18 Dec 2010

Meeting Health Care Needs with Mobile Technology

Donald Jones, VP Business Development, Health & Life Sciences at Qualcomm discusses how m-Health technology is developing and what we will see in the future.

Technology has transformed the global health care sector. Medical equipment and devices to diagnose, monitor or treat illnesses have changed and saved lives throughout the developed and developing world.

Now, mobile communications are having a fundamental impact on the way the medical community operates - and on the futures of millions of patients around the world.

A heart patient receives an immediate call from his doctor about questionable ECG data sent from the patient's mobile monitor device. A woman has a car accident, and at the moment of the collision, personal vital sign information is sent by the car's wireless system to the emergency services to get her immediate treatment. An elderly couple receive medication reminders three times a day via their mobile phones. Welcome to the era where health care meets mobile communications.

m-Health brings many advantages

In the global health care industry, almost every day brings an innovation which provides fresh hope: Pioneering surgical procedures, ground-breaking developments in patient treatment, or new drugs that may cure the once incurable. A host of technologies have had a massive impact on the well-being of people around the world, including the rapid expansion of network infrastructure and the ubiquity of mobile phones, both of which play a vital role in developed and developing nations.

Previously, the extent of mobile communications' contribution to saving lives was dialing 999 or a doctor's pager. Today, the compression of time that mobile technology delivers is revolutionising the health care industry. Critical information from patients, family members and caregivers is getting to health care providers more quickly and vice versa; this acceleration is bringing fundamental improvements to prevention and treatment of our most significant health risks.

The key benefit created by the rapid convergence of health care and mobile communication is the individualised health care experience, with a focus on preventative rather than reactive health care. 3G wireless technology can now connect patients, carers and physicians at all times. Patient data can be viewed by the patient and carers, and be reviewed remotely by his or her doctor. Patients and their families receive input from their health care provider and, at the same time, can monitor health performance and use that information to adjust behaviour - a technique known as course correcting. Wireless sensors, currently in the marketplace, can also track important vital signs such as ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, sleep state and even calorific intake and expenditure.

The social and economic benefits of wireless health care are immense. Technological advances in wireless monitoring will allow many elderly people to retain their independence and live at home whilst being monitored by wireless devices, rather than having to give up living at home for assisted living facilities. Similarly, heart patients can undergo cardiac rehabilitation in their own homes with constant monitoring and diagnostic capabilities that, in the event of an emergency, send updates to medical technicians before they arrive on the scene and to the doctors in the emergency room.

Consumer benefits from m-health

Of course, the most direct beneficiary of wireless health care is the consumer. New solutions such as 'smart band-aid', a wireless, disposable biosensor' and 3G-enabled blood glucose meters give people a more personal, effective and real-time health care experience. For example, Qualcomm has already collaborated with its partners to bring significant health care solutions to market, including phones for the elderly (Jitterbug), personal emergency response systems (Lifecomm), arrhythmia detection and mobile cardiac telemetry (CardioNet), and 3G-enabled robotic telepresence for hospitals (InTouch Health.).

Vocel's mobile application called PillPhone sends timely medication reminder messages and provides easy access to a drug information database. Such an application could be particularly useful with the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). TB sufferers, of which there are billions worldwide, could nearly all be cured if they were to strictly adhere to a six-month course of medication. In the near future, innovations such as "smart pills" or "ingestible event markers" will report when a pill is taken - using tiny, embedded RFID chips, helping to better manage medication usage. Fitness and diet trackers also will help monitor an individual's lifestyle and fitness status.

Cost benefits

Products like the PillPhone and increased access to mobile health care services will provide an inexpensive way to manage one's own health care. Health care costs are an increasing burden in both developed and developing countries. In 2009 for example, United States President Barack Obama cited a statistic that the cost of health care causes a bankruptcy every 30 seconds. In developing countries, it is even harder for people to bear these costs given poor health coverage and a lack of financial support.

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