Category Archives: Health

Accessories, Computers, Health, News

BenQ Monitor GW2780T and Monitor Light ScreenBar Will Protect Your Eyes

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Eye protection is especially important in these times of uncertainty and work from home trend (no thanks to the COVID-19 situation, of course). You tend to sit in front of your digital display longer than usual too.What that means is that eye fatigue becomes a problem and that is when you need to start investing in glasses.

Since the average of screen time for both young and adults are increasing day by day. It is important to take care of our health. All that while also maintaining a high productivity at home in this trying times.

BenQ GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor

Source: BenQ

Welcome to the BenQ GW2780T Eye-Care monitor, a 27-inch display that is designed exactly to help you work more comfortably at home. It is designed to keep your eyes in tip top conditions. That, combined with something they call a Monitor Light bar makes the perfect combination to protect your eye in whatever work condition you are thrown into. Interesting stuff this.

BenQ says that this GW2780T Eye-Care monitor is built specifically for remote working and learning environments. The BenQ GW2780T is technically a successor to the GW2480T, but is 3 inches bigger than its predecessor at 27 inches vs 24 inches on the GW2480T. The GW2780T Eye-care monitor is the latest model in BenQ’s G-series LED monitors which offers users with health emphasis.

The GW2780T Eye-Care monitor uses their clever Brightness Intelligence technology to automatically adjust the screen’s brightness and light to cater to the user’s environment. The display automatically enhances dark areas of the display and adapts its brightness so that bright areas do not get overexposed as well. That way, you are not going to get blinded when working in low-light conditions just because you forgot to turn the lights on.

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Both the GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor can be connected to your tablets, laptops, and even a smartphone as long as you have the right cables. Height adjustments on the display also means that you get to be really comfortable while working without straining your neck; the GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor does not only take care of your eyes. Speaking back on Eye-care, BenQ also introduced the Monitor Light Screenbar.

BenQ Monitor Light ScreenBar

Source: BenQ

This is a very simple hardware attachment to a monitor really. It is technically a very advanced, very cool looking, baseless desk lamp. It attaches to your display to give you the right lighting condition in any setting. It features auto-dimming too, just so that you do not have to keep readjusting your lights as it gets darker or brighter in the day.

Thanks to BenQ’s patented clip design, the ScreenBar does not need to be stood on a table. That eliminates the need to waste table real-estate for a lamp on your table. All you need is a monitor and you are set. It is also USB powered, so you just need to plug it into your PC, or find a spare charger somewhere.

  • Source: BenQ
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There are 14 brightness levels and 8 colour temperatures to work with. You can go all the way to yellow for a more comfortable time reading stuff on your book, your tablet, or your smartphone. That is especially helpful when you are nearing your bed time. Then in the day, when you need some white light, the ScreenBar delivers. Its clever optical design also means that it will not shine to the glass of the display, creating an annoying reflective glare on the display.

Pricing and Availability

The BenW GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor is now available on BenQ’s official store on Lazada for MYR 899. The Monitor Light ScreenBar is also now available in Malaysia via BenQ’s official store on Lazada for MYR 599. For more information about these products, you can check out BenQ’s website.

Accessories, Health, Lifestyle, News

Fitbit Unleashes the Sense, Versa 3 and Inspire 2 in Malaysia

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Fitbit is a name that comes to mind when you’re thinking of wearables which put fitness at the forefront. The company has been actively developing a platform that gives users actionable data on their health. What’s more, Fitbit has even taken steps to help their community better cope with these unprecedented times.

Malaysia is the latest country getting an infusion of Fitbit. The company has announced the local availability of its three new wearables: the Fitbit Sense, the Fitbit Versa 3 and the Fitbit Inspire 2. The three new devices mark the start of a new generation of wearables for Fitbit featuring new technology that gives users even more actionable health data. It is excited to see what is inside about it. Some call the app “ECG” and it allows users to gain insight into their heart performance and possible conditions, like irregular or erratic heartbeats.

The Fitbit Sense made its debut in August as the company’s new flagship smartwatch with brand new technology which allows users to monitor their heart’s rhythm via an ECG monitor. The Fitbit Sense is currently the most advanced health smartwatch available in the market for only RM1,498 with 6-months complementary access to Fitbit Premium. The Sense also features the world’s first electrodermal activity(EDA) sensor on a smartwatch to help users monitor stress levels. The Sense touts up to 7 days battery life depending on how you use it.

