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Watch Like Device for At-Risk Patients
DigitalDame writes "At-risk patients will soon have a little help from a device worn on the wrist that can measure vital signs including pulse rate, cardiac rhythm (ECG or EKG), and blood oxygen levels. It can either store the data and transmit it to a medical center at a later time or, in the case of an emergency, transmit the information in real time using the built-in cellular phone while sending an alarm to a caregiver."
These machines dont sound very hard to fool.......
Let's hope that it'll save some lives.
Java Oracle Linux Enthusiast
Read that as at risk patents?
This sig all sigs devours
I can see that this will be a nice help, but neverthless, I'm in doubt about units that do monitor people like this. Maybe people that ill should be in a hospital, not walking around in the streets? What is important is at least that people are knowing of what those devices do, and to their consequences.
I also think it should be stated by law that doctors do not need to report any data gathered by this to police, except in case of warrant order. There's enough surveilance methods as-is.
And most important: Don't misuse it. Use it for what it is worth, but ensure that it is the best solution.
Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
This would be great for protecting VIPs. You could integrate GPS too, so the health and location of the VIP (e.g. president) are known at all times. Heck, you could even monitor stress levels when they're negotiating with a foreign leader or something. Seems like this could also be integrated into those parole ankle braclets people where, i.e. no vital signs, prisoner tampered with braclet (or maybe is dying).
Under the thumbnail picture there is an arrow pointing at the picture encouraging the reader to enlarge the photo. Maybe they ought to point an arrow back at the inventors and tell them to reduce the size of the device. It is enormous compared to any typical wearable wristwatch.
For many years there have been watches that will track heartbeat. Runners and bicyclists have, for a long time, used these to their training advantage by tracking their physical exertion with these light, unobtrusive wristwatches. Granted, it didn't send realtime data to a server which was monitored by doctors, but it had its uses.
I think that increasing the ability of doctors to have access to such vital information is a huge step forward if it means reducing the number of cumbersome machines surrounding the patient in the hospital. So, it would great to have patients fitted with these in the waiting room so that their metabolic status can be monitored over the course of several minutes rather than just the few seconds before the doctor sees them.
Reduce the size and improve the styling, and you could have everyone who was concerned about their health wearing these. I'd do it, if I was so concerned.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I'm surprised there wasn't something similar enough already -- it sounds essential.
I find the pricing to be the most curious: "The price will vary, Atzmon says, according to service packages and insurance coverage."
I can understand prices varying with costs. Buy why does the "insurance coverage" matter? Shouldn't the device cost whatever it costs, regardless of what insurance someone has?
The last time I bought something at the store, they didn't say, "oh, hey -- how much insurance do you have -- I need to know that so that I can price the bag of cereal you got."
Sounds like some in-your-face price discrimination.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
slashdot?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
So, I assume this device will be watching these patients vital signs?
I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself...
Daar is nie 'n lepel nie
It already has all these neat features in it including a clock (otherwise how would it measure pulse?). I wonder if this device also show the time of day on its display? That would free the wearer from needing to wear 2 'watches'. The built-in phone is kinda neat though... all we need now is a fully automated, bullet proof car to go with it.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Damn, Mike, finally your damn watch stopped beeping, that was soo annoying...
*cough* *wheeze*
Um... Mike?!
Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
Didn't we have a story about cell phones and permanent eye damage days ago? Can't help but wonder if there are potential risks with this kind of stuff.
Doctor, the sensors are going haywire. Send an ambulance!
Yes, it will monitor those patients vital signs, and phone in that data to the hospital servers.
rofl
It would be really cool if this thing adjusted the flow of time to match your heartbeat. That way, when you're relaxed, time goes by real slow and you can enjoy it. But when you're in a frenzy and your heart's going at 300 bpms, you move much faster relative to everyone else.
Welcome to the Matrix.
technology to play nanny..
Where I have I heard that before..
I'm sure the result would be alright.
Timang tinggi tinggi
parang sudah asah
alang alang mandi
biar sampai basah
...does it change colors like a mood ring?
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
The article doesn't say if it tells time or not. I wonder if you have to wear that gigantic thing AND a watch.
I read this as watch like device at risk from patents. I thought some asshole patented wearing anything other than handwatch around your wrist. Seemed damn likely.
Back to the subject: In Europe it should work. But in the US, with the cellular coverage you have there, in most cases it will just help confirming cause of death, because the base station will be just out of range. You guys NEED to do something with your cellular services. Coverage of whole country, just for cases like these is essential. In Europe, even in backwater countries of former eastern bloc, there's very few places "out of range" left and sometimes even in good coverage area new base stations are built, just to improve reliablity, quality, add redundancy in case of failure. In an average small town, field engineering options of your phone will detect 3-4 stations within usable range, 4 others with too weak signal to use. You can go by train and just watch switching the base stations. And the idea to install GPS in cellular phones to help locating them? Ridiculous! There are already services of "locate self", "locate friend" available, because by pinging 3 nearest stations and processing the distance readouts, the cell phone can be located with precision of some 20 meters. Now how useful would it be to locate the patient in emergency?
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
There's always limitations.
When I bought my phone, they advertised 'enhanced 911' which would tell dispatchers your location... apparently the dispatchers aren't set up to receive that info.. so they still have to ask you where you are.
Your watch can transmit info.. but if the system is flaky, or they get 100 'heart attacks' a night false alarms, they'll be ignoring your silly tech toy, assuming they're even set up to receive it's silly broadcasts.
That's a wrong question! The right question is:
But does it run Linux?
Did anyone else here get a terrible vision of that old Medic Alert commercial where the old lady says so dramatically, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!"?
Maybe that's just me.
Had the headline said "Watch-like device" then it would have made sense instantly.
"Watch like device" is just plain wrong. I know; I'm expecting too much from Slashdot.
When I worked as a PM for special system upgrades in public facilities, E911 was all the rage. The problem is that for E911 to work, not only must your system be able to handle it, the 911 dispatcher must be able to handle it.
More often then not,
1. The local dispatcher has the capibilities to use E911, but their systems don't have your specifics, so it's moot
2. The local dispatcher has the capibilities to use E911, but the humans there haven't been trained how to use it, so it's moot
3. The local dispatcher doesn't have any ability to use E911. While your phone or phone system is set up for it, they can't take advantage of, so it's moot.
Ultimatly, E911 could be something really cool (and helpful), but from what I saw, it's more of a marketing buzzword then anything else.
The Internet is generally stupid
Is there any competitor for GlucoWatch, which is quite expensive and not that precise? I would be particularry interested in any device like this that would help to monitor the diabetes. Thanks
This is all cool, but you know what would be really neat? If you had some device that you wore on your wrist that told you the time. More advanced applications could include the date.
Now, something like that... I'd pay for.
The Internet is generally stupid
"...can measure vital signs including pulse rate, cardiac rhythm (ECG or EKG), and blood oxygen levels..."
Yes, but can it tell time?
Sorry... just HAD to...
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
"Watch-like", instead of "Watch like"?
Now and again we get a glimpse of what the future could become. I think this bulky watch is one of those glimpses.
Imagine having all you vital signs monitored 24 hours a day. When there's a serious problem, your stats and GPS position are sent to the nearest A&E.
We'd wonder how we ever lived without it.
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
HMO's main goal is to reduce patient expenses. If you can get a patient out of the hospital and walking around where the business isn't being sucked by patient expenses, that is a good thing. If they Die, that's a problem for the insurance company, Not the HMO. All the better.
Cheers.
I am guessing that the first edition of such
devices are going to be prohibitively expensive.
Yes, I have RTFA.
Taking it a bit farther, I am guessing that,
here in India, anyone who can afford that
kind of a device will easily be able
to afford to have a 24x7 nurse look after him.
Guess what he's gonna choose?
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
My final project in Uni (2yrs ago) was basically a watch like this. It was supposed to measure heart rate, body fat, blood sugar etc and store it in the EEPROM. This data would then be available for dl via a wireless link like blueTooth. And then ur doctor or u could check your data. I built/programmed most of the framework to interact with the sensors and store the data, and my partner wrote an app in Java which you could use to dl your data and plot/examine ur progress.
:(
Too bad we didn't have any business skills to pursue the idea.
Privacy intrusion! Obviously not for me, I'm a geek. But for those lucky people out there that do have sex - I hope the doctors won't be giving them a call because their pulse rate suddenly went through the roof.
Or, well, I could take up running to trick people I'm getting some every night.
Sounds like the CORA (?) device from Fountains of Paradise.
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
while sending an alarm to a caretaker.
Could be useful that, for the *really* sick or if the device doesn't detect life signs anymore.
"in the case of an emergency, transmit the information in real time using the built-in cellular phone while sending an alarm to a caregiver." "
And it may even add an extra black blotch of cancinogen to the watch-bearers wrist! HOW CONVEEEEEEEEEEEEN-EE-YENT!
BRO0KLYN
This monitors blood O2, heart rate and rhthms with the goal of saving someones life if something goes wrong. Privacy doesn't come up here at all.
Please see the post immediately prior to your own.
This is not an HMO cost reducing issue. As far as I'm concerned if you were to confine me to a hospital for the rest of my life because of my risk factor you might just as well shoot me now and be done with it. I'd shoot myself after a few weeks anyway.
So I'm "at risk." Big deal. We all are. Some of us just carry higher risks, like coal miners and auto commuters. I'll live until I die, just like everybody else.
As one of my greatest risks is acquiring a respiratory infection, like a cold, ironically the one place I don't want to be is in a big building full of sick people anyway. On the whole I'm safest in a cabin out in the woods, growing my own food.
KFG
... now how do I sign up for a Platinum Doc-Wagon Contract?
As a trainee cardiothoracic surgeon, I see patients in both the Intensive Care Unit and in the High Dependency Unit at our hospital...and I can't tell you the number of times alarms go off needlessly for such things as minor ECG changes and decreasing blood oxygen saturations.
Causes for alarms going off:
Patient takes a deeper breath than normal
Patient moves
Patient strains on the toilet
Patient has a shower
Patient's sensor falls off
Patient's fingers get cold
And any other innumerable causes for spurious alarms.
So how do we know if a patient is really sick? Simple - look at them!
This is precisely what can't be done with one of these remote monitoring devices - I looked into setting up a remote ECG monitoring system myself about 5 years ago but I can guarantee no cardiologist will want to be woken at 3am for false alarms.
So either this device will cost one hell or a lot to run (may even be cheaper to book yourself a room in hospital for the rest of your life) or have the alarms so insensitive that a lot of people die before this fails.
-Nano.
"Crothers? Yeah, it's Hotchkins. Listen, old man Bumbles got access to his bank account again... I don't know how... yeah, they're going right off the charts again. I hope it's not that red-head again. She almost did him in that last time. What?... Hold on... no, the front gate is open... I don't know, gimme a second... Hold on, I can't tell from this monito-- wait, yeah. The dog's missing too. Better wire it up and get over there. Whoa! [multiple beeps, whistles, bangs, other Dr. Who sounds] Get a move on, Crothers! I just got an alarm from one of the out-buildings! I think he's loose! Holy mother of holies, LOOK at those readings! I didn't think he had that much blood in his body! Crothers, get your ass over there, unless you want to answer for a gross of mutilated livestock! NOOOOOOW!!!!!!"
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~~ Hunter S. Thompson
Ooh, your powers of deduction are exceptional. I can't allow you to waste them here when there are so many crimes going unsolved at this very moment. Go, go, for the good of the city.
I could see this thing being used by someone to set off a bomb (or other weapon) in the event they are killed. Imagine putting something like this on a soldier in the battlefield with a high-yield explosive attacked to it. Instant suicide bombers without the need to be suicidal.
