The Internet of Things is revolutionizing our lives, particularly in the last year. From smart homes to smart vehicles and everything in between, the Internet of Things have boomed, and we’re analyzing the risks and rewards of the movement. Now those technological innovations could save and extend our lives – it’s not just a novelty, friends.
The notion isn’t part of some futuristic science fiction. Mobile technology has already transformed the quality of life for many diabetes sufferers. It would seem that asthma sufferers can now look forward to similar technology-inspired improvements as well.
Clear link between problem and tech
Dr. Andy Schuetz, Data Scientist at Sutter Health, has experience working on developing technology pertaining to both diabetes and asthma health conditions. He emphasizes the importance of making information clear and accessible to patients and physicians alike. When it comes to what makes a condition viable for IoT treatment, he says, “There’s a couple of different facets to that. Maybe it’s a multi-varied calculation, but is has to be a disease with either reasonable prevalence or extreme severity – something that rises to a level of urgency meaning technology is required. And there has to be some issue that can be addressed by the technology.”
“With some of these wearable devices, it’s not clear exactly how they’re going to solve the patients’ problems, or how the health system’s going to consume the data to help the patient,” Dr. Schuetz observes. “There has to be a clear linkage between problem and technology.”
Asthma triggers and more
It seems several companies have already identified a clear linkage between a health problem and an IoT technological solution. One such example is an asthma treatment. Propeller Health, a company with an FDA indication for predicting severe asthma exacerbations, is leading innovations with a device that clips on to inhalers, and sends updates regarding location and usage statistics to a smartphone. The company can actually alarm and notify a patient when they’re going to a place where they’ve had atypical usage of their rescue med in the past, such as a place where there’s high pollution or some other kind of trigger for a particular patient.
Monitoring patients
Another company, Sotera Wireless, is developing an in-patient wearable, which monitors all kinds of vitals and can request nurses for critically ill patients at the necessary time. However, they’re also discovering that the way the disease progresses and the way the patient feels, along with the age and tech-savvy-ness of the patient, has a complex implication on how the IoT technologies pan out for patients.
While technological innovations such as these are just the beginning, the future of IoT is hoping to extend millions of lives.
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