How Smartphone Can Change Healthcare – Wireless Medicine

How do we use smartphones? We make phone-calls, send text-messages, set alarm clock, use calendar, play games, use applications, etc. There are a lot of possibilities so why not use smartphone as health-monitor device?
We can ask a question: could a portable device like smartphone be the future of medicine?

How can smartphones/portable devices change the practice of medicine?

Thanks to the new technology medicine is even MORE personal. Technology changed medicine in a way we haven’t seen before – now we can use technology to monitor our vital signs (the blood pressure, heart rate, glucose level, and more) 24/7 and we can do it outside of the hospital environment, remotely. At some point that hospital environment is replaced (to some extend) by wireless devices.

Working together?

Now we (patients) can work together with doctors to improve and monitor our well-being. Slow but sure the medical world finally discovered that patients can use technology for better quality-of-care and for quicker way to communicate with healthcare professionals no matter their location. We are able to connect with our doctors/nurses on-line.

Imagine this scenario: while in the hospital, patient will be connected to wireless sensors that will monitor vital signs (body functions) through the hospital’s network (wireless network). Medical stuff will be able to access all that data from any place (at the hospital or outside the hospital) and respond by using their own portable devices to order necessary tests, prescribe medications, etc. Interesting, right?

So now let’s change this scenario a little bit: imagine that we can expand that so no matter where we are, we can communicate with our healthcare professionals. They will be able to monitor our body functions from any location, anytime.

The beautiful thing about those two scenarios is that it’s available NOW. We have access to smartphones/tablets and there are applications and additional devices that we can connect to smartphones to monitor our health. The future looks bright because there are more ideas how we can use smartphone to monitor our health.

Not only we can communicate with our doctors better thanks to technology but also we can connect with other people like us (other patients) and exchange information, experience. We can include social media and internet into our health-care process by connecting with others all over the world (e.g.: PatientsLikeMe, WebMD, Microsoft HealthVault, or many applications).

Here is a interesting video by Dr. Eric Topol who is a leading cardiologist who has embraced the study of genomics and the latest advances in technology to treat chronic disease.

“Dr. Eric Topol says we’ll soon use our smartphones to monitor our vital signs and chronic conditions. He highlights several of the most important wireless devices in medicine’s future – all helping to keep more of us our of hospital beds.”

Miniaturization

Getting back to the question I asked at the beginning of my post: Could a portable device, like smartphone, be the future of medicine? I think that the answer is YES. Miniaturization of technology can help medicine as well. We can build smaller devices (just think about the size of the computers in 50s and 60s) and whether we use it in the health-care industry or other doesn’t really matter. Miniaturization is a continuing trend so there is a bright future for wireless medicine. Imagine smaller CT scanners, EKG device that you can carry in your pocket, or a mini-chip you can have in your blood stream/under your skin, temporary tattoos or wearable devices in our clothes to monitor your health 24/7?
Miniaturization of medical equipment can and will lead to low-cost and public access.

What are the benefits?

• Patient’s information available immediately on-line.
• Easy access to low-cost medical devices that we can connect to our smartphones or tablets.
• If something’s wrong – you can check/test/monitor it by yourself and your doctor has access to the data.
• Increase medical care quality.
• No more waiting – you don’t have to go to see your doctor every single time because you can run some test on your own.
• Clinical trials – help to monitor patients remotely (access to health information, support, checkup).
• Doctor (or Caregiver) – Patient efficiency. Virtual visits.
• Available anytime, anywhere.
• Faster – Smaller – Cheaper – Better

Daniel Kraft explains a fast-paced look at the next few years of innovations in medicine, powered by new tools, tests and apps:

With the advancement of wireless medicine, we are able to have a better access to low-cost devices that can help us to monitor and then improve our health. That’s a great break in the health-care system and I’m not sure how much the health-insurance companies and health-care industry is willing to step back and “allow” us (patients) to have easy access to low-cost wireless medicine. I believe that a “simple” smartphone can help us to monitor our health and it can change the future of the medicine we know today.

What do you think about the wireless medicine?