Exciting New Health Tech For 2018 From Slush 2017

20,000 tech heads recently attended the worlds leading startup event in Finland. Slush, named due to the horrible weather that frequents Helsinki, the city the event is held at, attracted entrepreneurs, startups, venture capitalists, tech journalists from all over the world.

It also attracted me... a New Zealand based health and fitness blogger with a interest in technology.

After 2 jammed packed days listing listening to presentations, interviewing startups and wandering the crowds, I can bring to you the most exciting new health technology coming out in 2018 and beyond.

Exciting New Health Tech For 2018 From Slush 2017

 

Nokia

Finnish tech company may not be the mobile phone powerhouse of yesteryear, but they continue to push ahead with new innovations in the tech industry.

Recently they acquired Withings. And with that purchase you know see various health wearables, smart scales and health devices with the Nokia branding.

More than a simple rebranding, I am told that Nokia have some exciting new health related gadgets in store for 2018.

Though details were sparse (or still kept well under-wraps) I'm excited to see what they do with the Withings acquisition.

Anyway, as for their current health tech gadgets, they had something for everyone, including:

• Smart Watches

These watches tracking steps, sleep, heart rate and calories in a really stylish analog or digital watch.

It is refreshing to see a wearable packaged up in a good looking slim watch and not a clunky digital watch.

• Smart Thermometer

This is a non-contact infrared thermometer that works by simply shining the light on your forehead. You can save 8 profiles on the one sensor and the reading gets pushed to the users health profile (accessible online or via the Nokia Health Mate app).

I'm a big fan of measuring body temperature (I explain why in THIS article) and have all my clients track their temperature daily. This is a super quick, convenient way to measure temperature and have the number recorded in a central spot.

• Smart Body Scales

Clients on my Hormone Reset Program know I'm not a fan of scales and measuring weight. BUT I am a fan of body fat tracking, and these Withings, sorry I mean Nokia! Body scales do exactly that.

These scales measure body weight, bone density and body fat. This data is pushed through to your Health Mate dashboard. And the scales themselves will display a nice easy to read graphic showing your weight trends.

The top model also measures heart rate. 

Also, you will see neat info such as the days weather forecast, plus the previous days step count (if using a Nokia activity tracker)

• Smart Blood Pressure Monitor

The Nokia blood pressure cuff is a wireless device that measures your blood pressure, sending the data directly to your app/health cloud.

• Health Mate App

All the data from the smart watches, the thermometer and the scales is synced to one central app for ease of use and health monitoring.

There is a version for the user, and also a more detailed version for health professionals - allowing them to monitor their clients or patients health, sleep and activity stats.

Plus Nokia are sharing insights from this data with the world. You can compare how your step count compares with others around the world for example.

Find out more on the Nokia Health website - https://www.withings.com/nl/en/

Oura Ring

I have been an Oura Ring user and fan for 2 years now (You can read my review on the first one here) so I was excited to be in the crowd with the team announced their new 2nd generation Oura Ring.

You can see the full keynote presentation below, and I have also put together a detailed article on the new Oura Ring titled 'Everything You Need To Know About The New Oura Ring' so be sure to read that for all the details.

The new Oura Ring is a health/sleep/fitness/recovery wearable that you wear on your finger.

It accurately measures metrics such as HRV, resting HR, respiration rate, movement, sleep, recovery and more.

The second generation Oura Ring has a smaller, more sleek design. Improved battery life (up from 2 days to 1 week), improved sensors and hardware, a new app that will learn from your sleep and activity and provide personalised feedback and wireless charging.

To learn more head to 'Everything You Need To Know About The New Oura Ring'. 

The new ring will ship from 2Q 2018, but you can order the ring through THIS link.

This quote from Chief Science Officer Hannu Kinnunen sums up my views on the New Oura Ring perfectly:

"Wearing the new ring will shout out a positive signal - I am unique, I care about myself, and I know the importance of sleep and recovery"

 

Ambronite

Ambronite is a 'drinkable supermeal' made out of high quality, nutrient dense raw ingredients.

20  ingredients (50% of which are organic) make up the Ambronite formula, these ingredients include:

Oat protein, almond, oats, apple, coconut sugar, oat fiber, nettle leaf, spinach, flaxseed, chlorella, spirulina, cranberry, bilberry, black currant, sea buckthorn, nutritional yeast, mineral salt, guar gum, natural flavours.

It is a plant based, non GMO blend that is designed to use a a meal replacement drink or as a supplement to boost nutrient intake. A lot of my Hormone Reset Program clients use Ambronite when travelling, on the go or when they need a few extra greens in their diet.

