Medical Device Link.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Remember when mobile phones came in something that was the size of a suitcase, were outrageously expensive, and could only send and receive phone calls? That’s a far cry from today’s sleek electronic multitaskers. Enabling wireless conversations is the least of their functions. If you have a phone that can’t take photos, send and receive e-mail, access the Internet, and download, store, and play music, you are so last century. (I know this—I have a 15-year-old daughter.) Given that we are married to our cell phones, wouldn’t it make sense to enlist these devices and other everyday technologies into improving the delivery of healthcare? That is the gist of a report recently published by the London-based Royal Society, an independent academy founded in 1660 to promote the natural and applied sciences. The report rebukes the UK healthcare system for its slow adoption of even the simplest information and communication technologies (ICTs).

“There is no emphasis on the use of ubiquitous items like mobile phones in healthcare,” notes Frances Mair, a member of the Royal Society’s working group and a researcher at the department of general practice and primary care, University of Glasgow. “This is true in the United Kingdom, but it is certainly not unique to our country. Phone manufacturers already have huge markets and perhaps they see healthcare as a niche sector. Device companies, on the other hand, seem to be more interested in developing these all-singing, all-dancing technologies,” says Mair. “They are focused on top-of-the-range things, when some less-exciting but cheaper options are also worth investigating.”

Even the simplest applications can have a significant impact. Mair notes that some hospitals in Great Britain text-message patients to remind them of appointments, saving hours of doctors’ time in missed appointments. Mobile phones also could be modified to analyze blood-sugar readings in diabetics. (Now why didn’t Steve Jobs think of that?)

Beyond that, patients could harness the power of the home computer, “and have Web-cam consultations with their healthcare providers,” says Mair.

Home security systems, adds the report, could be enhanced to incorporate personal monitoring to detect falls among the elderly, for example. The potential is quite staggering when you think about it. And think about it we must, as an increasingly aging population demands more and more healthcare services from a system with limited human and capital resources. The first order of business, though, is countering the resistance to new technologies harboured by patients as well as healthcare workers.

This skepticism is partly a consequence of the poor track record of the design, implementation, and integration of new technologies with existing systems, according to the report. In terms of the medical profession, it is also caused by a lack of training in the academic arena and an absence of support in the field, says Mair.

“ICTs should be part of the medical curriculum,” stresses Mair. “At the moment, ICTs and e-health are seen as being ‘out there.’ When you talk to healthcare professionals, they simply think that ICTs are irrelevant to [their profession].” One of Mair’s objectives in helping to draft the Digital Healthcare report is to promote the integration of these technologies into the medical curriculum and healthcare environment. An equally important goal, she adds, is to foster recognition that the healthcare experience can be improved without spending immense amounts of money.

“I am very eager to promote a greater awareness of the potential of ICTs, along with the realization that they don’t need to be [implemented] at the most expensive end,” says Mair. To achieve this, there needs to be more-productive communication between the manufacturing and clinical sectors, she adds. “It is very important that healthcare professionals be able to communicate their problems to manufacturers, and that they figure out together how technology can help to solve them,” says Mair. “We need to add clinical pull to the technology push to make this all work.”

You can judge for yourself how persuasively Mair and her colleagues in the Royal Society make their case by reading the 60-page report at www.royalsoc.ac.uk.