From the cutting edge to the accessible, Fitbit isn’t leaving anyone behind. The Fitbit Inspire 2 joins the foray with a price tag of only MYR498. It is designed to be slim and comes with a brighter screen and the longest battery life of any Fitbit device at 10 days. Purchases of the FitBit Inspire 2 also comes with a one year free trial of Fitbit Premium.

Together with the Sense and Inspire 2, Fitbit is also bringing the updated Versa 3. The Versa line up is their first smartwatch line up which marries Fitbit technology with the growing demand for smartwatches. The Versa 3 brings enhanced features including GPD tracking, wireless music and more. However, pricing and availability for the Versa 3 will be announced at a later date.

Computers, Health, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

The HONOR MagicBook Pro and Watch GS Pro is now Available in Malaysia for MYR 3,559 and MYR 999!

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HONOR is a brand that is very well known for their value-for-money devices. They launched their HONOR MagicBook earlier this year and challenged nearly every other PC maker in the segment by halving or undercutting their prices with their own offering. In that sense, HONOR is one of those brands that makes us wonder whether or not we should spend that much on a device.

Recently, HONOR just launched their MagicBook Pro and Watch GS Pro in Malaysia. The two devices lining up with HONOR’s direction of pushing the digital lifestyle boundaries this year. These are probably the most exciting devices that is coming out of HONOR this year.

Honor MagicBook Pro

Source: HONOR

The Honor MagicBook Pro was designed to help professionals to enhance their productivity with an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H processor alongside an integrated Radeon Graphics for a snappy and smooth performance even when handling complex tasks. The notebook PC is designed to allow for 20% more airflow than traditional cooling fans with minimal noise. With a 56Wh battery that is quoted to last up to 11 hours on a single charge, you can also use the notebook with peace of mind, knowing it will last you a whole work day.

The Honor MagicBook Pro weighs only 1.7kg and is only 16.9mm thick. Thanks to the lightweight construction and petite packaging, lugging it around is a breeze in your backpacks. The best part of the HONOR MagicBook Pro, if you are using an HONOR device, is that you can reply texts, answer calls and even watch videos with your smartphone, on the notebook. To keep everything secure and safely locked in the notebook, the HONOR MagicBook has a 2-in-1 power button with a fingerprint scanner.

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HONOR Watch GS Pro

Source: HONOR

The HONOR Watch GS Pro is a guide for all sorts of adventures. Its high-precision built in dual satellite positioning systems is built to ensure that you know where you are going at all times. It is also stress tested in all kinds of environments so that you can bring it out for all your outdoor activities. Of course, this being an all around activity tracker, it has multiple activity modes for you to easily access specific data for specific work outs and exercises.

The HONOR Watch GS Pro comes with a quoted 25-day battery life. That is theoretically the longest battery life that any smartwatch can have in the current market, beating even the Garmins. This also means that even in harsh environments, the HONOR Watch GS Pro will keep you company for as long as you need it to. This actually gives you a whole new world with endless possibilities and probably some new experiences.

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Pricing and Availability

The HONOR MagicBook Pro is now available via HONOR’s official online store, their online retail partners, and all HONOR official stores nationwide. The HONOR MagicBook Pro will set you back MYR 3,599 and will be bundled with HONOR’s Magic Earbuds, a Bluetooth mouse, and a Backpack. If you purchase them through Shopee or Lazada, your purchase comes with a free Microsoft Office 365 Personal subscription, a Bluetooth mouse, and a Backpack.

The HONOR Watch GS Pro is also available now via HONOR’s official online store and all its retail partners including Shopee and Lazada. Keep in mind you can only purchase the Charcoal Black variant as of now. The Marl White variant will be available 15 October onward, but pre-orders start now. The Watch GS Pro will set you back MYR 999. Currently, every purchase of the Watch GS Pro entitles you to a free HONOR Sport Pro wireless earphones.

Accessories, Health, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Garmin Launches the Venu SQ in Malaysia – Affordable Garmin for Everyone!

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Garmin has always been known for their very premium smartwatches. Some do not even consider their stuff ‘smartwatches’. They argue that the Garmin watches are more fitness trackers than anything. Whichever camp you come from though, we still like the brand and the devices they make.

As smartwatches and fitness trackers go, you cannot go wrong with a Garmin watch. Whichever your choice is, you are getting a smartwatch cum fitness tracker that will last you days at a time, while being reliable and durable enough to be in the harshest of weathers. There is an issue however; they are not exactly affordable. Garmin has an answer to that.

