A panel discussion on “New Care Delivery Technologies” held at the Partners HealthCare Connected Health Symposium on October 24, 2013 in Boston was moderated by Eleanor Chye, PhD, Assistant Vice President, ForHealth at AT&T Advanced Business Solutions. She heads the AT&T ForHealth team founded in 2010 to accelerate the delivery of innovative mobile cloud-based and networking services and applications.
One of the panelists Samir Damani, MD, PharmD, Founder and CEO of MD Revolution wants to see consumers take action to track weight gain and loss, to have the elderly monitor their heart rate to see if they need to exercise, and he wants to see consumers monitor their nutrition.
To help consumers monitor their bodies and actions related to their healthcare, MD Revolution developed “RevUp”, a digital health companion to provide information on consumers’ blood tests, biometric measurements, and health goals. At the same time, the technology is able to track the consumer’s progress using mobile health technology along with mobile apps.
Proteus Digital Health is working to create a new category of products and services referred to as digital medicines with the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of existing pharmaceutical treatments according to David O’Reilly, Chief Product Officer, Proteus Digital Health.
According to O’Reilly, in the future, digital medicines will be different from other pharmaceuticals taken today since each pill will also contain a tiny sensor the size of a poppy seed to communicate via a digital health feedback system and report on how the medication is working. These new approaches will require new pharmaceutical business models to be developed based on data and not on chemicals.
Another panelist David Van Sickle PhD, CEO Propeller Health, reports that his company has a mobile platform for respiratory health management through the use of sensors and mobile apps. The sensors are able to automatically and passively track the time and location when inhaled medications are used.
He is excited about the next five years as He envisions a future where the body will be used as a data stream, people will get comfortable with connected devices, wearables using spectrum will enable continuous monitoring, new products will be developed that will prevent health problems in the first place, and sensors in bodies will easily enable home-assist care.