EHRs embrace health and fitness data | mHealthNews. About Us. Health Plans: Start Your Engines and Welcome to 2013. This is going to be a game-changing year for the health insurance industry. Last June the Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and with the Presidential election behind us, the focus now shifts toward execution of health insurance exchanges in January 2014. Health plans are working feverishly to accommodate a radically changing environment that will disrupt their core business and eventually will totally transform what it means to be a health plan.
At the heart of change (driven in part by the individual mandate) is a shift toward the consumer as the customer. Individuals will have more autonomy to choose their health plan and benefit design, shifting the orientation of health plans to winning the hearts and minds of the individual market. In addition to the new federal regulations, market forces are driving transformational change that is putting the focus squarely on the consumer. Batta Batta Swing …. Aetna’s fitness app Passage uses Instagram, Google Maps.
At the mHealth Summit in December, when Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini announced a March 2013 launch of the mobile version of Aetna’s CarePass platform , he also previewed a fitness app called Passage: A Virtual Journey. The free app is available to everyone, not just Aetna members. “Instead of staring at a book while you’re on your elliptical or stairclimber, what we have is an opportunity to turn your fitness into a journey, wherever you want to go,” he said at the time. “It engages the consumer in thinking about places they want to go, sets goals, and allows them to make the journey personal and complete, bringing the world to them.” Earlier this week, the app launched for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iOS AppStore .
The app uses the Apple device’s built-in accelerometers as a pedometer to track the users’ steps whenever the app is open and running. Many apps use gamification to turn exercising into something more — the popular “Zombies, Run!” Valencell | PerformTek™ sensor technology leverages the natural physiology of the ear to track biometric data. Why You Need an Employee Wellness Program | Keas. Wellness Layers Inc. - Health and Wellness Platform for Online Patient and Customer Engagement. The Wellness Layers Platform Custom Edition is a strong, scalable and integrated foundation for your health and wellness development needs for web and mobile destinations. Enjoy the best of both worlds by working with an experienced team that has the ability and expertise to customize a system for your brand in half the time and for half the cost of an internal team or an agency. Our flexible platform, equipped with our proven me-we-info formula is thoroughly honed to support and grow engagement, outcomes, acquisition and conversion. leverage our platform and expertise to build your visionThe Custom Edition is built on a modular .NET architecture to allow for deep customization and integration.
During the development of a new system, we will work with you to create a web and mobile destination that is unique to your needs. Wellness Layers includes strategic planning, concept development, project and account management support, as well as on-site implementation and training services. With 30 million users, MyFitnessPal launches a new API to integrate with Fitbit, Runtastic and more. MyFitnessPal has carved a rather large niche for itself in the online health space, and today it announced it has passed the 30-million-users mark as it debuts its first API alongside a slew of partnerships. MyFitnessPal delivers a pretty comprehensive cross-platform tool for managing and monitoring eating habits, offering Web and native apps for the most popular mobile operating systems. Now, with an impressive 30 million users under its belt, the MyFitnessPal API is launching to feed into a myriad of third-party apps — including Fitbit, Runtastic, Endomondo and Withings — which promises to enable other health-related apps to tap users’ profiles on MyFitnessPal and integrate directly with their food diary and exercise log.
With more than 2 million listings, MyFitnessPal claims to have the largest database of nutritional information, including restaurants and food brands. By gathering even more data in one place, MyFitnessPal now offers a pretty complete picture of users overall health. 10 Wearable Devices To Keep Patients Healthy -- InformationWeek. Wearable devices equipped with sensors, Web connections, or both, help consumers and healthcare providers track health and fitness. Take a look at what's possible now. 1 of 10 Smartwatches may be cool, but wearable health monitoring devices could save your life.
These gadgets now run the gamut in goals, from managing chronic disease to optimizing fitness programs. Some devices allow medical providers to monitor a patient's disorder, in the hopes that doctors can intervene earlier and patients can avoid complications. Other devices can detect whether an elderly patient has taken a fall, or remind patients it's time to take their medications. Still other wearables allow consumers to keep tabs on their own health and fitness, helping them lose weight or sleep better. Wearable devices provide output and connect to the Web in various ways.
Take a look at the range of devices in use now, from hospital settings to homes. More Insights. Fitness Wearables: Only 4 Percent of U.S. Adults Actually Want 'Em | Gadget Lab. The Fitbit Flex is one of a number of wearable fitness trackers that have been introduced in recent years. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired If you’re a tech-loving urban hipster who’s into their smartphone, buying organic produce, and exercising, guess what? You are incredibly likely to purchase wearable fitness-tracking tech like the Fitbit Flex or the Basis band. Although many of us at Wired count ourselves among that group, this target demographic is pretty small — four out of every 100 people, according to a report from Forrester titled “Fitness Wearables — Many Products, Few Customers.”