Source: Garmin

Welcome to the Garmin Venu SQ, SQ for ‘Square’. Garmin launched the Venu smartwatch last year and it became one of our favourite smartwatches very quickly. Its pretty interface and good looks are big contributors to our preference, of course. But round is not the only format people want in their smartwatch. Some people still prefer going for a square watch face on their smartwatch thanks to the larger perceived display real estate. That is the Garmin Venu SQ, for the ones that wants a square-faced smartwatch from Garmin.

The Garmin Venu SQ’s square-ish display measures at 1.3-inch and is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 layer. The square LCD display pushes 240 by 240 pixels , which is not Full HD per se, but is still quite a pretty looking crystal display. You can use always-on mode on the Garmin Venu SQ as well, if you want to. Of course, always-on display will consume a little bit more battery life.

Source: Garmin

To be fair, not much else is known about the Garmin Venu SQ’s internals. We do know that the Venu SQ is just as capable as its more premium round-faced sibling though. It is also made with the same durable fiber-reinforced polymer material that the rounded Garmin Venu is built with. Inside is also all the same sensors that makes the Garmin Venu SQ as capable as any of its siblings.

You still have GPS capability within the watch with compass capabilities so that you can never get lost with the Garmin Venu SQ, in your adventures. In your adventures as well, you would appreciate the 5 ATM water resistant rating, just in case you need to get a little wet. A battery life that would last you up to 6 days at a time could also prove essential when you need it (14 hours on GPS mode without music). As a bonus, you do not need to keep it charged daily.

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Of course, the Garmin Venu SQ still has all the right sensors at the back of the watch as well. The sensors can monitor your heart rate, your blood oxygen levels, and more. It can even detect your swim stroke types, and even understand your sleep cycles.

The Venu SQ is now available in Malaysia in two variants. You can get a regular Venu SQ and a Venu SQ Music with Spotify and music storing capabilities built-into the device. The Venu SQ starts at MYR 999 and is available in Shadow Gray/Slate, White/Light Gold, and Orchid/Metallic Orchid colour options. The Venu SQ Music Edition will go for MYR 1,250 and is available in Black/Slate, Light Sand/Rose Gold, Navy/Light Gold, and Moss/Slate colour combinations.

Business, Health, Lifestyle, News

Self-Driving Vehicle Comes to South East Asia Courtesy of HUAWEI

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With all the attention that HUAWEI is getting these past few weeks for all the wrong reasons, they are still positive. They are still Malaysia’s biggest hope to our progression toward 5G, they have collaborated with Singapore to bring more contents to their own platform, and they are still innovating on their smartphones. Also, they are still the largest network infrastructure provider in this part of the world.

Driverless cars, on the other hand, is not something that is quite prevalent here. In South East Asia at least, the most we can get is assisted braking. Even radar guided cruise control over here is not something that is readily available. To hear about a driverless car in this neck of the woods is news.

Sadly, we are not getting that technology in Malaysia. The system is placed in Thailand first. It is not a Tesla either. It is completely autonomous with no human input controls within the vehicle at least.

It is not made for commercial purposes either, so you cannot even buy it even if you have millions in the bank. Maybe you can, but that is not the point. The new autonomous vehicle is Thailand’s next step in transforming the nation into a digital one.

Technically the vehicle in question looks nothing more than a metal box on four wheels. That is because, that is all it is – a delivery vehicle to revolutionise the Thailand healthcare industry. No, it is not made to transport human beings as ambulances.

Source: HUAWEI

They are mostly made to transport medical equipment, or medical supplies either within a hospital compound or from one hospital in town to the other. Which also means that this will also be on the road. There is a problem to all these autonomous vehicles however – how are they driven?

Usually an autonomous vehicle gathers data through various cameras and sensors placed around its body panels. These data are stitched through its ‘brains’ or CPU and uploaded to the cloud for further analysis to create detailed information of the road it sees, and the objects around it. The computer within the vehicle will determine how fast it should be going, where it should be heading, and where to place itself to avoid collisions, and find the fastest route to its destination. This also means a more reliable delivery service. Important when it comes to life and death.

There is a crucial component in autonomous vehicle networks though – data. You cannot just collect endless amounts of data and not offload it and back it up somewhere else. You need to share the data, back it up, and retrieve older data for the machine to understand situations better and make decisions based on every other data. For that, you need a stable and fast internet connection. For that you can look at 5G.

