In an effort to curtail the global spread of AIDS, Johns Hopkins recently conducted an in-hospital trail that offered self-administered HIV tests to Emergency Room visitors.

“Van Gogh is Bipolar” takes healthy eating to a new level by only serving natural foods which help produce “happy hormones.”

The tinkering that we now only associate with technology and machines, is emerging within the fields of genetics and biotechnology.

Caring.com is an online resource dedicated to the 34 million people taking care of aging parents, and the difficult choices they face. It provides a wide range of information and support, from general health and home care tips to legal matters and local medical directories. The original content for the site is created by people who have served as caregivers themselves in some capacity.

Growing up, the future of food as imagined by Saturday morning cartoons looked something like: put pill on plate, add drop of water and watch as Thanksgiving dinner magically appears. Though we might not be quite there yet, it’s hard not wonder what eating and cooking will resemble further down the road, particularly given the booming population that is increasingly moving to urban areas coupled with limitations on resources and space. Will there still be meals comprised of distinguishable ingredients or just some blended cocktail of nutrients and flavors topped off with a dollop artful foam?
Philip’s vision has been profiled [...]

In an effort to help dairy farmers better manage their herds, Danish technology firm, SmartFarming has developed an animal tracking and monitoring system called CowDetect. The system enables farmers to maintain a more meaningful account of individual animals by analyzing movement and eating patterns in real time.

The Body Check Ball is an intriguing personal health monitoring device that calculates your body fat, bone density, and muscle ratio by sending electrode currents through your hands as you hold it. Users can store up to 10 profiles to monitor their health and those of family members.
[ CNET via OhGizmo ]

Featuring workshops approaching issues as diverse as Policy, Economic Development, Access, Health, Sustainability, and Organizing, the massive conference expects nearly 2,000 attendees. Five main co-sponsors, Caribbean Women’s Health Association, Brooklyn Rescue Mission, World Hunger Year, Brooklyn’s Bounty and the PSFC, and over 120 partner groups, have jumped on board for the inaugural event.

You’ve probably visited WebMD to answer your health questions. And the iTunes App Store already offers over 200 medicine-related apps, like information on drugs and heart-rate monitoring devices. But two new devices for the new iPhone OS demonstrate just how the iPhone is going to make monitoring your health both more immediate and interactive. One app can control a blood-pressure cuff that plugs in to your iPhone, and Johnson & Johnson revealed a similar app and device that tests blood glucose levels.
PCMag explains the far-reaching implications:
Since an iPhone is always connected via the integrated 3G modem, it could potentially send [...]

We’ve very excited to have Dr Jay Parkinson of Hello Health join us at PSFK Conference New York on April 2. Along with Sean Khozin (Hello Health), Richard Fine (Help Remedies) and moderator Colin Nagy (Attention), Jay will offer his insights on improving communication in the healthcare industry, and between brands and users in general, through the incorporation of technology and social media.
First, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Jay Parkinson and I’m a physician who lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I was trained at Johns Hopkins in preventive medicine and pediatrics. I realized just what a [...]

It really makes you feel that we’re living in the fabled “future” predicted by science fiction writers when watching the i-LIMB bionic hand in action. This highly functional robotic prosthetic hand features precise movements, an organic look and a high level of control that makes it possible for users to execute everyday tasks like holding small objects and writing. Check out this amazing innovation in the video below.
Touch Bionics, the developers of the i-LIMB explain the device:
The Touch Bionics i-LIMB Hand was developed using leading-edge mechanical engineering techniques and is manufactured using high-strength plastics. The result is a next-generation prosthetic [...]

Blogger Robert Scoble recently shared a personal health problem he’s dealing with on his Friend Feed page. His revelation prompted an interesting debate about the benefits and downsides of public problem solving. And while by being open about his condition led to suggestions on how to better handle his condition, he also wonders about the future, and value of medical privacy in our increasingly open world. Looking up information on “Doctor Internet” and commiserating with others is all well and good – but if a public trail exists about your condition, could it lead to being denied future health insurance [...]

Elizabeth Goldring of MIT is working on a device that may help certain legally blind people see. In some cases of blindness, a functional retina is hidden behind cloudy lenses which block any kind of clear vision. Doctors currently use a large, and very expensive device called a scanning laser opthalmoscope, which can temporarily focus an image on these hidden lenses, allowing people to temporarily see. Goldring’s device replicates this process on a much smaller scale, using a hacked together combination of a digital camera and a color LED back-lit LCD screen. She’s been working on this portable SLO for [...]

Hot on the heels of a 2008 ban on television programs for kids under 3, France is getting strict with new rules which will limit children’s usage and access to mobile phones. New laws prohibit advertising aimed at children under the age of 12 and bans the sale of cell phones designed for kids under 6. New limits on the allowable amount of radiation emitted from phones, and laws mandating bundled headphones with every phone will be put in place as well. Although this ban is unique in Europe, France joins a growing number of countries including Canada, Russia and [...]

A team of Harvard University chemists have developed a simple technology that takes an expensive medical device know as a microfluidic chip and puts it within reach of the third world.  Using paper and double-sided tape as opposed to rubbers or plastics that require multimillion dollar fabrication equipment, these chips can eventually be made widely available for mere pennies on the dollar.    
[They] operate much like a home pregnancy test, in which liquid creeps up a cellulose strip toward a color-changing line. But unlike the pregnancy test, these new chips can split a single stream of liquid into dozens [...]