MobiHealth is the 4th International Conference on Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare. The 4th edition of MobiHealth proposes to continue and extend the focus areas of the first three editions, emphasizing on specific research and scientific challenges in the Healthcare Technology domain faced in Europe and globally and hence more interactive input from industry. The objectives of the conference are to advance medical diagnosis, treatment, and patient care through application of wireless communications, mobile computing and sensing technologies. Contributions will be solicited regarding the interdisciplinary design of efficient protocols and technologies to help implement and provide advanced mobile health care applications. The essence of the conference lies in its interdisciplinary nature, with original contributions cutting across boundaries but all within the ambit of the application of mobile communications (technologies, standards, solutions, methodologies, …) aiming at the improvement of human health.

MobiHealth 2014

Professor Gianlucca Lazzi opens the conversation with the renowned ‘bionic eye’, an artificial retina to restore vision to the blind. With over 20 years experience in biolelectromagnetics for implantable devices he mentions his research in hippocampus implants and neurostimulators in general; the role they play in health and how these can affect human lives in the future. In an effort to simplify advancements in sensor technology he explains what liquid metal sensors are and their possible advantages. He goes on to foresee the future in implantable devices and restoring senses to patients. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks central.


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TTC #98 Artificial Retina and Neurostimulators, Dr. Gianlucca Lazzi

Mr. Ioannis Tamposis is a healthcare IT expert working for OraSys that offers innovative healthcare services. They have developed a platform for managing medical imaging workflows in an enterprise level which can be integrated among all radiology equipment and applications. OraSys is also involved in the HPV Guard Project, a decision support system based on advanced clinical theranostics protocols for the cost-effective, personalised management of HPV related disease. Interviewed by Venetia I. Kyritsi for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #97 From R&D to a Healthcare Workflow Management platform, Ioannis Tamposis

Dr. Georgia Chalvatzaki tells us about MOBOT; an ambitious European FP7 project still in evaluation stage, that uses an intelligent robotic walker to assist elderly or reduced mobility people get up from a chair and walk around, during their daily life. It is an easy to use, yet highly sophisticated and self-learning system that gradually recognizes the habits of its user and helps him (or her) overcome most difficulties. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #96 An intelligent robotic walker for assisted living, Dr. Georgia Chalvatzaki

Prof. Athanasios Kakarountas combines his deep knowledge of informatics & computing with marketing techniques in order to design and produce marketable products, useful for everyday assisted living. Starting from his commercialised projects, including a pillow with sensors and an insulin injecting automated system, he talks about his new project which aims to assist elderly by making slight design changes to known household devices that can bring technology to their life in a non-invasive way. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #95 Disappearing computing for elderly assisted living, Prof. Athanasios Kakarountas

Dr. Themos Kallos, Vice President and Chief Science Officer of MediWiSe, describes two important projects his company is working on, which are based on RF properties. The first one uses special antennas for microwave tomography on cancer patients while the second uses V-band waveguides for glucose sensing, in a non-invasive way thus avoiding the painful needles. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #94  RF in Microwave tomography & Glucose sensing, Dr. Themos Kallos

The field of non-invasive Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) is gaining massive momentum as startups, companies and researchers are pushing hard. The race on BCI research is on improvement of the efficiency and the accuracy of the systems, while some of the first commercial efforts are testing the waters with several affordable devices already available to consumers. Professor Bin He, a pioneer in the field of Biomedical Engineering, talks about the ground-breaking research currently being done at the University of Minnesota in decoding brainwaves more accurately and reliably using non-invasive interfaces. We discuss the already impressive results of a  brain-controlled helicopter experiment, some of  the present challenges and the upcoming breakthroughs in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

TTC #109 Your brain as the ultimate controller, Prof. Bin He

The highlight of Prof. Baras’ interview is that “if the 20th century was the century of ICT, then the 21st century surely is the century of Medicine”! Being a technology- Renaissance man himself, he believes that the next frontier is disease modelling (like diabetes or Alzheimer); he and his team give answers on a broad spectrum of applied technology issues focusing on revolutionary micro-energy harvesters that exploit the value-added of human body movements to power sensors and many other mobile devices, in the future. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.

