Month: November 2017

It doesn’t take a genius to notice all the different ways that technology has changed our lives for the better. Thanks to the internet and social media apps, we are now just a click of a mouse button or touchpad away from our nearest and dearest, even if they live on the other side of the world. Sharing information and data has also never been easier and many people and companies are benefiting from secure shared storage platforms such as the cloud. But these aren’t the only ways our lives have benefited from tech. Thanks to various forms of business intelligence, the business world is changing too.

The health world has also been revolutionized by the introductions of some tech developments, including those using machine intelligence. And it looks like many of these tech developments are going to continue to change and advance the various treatments, medicines, and consultations that we receive. In fact, 2018 is set to be the biggest year for tech influences in the world of health and medicine. Here are some of the big ones that many experts are forecasting.

No More Paperwork

For anyone who has ever been seen by a doctor, there can be one obvious issue with the consultation. The doctor has to do two things at once: try and figure out what is wrong with their patient and also keep all documentation and paperwork up to work with all the symptoms and information given by the patient. This can be extremely difficult for the doctor to keep up with and trying to do both jobs at once can be inefficient. However, they simply don’t have the time to keep up with each individual’s paperwork outside of their allocated appointment time. But now it looks like tech is going to iron out all of these issues. Thanks to devices like Google Glass, doctors can use AI software to transcribe what their patient is saying to them. These smart glasses can transcribe what the patient says as they speak. So then the doctor only has to worry about figuring out what is wrong with them.

Genome Sequencing

For years now, doctors and health experts have been forecast that we will soon be able to predict the different diseases and health conditions that some people will be predisposed to developing throughout their life. But we are getting ever closer to being able to successfully predict people’s future illnesses by taking a look at their genome sequencing. And that means treatments for illnesses like cancer can be administered at a very early stage of the disease. There are many advancements in cancer treatment, and you can read about it all online. Hopefully, these advancements when coupled with genome sequencing can bring about the end of the disease for good.

More Remote Monitoring

Thanks to the introduction of many new tablet devices, doctors and healthcare professionals are now able to offer remote monitoring to many of their patients. If you have yet to experience this so far from your medical team, you might not have that long to wait anymore as it is expected to be rolled out on a much larger scale in 2018. Patients will be able to monitor their own health in the comfort of their own home, and this will drastically cut down the number of people who need to stay in hospitals. That will, therefore, cut down the number of hospitals that struggle to find beds for those patients who need them most. Not only that, though, but patients’ doctors will be able to also follow the data that they log at home and can intervene whenever they see fit. As well as tracking symptoms and treatments at home, patients will also be able to take advantages of remote consultations. That means that they will be able to use online platforms like Skype, FaceTime and other medical-focused video call software to talk to their doctors and healthcare givers. There will no longer be any need for them to travel while they are unwell just to see their doctor for a checkup.

Non-Traditional Insurers

Before now, there were a select few insurance companies which you could take out your health insurance policy with. These included big-name firms like AXA Strategy Ventures. But now, the market is opening up and a lot more non-traditional insurance companies are coming onto the market. This is highly beneficial to the public as it means they have a wider choice of companies to choose from, which means that companies are now being forced to rethink their pricing strategies and come up with much more competitive prices for their various plans. Lots of these new insurers have come up with creative ways to finance their startup capital. For instance, many have used crowd-funding methods to raise cash from the public. So, it goes to show that the health industry isn’t all about making a quick buck anymore. If an entrepreneur is passionate about creating a company to provide insurance for people with specific disabilities or health conditions, then their passion and dedication are enough to get their company up and running!

Big Health Data

“Big data” has been something of a buzzword for the past couple of years now. And it is finally moving into the world of health and helping to transform it for doctor and patients. Thanks to all this data that many doctor’s surgeries and health companies now have stored on their systems, they have a pool of data and information that they can dip into to help inform their decisions, treatments, and consultations. This can be a big time saver for many doctors and nurses. They no longer have to do much research, as they have all the data they need right at their fingertips.

