APPS, games or gadgets are trying to tackle some of the thorniest problems in health and medicine.
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is filled with new gadgets to monitor fitness, detect problems and find solutions to health issues ranging from obesity or diabetes to rare medical conditions.
One trend is "gamification," which uses a model from the video game industry to offer points and rewards to boost health.
At CES, the world's biggest technology show, UnitedHealthcare unveiled a joint effort with Konami Digital Entertainment to reduce childhood obesity with a new dance game that challenges youngsters while monitoring body mass index or how many calories are being burned.
The program "adds game mechanics and game psychology to make the experience more engaging and immersing," said Arianne Hoyland, game producer for the insurance giant.
Hoyland says the company also has mobile apps to provide rewards to pregnant women to encourage prenatal visits. The women are given a gift certificate but if they receive the right care, "we can offset those costs and keep them healthier," she said.
"It turns out gamification of health really works," said James McQuivey, analyst at Forrester Research.
"People have a competitive urge, and this can bring new people into something. People want peer recognition, they want to outdo other people."
Other firms are finding ways to use mobile apps to improve health care.
Business software giant SAP has developed an app called "Care Circles" that allows a parent or other individual to manage health care with a multitude of specialists and others.
The program, available for free, was developed by an SAP employee to co-ordinate care among several specialists for a child with a rare medical condition.
"This gets around privacy concerns because the care is controlled by the guardian or individual," said Rishi Diwan, a product manager at SAP who showed the app to CES visitors.
Diwan said the app can help people with special needs, and the company is working with the Alzheimer's Association and Breast Cancer Foundation to generate interest in the platform.
"We are thinking about ways to work on electronic medical records," he told AFP.
Other exhibitors at CES showed exercise armbands and other gadgets to track factors such as heart rates, or real-time monitoring of blood sugar for persons with diabetes.
Another showed a digital fork that monitors caloric intake and vibrates if its user is eating too much too fast.
Some use low-power Bluetooth-connected patches to transmit data to a smartphone, a godsend for Bastian Hauck, a competitive sailor with type 1 diabetes who attended CES to promote the Continua Health Alliance for mobile wellness.
Hauck told AFP the Bluetooth patch he wears transmits to a smartphone and enables him to monitor glucose in real time, helping him determine the best eating and insulin intakes. He shares that information with other diabetics.
Treating diabetes, Hauck said, "is like a guessing game. You have to do it 24/7. There is no rest."
The wireless app "makes it easier" and provides extra motivation by being part of a community battling the same disease.
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