In this case, HUAWEI is that big partner that brings on the 5G capabilities required for Thailand’s revolutionary delivery vehicle service for the medical field. Technically that is it, HUAWEI empowering the healthcare segment of Thailand through their 5G. There is a little more than that though.

By effectively transforming the healthcare environment with 5G infrastructures also propels Thailand at the forefront of 5G readiness. While Malaysia is aiming to get 5G to hit the streets as soon as the end of 2020, it seems that Thailand has leaped forward and start taking advantage of 5G in improving their healthcare capacity and capabilities. This is a start to a much bigger 5G future.

What do you think of Malaysia’s progress toward 5G? Which industry do you think should get 5G capabilities first? Let us know in the comments!

Health, Lifestyle, Mobile, News

Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Platform Unveiled

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Wearables are the rage these days. Well, they have been for the past few years. Of course they would be; they offer unparalleled flexibility and function to something as simple as a wrist watch. Your wrist watch is now your smartphone companion, your fitness tracker, your notification bell, your personal assistant, and your alarm.

The introduction of the new Apple WatchOS just about a week ago also marks a sort of new age for wearables. The same cannot be said, however to the aging platform that is Wear OS. Not that there is nothing new with Wear OS.

The latest Wear OS is technically still in its second generation (2.18 as launched in May 2020). You are already seeing the fourth generation of Wear OS devices in the market currently. The ones that has been pushing for Wear OS plenty is Fossil these days. They do have some pretty good-looking Wear OS devices on offer right now too, for not very much money.

There is another problem, however. The platform that they have been sitting on, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear System on a Chip (SoC) that Wear OS rides on is also aging. To be fair, nothing much is really wrong with them. At the same time, they do leave a little bit to be desired.

Source: XDA Developers

2020 sees the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. In this new line-up there are two processors unveiled. The top performing being the Qualcomm Snapdragon War 4100+ platform, and then there is the regular 4100 platform.

The headlines are pretty much expected. It is more powerful than the two year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100. It is a lot more energy efficient too, making energy-efficient mode more colourful and functional. There is a whole slew of improvements in managing other features too, including a promised better GPS support. Oh, apparently there is better camera support too for whatever reason.

Of course, all these things are quite expected. To put them into perspective though, you have to look at numbers. Keep in mind that Wearable tech is still in its infancy and is still growing at an exponential rate.

The new 4100 platform is clocked 85% faster than the 3100 platform. Its memory clock is also that much faster while GPU performance is claimed to be more than twice faster than before. No, you might not want to use it for gaming still in a display no bigger than your webcam.

But that allows developers and Google more room for fancy animations, better looking interfaces, and generally plenty more functions to be loaded on top of Wear OS. Heck, it could even mean that you get different variants of Wear OS that fits form and function distinctly.

Source: XDA Developers

Apparently also the new 12nm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform offers 25% more battery life compared to the outgoing 3100 platform. While that is still nothing to shout about, it is an improvement. Now you can have a Wear OS device that lasts to bedtime, rather than one that has to be charged when you get home after work. Or not, depending on what the watchmaker feels like fitting into their hardware.

There is a new 4G modem too in case you want the device to be an eSIM device. That also means you might be able to leave your smartphone behind during a jog in favour of a more secure, lighter package you wear on your wrist. Of course, new improved antenna also means better GPS coverage and tracking.

Currently nothing in Fossil’s line-up will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform. The first Wear OS device with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform will be the Mobvoi TicWatch line up. We can expect to see Fossil to follow suit later in the year. The Wear OS platform now might be worth a look.

Accessories, Editorial, Health

A Week with the Fitbit Charge 4 -Making Sense of Fitness

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Fitness is a journey of a thousand steps and it usually begins with the first one. If you’re like me, that journey usually gets started and then quickly falls by the sidelines when visible results begin to plateau. I was pretty adamant in losing weight this round and then came a little angel who told me to try using the new Fitbit Charge 4 and passed me one for review.

The Fitbit Charge 4 was released not too long ago and comes with a very minor, but significant update to the Charge 3 – GPS tracking. This isn’t the first time I was using fitness bands or smartwatches; in fact, I use a Galaxy Watch daily and was using the Charge 3 before. But after a while, they became watches more than fitness trackers; a problem I’m pretty sure many others face. That brings up the question – why not buy a regular analogue watch? So, this time, I decided to pay closer attention to the features that the Fitbit Charge 4 offers and figure out how to effectively use them to help achieve my goals.

