Advanced Health & Care recently partnered with Gentag to create an NFC phone designed to be used for monitoring at-home medical visits from healthcare workers.

The NFC mobile device allows task lists to be sent to care workers in real-time, in addition to recording workers’ arrival and departures at the patient’s home.

The phone is available globally and customization is an option, with abilities like remote medication monitoring and billing.

“As the leading mobile workforce management software for care, we partnered with Gentag because of their expertise in the highly specialized field of NFC technology, and their ability to translate the field requirements of our care provider customers into deliverable product,” said Jim Chase, managing director, Advanced Health & Care.

Learn more about this NFC-enabled phone for at-home medical care personnel.

Whats logistically trickier than a supply chain? A cold chain! Freezers and end-to-end cold chains are some of the most unforgiving environments for mobile computers. Luckily, Motorola Solutions recently announced three new mobile computers that are able to withstand the demands of extremely cold temperatures.

The Omnii XT15f rugged handheld and VH10 vehicle-mount mobile computers are designed specifically to be used in freezer and heavy condensation applications. Together, these devices offer flawless fulfillment in even the most challenging environments.

The Omnii XT15f features:

• Ideal for data capture and traceability applications in cold and humid climates
• Specialized keyboards designed to resist freezing and overcome ice build-up
• Arctic variants with integrated heater
• Available in condensation-resistant and condensation-free models
• Batteries designed specifically for ultra-low temperatures

Psion VH10 and VH10f feature:

• Intended for forklift trucks, straddle cranes and other warehouse vehicles
• Easy to install and remove
• Built to withstand continuous operations in industrial environments
• Rugged keyboard with 12 dedicated and configurable function keys
• Optimized for freezer environments

Learn more about the XT15f and VH10/VH10f.

You’ve probably heard of a boycott, but now, there is such a thing as a buycott. Buycott is a mobile application available on Apple and Android OS that allows consumers to connect with companies that have similar beliefs and values as themselves.

From animal welfare to gay rights, Buycott allows consumers to use their phones to provide a plethora of information on a limitless number of causes and campaigns. When users scan the barcode a product, Buycott will check its database to determine which brand it is a part of, what company owns that brand and who owns the company. Then, it cross-checks the ownders against companies and brands included in the campaigns and causes the user has chosen to care about. If the scanned product conflicts with one of the users’ causes, the user will be alerted. Essentially, Buycott enables consumers to indirectly support causes they believe in and not support causes that they are against.

26-year-old Ivan Pardo of Los Angeles created the app, stating, “I don’t want to push any single point of view with the app. For me, it was critical to allow users to create campaigns because I don’t think it’s Buycott’s role to tell people what to buy. We simply want to provide a platform that empowers consumers to make well-informed purchasing decisions.”

Do you think scanning product barcodes to find out more about the causes a company supports will take off? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter pages.

Many small businesses don’t have the means for as many resources as larger retailers. In 2012, retailers made up 45% of data breaches. While many small businesses assume this isn’t their fault, 95% of credit card data breaches happen to small business consumers. I recently came across an excellent infographic that raises awareness on the vulnerability of smaller retailers.

Some highlights include:

• 64% of all affected business took over 90 days to detect a security breach
• 50% of all business users are still using easily guessed passowords, such as Password1
• 60% of business failures are a direct result of internal theft
• 34% of 18-29 year old employees believe its justifiable to steal from their employer

Don’t let your business fall victim to security breaches—use the right retail solutions, such as inventory control to prevent theft.

View Larger.

Mobile technology adoption in the healthcare industry has dramatically increased over the years. In fact, approximately 45 percent of healthcare workers use mobile handsets to collect data, all at the side of a bed! In addition, 25 percent of healthcare workers said that all data captured by their mobile devices fully integrates with health records.

However, with BYOD also on the rise, a strict security policy is of the utmost importance. While information must be readily available and easily accessible, it also needs to remain secure. Doctors, nurses and technicians often bring their personal devices to work, and they’d like to be able to use them on their hospital’s network to access patient data. An on-call doctor needs to be access healthcare records from home just as easily and securely as he/she would in the hospital.

In addition to staff needing secure access, visitors often request access to the network, which needs to be taken into consideration when developing your BYOD policy. Ensuring the network is secure will reduce risk and improve user experience, creating a reliable security strategy that supports BYOD for healthcare professionals and visitors alike.

Learn more about enterprise mobility in healthcare.