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

Anyone else..

[mike2R]

Read that as at risk patents?

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?

[pHatidic]

Especially since it effectively calls the cops every time you look at porn.

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.

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[kfg]

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

I don't see myself wearing one of these things, but I could, by certain definitions, be considered "at risk."

But I am not ill, per se. I do not even vaguely belong in a hospital. Think about people with severe allergies. Bee stings, peanuts, whatever. Perfectly healthy, but at high risk of going into anaphylactic shock. There are any number of other conditions which carry extreme risks, but which don't really count as illness and for which hospitalization would be a silly waste, both for them and for the hospital.

They're risk conditions. A walking emergency if you like. A chronic condition, but with no acute symptoms requiring actual direct intervention.

I do, on occasion, wear a data recording heart monitor wrist watch that works by radio telemetry, although it does not transmit to a remote location. I guess someone could aim a receiver at me to pick up the signals, but. . .

I'm absolutely clueless as to what use this data would be to the police, and I'm one of "privacy freaks" around here.

In any case, as this is medical data it is already privileged by law.

KFG

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[xtracto]

Yeah! I agree, I do not know what will happen to me if I was obligued to be in a bed 24/7, you see, the only thing I could do is at most, to be in front of my notebook (with or without internet) reading slashdot and/or programming... I would lose all the marvelous things the nature has awaiting for me on the outside!

Oh... wait... nevermind

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[drmike0099]

The only thing doctors are required by law to report is information regarding abuse and violence in the home (domestic/spousal/child/elderly abuse). The rest already does require a warrant.

Other uses for this tech

[meditation_dude]

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).

No need to enlarge

[ReformedExCon]

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.

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.

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.

Re:This didn't exist already? Dig the pricing.

[CornerScribe]

I'm not positive, but I think whether you have insurance (and the quality of insurance) can affect the prices of certain things.

For example, I think that people without insurance get charged more for prescriptions than those with insurance do (even taking into account the insurance payments). So, if I have insurance, the total cost of a particular drug might be $40, yet someone without insurance might pay more than that.

It seems terribly unfair (and is unfair, IMO), but big insurance companies can negotiate discounts that individuals can't get. I'm betting that something similar might be happening here as well.

Here's a link that give a few details. http://www.medicoverage.com/more/A35_0_1_0_M/

Warning_ Bad Joke Ahead

[rooijan]

So, I assume this device will be watching these patients vital signs?

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself...

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.

Finally...

[Maavin]

Damn, Mike, finally your damn watch stopped beeping, that was soo annoying...

*cough* *wheeze*

Um... Mike?!

Fap Fap Fap...

[ferrellcat]

Doctor, the sensors are going haywire. Send an ambulance!

yeah, but...

[maxpublic]

...does it change colors like a mood ring?

Max

Too little sleep, too little caffee.

[Vo0k]

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?

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.

Re:What about diabetes?

[Ihlosi]

I would assume there is not.

Noninvasive, accurate blood glucose measurement is one of the "holy grails" of biomedical engineering. The first company to come up with a technical solution and the associated patents will basically have a license to print money for the next 20 years.

WTH Similar Concept

[Rac3r5]

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. :(

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

A very bad idea

[nanoakron]

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.

Technology can be used by the bad guys, too

[linzeal]

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.

Re:Nice

[cluckshot]

This is the beginning of the export from control by the medical establishment of Pulse Oximetry. These devices have been for quite some time used in hospitals.

Now if we could get extracted from the clutches of the US-FDA the control over such devices expecially the optical devices used for Blood Sugar Monitoring which are made in the USA and cannot be sold here but are used world wide.... *Yes I am an RN*