Cutting the cords - how wearable technology will help patients around the world
July 1, 2015
Healthcare wearables can be way more than clever little wristbands that can track the number of kilometres you walk in a day or measure your heart rate.
These are useful apps, but they're just scratching the surface. GE's work in developing patient monitoring devices could change wearable technology and revolutionise the way we look after ourselves.
It all started in 2013, when Didier Deltort, GE's GM of Healthcare Monitoring Solutions came to the country to set up one of GE Healthcare's largest R&D centres after spotting an opportunity to develop the wearable space.
Finland, a tiny Nordic nation with a population of just over 5 million, was once the world's epicentre for technology development and it's now making its comeback.
"Everyone was talking about wearables. It was going to happen and we had to get in there," he says. "Finland had a great pool of talent, and a plethora of engineers that once worked with Nokia, who were keen on the opportunity emerging from the next wave of innovation in wearables. The ecosystem here is unique, and everything happens in a 20km radius."
GE and these very engineers are now in the process of developing wearable patient monitoring devices that will change the way doctors and hospitals look after sick patients. In the form of miniaturised silicon chips that combine sensors and wireless technology, GE Healthcare Finland's digital health programme is designed to measure a person's overall health before, during, and post-surgery, or when they require constant monitoring, and spot vital signs that could be hindering the road to recovery.
The sensors - which can be worn for up to a week then disposed - will have the capability to monitor those vital signs, including the overall activity of the heart, blood pressure, temperature and blood oxygenation and respiration. This data can then be logged and analysed to provide patients with a comprehensive overview of how their recovery is going.
At this stage, the technology is believed to have the potential to help mainly acute and sub-acute care patients that are often hooked up to monitoring units by a number of cables and cords, and restrict the patients' ability to move.
"In effect, we will be cutting the cords and allowing for patients to get up and move around, allowing for home-based patient monitoring as soon as possible," says Deltort. "ICU units are expensive - through wearables and technology, patients will be monitored cost-efficiently wherever and whenever needed."
While we are still a few years away from mainstream adoption, GE is already earmarking ways that the technology can evolve to allow doctors to provide a more accurate assessment of our overall health.
Following the adoption of these chips in hospitals, it may not be long before a doctor is able to prescribe a small monitoring sensor to wear and provide us with a comprehensive health check.
"Today, you will go a doctor and he will give you a spot check and provide a diagnosis," says Muuranto. "He may not detect an arrhythmia in the heart for example. A disposable sensor is a much more comprehensive thing. It will revolutionise the way we are diagnosed and treated."
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