoose.com is a start up that uses wireless sensors integrated with a web based platform all of which are meant to help you automatically track progress on the realisation of your lifestyle goals. The sensors communicate with an egg-shaped wireless receiver each time you perform an action. The receiver is plugged into a port on the router. The receiver battery lasts for 1 year.

There are different types of sensors each meant to track different types of lifestyle actions. The ones meant to monitor exercise are the same size as a credit card and so can easily fit in a purse or wallet. Water or energy drink bottle sensors on the other hand are stickers that are placed on the side of the bottle. The tooth brush sensor is egg shaped and with a slot where the stem of the tooth brush can be slipped through.

Each time you perform one of the actions, you earn ‘lifestyle points’. If you remain consistent, you get bonus points. Greengoose.com also allows for the exchange or sharing of points with partnering organisations in return for a reward. Similarly, the information can be shared with other applications. You can even integrate it with a reward system for the kids. The strength of Greeengoose.com lies not only in its functionality but also in its ability to appeal to persons of all ages.

Greengoose.com incorporates fun and play even into those activities that have a serious impact on our health. The sensors can be just as home with the kids as they would be with parents. True to its name, the Greengoose.com encourages people that have no more use for the receiver and sensors to send them back. The company will then recycle them ready for reuse. Other than being a gadget for individual use in the home or office, Greengoose.com has a bright future as a tool for business.

The best prospects for Greengoose.com will probably lie in future partnerships with health services organizations and other institutions that would naturally be drawn to customers of Greengoose.com. Such partnership may range from simply co-branding Greengoose.com sensors and receivers to investing in the development of new types of sensors to measure an even broader range of activities.

For many people, the dawn of the New Year presents opportunity for new beginnings. This is what drives the practice of New Year’s resolutions. But the statistics are not good – few people manage to sustain the momentum on their resolutions beyond March.

Even worse is that this is not a problem bedevilling New Year’s resolutions alone but also many other day to day activities people purpose to do. The Getupp app for the iphone has been developed by a German start-up precisely to increase the completion rate of one’s commitments. Getupp does this by introducing a human element that has long been known as a powerful driver for goal realization – peer motivation.

Set a goal that only you know and chances are, you will struggle to meet it. On the other hand, if you make a commitment jointly with 2 or 3 friends, the camaraderie will reduce the likelihood of you giving up along the way. The very notion of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is evidence of how seriously people instinctively consider the opinions of those around them.

How does the Getupp app work? First, you commit to performing a certain action that requires you to be physically present in a specific location at a specific time in order for you to perform it. For instance, you can commit to go to the gym on Monday and Thursday at 1800hrs. Or you could commit to be home for dinner by 1900hrs.

When you make the commitment, the details are automatically shared with your Friends on Facebook. Your friends have the opportunity to vote on whether or not you are likely to fulfil your pledge.

Once you arrive at the site of the intended activity, launch the Getupp app and it automatically flags the commitment as fulfilled notifying your Facebook friends in the process. Getupp is location based, meaning you cannot flag a task as complete unless you are physically present (or at least the iphone is) at the location you indicated you would carry out the action.

If you fail to be at the activity’s location at the time specified, your Facebook friends are notified of your ‘failure’ and are free to mete out any other ‘punishment’ they deem fit.

Getupp addresses a real need. But while many people will not mind using it once in a while and mainly for fun, few are likely to use it daily. This app appears mainly geared to young adults. Even in this demographic though, it will have to struggle with a ‘juvenile-ish’ perception. This is regardless of whether one is actually succeeding or failing in fulfilling their commitments.

The very thought that one’s information is being distributed to all their Facebook friends (who are often of very varied temperaments, ages and convictions) can create a fear of embarrassment that may reduce uptake and ultimately, the Getupp app’s use.

It is this high cost of medical care in the West that has spawned medical tourism. Medical tourism is where a person travels to another country in order to access health care at a fraction of the cost they would incur for the same care in their home country.

It is not all rosy though – medical tourism has its risks. For instance, most potential medical tourists start their research on the internet. But the internet is full of difficult to understand information, contradictory claims and unclear accreditation standards. The reality is that medical quacks are just a few clicks away.

Tripmedi.com, a joint winner of StartupBus 2011, has developed an online service to steer medical tourists away from these and other pitfalls they are often exposed to. Tripmedi.com creates an intuitive way for people to get the information they need to make the right decisions when going for surgery overseas.

It has a friendly user interface that allows users to evaluate different medical choices overseas. The parameters the different choices can be evaluated against in Tripmedi.com include quality of service, reputation, cost of surgery and location.

In particular, Tripmedi.com focuses on 3 pillars in helping medical tourists make the decision to travel abroad. First is statistics on the doctor’s past performance. Such statistics would include the number of procedures the doctor has carried out versus the number of complications or infections that have resulted from the surgeries the doctor has participated in. Most world class hospitals routinely record such information.

The second pillar is the doctor’s resume as well as the reputation of the hospital. How many years has the doctor been in the practice? What qualifications do they hold? What are their areas of specialisation? What nationally or internationally respected awards has the hospital or the doctor received?

The third pillar of Tripmedi.com is probably the most important – community recommendations. This is born of the recognition that statistics alone (however detailed) do not provide the necessary level of reassurance that one needs to select the country, hospital or doctor to go to for the procedure.

