The technology convergence seen in
the consumer sector—the video, camera,
music player, phone and satellite navigation system all in one device—is also
happening in the home diagnostic market. Devices enabling self monitoring of
vital signs such as blood pressure, blood
glucose, oxygen saturation, pulse, body
temperature and body weight as part
of telehealth systems are now available.
Patient data/vital signs can be transmitted
daily, but this raises the question: where is
all this data going and who is going to do
anything with it?
Currently, our healthcare systems are
not set up to cope with this growing flow
of data, even though a policy of prevention would save the systems a fortune. I
have never understood why we don’t have
annual healthcare Ministry of Transport
tests as we do for our cars? Why do we
need to be better informed about the
health of our cars than our own bodies?
Patient power
Even though healthcare systems do not
know how to handle—or perhaps do
not want to handle—this growing mass
of data, increasing numbers of individuals do. The view of the doctor as the
revered font of all medical knowledge
has changed. Of course, no one can be
expected to understand the mass of medical knowledge anyway. Internet access to
this knowledge now enables individuals
to better understand and even challenge
diagnoses. Patient power has been enabled
by the information revolution and social
networking sites such as www.patients
likeme.com, but these have not merely
benefited knowledge-thirsty individuals.
It has been suggested that data collected
on these kinds of sites contributes more
to medical knowledge than all academic
research activities. Scientists and clinicians, as well as the general public now
refer to these sites for data. More people
in the world have mobile phones than have
access to healthcare, so this is an inevitable vehicle for people to use to become
better informed about and to manage their
own healthcare issues.
Pressure to manage and reduce healthcare expenditure in many of the major
markets is also driving change. The big
pharmaceutical companies are going
through a transition and they will no
longer be paid for the supply of drugs, but
on measurable outcomes. Holistic solutions to healthcare will need to be considered with a clear focus on the patient
journey, not merely concentrating on
regulators, payers and clinicians.
It has been predicted that the information revolution will be transcended by
the knowledge revolution over the next
20 years. The rapid spread of knowledge
combined with advances in technologies
such as genomics, artificial intelligence,
virtual reality, nanotechnology and
supercomputers will make the concept of
personalised medicine a reality. Entelos
( www.entelos.com) has developed Physio-lab, virtual models of human disease. This
kind of model is being used to simulate
risk and predict drug effect to improve the
drug development process. The vision now
is to one day be able to create an avatar
of each of us, based on genome screening,
which will enable doctors to simulate and
review potential health risks over time
and decide with patients how they could
mitigate the risks through medication or
changes in lifestyle. Giving people choices
about the management of their health
with more accurate and early diagnosis of
potential risks will change the emphasis of
healthcare to prevention, which can only
be a good thing.
As always, the role of the designer will
be to humanise the interaction with the
technology, to engender trust, offer control
and minimise risk from a clinician and
patient perspective. If healthcare technology can keep me alive for another 20 years,
I look forward to reading about the predictions in your 40th anniversary edition! 1
Alun Wilcox
is Director of Medical at PDD Group Ltd,
87 Richford Street, London W6 7HJ, UK
tel. + 44 20 8735 1111
e-mail: alunwilcox@pdd.co.uk
www.pdd.co.uk
emdt.co.uk European Medical Device Technology
June 2010 | 49
