Link mobile health monitoring devices with cloud computing in the right way and you can change how we practice medicine.
That’s the vision behind HP’s Mobile Health (mHealth) Monitoring Solution, a new, always-on, cloud-based healthcare offering that builds on research conducted at HP’s Data Center Design for Cloud Computing Lab in Singapore.
In a joint effort between HP in Singapore, telecommunications giant SingTel, medical device maker HealthSTATS and Singaporean health provider Frontier Healthcare, the HP Mobile Health Monitoring Solution recently began its first, 8-week long clinical trial.
In its initial application, the solution aims to improve the early detection, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular conditions, which in 2009 accounted for more than 31 percent of all deaths in Singapore.
To effectively treat these diseases, medical professionals require regular updates on their patients’ blood pressure. The HP Mobile Health Monitoring Solution offers just that, but without the need for users to visit clinics or hospitals to get their vital statistics read. Instead, it deploys a mobile device to monitor and record patient blood pressures around-the-clock and then shares that information in near-real time with healthcare professionals, wherever they’re located. Any anomalies in the users’ health data trigger alerts to the healthcare service provider.
“Since common chronic conditions, such as hypertension, may remain undiagnosed in some patients, access to the most accurate and up-to-date health information can save many lives,” notes Lloyd Oki, vice president of Asia Pacific Sales, Communications & Media Solutions, HP.
In the trial, 100 patients from Frontier Healthcare are wearing HealthSTATS’ wireless BPro® watch-like monitoring device. HealthSTATS software translates the patient data into meaningful clinical readings, including 24-hour blood pressure and heartbeat patterns. The information is then relayed wirelessly to a centralized healthcare data repository powered by SingTel’s cloud infrastructure.
HP integrates these different components and technologies into a single, secure health monitoring application. In addition, HP offers a service portal, where doctors’ comments, patient medical diaries and graphical clinical readings can be accessed anytime on any Internet-connected device.
Eliminating the need for users to visit clinics or hospitals for routine monitoring marks a major advance in healthcare, says HP’s Oki, who foresees the mHealth model being extended to monitor other conditions before long.
“With its mobile and IT leadership, HP is enabling healthcare providers like Frontier to become Instant-On Enterprises by converging the mobile ecosystem with healthcare services,” Oki adds. “Instant-On healthcare connects patients to their doctors and healthcare professionals anywhere, anytime.”
Source: HP
