Smartphones Provide a Key Element in Our Personal Health Management Systems

A recent article reinforced in my mind the notion that smartphones serve as a critical device in our evolving personal health management systems (see:Study Enrolls First US Patient to Use a Smartphone for Direct Pacemaker Monitoring). It makes the point that smartphones can monitor implanted cardiac pacemakers instead of the previous"black boxes." Below is an excerpt from it:In early July, a Cleveland Clinic patient became the first in the U.S. to use their smartphone to directly monitor their implanted cardiac pacemaker. The patient was enrolled in a multicenter international study with the potential to reshape remote monitoring of patients with pacemakers.The 12-month study...is evaluating patient and clinician perceptions ofMedtronic ’s BlueSync technology, which for the first time allows automatic, wireless remote monitoring of a pacemaker directly using the patient ’s smartphone or tablet. When paired with a compatible smartphone app, BlueSync-enabled devices communicate through Bluetooth wireless telemetry to theMedtronic CareLink cellular network to allow clinicians to remotely review alerts of patient events at any time and remotely check their devices periodically.....No pacemaker data are stored in the phone, which serves merely as a vehicle for transmitting data via Wi-Fi or cellular network. Patients still need to visit the clinic about once a year since not everything can be checked remotely and because settings can ’t be changed remotely, for sec...

Source: Lab Soft News - July 12, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Health Wearable Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Preventive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs