We speak to Affectiva cofounder and CEO Rana el Kaliouby about the opportunities that these products provide in areas such as mental health, mood tracking, and telemedicine as well as the challenges associated with achieving business success.... Read more
November/December 2016

Tying Tech to Care
IEEE PULSE talks to Wendy Nilsen, director of the Smart and Connected Health Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF).... Read more

Improving Rural Health
The United States is hailed as providing the most advanced health care the world has to offer.... Read more

New Frontiers in Robotic Surgery
As technology matures, so does the ability of surgical robots, which are expanding their surgical repertoire in ways that allow surgeons to perform completely new procedures.... Read more

Women’s Health Is Personal
One fall day in Boston, Ridhi Tariyal sat on an examination table in her primary care doctor’s office. Her doctor sat across from her, hurriedly transcribing notes as Tariyal responded to the doctor’s questions.... Read more

‘Target Malaria’ Has a Killer in Its Sights
According to the World Health Organization, more than 3 billion people live in areas of high malaria risk . In 2015, the disease caused 438,000 deaths worldwide; more than 70% of these were of children under five...... Read more

Toward a Comprehensive Cure
How would you provide effective and affordable health care in a country of more than 1.25 billion where there are only 0.7 physicians for every 1,000 people?... Read more

Image-Guided Interventions
While the term “image-guided surgery” has gained popularity fairly recently, the use of imaging for medical interventions dates as far back as the beginning of the 20th century.... Read more

mHealth to the Rescue
In rural areas, it is not unusual for patients to travel 50 miles or more to reach their doctors’ offices or for doctors to refer patients to specialists whose offices are 80, 100, even 200-plus miles away.... Read more

Technological Innovation Comes to Palliative Care
At first, palliative care and technology might seem like strange bedfellows. At its core, palliative care is a very human side of medicine, relying heavily on talking with and listening to people to understand their... Read more

The Future and Impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on Healthcare
Join us at the Nixon Library on December 8th, 2016 for an IEEE PULSE On Stage event about the Internet of Things and Healthcare.... Read more

Sharing the Knowledge
Project ECHO is a collaborative model of medical education and care management that empowers clinicians by providing the mentoring they need to treat their patient’s complex conditions where they live.... Read more

Brexit Brings Fears for UK Science
The impact of the Brexit is far from clear as the process of negotiation with EU countries will be long and complex...... Read more

Protecting Your Invention in Europe
Patents have existed throughout Europe for hundreds of years in various forms. For example, the first English patent granted to an inventor appears to have been to Giacopo Acontio in 1565 for a new type of furnace..... Read more

How to Stop Others from Copying Your Invention
The Founding Fathers thought patents were an important part of the new country’s future—even as they were still working out basic issues such as how many branches of government were required in a democracy, and ... Read more
Editorial Blogs
The Year in Review
As we look back over 2016 at IEEE Pulse, we can proudly say that our efforts to bring you up-to-date and informative art...
Brain and Circuits Take the Focus at BioCAS2016
The 12th IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference (BioCAS) took place in Shanghai, China, in October 2016. Serving as a premier international forum for researchers and engineers to present their state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research and development activities at the frontiers of medicine, life sciences, and engineering, ... Read more
Nikola Tesla
I went through all my years of undergraduate electrical engineering school (1951–1956) without hearing the name Nikola Tesla, even in those courses explicitly dealing with alternating current (ac) machines, or with energy transmission, or with wireless communications.... Read more
A Survey of Medical Device Technology
Biomedical Device Technology: Principles and Design, 2nd Ed. By Anthony Y.K. Chan, CC Thomas Publisher, 2016. ISBN 978-0-398- 09083-8, viii + 748 pages, US$85.95. According to the preface, this text is “written for engineers and technologists who are interested in understanding the principles, design, and applications of ... Read more
One Size Does Not Fit All
In June 2016, I attended the 2016 Capstone Design Conference in Columbus, Ohio. It was the fifth in a series of conferences starting in 2007 that focus on all aspects of capstone design courses. More than 200 attendees representing 76 institutions from several countries met ... Read more
Interviewing Well
So, why do you want to work for our organization? The answer to that question could cement your position in that company, or, maybe not, and so, like all the other answers you give during an interview, they need prior thought and, probably, some rehearsal. ... Read more
Hearing Focused E-Sewing/Wearable Technology Hackathon
On Saturday 17th September, the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Women in Engineering (WIE) and RMIT University WIE held a e-sewing/wearable technology hackathon with a focus on assisting individuals with hearing impairment and preventing hearing loss.... Read more
Tackling Healthcare Challenges in the United Arab Emirates
Above: Panelists and moderators at the IEEE Life Sciences Grand Challenge Conference held in Abu Dhabi in early 2016. The United Arab Emirates is dealing with many of the same healthcare challenges faced in other regions of the world, including problems with injury, obesity and diabetes. These ... Read more
Measuring Human Energy Intake and Ingestive Behavior
According to the World Health Organization, more than half of the people in the world are overweight (39%) or obese (13%). Obesity is associated with increased risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer.... Read more