Smart Medical Devices Let Doctors Monitor Health of Patients Remotely

Sunday, December 23, 2007 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer
Tags: medical devices, remote medicine, health news

(NewsTarget) IBM and the University of Florida have announced the development of a new technology that will allow doctors to gather patients' health information from medical devices used in the home. The technology consists of a sensor, produced by University of Florida spinoff Pervasa, Inc., and software developed by the university and IBM. The sensor and software would be installed into home medical devices such as blood pressure or sugar monitors, enabling the device to automatically send the readings to a patient's doctor. The patient would activate the device after purchase by dialing a toll-free number to enter the doctor's contact information.

According to the company and university, such a device would allow patients to avoid costly or time-consuming doctor visits by doing more tests at home. It would also allow doctors to gain a more complete health profile of their patients -- a profile that could be shared remotely with other health professionals, such as first responders, in case of emergency. It also could be used to take readings on patients in waiting rooms to facilitate triage -- for example, if patients are wearing devices that measure their vital signs and transmit that information continuously to hospital staff.

The developers say that the "smart devices" also could help doctors monitor and fine tune the dosage of medications, starting with new, sensitive devices such as insulin pumps.

According to Sumi Helal, head of the project and a professor of computer and information science at the University of Florida, smart medical devices could be on the market within the next year or two, if the medical industry decides to adopt the technology. He said that the data transmitted between home and doctor would be secured with the same protocols used in Internet banking.

Consumer health advocate Mike Adams, however, is skeptical of the benefits of such technology. "This cool-sounding technology actually does nothing to help patients live healthier lives," he said. "Doctors should be focusing on educating patients about changing their diets, getting more exercise and eating more disease-reversing superfoods, not pushing overly expensive technology that will only make it easier to deliver more dangerous drugs."