Mobility Amps Up Healthcare Efficiency

By: By Catherine Cheng, Editor
( 1 Jul 2009 )

Don Jones, Vice President of Business Development, Health & Life Sciences, Qualcomm, discusses with WDD Asia the outlook of mobile health devices. Excerpts:

What are the trends in the health care market?
There is the need for lower-cost solutions and increased speed and efficiencies in the healthcare system. The shorter time-to-market to deliver new wireless technologies is really going to contribute to the revolution of the healthcare industry. When wireless technology and connectivity become integral to the medical sector, critical information from patients will get to healthcare providers more quickly and vice versa. The right things are going to happen faster and this acceleration is going to affect the prevention and treatment of our most significant health risks. Another key trend is the transformation of an antiquated, unconnected health care industry as a direct result of wireless technology. The full realization of the latest mobile health care solutions has required a new level of collaboration between business, medical, and scientific leaders. Semiconductor companies are engaging in this field because of the huge potential for wireless healthcare solutions.

How will mobile health change people’s lives?
Wireless technology provides patients with greater freedom; physicians with access to improved, real-time information; and the society with lower healthcare costs. Incorporating wireless technology into medical devices produces benefits for the entire value chain from improved inventory management systems for devices in the supply chain, to more sterile hospital environments with fewer wires, to improved home care patient monitoring. More importantly, wireless technologies are helping people lead healthier lives. For example, wireless health solutions are empowering individuals by providing feedback loops using biometric diagnostic data received by a wireless device, such as cellphones or sensors placed on (or even in) the body. Data can be viewed by the individual or remotely reviewed by a healthcare professional. The individual receives input from his health provider and, at the same time, can conveniently monitor his own health performance and use that information to adjust his behavior, a technique called ‘course correcting’. Consumers have already adopted a wireless lifestyle and this is why mobile healthcare solutions are being easily adopted by patients and physicians and are more cost-effective for the healthcare industry to implement.

What kinds of mobile health devices will be popular in the next few years?
We are going to see a lot more devices and services that provide truly end-to-end self diagnostics and automated processes for self-healing. We are also going to see more scalable wireless infrastructure, enabling superior wireless data transfer capabilities that will open the next-generation of e-health devices and services. Video and remote presence will also play a role.

What’s Qualcomm’s plan for mobile health?
Qualcomm pioneered the wireless healthcare market in 2003 when it partnered with CardioNet to introduce a fully mobile, continuous cardiac monitoring service for diagnostics. We believe we can play a significant role in the healthcare industry’s efforts to incorporate wireless technology in healthcare solutions that will improve patient care, speed diagnosis, manage therapies and provide peace-of-mind monitoring solutions.

What can semiconductor and telecom companies do regarding the design and performance of mobile health devices?
The idea of ‘mobile health’ comprises the collaboration among companies that represent industries atypical of its traditional partners – medical device manufacturers, health information technology enterprises, pharmaceutical corporations, clinical trial firms and health service providers. Qualcomm has been successful because we innovate, execute, and partner. It’s partnerships that we’re really focusing on here. By working with companies that represent industries atypical of its traditional partners – medical device manufacturers, health information technology enterprises, pharmaceutical corporations, and clinical trial firms – Qualcomm is enabling a new ‘personal health performance’ market. This market is an integrated ecosystem of innovative technologies that will bring health, wellness and fitness applications to mobile devices. Qualcomm continues to form partnerships with companies which develop monitoring devices and applications, such as CardioNet and InTouchHealth. Qualcomm and several other companies founded LifeCOMM, a health and wellness-focused operator that bundles the wireless phone platforms with specialized mobile health features and services to help consumers maintain their optimal level of personal health. In pre-commercial launch stage, LifeCOMM is at the forefront of the ‘personal health performance’ market – one where health, wellness and fitness will converge on mobile devices.

What kind of solution will Qualcomm introduce to the mobile health market?
We provide simple and secure services that allow healthcare companies to outsource the delivery of machine communications and remote device management, account for the complex needs of their enterprise, and deliver reliable, cost-effective services. Qualcomm’s Global Smart Services is the resource that enables telehealth solutions to communicate seamlessly with back-end enterprise systems for a more secure and efficient exchange of health information – helping people live better lives by connecting them to their healthcare providers. Wireless technologies are making communications more personal than ever before, enabling body area networks that can wirelessly monitor patients’ vital signs. One such example is a new method for measuring continuous blood pressure without a cuff. Triage Wireless, a company based in San Diego, has developed a platform for wireless body-worn patient monitoring that we are calling ‘wireless bandages’. Qualcomm tackles the unique challenges of cellular coverage by applying optimized messaging protocols and mobile management code. Store-and-forward messaging and persistent closed-loop acknowledgement, status tracking, and notification fulfills our message-delivery reliability.

In a complicated mobile health system, an issue always arises as to how to analyze health data precisely. As a solution provider, how will you avoid errors in the comprehension of health data?
The business of extending wireless communications into healthcare solutions is dynamic and complex, so delivering dependability for mobile health services is paramount. At the heart of Qualcomm’s service is a secure cellular network. We go beyond the offerings of wireless carriers to enable applications and devices to deploy quickly and communicate seamlessly and reliably with host and back-end enterprise systems.