Health clinic of future only couple of years away
MELBOURNE: Tiny heart monitors, virtual assistants and Fitbit data could be part of future doctor visits.
A model clinic of the future – envisaged by innovation-focussed health organisation Ventures – is on display at Digital Health Week in Hamilton.
Technology’s getting cheaper and most devices on display will be moving into Kiwi practices within a year according to the company, which is linked to Midlands Health Network.
And devices such as a hand-held ECG monitor could save people waiting months for diagnostic tests.
“I was going to refer [a patient] for wearing a 24-hour monitor,” NorthCare GP, Dr Rebekah Doran, said. “The wait through the hospital was about a year.”
The man bought a hand-held, single-line ECG device, which can stick on the back of a mobile phone.
He recorded palpitations when he felt them and sent files to Doran, who is also medical director for Ventures subsidiary Primary Healthcare Ltd.
That led her to suspect SVT, which makes the heart suddenly beat much faster than usual.
She started treatment and, when the patient’s hospital check rolled around, the diagnosis and condition were confirmed, she said.
Other future tools included a USB-based ultrasound – which saves referring patients to other services – and an electronic stethoscope which can run through a tablet and record information to send on for expert opinion.
Ventures is also putting virtual assistant Amazon Alexa to work in the future doctor’s surgery, taking notes.
At the moment, GPs are trying to talk to their patient while they type, and are left with gaps to fill in after the consult, Doran said.
That changes when Alexa’s capturing and transcribing the conversation.
“I can just sit talking to a patient … have eye contact with them.”
Conditions, medications and dosages are picked out of the conversation by Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Comprehend Medical service, and pulled through to the patient’s medical record.
Much of this technology will be widespread in the next two or three years, Royal NZ College of General Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty said.
It’s exciting to have easier to access and there could be of a lot of benefits for patients, he said.
GPs are interested, and will be aware of privacy requirements.
Health data on the cloud is bound by the same rules as physical information, Ventures Health Informatics manager Alex Poor said.
However, AWS allows for better tracking; “every single touch gets logged”.
And people are already collecting data which could be handy for their doctors, such as step counts, sleep information, or even blood glucose levels.
“There are all these wearable [devices], but at the moment they’re silent,” Ventures chief executive John Macaskill-Smith said. “They’re not being brought together.”
There’s also Tether, a box which monitors factors such as a home’s temperature, humidity and noise.
It costs about $150, lasts four years, and is low impact.
“This isn’t capturing images or sounds. It just detects sound levels.”
Information from people’s homes and everyday lives is important, Macaskill-Smith said.
“Too much of what the health sector focuses on is the hospital sector data. … You’re only in there on average one or two per cent of your life.”
