Mobile phones may be used to monitor your heart’s performance and send data directly to your doctor…
A Dutch research centre has developed a wireless monitor that allows your organs to send health alerts to your mobile phone.
The electrocardiogram-sensor system - called the Body Area Network (BAN) - sends information about your heart's performance, brain and muscle activities to your phone. The data is then processed and sent over the internet to your doctor.
‘Potentially it could be extremely useful,’ Australia's Heart Research Institute deputy director Professor Michael Davies said. ‘Quite often, the more advanced notice that a doctor has when something is going wrong, the better it is, as long as it doesn't have too many false alarms.’
The system was presented at the Wireless Health Conference in San Diego last week by researchers from Dutch institute IMEC.
With around 18 million people in the UK living with chronic disease, ‘telehealth’ monitoring like this would benefit patients who do not need to be in a hospital but may suffer from conditions that require constant monitoring.
Patients using remote monitoring devices could help free up bed space for more needy patients and take some stress off already-stretched public systems. They could also been used by patients living in rural and remote communities who may struggle to get regular access to their doctors.
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