By Adam Garcia
You know technology is growing at an amazing rate these days. I look at the range of functions an iPhone offers and I am simply amazed. The extent to which iPhone applications can interact with my world, including responding to my touch and the sound of my voice, providing directions and triggering an alarm when I pass my grocery store, has had me thinking about its role in remote care.
During the period of 2007 – 2008, Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches since they were introduced. The market for third party applications via distribution through Apple’s App Store has likewise been phenomenally successful.
There are many use cases that include one or more sensors that acquire patient data. This data must be consolidated and then sent on to an application that stores and manages the data. The sensor produces data in its final form, ready to be used by the patient or clinician.
The sensor gateway example (see above) was presented in the Apple event, a glucometer, the One Touch from LifeScan. LifeScan was one of a small group of companies that were provided access to the SDK two weeks in advance of the announcement. The SDK is what third party developers use to design accessories and software for the iPhone. Over that time, these early users implemented “proof of concept” applications. Dave Detmers, communications director at LifeScan said, “Our goal is to make diabetes management as seamless as possible for patients, so that it’s easy to integrate into patient’s lifestyles.” The One Touch demo was a proof of concept showing the potential capabilities offered by the iPhone. While LifeScan plans to have an offering for the iPhone in the future, Dave noted that, “the combination of the One Touch glucometer, software and the iPhone represent what the FDA defines as a medical device.” Further, he stated that an application of this kind would include electronic patient identifiable data, and would have to meet HIPAA requirements.
Has mobile technology (in the guise of the iPhone or similar technologies) finally come to the point where it’s easy to use, flexible, capable of supporting multiple technologies and robust enough that it can serve as a platform for remote medicine? If I’m right about this, I believe we are on the verge of a shift that will push telemedicine right into the mainstream. After all, give IT staffers, doctors, hospitals and patients a familiar device to use–rather than a $20,000 box that IT folks aren’t prepared to support–and you win people over quickly. Perhaps 2009 will be the year it all happens.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I cant wait to be able to at least transmit my devices data to the iPhone. The HiPPAA issue is something I first heard here and based on bureaucratic bs means its probably a long time out. If my pump could send its data to the iPhone I would be content.
Can’t wait for this to come out!