Silicon Valley startup Fitbit recently launched its new Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale. As you step out of the shower each morning and onto your scale, your weight, percent body fat and body mass index (BMI) will be instantly transmitted to your Fitbit account. From there you can monitor your weight over time, track your caloric intake, and see correlations between weight change and activities. You can even share the data with your doctor or blast it out to your social networks. Seem weird? It's not. It is part of a new revolution called the quantified self.

Technology can make you healthier! Whether it's being used for closer patient monitoring, supporting lifestyle changes or providing improved access to providers, there are a number of ways that technology is being used to reinforce traditional healthcare and improve outcomes.

From launch to industry dominance in two years.

Erectile Dysfunction (ED) Rx advertising has become a major DTC category with brands such as Cialis and Viagra numbering among the top six mega-budget brands in 2011. While these are clearly national brands with coast-to-coast sales, our mission at TVB is to explore whether there are geographic sales anomalies that might present the Rx marketers with opportunity to optimize their ad spending beyond the national campaign. It stands to reason that this might be true. Not only are there differences in states' insurance formularies that control drug reimbursement, but the actual incidence of the medical condition and patients' acting to …

The mobile phone is a powerful device. We often forget this, especially when surrounded by computers, laptops, iPads, Internet-enabled televisions, and computing technologies embedded into everything from our coffeepots to the subways. But in a place like Africa, where mobile infrastructure and device ownership far outstrip access to roads, electricity, clean water, medical care, or wired telephones, the mobile device holds extraordinary power and potential to transform people's lives, not just through communications services but through health interventions. Microsoft Research's Mobile Healthcare for Africa Awards have recognized several initiatives as standouts in this category; surgical guidance through mobile phones, mobile …

There's an old adage that says people love the sound of their own name. Scientists have been able to prove the truth of this rather egocentric phenomenon with research on brain activation. While not a terribly shocking discovery, this adage holds true for brands and social media listening as well. Brands are in love with their name, any and all mentions of it, wherever people are talking-they just can't seem to get enough.

Brands should adopt and enforce strict interface guidelines for their mobile experiences (such as those published by Apple and Samsung), but must also develop contextual content strategies that determine how information and services adapt and translate between the desktop and the mobile device. Agency partners that design holistically are best positioned to deliver on this mandate, creating a single responsive experience that delivers brand value efficiently across platforms.

The primary goal of marketers is to drive engagement, brand awareness and brand loyalty amongst consumers. But, you may want to consider that one of the secrets to making that happen is to drive engagement within the company.

Health and science were in the news a lot in the past few weeks. And it wasn't because of a new breakthrough treatment or a new research approach that could save the lives of millions. Those things happened, but they had a hard time cutting through the noise while several political stories emerged around topics involving women's health that generated swift, intense debate and outrage through social media channels and highlighted the shortcomings of many to properly handle debates in the digital space.