But lovely design comes at a cost. Fitbit's least expensive device, the Zip, is $59.95, and Scanadu says consumers will pay “less than $150” for Scout. If only a small slice of the population can afford the devices in the first place, then their larger promise—providing deep data on the health of large groups—may go unrealized.

This article was originally published with the title The New Age of Medical Monitoring.

6 Comments

1. 1. drscarlat 06:03 PM 2/22/13

   One small gadget that has a great potential in making one healthier is the old fashioned....bathroom weight scales.
   This low tech device was shown in numerous peer reviewed articles to be especially helpful in monitoring the congestive heart failure patients' weight, since gaining a few pounds for these patients is usually due to fluid retention / salt overload, usually preceeding an exacerbation of the heart failure.
   A. Scarlat MD

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2. 2. AlexZiegler 06:09 AM 2/23/13

   In terms of getting people to use them as well as to counteract the afforability, assuming that the fitbit leads to health awareness and as a result people are encouraged to be healthier, it would just be a matter of someone doing a study to see if individuals within buisness who had the fitbit showed increased productivity. Once this connection is made, many people who wouldnt buy the fitbit normally wouldnt have to, buisnesses would because it would be in their best interest to. Not only that but its a good PR move as well.
   

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3. 3. Patbrry in reply to AlexZiegler 04:05 PM 2/27/13

   How much are fitbit paying you to tag their product in connection with mobile health articles?
   shill.

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4. 4. Patbrry in reply to AlexZiegler 04:09 PM 2/27/13

   Ahh, page2 - I apologise :)

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5. 5. szlfsmit 05:15 PM 3/1/13

   There are significant differences between consumer athletes and healthy consumers reflected by use of Run Keeper mobile apps and Fitbit health awareness devices versus mobile health devices to engage, monitor and support patients with a diagnosis.
   
   Software applications with dashboards summarizing the large volume of data and alerting both patients and their physicians and securely communicating the data and status directly into the patient's medical record in a standardized way remain as technical, legal, and organizational challenges.
   
   However, the potential to alter the common disease progressions (HTN ,DM, Obesity) to complications, high healthcare cost and suffering is great.
   
   (Disclosure- I am member of Woodland Healthcare Asthmapolis project team.)
   
   LFS
   

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6. 6. waldmanrachel 02:47 PM 3/22/13

   I wonder if this kind of mapping technology could be used to address gun violence by transmitting the location of registered weapons each time the safety is removed? It would instantly alert police if safety locks are removed outside of a gun range, hunting zone or other legal gun use space. For example, if a privately owned rifle transmits safety lock removal at say, a mall or school... well, the police would be on their way. Just an idea.

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