Setting up the Fitbit Charge 4 & Making Sense of Metrics

As always, the first thing you do with a new fitness tracker is to pair it with your phone. Like all other Fitbit devices, I plugged in the Charge 4 to get things powered up and started. I was pleasantly greeted by a smile and a prompt to continue the setup process on my smartphone – a Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G. The setup process was pretty straight forward but I was more impressed with the ease of setup. In the past, with the Charge 3 and even the Versa before, the setup process was rather painful with the devices not being detected and even disconnecting midway. The Charge 4 was a breeze, no issues at all.

Once it was setup, I glanced through the app looking at the many features which come in the Charge 4. You’ve got everything from the basic tracking of steps to sleep tracking and even GPS tracking. Fitbit has put a lot into making sure that you have everything you need to quantify your fitness journey in the Charge 4. However, it was quite daunting to be facing metric after metric after metric after metric. It wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that many people wouldn’t be able to make heads or tail of the many metrics that the Charge 4 can track. After some research and looking into the metrics, I realised that the biggest challenge any fitness newbie would face is the eventual plateau which I mentioned in the beginning. So, looking at the metrics that the Charge 4 could give me, I decided that the best thing to do is work towards overcoming that plateau.

The Charge 4 is able to track sleep, steps taken, distance travelled while walking, heart rate, calories burnt and a new metric called the Active Zone minutes. Other metrics such as weight, calories consumed, and hydration can also be measured but involve manually inputting the data into the app. With all of these available, I looked into creating a baseline for myself before I decide to make changes. After monitoring my metrics for about three days, I realised that I may not need to use all the metrics available – at least not initially. I looked at which areas I need to improve and realised that, for me at least, I needed to start looking into getting better sleep, being less sedentary and getting enough hydration.

The Fitbit App’s heart rate monitor screen helps you monitor your fitness level with you resting heart rate
Fitbit’s new Active Zone minutes feature allows you to set how many active minutes you want to cover a day
The Fitbit App also gives you weekly summaries and suggestions which can help you do better

This narrowed down my focus to three main metrics: sleep, steps taken or active zone and hydration. With my main focus set, I had the trusty Charge 4 to help me make small changes that can help me with my fitness.

Using the Charge 4 to Make Small, Meaningful Changes for Better Health

Using the Fitbit Charge 4 to track your steps, sleep and active zone is pretty straight forward – just wear the Fitbit. So, wear the Charge 4 I did. Keeping up with the metrics is a lot of work. You have to open the app to check up on yourself on a daily basis. However, the array of widgets that the Fitbit app helps ever so much in helping you keep track and making changes.

Setting Goals within the app will help with making meaningful changes to help you achieve your fitness goals
The multiple widgets on my home screen for Fitbit’s app. There isn’t a compact, integrated one. You have to place each toggle on its own.

For me, because one of my goals was to get enough sleep, the daily reminders and nudges to prepare for bed were a godsend. It has allowed me to get into a wind-down routine and put away my tech when the nudges come. This has actually translated into better sleep overall. However, – and this is a BIG one – the sleep tracking has been hit or miss for me. So, I’ve been using my smartwatch to get a more accurate picture of how I’ve been sleeping on a daily basis.

The Fitbit Charge 4 has also been breaking up my daily 10,000 steps into smaller, more achievable goals throughout the day. To help me achieve this goal, it nudges me every hour to get up and get some steps in. Believe it or not? This small adjustment also helps me get more productive throughout the day. I’ve been able to get more done in a day than before without feeling drained midway.

Fitbit’s sleep monitoring screen gives you a lot of useful information when it works. Otherwise it’s just a missed opportunity
Monitoring is easy with the overview the app gives you but you have to open the app to get it.

The hardest adjustment for me is the monitoring of my water intake. Since it’s done manually, I have to remember to turn on the phone and record the amount of water I’m consuming. As you can tell, this also means that I might miss recording a few glasses of water here and there. But, more hydration is a good thing.

Fitness Isn’t Just about the Aesthetics

Overall, my first week with the Charge 4 has thought me one big lesson – fitness isn’t just about looking good. It’s about the small changes that eventually lead to being more “fit” overall; aesthetics is just a result of you feeling better about yourself and overall, your body coping better with the stresses you face on a day to day basis. As the Malay saying goes, “sikit-sikit, lama-lama menjadi bukit” ; roughly translated: bit by bit, over time it will become a hill.