Though they aren't a tech company, lot of busy tech employees regularly use Ambronite to satisfy hunger and boost nutrient content in their diet.  Combine this with the fact that Ambronite was founded in Finland and it makes perfect sense for them to be present a Slush.

You can learn more and purchase snack size servings at www.Ambronite.com

Glucomodicum

A non-invasive continuous blood glucose monitor.

This is a company that has come out of research from the University of Helsinki.

Their product is still in the development phase, but they are hoping to get something on the market in 2018.

Most continuous blood glucose devices require a needle being inserted (and kept) under the skin. This invasive procedure puts many people off using them - despite being able to get a ton of great information from the unit.

The Glucomodicum promises to accurately measure blood glucose levels without any needles.

They couldn't go into details around how this exactly works. But they assured me the technology is accurate.

Follow their Facebook page for updates - https://www.facebook.com/GlucoModicum/  

 

FirstBeat

Firstbeat is another Finnish based company. They specialise in Heart Rate Variability Monitoring.

Heart Rate Variability, or HRV, is something I personally use to monitor my own health and recovery and have written about it in great detail HERE and HERE.

Firstbeat have a device that monitors every heart beat and HRV, helping you determine how the body responds to stress, your autonomic stress balance and your sleep data.

The device is free of any transmitter - meaning it's not pulsing any nnEMF.  You stick it to your body and it will measure your HR and HRV.

The data from the device is then anaylsed by FirstBeat, and an extremely detailed personalised report is generated.

This report will show your stress state at any time, your stress load for the day, physical activity, stress/recovery balance, 

Firstbeat primarily target corporate wellness and professional sports teams more than individuals. But it is possible for an individual like you and I to get access to the FirstBeat device. 

Simply head to their website - https://www.firstbeat.com - where you can have a FirstBeat electrode monitor sent to your home. You then wear this monitor 24 hours for 3 days.

The monitor is then sent back to FirstBeat for analysis. They then generate a rather detailed (but easy to read) personalised report, showing factors that affect your well-being and performance.

From here you can make changes to your life to help optimise stress balance, recovery, sleep and health.

Personally, I think this model is a little outdated. If FirstBeat are reading this, I would suggest selling the device for a one off fee (you could even sell it below cost) then enable the user to upload their data direct to the cloud (or an app) so they can generate their own reports.

Charge a monthly fee for this (I would pay, and I know many others who would also pay for this data!) and then upsell the users to get extra coaching or more detailed reports.

As neat as the data and the reports are, given you only see a snapshot (3 days) in time and you have to pay for each test and report, it's hard for me to get excited about this device at the moment.

But, Firstbeat recognise that their software and algorithms are extremely valuable. So they do license their technology to other device manufacturers.

For example, Garmin, Huawei, Sony, Tomtom and Suunto sports devices all utilise the Firstbeat analytics software. You can see more of these devices here - https://www.firstbeat.com/en/consumer-products/products/ 

Navva

Navva produce 'Smart Green Walls'.

I saw these green walls littered throughout the Slush conference and I knew I hard to learn more. Given I spend a lot of time indoors, and I also understand the importance of a healthy environment I was eager to learn what exactly this product was, and what was so 'Smart' about their green walls.

Navva say 'they bring the forest inside'. By using these green walls they help clean indoor air quality, control humidity and temperature and produce fresh oxygen.

It is a fully automated system, it will take information from the outside weather and will change the green wall to ensure the indoor environment is best suited to our health.

The microbes and roots from the plants act as a air filter. A full green wall will clean about 50-60sq meters, with a radius of about 10metres

At the moment the main focus is on office leases, but they are looking at getting into the consumer/individual market.

Personally, I think something like this is really cool and I can see these making their way into more and more offices and homes around the world.

I know if the price point is right and they are made available in New Zealand, I would be eager to have one in my home office.

For more info head to www.Navva.io

 

Thats a Wrap

For those of you who weren't at Slush 2017, I hope this article brings a bit more insight into some of the neat health products on display.

If you want to see more action from Slush, or my week in Finland (including swimming in the ice cold Baltic sea, my sauna experiences and my 40 hour travel time) be sure to check out my #AuthenticAlex vlog HERE. 

For those of you who were at Slush, what was your favourite product/company? Post your comments or feedback below. 

Found This Interesting? Then You Might Like:

• Everything You Need To Know About The New Oura Ring
• Bulletproof Labs Review: A First Look
• Exciting BioHacks For 2017 & Beyond: A Bulletproof Conference Review
• Insider Health Secrets Revealed By A Top Health Coach