- oops: didn’t get name of this presenter: it’s clothing with built-in sensors
- takes photo of “stress events”
- live ECG
- team of smart textile experts from MIT
- Nicoya Lifesciences
- “personal health and wellness monitoring for digital age”
- congestive heart failure patients must weigh selves daily
- $20 billion for CHF, 60% could be avoided
- Nicoya Heart Doc — measure BNP levels, then modify meds or behavior
- nano-tech based sensor for less than $5 a test
- tests immediately available on tablet. Data also includes trends.
- Can pair with other devices for CHF management
- Can track fatigue, breathing, swelling. Can automatically send data to doctor — almost real-time report on changes in conditions!
- Perminova: system to prevent hospital readmissions for at-home heart failure patients
- 5.6 million Americans sufferfrom CHF
- there are a variety of advance warning systems before CHF
- sell “Necklace” for $300 — patient wears 10-15 min a day, send wirelessly to cloud.
- goal to integrate with home health providers
- wow!
- Veristride
- to diagnose gait disorders & falls
- instrumented insole, plus phone app, and server & analysis
- RespiRight
- “adherence and compliance mobile system for accountable self-care respiratory therapy”
- games that improve respiration for post-operative, asthma sufferers and COPD
- data stored on device & cloud
Live blogging from Connected Health Symposium
Live blogging from Partners’ Connected Health Symposium
I’m attending the annual Partners Health Connected Health Symposium in Boston. Will try to do running notes during the presentations!
- first up is a series of demos on sensors, robots and devices!!
- 10 of 20 entrants from a pool of more than 300
- Hstar Technologies: Robotic Nursing Assistant (RoNA). Lot of MIT background.
- helps lift patients onto gurneys, including bariatric patients Also one for combat situations
- can be remotely operated
- modular platform, one of a family of units
- RoNA SerBot — courier duty for delivering meds
- InTouch Health — “end to end presence solutions” “acute care telemedicine system” instant access for specialists when needed for consult. Cloud based. Robot automatically goes to patient’s bedside.
- click to look at monitors or the patient
- access to data in EHR: immediate access
- Click here to read more.. »
Just thinking: could Quantified Self devices lead to #IoT BYOD for companies?
I’ve been noodling how do you introduce the Internet of Things to companies that haven’t even heard of it, let alone have a strategy to capitalize on it. It would probably have to be something that would have minimal up-front costs, provoke aha! moments that would stimulate other IoT initiatives, and would provide some quick return on investment.
Jawbone UP
Having just read SAP’s interactive report on mobile strategies, it dawned on me: if companies are now comfortable with creating BYOD policies covering smartphones and tablets, what if they were to create formal policies to encourage employees to bring their Quantified Self devices — Jawbone UPs, Nike FitBits, and the like — after all, the workers are probably already doing so anyways!
What if — thinking out loud here — the company could enter anyone using one of the devices during the work day in some sort of contest with fitness prizes, or, — this is more controversial because of privacy concerns — if they offered discounts on health insurance for workers who were willing to share their QS data with the company (since companies are penalizing overweight workers, shouldn’t it work the other way as well?).
Heck, given the payback in terms of lower absenteeism, higher productivity, and lower medical claims, I bet you could make a plausible case that it would be in the company’s enlightened self-interest to actually pay for the devices for those who don’t already have them.
It’s just a thought, and there would be a lot of details to work out, but I think it merits consideration as a way to introduce the IoT’s benefits to corporate America. Let me know how you feel!
GigaOM’s Mobilize conference full of IoT insights!
I’ve been busy for the last two days, so I’ve only been able to view a couple of them, but from what I have seen (I’ll blog about specifics later), the GigaOM Mobilize conference has been an absolute goldmine of insights, especially into the nuts and bolts of the IoT. As soon as the livestream video is archived, don’t miss them!
General Electric Keeps on Practicing What They Preach!
I’m beginning to sound like a schill (no, not a typo, just a bad joke: short for [Curt] Schilling, the former Red Sox pitcher — sorry, I can’t get those guys out of my head today…) for GE, but it’s hard to argue with their impressive record of walking their talk about the “Industrial Internet,” their marketing term for the subset of the Internet of Things dealing with the industrial sector.
The latest evidence? A report today in the NYTimes‘ “Bits” blog that GE has just announced “14 more products that combine industrial equipment, Internet-linked sensors and software to monitor performance and analyze big streams of data. G.E. had previously announced 10 similar industrial products.”
