Health and Wellness

By  Laura Lovett 01:27 pm January 16, 2020
Fitbit users were surprised with an added feature on their wearable this week — the ability to check the variability of oxygen levels in their bloodstream.  Users with any of Fitbit’s Sp02-enabled devices can now access an Estimated Oxygen Variation graph. The Sp2 devices include the Charge 3, Ionic, Versa, Versa Lite and Versa 2, according to Fitbit officials.  The update, which was confirmed to...
By  Laura Lovett 07:31 am January 6, 2020
French digital health company Withings has unveiled its latest smartwatch dubbed ScanWatch, which will include an ECG and Sp02 sensor.  The watch comes with a PPG sensor, which will continuously monitor the user's heart rate and alert users if there is an irregularity. If any issues are detected, the watch will prompt the user to take an ECG reading. Watch wearers can read the ECG on the screen...
By  Leontina Postelnicu 06:42 am January 3, 2020
Boots UK has launched an online quiz in a three-year partnership with Public Health England that aims to encourage people to take action to become healthier. The free, interactive questionnaire, hosted on the high street pharmacy retailer’s website, takes an evidence-based approach to assess the respondents’ eating, drinking and smoking habits, as well as their sleep and exercise patterns, in...
By  Dean Koh 02:17 am January 2, 2020
A study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) found that most (93%) mobile apps for suicide prevention and depression management do not provide all the six suicide prevention strategies that are commonly recommended in international clinical guidelines. International guidelines from the UK, US and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend six evidence-based...
By  Dean Koh 04:01 am December 19, 2019
“What we have tracked and seen in the last four years is a very vibrant ecosystem, which was in the past, very e-commerce health focused to nowadays, very sophisticated with AI drug discovery, clinical trials and digital therapeutics etc. In 2018, the total amount of venture capital that was invested in Asia Pacific amounted to about $6.8B. To put in context, in the US it is $8.2B and $2B for...
By  Laura Lovett 07:09 am December 17, 2019
Ro, a direct-to-consumer virtual health company, is diving into the weight management space with the launch of a new product offering aimed at helping patients shed the pounds.  Ro, best-known for its online platform that specializes in men’s health, is now going to be offering Plenity, a new weight management product. Plenity landed FDA clearance last April and is classified as a Class II...
By  Dean Koh 02:46 am November 29, 2018
Roche announced last week the launch of FoundationOne CDx, Foundation Medicine’s comprehensive companion diagnostic test for personalised cancer care in Singapore. According to the official media release, FoundationOne CDx supports clinicians in their decision-making by providing a clear, in-depth report that describes the unique genomic profile of a patient’s tumour as well as associated,...
By  Laura Lovett 04:00 pm January 11, 2018
A recent study published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, found that obese patients who had a weekly telemedicine session with a clinician lost significantly more weight than their peers who did not.  “Our findings suggest that health coaching using a telemedicine-based weight loss program may be effective at reducing clinically significant body weight (more than 5 percent) in obese...
By  Heather Mack 04:41 am November 23, 2016
More than a decade ago, when most people were still using not-so-smart mobile phones, the first human genome was sequenced. It cost $3 billion. In the time it took for smartphones to become the essential consumer technology, DNA sequencing rapidly evolved from a costly, uncommonly used process into a quick, reliable, relatively cheap and widely used predictive tool to give insight on disease risk...