As you can see, the world of health is set to be transformed by so many different technological advancements and developments over the next year. And it doesn’t look like it will stop there. Many experts are predicting that the next decade should see some pretty major changes afoot. Who knows where we will end up in the end?!

Blogging and recording your life online is becoming more and more popular. Previously part of twenty-something’s lives; blogging has now been taken up by people of all ages, wanting to write about their interests, expertise, and everyday experiences. There is an audience online for every blogger; it’s just about letting them know that you’re there and growing a steady following of subscribers, followers, and readers. In the last decade; blogging has become a career option for some and presented a plethora of work and lifestyle opportunities from brands and businesses.

Therefore, if you’re starting out on your internet journey, or feel that you’ve hit a slump; it’s time to take action and give your blog the boost it deserves. If you’re passionate about what you’re saying; there’ll be plenty of people who are enthusiastic to read it. However, with so many other internet-based writers out there; it can be easy to get lost and forgotten in the crowd, so keeping up a great level of content is key to your future success. The following are some tips, ideas, and inspiration for those who want to give their blogging life a kickstart or a reboot so that they can continue doing what they love and ensure it’s reaching the right audience.

Give Yourself The Right Tools

When inspiration hits you; you need to be able to record it and get it down as soon as possible for an authentic read. Therefore, it’s always worth investing in the equipment and tools that will help ensure that you can be creating and uploading content wherever you are. If your blog and social media benefit from your photography, and your readers expect a certain style to your pictures; you need to provide them with images on a regular basis.

Make your life easier and look into desktop apps that will allow you to upload to Instagram from Mac computers; rather than taking up valuable time editing pictures and getting them through to your iPhone. It’s not just the big pieces of equipment like your Mac, tablet, and camera that make an impact to your blogging life; little touches like the right apps and software can free your time and help you push forward with your online presence.

Everywhere’s An Office

Part of having an iPhone, iPad, and laptop is the freedom and portability aspect of them; they give you the chance to create content and start blogging in any situation and get it up for your readers and followers instantly. Therefore, once you’ve equipped yourself with the tech, software, and apps; you need to make an effort to utilise them in a variety of situations. Take yourself out to a coffee shop, library, or any public place where you can clear your head and gain inspiration. Don’t sit in bed or a home office all day every day; this will limit your creativity as a content creator, and your blogging will become repetitive. Take your tech on holiday and record the trip with photos, notes, and experiences; the sooner and more often you can get your words and images out there, the more real they’ll be. People will appreciate your authenticity, so keep up the hard work; even on a bad day!

Some would even say technology is taking over the world. When you sit and think about it, it truly is. Pretty much everything we do involves technology. It’s hard to escape it, yet we can’t live without it. But if technology good? Yes mostly, technology is the reason we’re finding cures to diseases, saving the planet, discovering new planets etc. It seems that in the last 50 years the amount of technology that is being produced has skyrocketed. The quality is improving hugely as well. So what’s happening all around us that means technology is changing the world? We may not even consider them to be huge advances, but in the grand scheme of things, they’re changing the world. Read on to find out more.

Medicine

If you think back to 100 years ago, medicine would have seemed to be in the stone age compared to how it is now. Due to technology, medicine is a completely different world. New treatments have been developed that have saved lives. Let’s start with drug treatments. In the labs, new medicines are being created each day to cure common diseases or illnesses. Within the lab, there are high tech robots and microscopes being used to aid the workers. Without them, we simply wouldn’t have the capabilities to find the cures we need to. They enable us to understand organisms like we never have before. The research being done outside the lab is also fueled by technology. There is a common belief that cures to all things that ail us are in the environment we live in. So there’s people out there discovery and extracting new plants or rocks, from either the sea or land, to try and help find cures. Within hospitals technology has shaped the way we deliver medicine. Without the research conducted, we wouldn’t understand hygiene and the prevention of germ spreading as we do now. Even the machines used to take scanes such as MRI’s have changed people’s lives by detecting cancer earlier than we’ve ever been able to. They’ve also gave us a deeper understanding of how the body works.

