I highly encourage everyone to read this breakdown from our former colleague Nicole Wetsman. It neatly summarizes the difference between wellness features like blood oxygen, versus detection features like EKG and sleep apnea.
As I wrote in my review, I understand FOMO in not having the feature. But you’re only supposed to use it to monitor your baseline — not much else.
More than 2,000 people’s unclaimed bodies in Dallas and Tarrant counties were given to the University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Willed Body Program. Some of the bodies were used to teach medical students; others were sold to for-profit companies.
Lightbulbs and electronics defined a century of Royal Philips. Can AI and healthcare define its next era?
Pulse oximetry features were recently removed from new Apple Watches due to Masimo’s patent infringement claim. Now the medical device maker has announced deals with Qualcomm and Google for Wear OS reference platforms.
They say that OEMs who use them will design the wearables exteriors and software, but with internal hardware, software, and sensors designed/tested by Masimo.
Specifically, it’s acquired Veri — a startup that lets you track your meals and glucose levels using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). It’s unclear how exactly Veri will be incorporated into the Oura platform, but this is the latest in health tech companies trying to make metabolic health the next frontier. Dexcom and Abbott, for example, both launched over-the-counter CGMs in the past month.
Apple’s busy updating the AirPods lineup, but MacRumors reports that when the Powerbeats Pro 2 revision ships next year, workout warriors can expect the heart rate tracking feature that has popped up on other buds like Sennheiser’s Momentum Sport.
Information from a software update also points to ANC, spatial audio, adaptive audio, and four colors with matching cases: orange, purple, black, and beige.
I kind of assumed that making medicine is... complicated! And maybe it is, but Jason Koebler’s story at 404 Media about the Four Thieves Vinegar Collective sure makes me wonder.
They make it sound like Koebler’s friend Katelin didn’t need to die; not just because of ridiculous drug prices, but because they could have illegally made the medicine at home.
The number of heat-related deaths recorded in the US climbed 117 percent between 1999 and 2023, according to recent research.
In Hell or High Water, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals, we explore how heat hits certain communities harder after a history of racist redlining in the US. There’s still a lot of work to do to end disparities and save lives.
[Audible.com]
A review commissioned by the World Health Organization examined over 5,000 studies on the connection between cellphone radiation and brain cancer. In the final analysis published today, lead author Ken Karipidis said there is no evidence of a link between the two:
I’m quite confident with our conclusion. And what makes us quite confident is… even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumour rates have remained stable.
The Elon Musk-led company is allegedly running gas turbines without the proper permit at a data center in Memphis, TN. Local environmental groups are reportedly urging regulators to investigate.
They’re worried about nitrogen oxides (NOx), smog-forming pollution that can aggravate respiratory illness.
The US Department of Health and Human Services will be offering four free home Covid tests to each household at the end of September. This, together with the roll-out of the latest vaccines (I’ve already made my appointment), is another sign that the coronavirus has made a strong reappearance this summer.
[aspr.hhs.gov]
The Dexcom Stelo aims to help people with Type 2 diabetes access CGMs more affordably.
According to the company’s latest progress update, the patient has used the implant in combination with a specialized Quadstick game controller to play the first-person shooter, in addition to designing his own custom Neuralink charger mount in CAD software.
This implant has also remained fully attached to the patient’s brain, unlike the recipient of the first procedure.
Getting to Mars will be easy. It’s the whole ‘living there’ part that we haven’t figured out.
The World Health Organization made the declaration today after a new strain of the virus spread across the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries that hadn’t previously reported cases of mpox.
It’s deadlier this time around compared to 2022, when it was called monkeypox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US also warned clinicians to stay on alert for the virus.
[The New York Times]
Byron Bernstein had six livestreamed conversations with Alok Kanojia, a psychiatrist. Then Bernstein died by suicide. Were those conversations ethical?
[The New York Times]
Fitbit published a study in Nature Medicine using 6.5 million nights of sleep data from users that shows that sleep quality impacts long term health. In a nutshell, the worse your sleep quality, the more likely you are to have conditions like sleep apnea, obesity, migraines, high blood pressure, etc. You get it.
I won’t blame you for thinking “Duh” but this stuff can be helpful for researchers as it gives hard data to what we already know.
Until now, patients with Medicare — a government-funded insurance program mostly for older adults — haven’t been eligible to enroll in the RxPass program Amazon debuted last year. The RxPass offers Medicare patients “unlimited access” to 60 different prescription medications for $5 a month and a prime membership. For now, patients with Medicaid — state-funded insurance for lower-income Americans — are still ineligible for the program.
