Medopad rebrands as Huma, acquires BioBeats and TLT to expand its biomarker platform – TechCrunch
Some big changes are underway for London-based Medopad, a startup that builds software for medical practitioners to monitor patients remotely based on digital biomarkers — measurable indicators of the progression of illnesses, diseases or overall health that are picked up not with blood samples or in-doctor visits but using apps and wearables.
The company is rebranding to Humaand appointing its…
Wearable gadgets and health-tracking services driving the "quantified self" trend in health care are doing brisk business, even as investments in traditional health-care technologies have lagged.
[...] [Investments] also show that quantified self—or the idea that more individual health data will lead to better and less expensive treatment—is continuing to pick up steam.
[...] The phenomenon plays to consumers’ love for gadgets, and to the health-care system’s very real need to cut down the number of unnecessary visits to hospitals and doctors’ offices.
And quantified self continues to attract new entrants, like Beverly Hills, Calif.-based BioBeats Inc., which invites users to tune in to their own heartbeats, for the purpose of making music from the rhythm
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Without a doubt, quantified self practices will be most visible, and normalized, through health care practices. With the buzz that the Affordable Care Act has sparked, the collective cost butchering knife is on the table, and the holy sharpening seal is destined to come in the form of quantifying technologies. Smart companies.
The really interesting part is the closing, which positions BioBeats as an entrant into quantified self companies. From what I can tell - and I hope to write about this shortly - is that BioBeats is used as an 'entertaining' way to learn about 'your body's vital signs'--in a way that does not rely on data.
It's an interesting concept. In a sea of technologies and businesses that have dark clouds (of privacy, of sloth, of mindlessness) behind the bright story-worthy linings, this BioBeats actually sounds like it could have a productive future in merging healthcare not only with entertainment, but with a type of art.
Also to note - Is 'quantified self' becoming synonymous with any self-imposed biometric technology? Or maybe it always has... Hm. That's a big umbrella.
