Apple played digital liberal nanny-stater, now faces severallawsuits

On 1/2/2018 10:40 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"PeterN" wrote

| Since I was diagnosed with COPD, and my defibrillator/pacemaker
| recalled, I see nothing funny about toy pulse oximeters.
|

I can understand that. Even heart monitors are
questionable. For that matter, phone app pedometers
are both silly and inaccurate. But people now
use them to track and plan their health regimens,
trying to maintain a certain number of steps per
day.

I used to have a friend who was an ER doctor
and very suspicious of herbal remedies. He used
to like to point out that herbal remedies have a
good reputation despite lack of research because
it's usually the healthy people who use them. When
they *really* get sick they use drugs. An
"immune system booster" seems to work well if
you don't get sick after taking it. (Not that I think
herbs are nonsense. something like 30% of our
drugs come from herbs. But there is a lot of
magical thinking going on.)
One could say the same about frivolous tech
approaches to health. They're there because
there's a market that will pay, not because they
make sense.

About 1/3 to 1/2 my practice was representing clients in the health care
field. As a result I have a very high understand of the business end of
that industry. A very high proportion of oximeters sold to retail
customers are accurate and consistent enough for general purposes, but
few are reliable enough for diagnostic purposes. OTOH pulsemeters,
should be fine, if used properly.


--
PeterN

In article , Mayayana
wrote:


| Since I was diagnosed with COPD, and my defibrillator/pacemaker
| recalled, I see nothing funny about toy pulse oximeters.

I can understand that. Even heart monitors are
questionable. For that matter, phone app pedometers
are both silly and inaccurate.

complete nonsense.

But people now
use them to track and plan their health regimens,
trying to maintain a certain number of steps per
day.

that's a good thing.

I used to have a friend who was an ER doctor
and very suspicious of herbal remedies. He used
to like to point out that herbal remedies have a
good reputation despite lack of research because
it's usually the healthy people who use them. When
they *really* get sick they use drugs. An
"immune system booster" seems to work well if
you don't get sick after taking it. (Not that I think
herbs are nonsense. something like 30% of our
drugs come from herbs. But there is a lot of
magical thinking going on.)

herbal remedies have absolutely nothing to do with health monitoring
devices such as a pulse oximeter or even a pedometer (which nobody but
you mentioned).

One could say the same about frivolous tech
approaches to health. They're there because
there's a market that will pay, not because they
make sense.

there's nothing frivolous about it.

On 1/1/2018 6:18 PM, nospam wrote:
In article .com,
Savageduck wrote:

it lists young kids, teenagers, college students and adults as the
target market.

in other words, everyone.

Nope. Over 55 is a separate market.

no age cutoff is listed for the various groups and over 55 would
qualify for both 'adults' and 'business people'.

or is 55 the new retirement age?

Earliest retirement age for most State health and safety jobs, such as law
enforcement, and firefighters (in California anyway) is 50.

did you retire at 50?

Nope! I retired at 60 in 2009.

then according to peter, you had 5 years of not being an adult.


Yet another asinine, deliberate misinterpretation.

--
PeterN

In article , PeterN
wrote:

it lists young kids, teenagers, college students and adults as the
target market.

in other words, everyone.

Nope. Over 55 is a separate market.

no age cutoff is listed for the various groups and over 55 would
qualify for both 'adults' and 'business people'.

or is 55 the new retirement age?

Earliest retirement age for most State health and safety jobs, such as
law enforcement, and firefighters (in California anyway) is 50.

did you retire at 50?

Nope! I retired at 60 in 2009.

then according to peter, you had 5 years of not being an adult.


Yet another asinine, deliberate misinterpretation.

that applies to *your* comments.

On 02/01/2018 15:40, Mayayana wrote:
"PeterN" wrote

| Since I was diagnosed with COPD, and my defibrillator/pacemaker
| recalled, I see nothing funny about toy pulse oximeters.
|


An aside, I use a blood pressure monitor - well two actually, from Aldi
(cheap). They measure within a point or two of each other, and are
consistently in line with the doctor's measurement.

I can understand that. Even heart monitors are
questionable. For that matter, phone app pedometers
are both silly and inaccurate. But people now
use them to track and plan their health regimens,
trying to maintain a certain number of steps per
day.


I think that's harsh. They may not be that accurate, but as a relative
measure of activity and an incentive, if people use them and exercise
more because of them - good. And they may pick up signs that would
otherwise go unnoticed.

I used to have a friend who was an ER doctor
and very suspicious of herbal remedies. He used
to like to point out that herbal remedies have a
good reputation despite lack of research because
it's usually the healthy people who use them. When
they *really* get sick they use drugs. An
"immune system booster" seems to work well if
you don't get sick after taking it. (Not that I think
herbs are nonsense. something like 30% of our
drugs come from herbs. But there is a lot of
magical thinking going on.)
One could say the same about frivolous tech
approaches to health. They're there because
there's a market that will pay, not because they
make sense.


I really don't think you can. Herbal medicine is a very different ballpark.


--
Cheers, Rob

On Tue, 2 Jan 2018 10:07:13 -0500, PeterN
wrote:

On 1/1/2018 4:20 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"PeterN" wrote

| a pulse oximeter won't plug directly into the watch.
|
| that functionality will be part of the watch itself, checking your
| oxygen level as often as you deem necessary, as well as other vitals.
|
| there could also be a bluetooth version that talks to the watch.
|
|
| Since the physical measurement device is not available for sale, it is
| vaporware, that I cannot rely on..
|

It's all a joke. Look up accuracy reports. Apple
watch accuracy is quite good as a heart rate monitor,
as joke watch functions go. (It's still not very good
and the whole idea is idiotic. But within that field
it's tops.

There's no reason to think that an oximeter "app"
would work any better than the x-ray glasses one
can buy from magazines to see fish under water
and look through ladies dresses. Nospam just
automatically spews something pro-Apple, given half
a chance. If you say you want to buy a hot air
balloon he'll probably come up with a balloon shopping
app that's only available on iPhone. will it be
relevant? no. Will it be factual? Probably not.
He doesn't care.



Since I was diagnosed with COPD, and my defibrillator/pacemaker
recalled, I see nothing funny about toy pulse oximeters.

A few years ago my fit bit reported a resting pulse rate of 190.
Fortunately people took notice. Now it is about 85. Medication was all
that was required.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens