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I'm in Santa Clara, California this week attending (and speaking) at the Augmented Reality Event - a conference focused on the business of AR that has experts from across the world gathered to share their ideas. While at the event, my goal has been to hunt down innovative and unique real-world practical applications for augmented reality in order to shed light on the usefulness of the technology. According to Dr. Michael Aratow, augmented reality is playing a huge role in the medical field, and some of his examples of medical AR were fascinating.

Insider Pages, which was acquired by CitySearch in 2007, just announced the launch of its new Doctor Finder tool. While there are already a few doctor review sites available on the Internet, most people in the U.S. still mostly base their choice of doctor on the location of the doctor's office and the insurance the doctor accepts. To find these doctors and dentists, most patients still rely on the insurances' online directories, which usually don't feature any patient feedback.

Feeling a bit under the weather? Soon you'll be able to cough into your mobile phone for an instant diagnosis. A research firm called STAR Analytical Services is working to develop software that can analyze the sound of a cough and identify it as either associated with a common cold, the flu, or something worse - like pneumonia or another serious respiratory disease. Just as doctors have been doing for years, the software will "listen" to the wetness or dryness of a cough and determine whether all you need is a lozenge or if you need to come in for a doctor's visit instead.

"There are 2.2 billion mobile phones in the developing world, 305 million computers but only 11 million hospital beds," said Terry Kramer, strategy director at British operator Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this week. That's why Vodafone, along with the United Nations and the Rockerfeller Foundation's mHealth Alliance have banded together to advance the use of mobile phones to better aid those in need of healthcare in the developing world.

Today's winning comment comes from our post Top Health 2.0 Web Apps. At the end of that post we asked for your suggestions of innovative, potentially ground-breaking web apps that will change how healthcare is done. One came from Dr. Anri Kissilenko, who was particularly impressed with the doctor ratings site Vitals. Well done Dr Kiss, you've won a $30 Amazon voucher - courtesy of our competition sponsors AdaptiveBlue and their Amazon WishList Widget.