Healthcare 2.0
Imagine being able to go online and have access to instruments that could measure and transmit your health data directly to your physician. Imagine healthcare “loyalty” programs, that give incentives to patients for taking their medications regularly; all recorded, transmitted, tracked, and awarded online. It’s all technologically possible, and in this article from newscientist.com, you can get a glimpse of the probable future. Medical devices from weight scales to asthma inhalers could soon connect directly to the web. Healthcare professionals will have a less intrusive and disruptive way to monitor patients with chronic conditions. Of course, this all depends on whether a great number of patients will feel comfortable with their health data going online. Companies like IBM, Intel, Google, Kaiser Permanente and the UK’s National Health Service appear to be banking on the fact that we will be increasingly insistent – and comfortable with – transparency.
1 Comment to Healthcare 2.0
Hi Gina,
We also saw that very interesting article on healthcare innovation. There are some big players backing the internet as a way of streamlining the transfer of health data. It just makes sense as the internet reduces costs in almost everything it touches. And healthcare could do with some cost savings.
Regards,
Tom
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August 12, 2009