The Rapid Approach of the Health Internet of Things

I subscribe to LaBlogga's "Broader Perspectives" blog and this is one of the first posts that directly talks about "ehealth".  Broader Perspectives is interesting to read because most of the time it is kind of a post-modernist advance search party looking for the intersection between technology and society. I also wonder about the subject of the post, referring to "Internet of Things".  Now, if I am not mistaken,  the "Internet of Things" was coined by a guy who ran an IBM sponsored lab at MIT, who envisioned a world networked together through RFID tags - literally every manufactured thing could have an RFID tag and thus be on the internet.  I know RFID is being used in Healthcare, but I am not sure if it will ever be ubiquitous.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

The Rapid Approach of the Health Internet of Things

The efforts of the eHealth movement have been quietly gathering steam for the last five years and are finally fulminating into what could be a significant transformation in the management of health and health care. The most encouraging sign of change is that it consists of not just the usual shiny new technology solutions, but more importantly, structural changes in the public health system:

The 80% slim-down of the doctor’s office visit…

• Telemedicine reimbursement: As of March 2011, only 12 states offered reimbursement for telemedicine services (e.g.; telephone, email, video consultation), and at lower rates than in-office visits. Now more payers and states are starting to approve telemedicine reimbursement, which could be a huge cost savings for the industry as it is estimated that 70% of physician consultations could be handled by phone.

• Majority of diagnosis is straightforward: It is estimated that in 18/20 cases (per Singularity University FutureMed), diagnosis is straightforward, and could be accomplished via telemedicine.

• Trend to higher deductible plans: many programs are underway to transfer employees to higher-deductible plans which both reduces costs and puts more of an emphasis on preventive medicine.

Significant progress could be made with these structural changes acting in concert with the new generation of healthtech tools in areas such as:

• Health sensors, examples: continuous glucose monitoring patches, EEG sensors, ambient assisted living

• Quantified self-tracking devices, examples: Fitbit, Zeo sleep tracking, Body Media, Pebble Watch, Nike Fuel Band, Basis Watch

• mHealth (mobile health) apps, examples: The Eatery, MoodPanda, Map My Run, Cardio Trainer

Posted by LaBlogga at 9:45 AM   ShareThis

Universal Health IDs?

This is a brilliant article by John Moehrke on his healthcare privacy and security blog.  It made me wonder if the Ontario healthcard ID could be used more universally.  I learned a few years ago that the healthcard number was ruled available for health record identification.  If anyone can confirm that, please let me know.

The Power of Personal Health Records?

I have written and researched about Personal Health Records - and had a Google Health account until the project was closed - but I am not sure about the future for PHR anymore.  I joined a few teleconferences for the HL7 standards group on PHR and know how much work they are doing trying to define them in terms of HL7 and interoperability. Here is an article they recommend < HIMSS blog >.  The research has shown more doctors need to adopt EMR before PHR become viable.  And it just maybe more of us need to be chronically ill to speed up their adoption - healthy people don't need to use them!  Be that as it may, time will tell what the future has in store.  My hope will be that the PHR will gain more clinical efficacy and effectiveness for physicians to place them in the trust of their patients.  I have no doubt that a great many people will be using PHR or equivalents to track their wellness in novel ways, without their physicians.  

Futurememes and behind the enemy lines

Here are two blogs worth following:
http://futurememes.blogspot.ca/
The tag cloud alone is worth reading.


A computer scientist in a business school.
http://www.behind-the-enemy-lines.com/
The posts I have read so far have been quite startling! Heard about this from a colleague who was doing some research on crowdsourcing and Mechanical Turk.