For those suffering with chronic problems, monitoring and transmitting breathing and cardiac rhythms easily and effectively from outside the hospital or healthcare facility is a miraculous possibility whose time has come.
Cardiac Monitoring
Medtronic’s Seeq™ Mobile Cardiac Telemetry System contains a wireless transmitter and a wearable peel-and-stick adhesive sensor for people who have habitual heart symptoms necessitating short-term cardiac monitoring for as much as one month.
Dr. Scher, a Cardiac electrophysiologist, clinical associate professor of medicine at Penn State University, director of a digital health consulting firm, and chairman of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Mobile Health Roadmap Task Force, states:
“Right now, a doctor who wants to monitor a cardiac patient for a few weeks has two options: using outpatient telemetry or an event recorder that’s driven by symptoms,” Dr Scher explains. However, many insurers won’t reimburse for outpatient telemetry, he says, and seeking prior authorization can be onerous. Event recorders provide readouts based on preset thresholds but don’t record every heartbeat. Ideally, a physician should use both. “Seeq can do both. It can be either an outpatient telemetry device or an event recorder. Plus, it’s reimbursable. That’s the beauty of it.”
Data is transmitted from the monitoring device 24/7 to cardiographic technicians who review the information and then alert cardiologists of important events.
Health Device for Pulmonary Problems
Individuals suffering from COPD (chronic pulmonary disease) or chronic asthma can now breathe a little bit easier. Propeller Health has developed a device that clips onto one’s inhaler and transmits data to a smartphone app to detect when the medication is being used as well as the frequency. This enables the person to discover if a location is a problem, a time of day, or a particular allergen at the site is instigating a problem. Environmental issues as well as medication dosage can then be reviewed. Data can be shared wirelessly with the caregiving doctor or any healthcare provider the patient chooses.
Since patients are advised to keep a journal of symptoms, use of their medication and triggers, but often fail to do so, this new health device is a great solution.
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These are two new devices among many that health IT (information technologists) are pairing with healthcare providers to improve our daily health.
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