M2M : Machine 2 Machine

The proposed plan to provide universal healtcare includes a Proposal to make M2M an integral part of patient care. This coudl mean that in the near a healt monitoring device could be as common as a television in each house. The proposal involes using remote monitoring to provide preventative care - the group recognizes the cost savings offered by M2M solutions.

Medical Device Trade Group Releases Universal Health Care Plan

The trade group proposed promoting preventive services such as remote-monitoring technology, hardware in some medical devices that allows physicians to monitor information about patients with heart conditions and diabetes. The proposal would encourage reimbursement for physicians who review information collected by the devices. In addition, AdvaMed proposed creating a fast-track process for medical device and drug companies to more quickly receive Medicare reimbursement for products. AdvaMed officials said that the proposal would cost $167 billion annually (Snowbeck, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 6/21).

A conference that brings together System Networking and healhtcare professionals to talk about use of network technology to improve the lives of an aging population. This is interesting as it address some my themes from previous posts about managing and providing cost effective care for the elderly.

As the world’s population grows older, healthcare and high-tech companies are joining forces. New technologies are being used to provide improved support for elderly and home bound people in their homes and in assisted living environments. The overall goal of these initiatives is to improve the quality of life by providing customized support to people in need of assistance. The main challenge is to provide this support according to the user’s own specific situation in a non-intrusive and respectful way. These new technologies enable the automatation of the observation and support for elderly and home bound people through the use of sensors, actuators, distributed intelligence, databases, ubiquitous connectivity and friendly adaptive interfaces, all connected mainly via a variety of wireless networking technologies. The ultimate goal is a system that can adapt to the users needs, helping them get through their daily routine in a way that is effective in providing support where needed without making them feel humiliated by excessive attention. To provide such support, it will be necessary to combine efforts from many areas of computer science, including networking, distributed systems, security, data management, HCI and middleware.

Given the inherent use of mobile and wireless communication and the need for comprehensive distributed systems as well as the multi-disciplinary nature of solutions for healthcare and assisted living environments, the goal of HealthNet is to provide a forum for the cross-area interactions that will be necessary for successful systems and applications. The specific focus of HealthNet will be on understanding what it takes to provide effective systems and communication support for healthcare and assisted living environments.

So M2M is Machine to Machine – But the in principle it is a process/ system where a entity is continuously monitoring another entity. This allows the monitoring entity/ entities to determine and react to problem situations. An entity in this definition could be a Machine, A Person (Hu\Man)

 
With that theme and definition we should start seeing human monitoring systems become wide spread and prevalent in the coming years as the global population ages and requires more sophisticated tools to monitor and manage the general well being. On that node came across this company that provides monitoring of Urine samples on a regular basis – I am no doctor but base don some general reading sampling this on a regular interval can give clear indications on what are some of the potential problems. Here is a snippet from the press release

Verathon Inc. (formerly Diagnostic Ultrasound Corp.) is pleased to announce the introduction of the FloPoint®Elite Uroflow System, a convenient and easy way to measure and record a patient’s pattern of urinary flow. The measurements the FloPoint®Elite provides, such as voided volume and peak flow, help physicians quickly assess and diagnose abnormalities in voiding patterns. This new device will be introduced at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, on May 19th. (Verathon®Booth #540)

Unlike current uroflow methods which require a special voiding chair, the FloPoint®Elite sets up in a standard toilet. This design helps put patients at ease and is intended to provide a more normal environment for them to void - key in obtaining accurate measurements.

The unique setup also means FloPoint®Elite is convenient and easy to use for medical staff. The device, which is portable and durable, installs in seconds and unlike traditional methods, there are no messy beakers of urine for staff to deal with. Cleanup is easy and takes a few minutes. The design also accommodates to an array of clinical settings.

Authorities in UK are using M2M based remote monitoring to provide medical care for prison inmates. Using this service they monitoring 82% of potential hospital visits were eliminated - translates into a lot of $$’s. Ignoring the cost savings this type of service increases the quality of care that patients receive. Closed loop trials like the one mentioned below are a precussor to wide spread adoption of these services for the general public

A prison in the UK, HMP Wakefield, has reported on the success of its pioneering outsourced ECG monitoring service, which has reduced the burden on prison, police and primary care staff, delivered considerable cost savings and improved public safety, by providing expert cardiology reporting onsite for prisoners.

Since introducing the remote cardiac monitoring service from Broomwell HealthWatch 12 months ago, the high-security prison has eliminated unnecessary hospital visits and is able to monitor and treat more patients within the prison. The on-site healthcare team carries out a simple 12-lead ECG test and transmits the data to Broomwell’s monitoring centre, where expert cardiac staff provide round-the-clock advice on patient care.

A core benefit of this approach has been the improvement in security. Taking high-security prisoners off-site to a local hospital requires secure transport, prison officers to guard, and in some cases a police presence, to minimise risk to the public and NHS staff.

Data from a recent 6-month pilot of telemedicine ECG tests by NHS North West, using Broomwell’s handheld ECG device and monitoring service, showed 82% of patients did not need to go to hospital (neither A&E nor Outpatients) following the test.

The Spanish government is promoting the need for M2M like systems to help in building out the Patient Monitoring Infrastructure.
The Link
By the year 2026, 21.6 per cent of the world’s population will be older than 65, 32 per cent of which will have some kind of disability.

Official data confirm that the percentage of elderly people will increase dramatically within the next years: by 2050 there will be 180 per cent more people older than 80 than today.

Guided by these figures, the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade , through its CENIT programme, targeted at fostering cooperation between the private and the public sectors for the development of technological innovations, has granted a 20 million euro subsidy to the research and development project “AmIVital: digital personal environment for health and wellbeing”.

Seventeen Spanish top Information and Communication Technology companies and research groups participate in AmIVital. From the private side, SIEMENS will be the leader of this project in which other companies take part, such as Telef’nica R&D, Telvent Interactiva, Ericsson Spain, Eptron, CPI , Central de Procesos Inform’ticos, Acerca Comunicaciones y Sistemas and Arizone. Public stakeholders will include the association ITACA , Instituto de Aplicaciones de las TIC Avanzadas (TSB Group), CARTIF Foundation, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Biomedical Research Foundation, Rioja Salud Foundation, Carlos III Health Institute and the universities of Malaga, Polytechnic of Madrid, Saragossa and Granada, through its department of Computer Architecture headed by professor Alberto Prieto Espinosa.