While the Charge 4 isn’t a magically genie that grants wishes, it’s given a health-science degree holding, obese person a new, quantifiable approach to dealing with the extra kilos. If you’re looking at the scale continuously, you’ll get demotivated over time especially when the reading starts to nag the same digits over and over again. Start with small changes like getting enough sleep and drinking enough water – the rest will come naturally. Getting the Charge 4 or something similar that fits your needs and budget will also help you get there.

Health, News

Fitbit Introduces Fitbit Flow to Help With COVID-19 Pandemic

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Not too long ago, we covered a call to arms by a few governments across the world to develop and produce ventilator devices to help with the current shortage across many countries due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Health and wearables company, Fitbit, was one of the companies that rose to the task and are announcing the fruits of their labour – the Fitbit Flow.

The Fitbit Flow builds upon the automatic resuscitator design of the MIT E-Vent Design Toolbox and complies with the specifications for Rapidly Manufactured Ventilation Systems put forth by the government of the United Kingdom. The Flow was developed in close consultation with Oregon Health & Scince University (OHSU) emergency medicine clinicians who were caring for COVID-19 patients at OHSU Hospital and the MassGeneralBrigham Center for COVID Innovation workgroup to meet the needs of medical practitioners.

The design of the Fitbit Flow builds on the standard resuscitator bags similar to the ones used by paramedics. However, the company has equipped the Flow with an array of sensors, sophisticated instruments and alarms that work together to automate compressions and regulate the flow of air into the patients lungs to help with respiration and blood oxygenation. It is also touted to be designed to be user friendly to reduce the strain on specialised staff typically needed to perform and operate other ventilators. Fitbit is also touting that the Flow is priced lower than other ventilators on the market.

“Fitbit Flow is a great example of the incredible innovation that emerges when academia and industry employ problem-based innovation to respond quickly to an important need. COVID-19 is a new illness and we still have much to learn about the progression, treatment, and potential recurrence of this disease. It’s critical that we develop solutions that can help ensure our health systems have the equipment they need now, and in the future if we do see a resurgence of COVID-19.”

David Sheridan, MD, MCR, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Co-Director of Emergency Clinical Innovation Oregon Health & Science University

The Flow is the latest in a series of efforts and collaborations by Fitbit with academia to help advance the health industry. With the announcement of the Charge 4, the company also announced a collaboration to help increase the accuracy of sleep data to help make wearables more impactful. The company is aiming to use its facilities to help mass produce the Flow to be supplied to hospitals in dire need of ventilators.

Contributed, Health

Bringing Intelligence to Medical Devices and Machines

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is the science and engineering of creating machines or computer programs that can sense, reason, act, and adapt to come up with solutions for problems. As this definition shows, AI in itself is not a solution but rather a set of methods from which solutions can be developed.

Amongst the benefits of AI is its ability to imitate human cognitive behavior by analyzing data and its surroundings, solving or anticipating problems and self-learning to adapt to a variety of tasks.

Globally, healthcare systems are facing various challenges. This includes an ever-increasing aging population[1], escalating healthcare costs, operational inefficiencies, staff shortage, value-based reimbursements, higher percentage of deaths accounting to chronic illness, as well as an annual wastage of up to $750 billion on healthcare as seen in the United States alone. Against the background of these challenges, healthcare is also undergoing rapid digitalization.

For example, over the past decade, there has been an increase in growth of computational power, while the cost of data storage has dropped dramatically. As a result, the amount and quality of stored digital medical data has increased tremendously. However, there is a growing concern in healthcare that only a fraction of this data is being used to improve the quality and efficiency of care. The growth rate and diversity of medical data has far outpaced our ability to analyze it.

Recognizing this, Philips has developed intelligent solutions using these data and information on hand to help healthcare providers achieve improved health outcomes at a lower cost, while providing better staff and patient experience.

Philips Redesigning Medical Technology for Better

Philips offers a broad spectrum of solutions that spans the health continuum, from healthy living and prevention to diagnosis, treatment and home care; especially supported by its deep understanding in clinical needs, workflows, and regulations, as well as departmental and hospital workflows.

Spending approximately EUR 1.8 billion annually on R&D, innovation[2] is core to Philips’ growth strategy in health technology. In recent years, Philips has significantly improved its research in software and data science and today, almost one in every two of Philips’ R&D professionals focuses on the field of health technology.

