Healthcare presents one of the biggest frustrations for customers but for forward thinking companies, it can also provide some of the largest opportunities. The size of the market and the chance to impact the lives of people are almost extraordinary. Last year, investors and venture capitalists poured $12.2 billion into the healthcare industry, according to a report by Silicon Valley Bank. Here are some to watch out for.

Maven

Maven is provides women and their families with healthcare via its digital care platform of online clinics. Their funding has now totaled more than $15 million. It launched in 2015 and has had almost 100,000 patients. They have nearly a thousand medical practioners.

Interested patients can book appointments using video or messages to a large network of women’s health and maternity services. It includes midwives, therapists, OB-GYNs, dieticians and others. Their medical team is available 24/77

Maven already operates an on-demand marketplace with Maven Maternity Maven Maternity. It is utilized by top companies throughout the U.S., including Protective Life Corporation and Snap. They support new parents from conception to the pregnancy, postpartum issues and also transitioning back to the workplace.

Augmedix

Augmedix uses Google Glass technology to create tools to increase a doctor’s productivity. They have gained $23 million funding from OrbiMed and McKesson Ventures, among others. Their main product is their remote scribe technology which uses Google Glass. It seeks to help doctors cope with their huge documentation and charting requirements. It would free them up to see more patients and foster better relationships with them.

They have developed the biggest remote scribe service so far in the world. It is built from a safe and protected enterprise platform. It has been installed in some of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. Augmedix complements staffing, quality assurance, network support, analytics and business processing improvements.

Flatiron Health

Flatiron Health was founded by Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg in 2012 after they sold their first company to Google. Turner’s seven-year old cousin was diagnosed with leukemia a few years earlier. It was during his cousin’s cancer treatment when he saw the fragmented healthcare system firsthand.   He and his partner sought a lofty goal. They wanted to combine the smartest people in medicine with leading edge technology to change the way cancer is treated.

Most of the available clinical data on cancer is not structured and kept across thousands of community clinics and hospitals that are not connected. They felt they could solve this problem. Their oncology-specific workflows and products like DocSearch were created to reduce minutes of workflow down to seconds.

PeraHealth

PeraHealth creates clinical surveillance technology that is predictive. It has $14 million in funding from Mainsail Partners, an equity firm. They used it to build clinical tools, and spur adoption efforts as well as R&D.

It is in use at around 80 hospitals such as in Houston Methodist and the Yale New Haven Health System. PeraHealth integrates with electronic health records (EHR) to improve bed assignment and nursing assignments, clinical documentation, discharge plans and more. They developed an index and scoring system that can help manage illnesses by helping doctors spot patients who are most in need of early interventions.

Biolectrics

Biolectrics is a dental health startup that creates medical products. They combine medical, biological and electrical research to create new technologies to treat gum disease using a family of dental health devices called OraFlow.

Dentists who want to whiten their patients’ teeth could use hydrogen peroxide teeth whitening gel, but devices to treat gum disease such as periodontal disease were limited. Their first generation product was similar to a mouth guard that was attached to an electronic controller. It was designed to help dentists by giving them a take-home dental care device that would complement their existing procedures.

Biolectrics has completed testing the OraFlow devices at Case Western Reserved University. Clinical trials are being designed and managed by the Center for Dental Studies, University of Buffalo, New York.

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A home theater should provide a high quality video and audio experience with the added comfort of sitting on your favorite couch. Make some popcorn and pour a glass of soda, it’s about to get real.

Wireless HDMI Kit

This kit will help you transmit HQ picture and sound through walls, floors, and even ceilings. You don’t have to worry about tripping over long cables going to the bathroom in the middle of a movie. This system consists of a wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver that transfers the image and sound signals of high quality. It can wirelessly connect a range of multimedia devices such as PC, Blu-Ray player, Gaming station to the TV screen, monitor or projector.

Speaker System

Bulky and tall speakers used to be popular but nowadays it has transformed to more compact and portable devices. Enabled by wireless technology, you can now carry your speaker system to the porch, the balcony, your car – basically anywhere. Beautiful speakers without complicated aspects and inexpensive prices, you can experience sound as it comes in all directions, just like sitting in a movie theatre.