Not only could this be used for weapons, it could also be used as a "clean up" trigger. Set up a computer to eliminate any incriminating evidence you might have or transfer laege sums of money to another location before it can be seized by the state or living relatives.
8==8 Bones 8==8
If I had designd the thing. The phone in would leave one of the following messages.
"Patient needs Food", "Patient is dying"
Uh. if you don't get the joke, go pick up a copy of MAME or something.
Many...many quarters.
How much will this cost compared to the Rs 34 for a hepatitis B vaccine?
This device could be amazing for training. It gives data normal HBM's can't measure, like oxygen levels. One could train much more effectively, and also monitor oneself during races or record attempts.
Since sporting gear is a big market, it could bring the price of the device down to a few hundred dollars.
Maybe the fastest man on earth will have some troubles with actually looking on his watch during a race...
Trust me, I work for the government.
This has the old "If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear/see it, did it make a sound?" written all over it.
Who exactly would suit be filed against if in the event of a life threatening cardiac event, the cell network was too congested to let a call through.
Why not just put a hat on the person with red and blue LED's that spell out "I'm screwed" in that event.
A smaller, lower-tech version of this watch could also be useful.
I've got moderate asthma, and choosing the best prophylactic drug depends on knowing my overall trend over several weeks or months (i.e. at a checkup, a doctor can't know what's the best medicine for me or how I'm really doing, just by listening to my breathing at that moment).
At least for me it's not that easy to keep track of trends like that, for example I forget if I was wheezing a little yesterday morning or how many times I took my rescue inhaler last week or during the past month. I'm sure the information I tell my doctor, is not very accurate. I suspect I tend to be too optimistic, and as a result end up using a too-weak prophylactic medicine and consequently slightly over-using the rescue inhaler.
It would be great to have a device that made recording day-to-day data about my health, as easy as using the rescue inhaler itself. A solution would a chip in the inhaler, but that might not be economical. Something like a small wristwatch with very easy-to-use data-logging software would be reusable and more versatile, and would be useful for other people's health issues besides asthma.
Sure you can write it down, but when each event is small and they only become meaningful in aggregate, it's easy to not do it.
What do other people do to keep track of long-term trends in their lives, that are difficult to memorize?
Disclaimer: I haven't RTFA
sig under construction...
Wow, it took me awhile to realize this wasn't a story about patents. I'm so used to seeing patent stories!
Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
I must admit when I first read this headline, I thought it said:
Watch Like Device for At-Risk Patents
My first thought was "You mean Microsoft can't patent the act of breathing? Maybe they'll try to patent this patent-watching device..."
Big difference than the actual headline, so I thought I'd post.
And they said zombies weren't real!
It would also be a great device for terrorists as I commented on my blog earlier with a much less sophisticated device. With this a terror cell could destroy themselves and their homes or other locations at the same time, reducing the chance that the police would have time to shut down the cell networks.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Why not just mandate that every person in the US wear one? I mean, Health Care companies need to protect their assets too, right?.
In fact, it would be great if it included the full biological and medical history of the wearer, and maybe even their credit history too.
It might be more fashionable if we wear these on our ankles though, I mean these barbed-wire fences are probably going to snag the watch as we try to climb over them to get outside our borders anyway, right?
May help crime victims too. Heart rate goes up etc. in dangerous situations. Probably you gotta remember to turn it off before jogging unless there's a known EKG difference or gradual pulse rate increase that can be used to distinguish the two.
Man, I came up with this idea while in college, to bad, no one at the d*mn med school would listen to me, 5 years later, some other lame guy is going to get rich.
It can go either way.
Needed a doctor's visit for severe nausea. Some kind of food poisoning or something. My mom got it too. We both went to the doctor. Both got the same medication. Same doctor.
Difference? She, with insurance, came to a total of $100. She only had to pay like $20, and insurance covered the other $80.