On top of working closely with clinical partners across the globe – healthcare providers, academia, and hospital networks, Philips is among the top 5 healthcare IT companies with approximately EUR 3 billion in healthcare IT-related sales and has successfully developed the Philips HealthSuite Platforms, a digital framework that connects consumers, patients and healthcare providers in a cloud-based health ecosystem of devices, apps and tools.

Philips IntelliSpace Discovery offers an integrated AI solution that enables the entire process of generating new AI applications, providing data integration, training and deployment in the research setting.

Recognizing that public trust is paramount and understanding that health data is among the most sensitive types of personal data, Philips takes the growing risk of cybersecurity threats to its products very seriously. Security plans encompass people, processes and technology, with the goal of ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of critical data and the systems that house that data.

How AI Can Help

Over the next decade, smart systems will be able to aggregate information from multiple sources that currently remain trapped in silos. For example, each individual patient’s data will be pulled together from the systems that are used in his/her GP surgery, hospital or specialist center, such as different Electronic Medical Records, diagnostic and monitoring solutions.

Today, slowly but surely, ASEAN countries are adopting AI and its elements to ensure systematic and efficient workflow within the healthcare industries.

Here is a quick look on how Philips is applying AI to address the challenges within healthcare industry:

  • Clinical informatics & decision support – Philips IntelliSpace Portal offers an advanced visual analysis and quantification platform that uses machine learning to learn about the clinician’s workflow. It then automatically configures the system to apply the appropriate processing to specific types of studies to speed up their analysis.
  • Acute care – Philips IntelliVue Guardian System with Early Warning Scoring (EWS) aids in identifying subtle signs of deterioration in a general floor patient’s condition at the point of care. IntelliVue Guardian automated EWS helps to reduce ICU transfers and readmissions, and adverse events.
  • Home care – Philips CareSage, a predictive analytics technology that helps prevent avoidable hospital admissions and emergency room visits among the frail and elderly and DreamMapper, a mobile app that allows people with sleep apnea to track their therapy progress so they can take an active role in their therapy. It is designed to quickly correlate data on therapy usage, mask fit and apnea hypopnea index (AHI) readings to help improve treatment success.

[1] www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/preface. Published October 2011. Updated January 22, 2015. Accessed August 1, 2015.

[2]https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2018/20181108-philips-provides-update-on-performance-and-value-creation-journey-at-capital-markets-day-in-amsterdam.html

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[COVID-19] Australia is Next in Launching COVID-19 Contact Tracing App

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About two weeks ago, a certain Cupertino based firm and a Mountain View tech giant decided to team up to create something that the world really needs. Apple and Google have decided that they are collaborating to create a framework for contact tracing apps. Singapore responded soon after with a contact tracing app that they are distributing in their own region, ‘TraceTogether’ they call it.

Source: ABC Australia

Following that is Australia, launching their own COVIDSafe app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app is based on Singapore’s TraceTogether app, which is fundamentally is a voluntary app for users. Basically, the app will allow your device to communicate with other smartphone devices within a certain radius, a sort of “digital handshake”.

It uses your device’s Bluetooth data to trace proximity with another person. Once that is established, the app cross checks your contact list and its own servers to identify infected persons. The app will then notify users if they have been in contact with an infected person for longer than 15 minutes.

There are some security concerns over this of course. You are allowing your smartphone to share its contact information with a server and another device via Bluetooth, which is less than ideal. Still, it will only share these data when you allow the app to do so. The app will also ask for your consent to share your data if you are an infected person or if you have been infected. There are also concerns about more data being shared out with external parties and governments.

Department of Health (Australia)

The Australian government have dismissed that claims and assured its people that the app, though public and open in nature, is secure and save. Any technology that could help with the fight against COVID-19 is a welcome addition after all.

Germany is on a different approach to contact tracing though. Like Google and Apple’s approach to contact tracing, they are prioritising a little bit more privacy. Instead of storing data in a centralised sever, the app will store data only on its devices. We have not seen any implementations on that just yet though, including Google and Apple’s attempt. We should see it soon, and we are quite excited.

For now, we can only wait and see if the app helps or not. Although, in the case of Malaysia, the Movement Control Order has helped with the local efforts in the fight against the virus. Do we still need the app then? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.

Source: Department of Health (Australia), Engadget