Council on Aging Answers 2015 - 50

COUNCIL ON AGING - ORANGE COUNTY

hEALThCARE

New Tech Can Change Patient Care
When Ann, a 65 year old woman with congestive
heart failure and diabetes, steps out of bed in the
morning, her weight is recorded by a Wi-Fi-enabled
sensor located under the floorboards.
This is just one of several sensors that keep a close
watch on Ann's health without her having to do
anything at all. The data detected by all the sensors
is automatically transmitted via a secure wireless
connection and stored in her personal health record in a
cloud-based computer server. If any
of the health measurement signals
falls outside of a pre-determined
normal range for her, the data is
transmitted to her clinician as well
as to a family member designated by
Ann.
This is a fictionalized scenario
in the not-too-distant future
illustrating how passive sensors -
sensors that do not require active
engagement for their use or data
transmission - could proliferate
in patients' daily lives to support
healthy lifestyles, self-care, and
more personalized medicine, yet be
almost invisible to the user.
Wireless communication
standards have allowed sensors
to develop from traditional forms
- those that require the active
involvement of the patient in
collecting data, transmitting it, or both - to passive
forms that do not need patient participation. The most
fully passive sensors can provide constant monitoring
of a person's vital signs or other measures, and store that
data or send it wirelessly to a care team.
Sensors are deployed along a continuum of wellness
to illness, from sports and fitness tracking to chronic
disease management. Some enable medical tracking that
had typically been performed in an inpatient setting but
can now be done at home. Types of sensors deployed
include:

n Blood-sampling sensors, such as glucose meters
n Tissue-embedded sensors, such as pacemakers
and defibrillators
n Ingestibles embedded in pills that dissolve
n Epidermal sensors, such as patches and digital
tattoos
n Wearables embedded in clothing or accessories
n External sensors, such as blood-pressure cuffs and
pulse oximeters
Some of the early consumer adopters of sensors for
health were people who self-tracked
their fitness and exercise. As early
as 2008, an online and in-person
collaboration of self-trackers began
using sensors to monitor their vital
signs and other measures. Since
then, self-tracking has begun to go
mainstream, and the sensors are
evolving from standard to partially
passive and passive models. About
69% of US adults are tracking at
least one health indicator, and about
20% of these people are currently
using some form of technology.
Some 60 million sports, fitness, and
health-monitoring devices with
wireless technology are expected to
be sold to consumers between 2010
and 2015.
Larry Smarr, director of
the California Institute for
Telecommunications and Information Technology, has
an optimistic vision for the future of sensors in health.
According to Mr. Smarr "People will soon be able to
have their genetic code and medical imaging stored in
the cloud, along with charts of vital signs and detailed
nutritional analysis of everything they consume."

People will soon
be able to have
their genetic
code and medical
imaging stored in
the cloud, along
with charts of vital
signs and detailed
nutritional analysis
of everything they
consume.

Answers Guide 2015

Excerpts used with the permission of the California
Healthcare Foundation 2014. To read more visit:
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PDF/M/PDF%20MakingSenseSensors.pdf

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Council on Aging Answers 2015

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