E-HEALTH - E-SANTE - PHARMAGEEK

So far the internet of things hasn’t made much headway into patient care in the medical setting, but consumers are buying wellness devices for a variety of reasons. Will the medical world embrace that data?

The intersection of healthcare and connected devices was thrown into high relief these last few weeks as both Apple and Samsung unveiled ecosystems to take consumer health data and turn it into actionable intelligence.

But this week’s guests at the Weekly podacst at GigaOm are confident that as advanced as consumer-grade consumer grade health devices get, they won’t become something doctors are hot on for years to come — if ever.

In this week’s podcast Stacey Higginbotham discusses medical connected devices and where it may meet the consumer with Rick Valencia from Qualcomm Life. Will doctor’s prescribe our apps or devices? 

 Listen to the podcast at  http://soundcloud.com/gigaom-internet-of-things  Original article at http://gigaom.com/2014/06/09/digital-health-is-going-to-need-medical-approval-and-a-great-ui/ ;

Ford is developing a car seat capable of monitoring drivers’ ECG to provide real-time health information and alerts of imminent cardiovascular issues such as a heart attack or arrhythmias.

My comment=> The technology is evolving rapidly.  How this will compete with or integrate with mobile devices and wearable monitoring devices remains to be seen.  The auto industry has had reasonable commercial success integrateing technology for entertainement purposes and also new safety technologies.  This health monitoring approach seems like a commercial gimmick, but might help sell cars.  i can envision the marketing of the speeding car with tachometer and heart rate monitor displayed side by side.

Take Home: UMass Medical School and WPI have developed an app that can detect atrial fibrillation.  This moves connected and mobile health closer to reality.  The really important development with this approch might allow us to treat patients who have AF intermittently (paroxysmal) differently than we currently do.  Because we are worried about stroke, patietns now get blood thinners all the time because we are concerned that they will have recurrences without knowing about it.  With this technology, in the future, we might see validation of a strategy that allows use of blood thinners when patients are in AF only, sometimes called a pill in the pocket.