Cities

Cities are constantly evolving. If you look at a picture of the city you live in from 50 years ago, and compare it to one from this year, you’ll be shocked. Technology has seen a huge growth in terms of development. An exciting development at the minute is smart cities. Systems are being put in place to ensure cities are better connected. They’re also ensuring the protection of our environment. If there’s one downside to the rise of technology, it’s the effect it is having on our environment. On a daily basis tonnes of Co2 emissions are being pumped into the earth’s atmosphere by the different buildings and automobiles that we’ve created. The effect this is having on the environment is crippling. This is evident through the rapid acceleration of climate change. But smart cities are being designed with the reduction of energy use and pollution levels in mind. But without the cities that have already been built, we wouldn’t be able to lead the lifestyle we do today. Cities are now booming with things to do, and tourists are coming from far and wide to experience them. Without that, we wouldn’t have the revenue we do to keep new projects alive.

Sports

People don’t often associate sports with technology. But it’s at the forefront of creating better athletes. If you’re going professional, you’ll know how much technology is involved. Professional athletes in particular. Take Conor Mcgregor for example. His life has been well documented over the last year, especially in the run up to his big fight with Mayweather. But did anyone notice the technology that was involved to help him train. He was using high altitude equipment to train his body to work under the most stressful conditions. In theory his body should then perform even better at a lower capacity. It’s not just the technology that helps them train that’s incredible. It’s the technology that allows them to actually be an athlete that is. Take amputee’s for example. They are now able to complete in the olympics and other events due to the amazing prosthetics that have been developed. Technology helped create these. They aren’t just normal prosthetics. They’re designed with their desired sport in mind to give optimum range of movement and performance. There has been a spike in the quality of this equipment in the last 10 years, and as we move through this technological age, it should only improve.

There will always be times when your employees need their spirits lifted. Whether they’ve been working really hard and are feeling run down or have been discouraged by some recent news, a lull in employee morale won’t do anything good for productivity. If your employees need some encouragement to do the job well, here are five ideas you could use.

Give Them Purpose

It’s easy to start feeling like your contributions don’t matter when you’re part of a large team. But, each and every member of a team is important. Sometimes, people need reminding of that. It can help to show your employees specific examples of what their contributions have achieved. Seeing the results of their hard work is a great way of encouraging them to keep going. For example, a customer service assistant may want to see the great feedback given from a customer they dealt with.

Always Reward Your Employees

For the most part, praise from an employer is enough to get an employee through a working day. However, being rewarded for a good job done will get far better results. Whether it’s treating a specific team to lunch or buying each and every employee online lottery tickets, rewarding hard work is a great way of telling your employees how proud you are of what they have achieved. Receiving a reward can make an employee reevaluate their attitude and reflect on the work they’ve done.

Be Flexible

There’s more emphasis than ever on flexibility in the workplace. No employee wants to be scared of approaching their boss when they desperately need time off. An understanding employer makes life much easier for employees. While you shouldn’t allow employees to walk all over you, there will be times when certain individuals need a little more flexibility, perhaps because of a family emergency. Employers need to maintain a content workforce. If employees know they won’t be chastised for having to put other aspects of their lives first, they’ll be more inclined to relax and work well.

Mix It Up

Do you usually have your staff meeting every Friday at 9am? Cancel it. Not only will it be a huge relief to most members of staff but it’s also different from the norm. Although routine is reliable and productive, it can also be downright boring and depressing. A bit of spontaneity in the office could be exactly what your workers need to sit up and take notice.

Healthy Competition

Sometimes, workers just need a bit of motivation to boost their morale. Nothing creates motivation like a healthy competition. How about starting a company football match and dividing the staff into two teams? The winners get to double their lunch break time. Or, why not get involved with an actual competitor? Create a team of your own and play against another business. It’s a great way of renewing determination in employees and restoring the need to beat the competition.

Boosting morale isn’t always easy, but when you need to, think about making the workplace into an environment everyone can enjoy.

