on Sep 9th, 2006Medical Devices as the New HAL
Communication is at the heart of any good system whether it be a relationship between two people, two animals, or a doctor and a patient. Technology today fills out the triangle and introduces a cornucopia of medical devices that interface between the two. Sorry, HAL, but your odyssey is over.
Medical device makers see patients like Mrs. Huntoon as harbingers of technology changes that will allow tens of millions of Americans with chronic problems like heart failure, diabetes and mental illness to have their conditions constantly monitored, remotely and virtually, as they go about their daily lives. The payoff for patients could be more effective use of drugs, fewer and shorter hospital stays, and longer stretches between routine visits to physicians’ offices.
“The aging population and chronic diseases create an untenable drain on the health care delivery system,” said L. David Whitlinger, a health care electronics specialist at Intel, which sees the growing array of networked devices being developed for remote and automated medicine as a huge new market for its microchips.
Remote Control for Health Care
By BARNABY J. FEDER
New York Times, September 9, 2006