Brian T. Horowitz

About

Brian T. Horowitz is a technology and health writer as well as a copy editor. Brian has worked on the tech beat since 1996 and covered health care IT and rugged mobile computing for eWEEK since 2010. He has contributed to more than 20 publications, including Computer Shopper, Fast Company, FOXNews.com, More, NYSE Magazine, Parents, ScientificAmerican.com, USA Weekend and Womansday.com, as well as other consumer and trade publications.

Tely Labs Unveils MTS-100 Mobile Telemedicine Cart

Video-collaboration company Tely Labs has unveiled the TelyMed MTS-100 Mobile Station, a telemedicine cart that allows hospitals and clinics to conference in specialists to evaluate patients remotely. Introduced on May 6 at the American Telemedicine Association conference in Austin, Texas, the plug-and-play MTS-100 combines Tely Labs’ TelyHD video-calling appliance, TelyMed software service and an HDTV […]

Hospitals Lose More Than $8.3B a Year Due to Old Technology: Report

Outdated communication technology such as pagers costs hospitals more than $8.3 billion annually due to a loss in productivity and an increase in patient discharge times, a May 7 Ponemon Institute report revealed. Each U.S. hospital loses close to a million dollars because they continue using obsolete equipment, according to the report. Imprivata, a company […]

iPad App From Doximity Supports Collaboration, Messaging on iOS Tablet

Doximity, an online network for doctors, has unveiled an iPad app to allow doctors to collaborate in a manner compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on a larger screen. The company also offers an app for the iPhone and Android. The Retina screen of the iPad has a larger view than […]

Qualcomm Life Acquires HealthyCircles Data Sharing Platform

Qualcomm Life announced that it has acquired HealthyCircles to provide doctors with a link to data from electronic health records as well as biometric medical devices. The May 5 announcement aligns the HealthyCircles Software as a Service Care Orchestration Engine with Qualcomm Life’s 2net cloud health monitoring platform. The 2net service allows caregivers to view […]

Oracle Invests in Proteus Pill Sensor Maker

Oracle has expanded its move into pharmaceutical innovation by investing an undisclosed “minor” sum in Proteus Digital Health, a company that has developed ingestible and wearable sensors. Proteus’ sensors are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and classified as medical devices in the United States and Europe. Launched in 2003, the sensor maker […]

Michael J. Fox Foundation Uses Smartphones in Parkinson’s Research

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson’s Research has been seeking insights on how mobile data can aid Parkinson’s patients. As part of this effort, the foundation launched a Parkinson’s Challenge in February with a $10,000 prize to encourage use of patient data from smartphones for monitoring and treatment of Parkinson’s. Kaggle.com a crowd-sourcing […]

Online Review Sites Allow Patients to Gripe About Doctors

Poor customer service and bedside manner were the biggest complaints of patients that use online review sites, according to a study by Vanguard Communications, a medical marketing and public relations firm. Surprisingly, the issue of poor medical skills took a backseat to poor customer service and bedside manner, which were concerns for four times the […]

Jawbone Acquires BodyMedia to Add Health Monitoring to Fitness Devices

Jawbone, known for its Bluetooth audio devices, has acquired its wearable computing competitor BodyMedia to combine efforts on health and fitness tracking sensors. The New York Times, citing a source close to the April 30 deal, reported the terms to be $110 million. As a combined company, Jawbone and BodyMedia will create “new boundaries” and […]

10 iPhone Apps Designed to Assist the Visually Impaired

10 iPhone Apps Designed to Assist the Visually Impaired by Brian T. Horowitz Adobe Reader for iOS Adds VoiceOver and Swiping Controls The free Adobe Reader for iOS has recently been updated with accessibility features, according to Andrew Kirkpatrick, group product manager for accessibility at Adobe Systems. It now integrates VoiceOver and toolbar controls that […]

BodyMedia to Modify Fitness Tracking Devices to Monitor Chronic Diseases

BodyMedia, manufacturer of consumer fitness armbands, plans to expand the focus of its products from lifestyle to helping consumers manage chronic diseases such as diabetes, sleep disorders or heart conditions. BodyMedia is one of several vendors that offer wearable health and fitness devices, including Fitbit, Fitbug and Jawbone. “Obesity is our first target market where […]