If you’ve been running an online retail store or estore for a while, you’ve probably spent a fair bit of time and money making sure it’s secure. You’ve also probably worked your backside off trying to get any share of the market in this saturated world of online sales. If you’ve got great marketing skills, then you might be thinking about where your next product line is coming from. You understand your customer base, and you know what they’re looking for. So where can you find it?

Invent It

Tech savvy entrepreneurs know that new innovations and gadgets can create entirely new markets. If you’re struggling to be heard (or found), then maybe it’s time you thought about creating the products you know your customers will love. You can guarantee your own quality. You’ll know the product inside out. You’re perfectly placed to undertake all the research and development. So what’s stopping you?

The Idea

Creative people often have dozens of good ideas. What you need to do is narrow that down to the one great idea you can develop and turn into a real-life product. Be wary of how you do this. You need to make sure you’re offline, or you’re on a secure intranet or network. The last thing you want is someone stealing your ideas. Worse still, they might wait until you’ve done all the development first!

The Tech and Support You Need

Next, you need some third party support you can trust. Just getting your printed circuit boards designed is going to take time and a good CAD system that’s secure. If you look at websites like altium.com, you can find out more about how the big companies tackle this in their R&D stages. As a smaller enterprise, you might be slower too. You need the time and the tools to refine your product ideas and create the tech that will work.

Getting Ready To Test

Testing is another phase of manufacture that can be high-risk if left unsecured. You should also integrate some marketing tests at the same time to check customers actually understand what your product is about. Think about your POS and consider where social media campaigns can work to generate hype and excitement. Focus groups are best here, but if your testing circuits and networks, you need to monitor your equipment and outputs.

Launching

Before the big day, you are going to have to release some newsworthy PR about your new product. There is no hiding it now. Of course, once it is announced, it is technically safe. However, you need to be absolutely certain it’s not vulnerable. Hackers can and will get into any connected system, especially if you’re planning to profit from what you’ve built! Make sure there are fail safes against any direct invasion too. You can’t afford for your new product to become dangerous in any way.

Security is a big deal in product development. Make sure you can close the gates on any vulnerabilities. So what’s your big idea?

For many years now, the internet has opened us up to a wide range of possibilities, with the power to be able to do pretty much anything from anywhere you feel like, it can be easy to forget about making sure that you’re safe online.

With the increase of fraud and identity theft, hackers are thriving because many people around the world fail to ensure that they’re safe online. Sometimes, something as simple as not logging out of your Facebook account can give a hacker an opportunity to access many other aspects of your life and ruin them. Why do they do this? It’s usually with the hope of gaining information like your card details so they can take your money, but some hackers simply do it for ‘fun’. This article is going to give you some tips on how you can stay safe online.

1. Always logout of accounts even if it’s something as simple as a social media account. Once a hacker knows who you are they can do further digging and gain information on you.
2. Consider buying data protection for your systems so that you can rest assured that hackers can’t access your information. This is achieved by creating further obstacles for hackers to overcome, and being able to detect when something is out of the ordinary.
3. Be wary when using public WiFi. Many hackers gain access to people’s bank accounts by simply creating a ‘middle man’ when people are using internet banking through public WiFi. They do this by putting a page in front of the user that looks like what they were expecting, now all the user has to do is enter details and the hackers have full access to their accounts. If you need to check your bank, do it using a secured connection to prevent the chance of being hacked.
4. Create passwords that don’t make sense. Rather than using your dog’s name, try a series of symbols and letters (in upper and lower case) so that it’s harder for hackers to penetrate. Another good piece of advice when creating a password is to use a word twice because hackers’ systems wouldn’t detect that. For example, using ‘puppydogdog%£$$’ would be much safer than simply using ‘puppydog’.
5. Use a password protected router at home and work so that all of your information is encrypted. The more passwords the better.
6. Be careful with what links you’re clicking on when you’re browsing the internet. Links that you see on social media might not be safe and even a short period of time on that website could give hackers all of the access that they need to your information.
7. Always look for the green lock symbol within your browser to be able to identify if the website is safe. If you can’t see the lock, get off that webpage.

Apply these seven steps to your browsing routine and you will be able to protect yourself from fraud and identity theft! Stay safe on the internet!