TTC #112 CFPG micro-energy harvester for wearable medical sensors - Prof John Baras

James Tagg, author of the book ‘Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?’ presented in front of an audience his own beliefs on the Singularity issue. He started out by answering his own question ‘Can a Machine think Creatively?’ and argued mathematically on how much artificial intelligence has progressed, which are the crucial parity point dates and why he doesn’t believe that machines can surpass the creativity of humans. The speech was conducted during a Heroes of Mobile event organised by its founder Helen Keegan, on the 2nd of March at the Talent Garden(TAG).


TTC #145 Are The Androids Dreaming Yet, James Tagg

Background, context, and poem text: http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/28/keeping-quiet-sylvia-boorstein-reads-pablo-neruda

Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/what-we-nurture-with-sylvia

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Sylvia Boorstein reads "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda

Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects, Italy /
Karima Bourquard, IHE-Europe Director of Interoperability, France

How does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? At what percentage would you say your country’s NIF is aligned w/ the EIF when it comes to eHealth? What are the obstacles? Does your country have a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives? In what percentage is it being implemented?


TTC #204 Interoperability & eHealth Strategies In Italy & France

Dimitra Liveri, Network and Information Security Expert at ENISA /
Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects

European eHealth companies have a huge potential to grow, by approaching an ever growing market inside and outside EU borders. Apart from the obvious innovation potentials in a broad number of health & patient care sectors, markets like that of the US, Latin America and China have come ‘closer’ due to international agreements. What kind of impediments will European eHealth companies have to overcome, in order to reach these markets effectively?


TTC #205 Extroversion of eHealth Companies

George Crooks, Medical Director for NHS24 and Director of the Scottish Centre for Tele-health and Telecare. President of the European Telematics Association (EHTEL) & leader of the Integrated Care Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing for the European Commission

George Crooks responds to our questions on whether Scotland has a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives. Also, how does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? 


TTC #210 George Crooks on Scotland’s eHealth Strategy & Interoperability

Grab a cocktail, put on your favorite karaoke track, and let’s talk some more about disentangling audio data!

The Cocktail Party Problem

Centuries ago, Germany came up with a way to keep books that contained "dangerous" information without releasing them to the general public: The Giftschrank.
The word, a combination of "poison" and "cabinet," has a variety of meanings in different contexts. At its most literal, a Giftschrank is a space for storing controlled substances in places like pharmacies. Colloquially, it can refer to spaces reserved for all kinds of hidden and forbidden objects, ideas or stories.

203- The Giftschrank

So... about those bots. Bots bots bots. Bots!

In this episode of the botcast, a16z partners Benedict Evans and Connie Chan -- along with Chris Messina, longtime advocate of the open web and more -- pull apart various threads related to the topic of bots, mobile, and beyond: the (evolution?) from web to apps to messaging to bots; chat as an interface; “conversational commerce”; and so on. They also discuss why framing messaging through the lens of WeChat both reveals useful things (what works/ might not work) and not-so-useful things (such as seeking the “WeChat of the West”).

More importantly, how can we keep bots, and what they represent, in perspective -- beyond the fad? Especially when it comes to considering innovation on the 'web' vs. 'mobile' (remember the mobile browser!) and when it comes to removing friction (vs. adding limited interaction). What contexts (like customer service) are most useful for thinking about bots? And how can we even know, given it’s early days yet and we haven’t moved much beyond the command-line interface... 

Finally, as computing moves outside the classic work-centric paradigm to room- and urban-scale, how do we think about integrating online and offline, ubiquitous and “diffuse” computing through bots?

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a16z Podcast: Bots and Beyond

The Tech Talks Central web radio covers all the hot topics and trends in the connected world and features interactive interviews with thought leaders, as well as movers and shakers of the tech industry.
It’s a joint venture between entrepreneurs working in the mobile and technology field and people who love the radio waves!

TTC #112 CFPG micro-energy harvester for wearable medical sensors - Prof John Baras

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