Universal remote

For some reason, my grandfather had two remotes for his television. Remote A was for turning it on and Remote B was for controlling the volume. If one was wedged in between couch cushions, we had to turn the house upside down to find it. Don’t follow our example. A universal remote is basically having one remote to control everything in your home theater. Convenient and easy to use, this product is a must-have.

Smart-home lighting

With the right system in place, smart lighting can allow you to set the mood you want, save energy, act as motion alerts or even automatically adjust according to the time of day. You can schedule lights to turn on as you are walking in from work. Different lightings are needed for reading, homework, watching a movie or dinner for two. Many smart bulbs are so high-tech that standard light sockets can be connected through WiFi. Now grab your universal remote (see above) and adjust the connected lighting to your needs and wants.

Wireless headphones

If you have a roommate who sleeps early and is not prone to loud noises, wireless headphones are your best bet. While soundproofing a room is difficult and expensive, you can enjoy your home entertainment system without bothering anyone else. It even allows you to leave the room to grab your popcorn in the microwave while still experiencing the movie.

You are now one step closer to watching the movies you want and when you want at home. I recommend heading over to a site Best Advisor to compare reviews and settle for the product you think is best for your budget and the size of your room.

We have recently experienced cases of UBC students submitting articles to TechNut that contain subtle advertisements, spam and offensive content. In those cases, we were able to promptly remove the articles thanks to whistleblowing from our blog readers. If you find any spam, advertising, or offensive content either in articles or the comments section, please report it immediately and we will edit or remove the article as necessary. Thank you.

Nocturnal predators such as wolves and coyotes can cause significant damage to our properties, but few things are as traumatizing as the sudden sight of a roach on your kitchen floor during your midnight trips to the fridge. Whatever your pest enemies are, here’s a list of technologies that help us compensate for our awkward position on the food chain throne.

Predator Deterrent Lights

Predator lights are designed to scare away nocturnal animals that usually raid livestock areas, orchards, vineyards, trash bins and other property areas. Most of them are solar-powered and can be mounted on different surface areas using internal magnets or screws. The device works by random flashing patterns to scare away predators, providing a human solution to nocturnal predator raids.

Solar Powered Mole Repeller

Moles are oftentimes the primary culprit for damage to lawns and gardens. The ground-dwelling species feed on insects instead of plants, but create elaborate tunnels underground that can ruin your garden and allow other pests to access to your plants. An effective tool to keep them off your gardens is the solar repeller. The device scares critters away with an ultrasonic alarm sound undetectable to human ears. It uses solar energy to charge its batteries during the day and emits an infrared ray of light that detects motion anytime a mole crosses the beam at night.

Dynatrap

Pesky mosquitoes are summertime’s unwelcome guests. While most of them don’t carry diseases, they can get in the way of you enjoying your camping adventures or pool barbecues. Bug sprays or lotions can be effective but are filled with chemicals, and zappers can be noisy. Dynatrap is a technology-driven insect trap that protects against mosquitoes and other bugs such as wasps, moths, and biting flies. The device is affordable, chemical and pesticide free, and environmentally friendly. It uses UV light and carbon dioxide to mimic the presence of human beings and attract predatory insects. Its silent fan then vacuums the insects into a retaining cage where they dehydrate and die.

Electronic Pest Repeller

The Electronic pest repeller uses a powerful combination of electromagnetic, ultrasonic, and ionic technologies to safely and ecologically keep pests away from your home. A range of different products are available including roach killers, and others that cover a wide variety of pests including mice, spiders, ants, ticks, mosquitoes, even scorpions, bats and more. The products are designed to reach deep into walls, ceilings, baseboards, cabinets, floors, attics and many other places. This is useful since 90% of pests nest and breed within the walls.

Cold Fogger

A ULV fogger uses cold fogging techniques to control different types of insects and pests where hygiene is a concern such as schools, hotels, hospitals, canteens and greenhouses. They produce practically invisible fog using motors that produce low pressure air steam. A fogging solution is stored into a tank and get pumped into a nozzle that gives the air flow a swirling motion. Cold foggers can be used indoors and outdoors but tend to be a little more costly for personal use compared to thermal foggers.

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