In a classic “Seinfeld” episode, George’s father adopts what’s supposed to be a stress-reduction technique. Except that, instead of reciting it softly to himself, he bellows to the rafters: “Serenity now!” The Inner Balance Trainer is a $99 device from...
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Courtesy HeartMath
The Inner Balance app coaches you through breathing exercises designed to reduce stress.
Inner Balance Promises Stress Relief for IPhoners: Rich Jaroslovsky
How Reliable Is Health Information Online? Pew Study Sheds Light
Looking up your health symptoms on the Internet can be a traumatizing experience. Some websites are riddled with incomplete or inaccurate guidance, leaving you feeling like death is around the corner. Meanwhile, drug companies pitch you with online ads for...
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Courtesy ResearchGate
Axel Toelke (left) and Ijad Madisch, the CEO and co-founder of Berlin startup ResearchGate.
ResearchGate’s 2013 Resolution: Make Money
Since opening its doors in 2008, ResearchGateĀ has aimed to be the Facebook for scientists — a website for medical researchers to connect and share their findings. But following Facebook’s disastrous initial public offering last year, ResearchGate is spending 2013 trying...
Read more »Like Broccoli for Chocolate: IBM Predicts
Every year, the soothsayers over at IBM’s research divisionĀ put their heads together to predict what technologies will change our lives in the coming five years. (And for anyone who wants to tweet on the theme, IBM created a hashtag: #ibm5in5)...
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Photograph by Gunter Ziesler
An Australian medical center is fighting hackers who have encrypted patient records and demanded ransom.
Hackers Hold Australian Medical Center’s Records for Ransom
An Australian medical center is facing the possibility that its patients’ electronic medical records may be locked away forever after hackers broke into its computer system and encrypted the files. The hackers who captured the Miami Family Medical Centre’s data...
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Photograph by Getty Images
Online advertising firm Epic Marketplace is accused by the FTC of spying on Internet users' browsing histories.
How Online Marketer Peered Into People’s Health Histories
There are few things as creepy in online marketing as digging into someone’s health history, without their knowledge, to advertise to them. Yet that’s precisely what New York-based Epic Marketplace is accused of doing. According to the online advertising company’s...
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Photograph by Gary Gershoff/Getty Images
Medical devices such as mammography machines can be vulnerable to hacking attacks.
Many Doctors Don’t Secure Medical Devices From Hackers, Study Finds
Your doctor’s office likely doesn’t have any digital security for its mammography machines, heart pumps and other devices that are vulnerable to hacking, according to a new study. In a survey of 80 health care organizations in the U.S., the...
Read more »Jawbone Fitness Band Could Use Some UP-Dating: Rich Jaroslovsky
When I first reviewed Jawbone’s UP fitness wristband a year ago, I cautioned that it would soon come to seem remarkably rudimentary. A lot’s happened since. Problems with the band’s durability forced the company to stop production for most of...
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Photograph by Reza Estakhrian
Medical identity theft affected an estimated 1.5 million people in the U.S., according to the Ponemon Institute.
How Medical Identity Theft Can Give You a Decade of Headaches
Arnold Salinas knows a lot about the person who stole his identity. He’s 5-foot-9, 190 pounds. He pays for pizzas with forged checks, defaulted on a $17,000 car loan and has traveled the country, racking up speeding tickets and thousands...
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Photograph by Steve Wisbauer
The incident showcases an unsettling new strain of opportunism that's emerging as criminals try to exploit digital records.
Hackers Steal, Encrypt Health Records and Hold Data for Ransom
As more patient records go digital, a recent hacker attack on a small medical practice shows the big risks involved with electronic files. The Surgeons of Lake County, located in the affluent northern Illinois suburb of Libertyville, revealed last month...
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