Oct. 26 Media Roundup

Maybe it was the momentary “Back to the Future” craze last week, but a couple stories surfaced in the news that seemed to focus on being on the brink of futuristic technology and expanding the scope of what's possible in mHealth.  

At the USC Body Computing Conference, a video was screened in which a doctor was projected via a hologram into a patient’s home in Dubai. The real-time hologram house call included asking questions about the problem, diagnosing the issue and going through the treatment options while the doctor was in her home office. Elsewhere, a paralyzed man’s arm was wired with electronics to respond to his brain signals, showing promise for paralysis patients. 

Read up on all of our news highlights from last week below: 

mHealth and Tech

• Smartphones that diagnose mood disorders? According to a new study, smartphones can accurately detect mood changes indicative of bipolar disorder.
• What do data privacy and Jurassic Park have in common? Hint: it’s related to escape...
• Amazing. After bridging his injuries with electronics, a paralyzed man’s arm has been wired to receive brain signals kudos to scientists at Case Western Reserve University.
• Back to the Future may have been released 26 years ago, but some of the tech predictions weren’t far off. Quartz takes a look at what the movie got right.
• A high-tech teddy bear that teaches sick kids about health has been launched. A recipient of an NIH grant, the customizable toy is a huge hit with kids.
• Coming to you from USC, the future of medicine may have arrived with hologram house calls. Using the technology, doctors can speak with patients in remote locations.
• A new, nonprofit crowdsourcing website wants to pool our genomes to enable large-scale scientific research. One the first day of its launch, the website was receiving about a genome per minute!
• Did you know an app exists that lets Google Glass recognize emotions? A new clinical trial being conducted at Stanford is now looking at if it can help kids with autism.
• Ancestry.com is in talks with the FDA about using DNA to estimate the risk of disease for people. 

Life Sciences and Pharma 

• What effect does aspirin have on cancer recurrence? In England, the NHS and Cancer Research UK are setting out to learn more in a 12-year, 11,000 patient clinical trial.
• J&J is taking a look at human “organs-on-chips” technology that may have the potential to revolutionize drug development.
• Lilypad spotlights the organizations that are joining efforts to keep people safe from counterfeit medicines.
• How does lifestyle affect cancer rates and survival? In a webchat, Dr. Amanda Phipps, an epidemiologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, answered questions about how a healthy lifestyle contributes to cancer risks. 
• Two Australian men battled the elements to raise money for rare disease research. The two spent more than 34 hours on kayaks and covered 280 miles to support Friedreich's Ataxia.  

As always, for more news highlights, be sure to follow along with us all week on LinkedIn and Twitter!