Equally impressive, the Industrial Age behemoth turned nimble IoT leader said that by next year, almost all industrial products it makes will have built-in sensors and Big Data software to analyze the huge data streams those sensors will create.
Right now I’m writing an e-book on IoT strategy for C-level executives (not sure if I can disclose the customer — it’s a big one!) and GE VP of Global Software William Ruh, used the news to fire a shot across the bow at companies that are slow to realize a fundamental paradigm shift in manufacturing, product design and maintenance is well underway:
““Everyone wants prediction about performance, and better asset management… The ideas of speed, of information velocity, is what will differentiate the winners from the losers.”
You in the corner office: got your attention?
Equally important, given my insistence that the IoT is all about collaboration, GE simultaneously announced partnerships with Cisco, AT&T and Intel. It had already inked deals with Accenture and Amazon’s cloud subsidiary and has also invested in Pivotal, an Industrial Internet app creator.
Smart companies will follow GE’s lead in radically reforming the product design process to capitalize on the rapid feedback on performance that the Industrial Internet products’ built-in sensors yield. According to Ruh, they’re switching to an iterative design process, with rapid changes based on data from the field:
“… G.E. is adopting practices like releasing stripped-down products quickly, monitoring usage and rapidly changing designs depending on how things are used by customers. These approaches follow the ‘lean start-up’ style at many software-intensive Internet companies.
“’We’re getting these offerings done in three, six, nine months,’ he said. ‘It used to take three years.’” (my emphasis)
That change is definitely going to make it into my e-book! Brilliant example of how the IoT, by allowing companies to think in terms of systems dynamics, especially feedback loops, will have profound impacts on the design and manufacturing processes, integrating them as never before (oh, and don’t forget, the data from the built-in sensors will also allow companies to start marketing services — such as leasing jet turbines, with the lease cost based on the actual amount of thrust the engines create)!
Combined, that’s definitely a paradigm shift!
Oh, I almost forgot. Here’s a brief rundown of the products themselves and the industries served. They are clustered under the Predictivity name, and are powered by Predix, a new IoT platform:
- The Drilling iBox System (oil and gas)
- Reliability Max (oil and gas
- Field 360 (oil and gas)
- System 1 Evolution (oil and gas)
- Non-destructive Testing Remote collaboration (oil and gas)
- LifeMax Advantage (power and water)
- Rail Connect 360 Monitoring and Diagnostics (transportation)
- ShipperConnect (transportation)
- Flight Efficiency Services (aviation)
- Hot SimSuite (healthcare)
- Cloud Imaging (healthcare)
- Grid IQ Insight (energy management)
- Proficy MaxxMine (energy management)
Given the diversity of industries the Predictivity products serve and GE’s global clout, I predict this level of commitment will radically accelerate the IoT’s adoption by big business, as well as accelerating the payback in terms of lower operating, energy and maintenance costs, and reduced environmental impacts.
Will GE’s competitors in these sectors get on board, or will they be left in the dust?
BABY MONITOR HACKED: MAKE-IT-OR-BREAK IT MOMENT FOR #IoT!!
I’m hitting on the same subject, privacy and security, for two posts in a row because now there’s been an incident that really could jeopardize the future of the IoT!
Call me an alarmist if you will, but I say ignore it at your peril…
As blogged by GigaOm, ABC News reported this week on an incident where a hacker got access to a — this is getting repetitious — IoT product with laughable security.
This time, it wasn’t the main-stream media reporting just a friendly wake-up call
Foscam Baby Monitor
(literally and figuratively…) from a reporter about a vulnerability, or a general warning about possible threats to home and car: it was a story guaranteed to strike a primal fear in the heart of every parent: a threat to their infant!
Here’s what happened, according to ABC:
“A Houston couple is still shaken after saying they heard the voice of a strange man cursing and making lewd comments in the bedroom of their 2-year-old daughter.
“When Marc Gilbert and his wife Lauren entered the room, the voice cursed them as well.
“The creepy voice — which had a British or European accent — was coming from the family’s baby monitor that was also equipped with a camera. A hacker apparently had taken over the monitor.”
Are you a parent? If so, don’t tell me that wouldn’t have your blood boiling!
Oh, BTW, ABC tossed in a reminder that baby monitors can be used by potential burglars.
