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."

Comments

Nice

[TarryTops]

Let's hope that it'll save some lives.

Yes, but privacy?

[vidarlo]

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.

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[Vo0k]

Maybe people that ill should be in a hospital, not walking around in the streets?

You're missing the point: Let them out from hospitals. What worth is your life if you're to spend the rest of it in the hospital bed? These people prefer to risk their lives and spend some of their time with the family, outdoors, just living, instead of being stuck in hospitals. This device lowers the risk they are willing to take anyway.
I spent a month in hospital and I was going crazy from boredom. Now think of spending all your life there... A week outside is worth more than a year there.

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[TopSpin]

Maybe people that ill should be in a hospital, not walking around in the streets?

The presumption being the patient is being denied sufficient attention? As someone with actual experience with real patients I can tell you that the reality is the patients would rather not spend years of their lives living out of a hospital due to some chronic condition. We have no end of drugs and therapy that enable people to continue living with serious conditions that would have killed them in the recent past. They live among you, one pill to the next, occasionally calling in EMTs to handle the more dramatic moments, and they want to spend no more time in a hospital than you.

This didn't exist already? Dig the pricing.

[putko]

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.

Feature request

[mrjb]

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.

Re:No need to enlarge

[MichaelSmith]

Runners and bicyclists have, for a long time, used these to their training advantage by tracking their physical exertion with these light, unobtrusive wristwatches.

As far as I am aware these watches use a separate sender unit attached to the wearers chest. So you have to include this in any comparison of size.

get over yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Yes, but privacy?Get Em out and working

[kfg]

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

Re:Too little sleep, too little caffee.

[wfberg]

You must not be in the same Europe that I am, my cellular coverage sucks! I don't get service in my apartment, hell, I didn't get coverage in large parts of Nuremberg. Last time I checked that was a major city. Meanwhile, while I was in the US, I was out in some pretty remote areas and still had cell phone coverage, it just depends on your carrier(I used Verizon).


When were you in Germany? It must have been a while back, as these days Eastern Germany is no longer Communist, and as a result they have more than one carrier (shock, horror). E-plus, O2, T-mobile and Vodafone. coverage maps. BTW, remote areas usually have a lot less concrete in them than inner cities, so you're bound to have better coverage for an equal amount of base stations.

And unlike in the US, they all use GSM, so you can use the same phone on any network, just switch out a SIM. T-mobile and Vodafone will have the best coverage, but are also the most expensive options.


Not to friggin' mention that it cost me 5x as much to call a cell phone in Germany FROM MY HOME PHONE than it is for me to call the US.


Which only goes to show that the tightly regulated local loop monopoly is forced by regulators to compete better than the mobile networks with their oligopoly. Yay for regulation. Of which the US is surely a shining example (NOT).


This reality distortion field with cell phones has got to end. You can claim that it works all over Europe, but the truth is it doesn't. Coverage here is as spotty as it is in the US. Given the choice, I would take the US system over the European one in a heartbeat.

Take it, we don't want it.