Читать книгу Do No Harm - Matthew Webster - Страница 27

One of the most profound revolutions in Medicine 2.0 is telemedicine. It involves a range of technologies that has revolutionized how we diagnose, monitor, and treat patients today. We have only seen the beginnings of where this technology will eventually go. Right now it is limited by the types of technology we have for monitoring and communicating. Imagine one day when we have powerful nanotechnology capable of detecting, diagnosing, and treating medical issues long before they become bad enough for us to be aware of them. The potential for cost savings in the future, I believe, lies with telemedicine.

But what is telemedicine? For some, it means doctors talking to patients over a computer or an app on a cell phone. It can also include, in specific situations, diagnosis over radios. This is definitely a strong part of what telemedicine is about—and is not to be understated. With COVID-19 many people do not want to leave their homes and potentially be infected. The safest way to not be infected is to not be around COVID-19, and telemedicine allows doctors to assess and treat patients remotely.

Telemedicine comes in two primary varieties: real time and store and forward. Real time is information that is very close to real time that is sent to devices. An example of this could be Zoom where people are talking to one another in near real time. Store and forward refers to devices that provide the information when the patient is in proximity to a device that will submit the information when possible. For example, some internet-connected medical devices are paired with Bluetooth and are only send information when the Bluetooth device is paired. It isn't always live information. For some devices, this makes much more sense.

If we kept this definition as the only definition of telemedicine, we would be missing key parts of why it is so important. Telemedicine also includes many types of monitoring tools, such as wearable devices, implanted devices, and, yes, ingestible devices. They allow doctors to detect medical problems as they come up and, more importantly, before they become emergencies. They can even be used to determine if patients are taking their medicine.

The wearable device market is all about monitoring a patient's vitals. Typically, they are worn on the wrist, but variations can be included on clothing or placed on the skin. What is great about wearables is that they do not require a significant amount of interaction other than wearing the devices. This includes, but is not limited to, heartbeat, stress levels, respiration, blood pressure, and temperature. Many of these devices use wireless technologies.

Implanted medical devices are devices that are stored within us, such as cardiac pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators, insulin pumps, and gastric stimulators. As with the wearables, many of these devices utilize wireless technology. They also cross over into medication management because they can help release medicine based on what they are sensing.

Ingestible IoT is critical for diagnosing and treating certain kinds of problems. It involves swallowing a pill with a camera or sensors. Even tiny X-rays can be used with ingestible devices. The information is then relayed wirelessly to nearby devices for analysis.