Me, without insurance, had to pay $250. Same visit, same doctor, same medication.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
You used the hyphen for "at-risk," why not use it properly one more time!
Otherwise, what is a "like" device, and why am I supposed to be watching it???
I wonder how that's supposed to work. Last thing I heard was the ECG signal is the difference in electrical potential beween two points on the body.
Help, I've flatlined, and I can't get up!
The image is just a CAD mockup, guys. The technology has been going through patent pending proceedings but there is no working product in trial. Only venture capital monies and a couple CAD drawings. I can't believe you guys are scraping vaporware for /.
Prior art? See Aliens.
meh
Did anyone else read this as 'at risk patents' ?
... ;-)
I figured it might be some kind of Dick Tracy like device for warning engineers that something they'd designed was about to be ruined by someone elses patent.
Maybe Apple could design and market this device (the iPWatch), and Microsoft could sneak in and patent it
-- "It's not stalking if you're married!" My Wife.
Ok, send the squad in, 8 blips in the green.....7 blips peaking heart rate.. air cover now,now ... 6 blips. Pull those men out.
Mark location of 2 down soldiers for pickup.
Course you have to seriously encrypt the blips.
Not so far fetched. According to Siemens (they make the GPRS radio chips) http://communications.siemens.com/cds/frontdoor/0, 2241,hq_en_0_110776_rArNrNrNrN,00.html, the "watch" is to be manufactured by Tadiran a well know military equipment supplier based in Isreal. http://www.tadspec.com/home.php.
Is that like partially owned by Iran? Tad-Iran?
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
I first read the title, and thought it read PATENTS, not patients!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Why do I get depressed every time I hear that technology is making my life more convienient. I'm not really worried about a "terminator future". I think it has more to do with a sence that I keep getting further away from my neighbors.
Lamest. Anti-religion troll. Ever.
Tour de France cyclists has similar devices so when
they are riding thru the mountains their coaches
can determine from remote whether they are working
too hard or too light or if they need to ease off
or change gearing.
As an avid recreational cyclist I already have a
wristwatch styled heart rate monitor that measures
percentage of maximum heart rate, amount of time
spent in a pariticular heart rate zone, etc. What
I'm saying is the technology exists for this and
has for some time.
Why build in a cell phone -- why not let the phones be phones, and have this device use a nearby bluetooth-capable phone? I suppose the advantage to having it built in is that there is only one device to take/wear, but if you're already carrying a phone around, why carry two?
DocWagon bracelets become a reality.
I can't wait until I can get an armed medevac from a hostile situation no matter where I am!
Isn't this the kind of device that is shown on star trek again and again for patients at risk but don't want to stay in sick bay 24/7?
My Gawd WTF...
The cardiologist doesn't have to get up at 3am. Think globally. You should have interns/nurses hooked up around the world. They hook in, call the patient, find out what's going on. THEN , if it's serious the cardiologist gets woken up. So what if the nurse/intern has an indian accent. That's what cheat sheets are for. Let them sort out the wheat from the chaff. That's why they pay the cardiologists so much. Because when the shit hits the fan, it's real, not the patient laying a particularly long cable.
http://www.tadspec.com/home.php
Tadiran Spectralink Ltd., a member of the Elisra Group, is a highly specialized producer of advanced wireless communications systems for all types of manned and unmanned aerial and ground platforms, surfave naval vessels, guided weapons and space platforms, as well as state-of-the-art Search and Rescue systems for a variety of applications.
Through the years, Tadiran Spectralink has won international recognition as one of the major players in its field. The companys products are in service in some of Israels most sophisticated technological systems and are a significant contribution to its defense capabilities. Many of these products are fielded worldwide.
I've noticed several sites on the Internet that promote a penis enlargement through "ancient" techniques of strengthening (and yes, lengthening) the penis through exercises. These sites claim that since the penis is a muscle, it can be conditioned and exercised for greater and permanent length and girth. Is this possible?