Hasta La Gadget!

While I don’t have diabetes, it is a disease that my family deals with everyday. I am particularly interested in how technology is able to fight this illness and like so many others, I hope that a one day a cure can be found. I just finished reading an article about Duedenal Bypass surgery and that current testing suggests it may someday be promising in actually offering a cure for type 2 diabetics. That’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

In the meantime, I guess we still need to do all the right things, and monitor our blood sugar. A new way to do that is with the Telcare Wireless Glucose Meter. The Telcare Meter actually automatically uploads your test results online, and the wireless connectivity is free. The meter and the test strips may be covered by your insurance and while you don’t need any additional hardware or an iPhone, there is an associated (award winning) app that auto synchs with your device. The Telcare meter will also remind you when to order supplies, which of course you can do… right from the device!

Your healthcare provider has the option to receive your readings, and to offer you feedback and coaching information right on your meter, and printable reports and graphs are viewable on your PC, Mac or smartphone, allowing you to spot trends, adjust personalized blood glucose target zones, and closely monitor your progress so you can be proactive with your diabetes management.

The Telcare Meter is available for under 100 bucks, with a contract that provides customers with discounted prices on the Telcare BGM and Test Strips, or for around 149 dollars without a contract. The website telcare.com has more purchasing and product information and it let’s you check to see if the cost might be covered by your insurance.

[ Telcare Wireless Glucose Meter – New Tech, for an Old Problem copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I wish I was born back in the day, when doctors made house calls, and came out to make you feel better at all hours of the day or night. I mean, who wants to get dressed and run out to the doctors office when you’re sick as a dog? I can honestly say that once or twice in my life I have actually been “too sick” to go to the doctor.

Well here’s something that has been quite a few science fiction movies in the making, the Transportable Exam Station, or TES. This highly portable unit is built into a rolling weather resistant case and allows a doctor to carry out a comprehensive health assessment, from anywhere in the world using a tablet PC, examination cameras, a real time digital stethoscope and a USB otoscope. A USB otoscope? Who knew?

Manned by a mobile technician the Doctor and patient can communicate via PC, the TES not only allows more common general health examinations, but aids in triage and trauma care, dermatology exams, or almost anything else that might require the services of doctor, without the doctor actually being there.

Sometimes there are accident and emergency situations where waiting to get to a doctor costs the precious time needed to save a life, but now I can also imagine a future with a whole new breed of medical practitioners, where the doctors hang out at home, and a staff of mobile technicians (maybe nursing staff?) make dozens of house calls that doc’s could now diagnose and treat via the internet. Is this bringing medicine to those who don’t have it, or could this kind of technology someday, cheapen the standard of care?

Check out globalmed.com for more information on all their amazing mobile medical technologies, then let us know if you would feel comfortable being diagnosed via PC, I’m relatively okay with it… as long as theres a limited amount of blood… for heavy blood loss or breathing difficulties I prefer my doctor on-site.

[ Transportable Exam Station – Bringing the Doctor to You copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I guess I will remember for the rest of my life the day Susan and I snuck into the cellar and tried our first cigarettes, some stolen Lucky Strike non filters from her grandfather. I remember how cool I felt taking my first puff and how green I turned even before I managed to exhale. Susan became a smoker. I never tried it again, of course now I wouldn’t bother, why try to like something that could kill you… but what if it wouldn’t?

Phillip Morris, the biggest and definitely the most well known tobacco company, is poised to sell a brand new type of cigarette, that they suggest will pose a much lower health risk than traditional cigarettes, all by the year 2017. If smoking posed less of a threat, would you still try to quit?

Phillip Morris is currently developing three brand new products that would be sold under one of their already existing brand names such as Marlboro, and it seems like the best of their 3 new concepts may be a seemingly simple one, heat the tobacco rather than burn it, or generate some kind of aerosol that could still be inhaled.

These cigarettes are meant to provide the same feeling including the nicotine jolt that users currently get from their traditional pack of smokes, but without the direct path to lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema that currently comes from lighting up.

The heated-tobacco device should pass clinical testing soon and then production of these lower-risk cigarettes would probably start in around 3 to 4 years. This isn’t big tobaccos first foray into safer cigs… but 2 previous versions of so-called healthier smokes crashed and burned, if these new cigarettes really were safer, would you be tempted?

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[ Lower Risk Cigarettes – Would you Smoke again? copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]