Unanimous word of mouth still trumps statistics. Through community recommendations, users that have had experience in a given country or hospital or with a particular doctor can give their own view of how the country, hospital or doctor measures up.

Tripmedi.com is wading into an area that has a huge market and potential for growth as long as the cost of world class medical care continues to differ by as wide a margin as it does today between countries.

As long as Tripmedi.com can ensure that the information is up to date – a tall order considering the number of countries such medical institutions are spread out in – it will rise to the top as one of the most authoritative sources of information for medical tourists.

Over the last 10 or 15 years, the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained traction worldwide as an integral part of the responsible business’ strategy. However, the growth of CSR has inadvertently created the impression that activities to make the world a better place are difficult or near impossible to monetize.

Of course, nothing could be further from fact – there are numerous business that are solely involved in social activities and are returning a profit from doing so. 33needs.com is an online crowd funding website that connects social entrepreneurs with investors.

33needs.com serves as a platform (the only one of its kind) for ordinary people to invest in social enterprises and reap financial and emotional reward. The emotional reward is in knowing that one has contributed to making a difference somewhere in the world.

Financial reward is in ‘Impact Points’ awarded by 33needs.com that can be redeemed in any one of a network of ‘Impact Partners’ around the world. There are 6 classes of social enterprises that the 33needs.com helps organise funding for.

• Health – Businesses that provide products and services that help people live healthier and longer lives.
• Sustainable food – Enterprises that use sustainable farming and processing practices to make more food available to meet the need of the world’s burgeoning population.
• Opportunity – Businesses that equip men and women with the skills necessary to provide for their households.
• Planet – Entrepreneurs whose goal is to ensure a cleaner world.
• Education – Individuals or institutions that create the environment for more people to access a good education.
• Community – Enterprises that work towards the protection and preservation of unique but endangered cultures.

The social entrepreneur must indicate a specific target amount that they would like to raise. The funds are only released to the entrepreneur if the contributions from investors reach the target amount. If the total amount invested does not reach the target figure, the investors get a full refund of their money.

The rationale for refunding investments when they fall short is to ensure the entrepreneur has all the cash they need to achieve the goals they had outlined. This is good for investors as it reduces the likelihood of failed enterprises or projects.

The accrual purpose for the money will differ for each business. The cash may be for starting up a new business or to expand a going concern. The funds may go towards building a website, increasing inventory, research, marketing etcetera. 33needs.com helps social enterprises address their operational needs so they can focus on delivering their product.

The fact that investors are individuals who are attracted by the cause the social enterprise stands for means the social entrepreneur enjoys support from persons that are passionate about their business. This alone serves as a powerful drive for entrepreneurs to achieve the goals they commit to at the point of sourcing for funding.

While 33needs.com is quickly making a name in the crowd funding arena, its difficult-to-understand and widely-varying reward structure might be an impediment to more investors signing up. However, it has the potential of making headway among persons that would like to make a difference without necessarily expecting anything in return. This is because there is no collateral that the investor can redeem if the social enterprise goes bust.

A company called Greenbutts has developed are all-natural, it is a 100%  biodegradable filters, furthermore when thrown on soil the inner seed becomes grass shoots or even flowers. It aims to solve the problem of cigarettes filters today that take up to 15 years to disintegrate. And apparently it makes cigarettes taste better.

Compared to Old technology

Most cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate. Technically it is biodegradable, practically it’s not very true. The duration of the degradation process can take as long as 10–15 years. When you think 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become litter every year and this number is growing, this means 10-15 is way to long. In the 2006, cigarettes constituted 24.7% of the total collected pieces of garbage, 2x than any other category. Further more  filters slowly degrade into the ground and water supplies with the cellulose acetate and other chemical particles that are suspected of causing harm in humans,

http://www.green-butts.com/

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/stuff-happens-no-butts-for-mother-nature.html

” …uses extremely small nanoparticles embedded into the hydrogel lenses. These engineered nanoparticles react with glucose molecules found in tears, causing a chemical reaction that changes their colour.”

Source: http://www.neatorama.com/2009/12/23/contact-lenses-that-change-color-to-alert-diabetics-of-glucose-levels/

It would give you a possible list of illnesses
A comprehensive risk factor
Simple advices
and statistics ( for exemple the percentage of the population who had that illness)

(that was kind of a gay question)

Offering could service for those patients would be very lucrative and easily marketable (Doctors not very good at that either). By building strong partnerships with practices or even renting out some of your space for a doctor to establish his practice is the key.

I think the US and most of europe is not where you have to look. Cosmetic surgery travel is growing strongly ( romania, morocco, egypt), people are very keen on paying up to 3x times less. But few of those practices are well management, marketing is really bad and post-op care even worst.

Patients would be delighted to be taken care of by a specialized Hotel Spa & wellness for only 10%-20%. By providing tailored services for those procedures and professional health expertise in a relaxing atmosphere would be very appealing to a big part of the market segment.

Loads of issues have to be taken care of as soon as you touch to the health market but none of them are unresolvable.

The idea is simple:

If you feel tired and you want to take a short and efficient nap, or if you feel that sleeping 30 minutes could substantially improve the quality of your work, then just take the power nap pill. It takes about 10 minutes to act, then swiftly puts you to sleep. With characteristics consisting of a short half-life in the blood and a powerful mode of action, you can get 30 minutes of efficient sleep and wake up before your boss is back!