The iPhone is proven as a way to fill time, from making posts on social networks to playing silly games. Now, some entrepreneurs hope to add to its more practical uses, enabling it to monitor health and prevent disease. Local companies are in the process of developing a new generation of iPhone accessories to help prevent heart disease, measure the temperature of food and determine whether you’re exercising to your fullest potential.
“The advantage of something like an iPhone is it’s becoming increasingly ubiquitous,” said Steve Parente, a health finance professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. “Consumers already pay the upfront cost for the data streaming and the hardware piece of it.”
New ideas for the iPhone include a stethoscope-like attachment from Farmington-based AUM Cardiovascular. The Vista Institute in Minneapolis is developing an iPhone program that will help restaurants monitor food safety. Minneapolis-based PedalBrain will sell a product for cyclists later this year that will collect performance data and make it available in real time on their iPhones. Full story in Star Ledger.