Technology is changing our world and enabling doctors and health care providers to diagnose, track and record patients’ medical information. The Scripts Translational Science Institution has partnered with technology developers to create wearable sensors that could revolutionize health care.
What does your organization do? Scripps Translational Science Institute is an Academic Research Organization dedicated to innovation and the transformation of health and health care that can be enabled through the use of digital technologies. Partnering with the developers of novel technologies, such as physIQ and Rhythm Diagnostic Systems for this project, we strive to generate the highest-quality knowledge in order to inform the medical community and the public.
How is your technology changing the world?
The ability to simply monitor and track a continuous stream of physiologic parameters with devices like the MultiSense “Band-aid” sensor in all potential settings — in particular in settings with limited health care resources — allows for markedly improved care of patients and improved safety of health care workers. By incorporating sophisticated, real-time, individualized data analytics with these data streams, changes in patient status can be detected much earlier than usual and health care providers alerted automatically with actionable information. Over the long run, these technologies will allow for the simplified screening and earlier diagnosis of large populations of at-risk individuals.
Where do you see this technology going in the future?
We are in the earliest phases of the development of nonobtrusive wearable sensors. Over the coming months and years, wireless physiologic monitoring will continue to be refined, with sensors getting smaller, cheaper and able to track even more physiologic metrics. This, when coupled with the necessary data analytic platform, will enable tremendous improvements in our ability to earlier identify, manage and treat any and all individuals at risk for decompensation due to infectious diseases, harmful exposures, chronic illnesses or trauma.
Health technology was on full display at CES 2016. Check out the video for footage from the show floor: