Bridging the gap between research and real life
Artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous in modern society. While it may seem like a brand-new technology to many, computer scientists have been building and testing AI models—albeit simple ones initially—since the 1950s. You likely have been using AI in your daily life for much longer than you realize—it’s used in chatbots on websites, robotic vacuums that learn floorplans, digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, and much more. [Read more…]
Thousands of people now speak to their smart devices to make their grocery lists. Students are more likely to type out notes in class than write them down. And we often type or dictate calendar reminders into our smartphones instead of writing them on a wall calendar. In short, people across the globe and in a wide variety of settings primarily use digital devices to record the things they want to remember. [Read more…]
Scrolling through a social media feed, you might expect to see photos of friends’ travels, political opinions, and images of the latest fashions. You’ll also find a tremendous variety of health information.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for reliable health information is central to our lives; social media outlets have played an even larger role in spreading both information and disinformation. As a result, a new body of research is exploring the impact of social media on public health, and how we can best use online tools to improve our well-being. [Read more…]
More than 90 percent of teenagers in the U.S. have a smartphone. Access to this type of technology and social networking changes the playing field for young people who are simultaneously developing a sense of identity and new social relationships. [Read more…]
More than half of the world’s population is overweight or obese, a trend that is contributing to significant health problems in people across the globe. Obesity is a major risk factor for many chronic health problems including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Encouraging people to lose weight is one solution, but the evidence shows that weight loss is difficult and rarely sustained. [Read more…]
Over the past decade, social media platforms have completely transformed how billions of people interact with each other. Of the 7.7 billion people on the earth, approximately 3.3 billion have at least one social media account. The average person spends nearly two hours a day on social media apps or web sites. [Read more…]
Today’s teenagers are growing up with a completely different set of social parameters compared to any other generation before them thanks to advances in technology. [Read more…]
You check Facebook while in line at the grocery store.
You glance at Twitter while waiting at a stop light.
While working on your computer, social media alerts pop up in the corner of the screen.
Social media is a constant presence in the lives of billions of people across the globe. Facebook alone boasts of nearly 1.8 billion users. [Read more…]
Smart phones have changed our society in a myriad of ways, making it faster and easier to communicate with each other, conduct research, access entertainment, and navigate the world.
The health care industry has also capitalized on this new technology. Today, there are dozens of apps designed to help people improve their fitness, lose weight and monitor medical conditions. But do they actually work? [Read more…]
These days when I go to a doctor’s office, my health care provider is nearly always using an electronic device – a laptop or handheld computer – in the examination room. Personally, it makes me feel reassured when my doctor is using the latest technology as part of my medical care. But do electronics really make a difference in health care settings? [Read more…]
The intersection of medicine and technology is always interesting – with so many opportunities for improving health and wellness. But it can be hard to know what really works.
A new systematic review is shedding some light on the subject. The Cochrane Collaboration reviewed two studies of nearly 1,000 HIV-positive adults in Kenya taking antiretroviral therapy, which requires daily doses of oral medicine.
They found that patients receiving text messages reminding them to take their medications were less likely to miss doses. One of the studies also demonstrated that patients receiving weekly text-messages were at lower risk of missing medicine doses compared with patients receiving daily messages.
Geri Gay, a Cornell communications professor focused on interactive communication technologies, says these type of messages are just a start.
“There is an enormous potential to use mobile technologies to help us change what we think and do,” she said. “These mobile tools can not only tailor and deliver health messages for particular times and locations but can also provide feedback and social support.”
While the review found some positive results, it only included two trials with adult patients in Kenya. The authors concluded researchers needed to study whether texting helps adolescents remember to take their medicines, and whether this type of intervention works higher-income countries.
While the results are preliminary, this type of work paves the way for additional research that can tell us even more about using technology to improve health outcomes across the globe.
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