Once again, I’ll harken back to my days as a corporate crisis consultant to warn that this is precisely the kind of incident that is going to be repeated ad nauseum by privacy advocates and others to warn about the dangers of the IoT.
Even worse, those of who are immersed in the IoT 24/7 may not realize it, but I’d bet the majority of people worldwide still haven’t heard of the IoT. Is this the way we want them to find out about it???
So my parting advice would be to go out today and buy a Foscam baby monitor (heck, they’re probably giving them away now — who the heck would buy one?) and put it in a place of prominence on your CEO’s desk as a reminder that if you don’t take privacy and security seriously, the media will be quick to remind you…
$100 billion potential savings in medical costs: more evidence for GlowCap!
In the draft of the article on the Internet of Things that Cisco’s Dave Evans and I hope to sell to the Harvard Business Review, the lede (BTW, I love old newsie terms, like “pieing the type”…) is about reducing the waste in medical spending by improving patients’ compliance rate with drug compliance through use of the Vitality GlowCap, my favorite poster child for the IoT. 
If you aren’t familiar with the GlowCap, it fits on a regular pill bottle, but has an important difference: each one has its own IP address, and includes a sensor, transmitter and battery.It’s preset for the time when you and your doctor agree you should take the pill.
When it’s time to take your pill, the cap begins to glow and makes a gentle sound. As soon as you take the cap off and replace it, a signal is sent to the company’s server where it is recorded: you and your doctor both get reports of your rate of compliance (for the first time, the doctor actually knows if you’ve taken your pill: no guesswork!). But if you don’t take it, the sound and light become more insistant, and continue for two hours. Then, if you still haven’t taken it, you and/or a caregiver or relative get an email, text or recorded alert. How cool is that? By pressing on the bottom of the cap you can even place an automated request to your pharmacy to refill the prescription! Bottom line? With the GlowCap, studies show that patient compliance increases from an average of 50% to 85%.
According to these new numbers from the IMS Institute for Healthcare, that’s HUGE: they estimate that failure to take pills on time results in $100 billion in wasted health care spending annually!
I’m still dubious about the nirvana of IoT refrigerators that will prepare my shopping list for me (I’m more the kind of chef who, about 2 hours before dinner, starts to wander the online recipe sources for something I’ve never made before: until my refrigerator becomes psychic, I’m not holding my breath…), but the GlowCap is just the kind of IoT device that can truly make our lives a little simpler, and save money — and lives — in the process!
P.S.: I’ve tried it myself. It really works.
Hallelujah! The Internet of People launches
Most readers of this blog probably already know Rob van Kranenburg, arguably THE leading European Internet of Things theorist. What you may not know is that, for the past year, he and a core group of IoT leaders have been planning creation of a UK-based global IoT consultancy, “The Internet of People.”
Unfortunately, one of the victims of that effort was a planned collaboration
between Rob and me on an article about the IoT for the Harvard Business Review, but now I’ve got Dave Evans of Cisco as a writing partner, so I ain’t complainin’!
At any rate, there’s glorious news today: The Internet of People has officially launched, and there are more than 100 of us consultants who are already in the fold!
This is going to be an all-star team, so if you’re in need of IoT strategy and other consulting services, I hope you’ll contact us!
$6 billion market for wearable computers
One of the most fascinating branches of the Internet of Things is wearable computers, because they will have such an effect on our personal lives.
From the increasingly ubiquitous Fitbit, Fuelband, and Jawbone UP fitness monitors to potential lifesavers such as the Peeko onesie to ward off SIDS or slippers that detect a change in a senior’s gait in time to notify caregivers and avoid a fall, they are
Jawbone UP
likely to become woven into the fabric of daily living. Juniper Research predicts that sales of wearable devices may be near 70 million by 2017.
Bloomberg News did a wrap-up on the potentially $6 billion market today.
Companies already making apps for smartphones and tablets may find capitalizing on the new market will basically be found money:
“For many companies already making apps for smartphones and tablets, the cost of developing wearable apps would be incremental. Modifying an existing smartphone app to run on a device like a watch might only take ‘a couple of hours,’ said David Kincaid, founder of San Diego-based Mobile Software Design LLC, the maker of the FreeCaddie golfing app.”
Want to help plan how Internet of Things will transform government? Join my new GovLoop group!
Have no doubt about it: the Internet of Things will transform government, affecting public security, defense, environmental protection, transport, and health. If you’d like to be part of the community planning how to help government capitalize on the IoT, please join my new GovLoop community on the topic!