A greater number, 17 percent of online adults or around 30 million people, showed interested in buying the Nike FuelBand, though, likely thanks to Nike’s name brand recognition. But only a scant 8 million people actually show positive indicators that they’d actually be willing to strap a sensor-filled gadget to their arm or wrist, Forrester’s Sarah Rotman Epps found. Mike's profile at MyFitnessPal. About Me: My name is Mike, and I'm the creator of MyFitnessPal. I made the site because I wanted to lose weight, but I didn't like any of the other calorie counters I found on the web - so I made my own!
I hope you like it as much as I do. And since it's just me and my brother working on the site, it doesn't cost much to run so I can afford to make it available to everyone for free. If you're looking for technical support, please post your question in our technical support forum on the "Community" tab. You'll get an answer MUCH faster from another member than you will from me. Why I want to get in shape I want to make sure I live a long, healthy life so that I'm still around when my kids grow up. My Inspirations My daughter - she is the cutest! Friends View All (584) mike's Recent Forum Posts View All Ticker/Weight Loss Badge not being displayed Sun 01/27/13 08:48AM Sorry about that folks - should be working again now.
Free Calorie Counter, Diet & Exercise Journal | MyFitnessPal.com. Choose how you Lose It! - Lose It! Life Fitness Introduces Industry’s First Open API. Life Fitness is officially open. We are proud to be the first major fitness equipment-maker to open its code, also known as API (Application Programming Interface). But what does that mean? Think of this way: If Apple® was a closed platform, they would have 14 apps right now, created by Apple.
But because Apple has an open API, developers have created over 600,000 apps for customers to download. It gives users a choice in how they use Apple products. If Life Fitness remained closed, like we've been in the past, we'd only have our Life Fitness Virtual Trainer App available to integrate with our equipment. In an effort to continuously provide our customers with the best workout experience, we've made the strategic decision to open our products and give our customers that choice.
For the exerciser, this means access to not one app, but potentially thousands of apps to personalize their workout experience. This is the future of fitness. Device Sets Fitness Goals For Kids To Earn TV Time. Go outside and play. That’s what our mother always told us. Sure, we had electronics, like Game Boys, that kept us inside on occasion, but nothing compares to the digital media available to kids today. So how do you get today’s youth to get off their smart phones, computers, or TVs when there’s so much more content available online and, let’s be honest, adults are doing the same thing?
Good old incentivization. The ibitz activity trackers from GeoPalz allow parents to monitor their children’s activity levels and allot time with electronic devices as they see fit. The ibitz PowerKey and Unity fitness trackers attach easily to your kid’s shoe, and use a wireless monitoring to log how much physical activity your child gets. Easily synced with you phone or tablet, the ibitz system allows parents to ‘lock’ their child’s smart phones, video games, TVs, and other digital devices. The application for kids features an avatar-esque character that represents your kid. ibitz Images by GeoPalz. Nike+ API Developer Portal Launched Ahead of Startup Accelerator.
Sports footwear and apparel giant Nike has opened its Nike+ API developer portal, providing teams with the tools and resources they need to combine the popular Nike+ fitness metrics with their own profile and activity data. The new portal has been launched to coincide with the Nike+ Accelerator program, an initiative being organised alongside renowned startup accelerator TechStars to find companies that will “use Nike+ technology to create products and services that will inspire athletes across a broad range of activity and health goals.”
It’s an interesting development. Until now, most fitness companies and their corresponding apps – take Runtastic for example – have kept their API and user data completely walled off from other services. That makes it very difficult for users to take advantage of different apps that are suited to their lifestyle, and also for developers to create something altogether interesting and new. Image Credit: Getty Images. Nike+ API developer portal opens. Following the announcement of the Nike+ Accelerator program, a new Nike+ API developer portal is now open. The portal provides tools and resources that enable developers to explore the Nike+ API using the developer’s own profile and activity data, including NikeFuel, running pace and distance, running routes, records, streaks and more. The Nike+ Accelerator is currently accepting applications until February 3, 2013, from companies aiming to use the Nike+ API to create products and services that will inspire athletes across a broad range of activity and health interests, including training, coaching, gaming, data visualization and quantified self.
Nike is offering the opportunity to learn more about the program in person through scheduled "meet-ups" in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Portland beginning the week of Jan. 21. For meet-up details and to apply to the Nike+ Accelerator, visit www.nikeaccelerator.com. For questions, email nikeaccelerator@nike.com.