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Howard G. Smith, M.D. is a former radio medical editor and talk show host in the Boston Metro area. His "Medical Minute" of health and wellness news and commentary was a regular weekday feature on WBZ-AM, WRKO-AM, and WMRE-AM. His popular two-way talk show, Dr. Howard Smith OnCall, was regularly heard Sunday morning and middays on WBZ.

Dr. Smith has adopted audio and video podcasting as conduits for HEALTH NEWS YOU SHOULD USE. Based on the latest medical, health, and wellness literature these reports provide practical information you can use to keep yourself and your family healthy. Many reports have video versions, and Dr. Smith’s YouTube Channel may be found at: http://bit.ly/2rNw6XQ

Trained at Harvard Medical School and a long-time faculty member at Boston Children’s Hospital, he practiced Pediatric Otolaryngology for 40 years in Boston, Southern California, and in central Connecticut.  He is now based in New York City.

If you have questions or suggestions about this content, please email the doctor at drhowardsmith.reports@gmail.com or leave him a message at 516-778-8864.  His website is: www.drhowardsmith.com.

Please note that the news, views, commentary, and opinions that Dr. Smith provides are for informational purposes only. Any changes that you or members of your family contemplate making to lifestyle, diet, medications, or medical therapy should always be discussed beforehand with personal physicians who have been supervising your care.

Apr 5, 2019

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/7s2URrwjctc

Soon to enter the commercial market is a high-tech toilet seat that can monitor the performance of the heart and help to guide therapy for congestive heart failure.  This bionic bathroom throne was developed by bioengineers at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This very smart crapper topper can periodically measure the electrical and mechanical activity of the heart including EKG, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and the amount or blood pumped out with every beat of the heart, better known as the stroke volume.  The seat takes all this data as well as the patient’s weight and transmits it back to the patient’ s medical team to help them plan therapy.

The seat will be marketed to hospitals for connection to their telemetry systems and then given to patients.  The seats will more than pay for themselves by significantly reducing a hospital’s 30 day readmission rate and eliminating the penalty fees the hospital will owe Medicare.

The seat doesn’t play music or clean your bottom, but, for congestive heart failure patients, it may be lifesaving.

Nicholas J Conn, Karl Q Schwarz, David A Borkholder. In-Home Cardiovascular Monitoring System for Heart Failure: Comparative Study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2019; 7 (1): e12419 DOI: 10.2196/12419

#Heartfailure #CHF #toiletseat #telemetry #readmissions #homemonitoring