BODY 2.0

aka “The Networked Body”

Let’s imagine your life if your doctor could call you one day before you have a heart attack, responding to an alarm sent out by monitoring systems in your body!
On the same note, real-time monitoring of glucose concentration in your blood could allow for increasing or decreasing dosages accordingly, closely monitoring your diabetes and removing the necessity of time-consuming blood checks and injections.

On another point of view, it is also well known that healthcare costs are rising at an uncontrollable pace for the government finances. Solutions need to be implemented quickly to improve Healthcare management and costs.

Researchers, managers, healthcare providers are working on an array of solutions. One promising field is :

Body Health Monitoring

Click on the different parts of the pictures to see which pages are related to each subjects

The human body is already closely monitored by a multitude of devices, most of them entangled with wires and heavy machineries. This monitoring is mostly done at the hospitals and clinics, under close healthcare observations. Could it not be advantageous that part of these monitoring takes place at the patient home?

Body Monitoring can be approached from different perspectives:

Environment: Hospitals & Clinics; Home; Entertainment; Sport; …
Type of use: in acute medical situation; in treatment and rehabilitation; for prevention; in control; for security purposes; …
Technical Scopes of Application: wireless system; wearable system; drug delivery; inside the body; on-body devices; etc…
Body Function: Heart Monitoring; Glucose Monitoring; Pulmonary function; Intestines; Blood stream; Sweat; brain; Intake of food; Body Temperature; Sleep; …

For example, Dr. Topol, Professor at the Scripps Research Institute has outlined a top ten list for conditions and diseases that are already benefiting from wireless health services or soon will:

1. Alzheimer,
2. Asthma,
3. Breast Cancer,
4. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder
5. Depression,
6. Diabetes,
7. Heart Failure,
8. Hypertension,
9. Obesity and
10. Sleep Disorder

Moreover, medical authorities are crying out for practical wireless health-monitoring devices that patients can wear while living normal lives at home. The body-worn wireless sensor networks (WSNs) — using inexpensive, low-power, interoperable, interference-immune wireless sensors communicating with a cell phone and cellular network — could allow ill people to retain independence while being constantly in contact with their healthcare providers. [1]

Body Monitoring by the Numbers:

In terms of finance management, several estimations have been mentioned:

The revenue from worldwide sales of WiFi-enabled healthcare products will reach nearly $5 billion in 2014, according to a recent report from ABI Research. [2]
According to a recent report from Parks Associates, the U.S. market for wireless home-based healthcare applications and services will grow at a five-year cumulative annual growth rate of over 180 percent and become a $4.4 billion industry in 2013. [2]
August 2008 ON World Inc. report “Wireless Sensor Networks for Healthcare” concluded that the use of body-worn WSNs could save the healthcare industry $25 billion a year in direct costs by 2012. [1]
The current market [2009] for heart monitoring with all technologies is $2 billion [3]

It seems evident, based on these analyses that the development of practical, reliable and safe solutions for monitoring patients will translate directly in huge saving for individuals as well as for the health care system of every country.

REFERENCES

1. http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Cutting_healthcare_costs_with_wireless-article-FAJH_RF-Micro_Jun2009-html.aspx
2. http://mobihealthnews.com/3856/wireless-health-by-the-numbers/
3. http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=474504

Nano Tera Wiki : BodyMonitoring

BODY 2.0

Body Health Monitoring

Body Monitoring can be approached from different perspectives:

Body Monitoring by the Numbers:

REFERENCES

SEE ALSO