Senior isolation is a health risk that affects at least a quarter of seniors over 65. It has become recognized over the past decade as a risk factor for poor aging outcomes including cognitive decline, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, impaired immune function, and even death.
Physical limitations, lack of transportation, and inadequate health literacy, among other social determinants of health (SDOH), further impair access to medical and mental
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Harvard Medical School
COVID-19 and Racial Disparities: Transforming the Health of Businesses
American businesses and their leadership are at a crossroads. COVID-19 has forced us all to re-evaluate how we work and live, while the current protest movements have placed a spotlight on the systemic injustices non-white workers face both in and out of the office. Given that communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, companies serious about doing right by their employees need to act decisively and clearly or risk becoming complicit in the racial and social
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Is Remote-Learning A Public Health Dilemma?
In 2014, pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom set out to better understand the student experience by sitting in on middle school classes. She sat. She sat some more. She then noticed that a day’s worth of sitting was affecting her ability to focus. She asked “how on Earth do these children tolerate sitting this long?” before spotting all the fidgety, distracted bodies – “well, the short answer is they don’t.”
This phenomenon is rooted in the commonly ignored factor that students
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VHA, Ontrak Launch 3-Year AI Study to Help Prevent Veteran Suicide
What You Should Know:
- The Veterans Health Administration has selected Ontrak
in collaboration with Harvard Medical School and Brown University to transform
suicide prevention care for veterans.
- Leveraging AI developed by a Harvard Medical School
professor and the core analytics of the Ontrak platform, the three-year study
will look at the effect of intensive care coaching in addition to the standard
of care for veterans at high risk of suicide after inpatient hospitalization at
a
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Fern Health Taps 10M Mass General De-Identified Patient Records for Pain Management
What You Should Know:
- Fern Health will reveal a
first-of-its-kind collaboration with Mass General Hospital where it will inform
existing and future digitally-delivered pain management programs through the
marriage of AI + predictive analytics with 10 million de-identified Mass
General patient records.
- MGH will validate emerging Fern Health products and pilot new products in clinical environments, setting the stage for Fern expansion into all aspects of non-invasive multimodal pain
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18 Healthcare Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Companies to Watch
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are redefining what's possible in healthcare, as well as other sectors. The 18 companies listed below are some of the top virtual and augmented reality companies in the medical industry.
Defining Augmented Reality
Augmented
reality is a technology that blends real-world elements with virtual ones. For
example, a person might visit a trade show and aim their smartphone at a
display to activate an AR experience that allows them to see
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Unlike Theranos: FDA Clears Sight Diagnostics’ Finger-Prick Blood Test for U.S. Market
- Sight Diagnostics, the company working to provide patients with lab-grade blood testing results in minutes, has received US FDA 510(k) clearance for its finger-prick blood test, OLO analyzer to be used in laboratories run by diagnostic providers and hospitals.
- Sight Diagnostics’ patented OLO analyzer digitizes blood into images to perform the most common blood test in minutes, from just two drops of blood
- The FDA clearance follows clinical trials at Boston Children’s Hospital,
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Mayo Appoints Dr. John Halamka As President of Mayo Clinic Platform
- Mayo Clinic names John Halamka, M.D. president of Mayo Clinic Platform, starting January 1st, 2020.
- Under his leadership, Dr. Halamka will help shape the future of Mayo Clinic Platform as part of Mayo Clinic’s digital health initiatives to support healthcare transformation.
John Halamka, M.D., has been named the president of Mayo Clinic Platform, starting Jan. 1, 2020. In his new role at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Halamka will oversee the future direction of the Mayo Clinic Platform that will help
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AI in Healthcare Is Exciting, However, It Is No Reason to Overpay For It
Eventually, many conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) include HAL.
An acronym for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, HAL played a prominent and disconcerting role in Stanley Kubrick’s mind-bending 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the film, sentient computer HAL learns that the humans suspect it of being in error and will disconnect it should that error be confirmed. Of course, HAL is having none of that, and terror ensues.
So influential was
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Kaiser Appoints First Chief Digital Officer, Teladoc’s New COO, Castlight Health CEO, Other Health IT Appointments
Kaiser Permanente has appointed Prat Vemana as its first chief digital officer for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. In this newly created role, Vemana will lead the ongoing development and execution of Kaiser Permanente's digital vision and strategy, in collaboration with internal health plan, hospital, and medical group teams.
Atlantic Health System has named Dr. Sylvia Romm as Chief Innovation Officer. In her new role, Romm will be responsible for building new partner
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