The use of digital medicine and telemedicine, or digital technologies in health care, to make remote diagnosis and treatment can be of great help in coping with a health emergency situation such as the current one.
The benefits of digital medicine include:
- Reduction in the number of days of hospital stay and thus in the cost of hospitalization.
- Rationalization of time and course of care.
- Improved counseling service by dedicated teams of specialists.
- Monitoring of diseases with increased possibility of early intervention and prevention.
That being said, new prevention models based on data analytics from care to post-hospitalization, the use of telemedicine, the use of dedicated apps for telehealth of home patients including through wearable devices, the spread of IoT and artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions will take us to a new level of digital health care.
Wearable technology already has high growth potential so much so that according to research firm IDC, there has been an 89% increase in worldwide sales in 2019.
Fitness and sports enthusiasts in general are already familiar with the various wearable devices that help us for training. The latest generation smartwatches and fitness trackers have now become very popular and also quite useful. In addition to calculating our exercise consumption and indicating calories burned, they are essential for keeping an eye on our heart and blood pressure.
Their importance to our health could also be extended to fighting Covid-19, helping us recognize the early symptoms of the disease.
Several countries around the world are studying specific applications for these devices, "calibrating" them to the coronavirus.
For example, the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, has activated a program based on vital signs taken by owners of different brands of werables so that people can be tracked based on their physical activity, and traced back to possible infection symptoms.
All data of volunteers who participate (with complete anonymity) are saved in a database and shared on a voluntary basis.
The benefits of medical IoT
In general, IoT (Internet of Things) in medical will bring many benefits. The collection and analysis of big data in the medical field would facilitate, in the current situation, the tracking, monitoring and intervention on positive patients at home for example but also the collection of data on healthy people for greater prevention and containment of disease and infection. Of course, there are still many kinks to be worked out mostly related to personal data protection and privacy, but the road in this direction is now a necessary step.
Wearable Devices: the supporting technologies
"Wearable" (i.e., wearable) devices belong to the Internet of things (IoT)-network of devices connected to each other to take in and share data-which by 2020 will have 26 billion connected objects, a number almost 30 times higher than in 2009 when there were just 0.9 billion "smart" objects (Gartner, 2013).
The progressive growth of this sector has generated very interesting consequences in the health care field for at least two reasons:
- The development of sensor-based technologies and connectivity makes it possible to collect, record and analyze data that was previously inaccessible;
- The ability of wearable devices to collect data autonomously is such that it provides the health and social care team with the data it needs at the time of greatest need.
In general, automation reduces the risk of error by increasing the efficiency of healthcare delivery and reducing the cost to implement it. Therefore, the joint use of IoT technologies for healthcare, assumes a significant role in various scenarios:
Hospital care.
Hospitalized patients through IoT systems can be continuously monitored;
Remote monitoring. Frail patients (the elderly and those with chronic diseases) are enabled to lead more independent lives;
Prevention. The daily and wellness activities of people who do not experience particular symptoms can be monitored by limiting doctor and specialist visits to the hospital.
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Marco Magnani
Brand Ambassador Digital Innovation Days 2020