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This lack of interoperability can lead to serious errors. It also means that clinicians waste time chasing false alarms set off by individual gadgets. For example, today's telemetry monitors track heart rhythms, while other gadgets monitor heart rate and levels of blood oxygen. Sudden changes in activity and movement can cause sudden heart-rhythm fluctuations, triggering urgent warnings. But such alarms could be eliminated if an integrated system also checked heart rate and oxygen levels; if these were unchanged, no heart-attack warning would be necessary.
David Osborn, manager of international standards at Philips Healthcare, says that while the new standards will help, "the document put together so far is a high-level framework. The devil is in the details, and the details haven't been written yet." However, he adds, "harm is occurring to patients more often than we'd like to admit, and this can be a step toward a solution, if we can get beyond the framework."
Szolovits says that the eventual goal is an integrated clinical environment, in which all devices are interconnected, in plug-and-play fashion, for better management. Currently, devices made by different manufacturers operate on their own, and, in general, they cannot communicate with one another. Several medical associations, including the American Medical Association, have called for interoperability.
"Even at leading modern hospitals, I have seen pulmonary technicians run around the foot of a patient's bed to transfer ventilator settings from a device on one side of the bed to a computer system on the other," says Szolovits. "Not only is such a process laughable to watch, but it increases the risk of errors, corrupts data, and possibly even puts patients at risk."
Communicating with ultrasound could help make implantable medical devices safe from attack.
Plug & play has been around quite a while and proven its value and reliability. This is the kind of technology application - and establishment of inter-operability and communication protocols - that is long over-due and especially important in an operating theatre - definitely a data-rich environment. This is the sort of thing that the President's medical "best-practices" advisory group should be examining closely. I applaud this work.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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3 Comments
Plug-and-play medicine
Along with the plug-and-play technologies named in the article we need at-home on and in the body portable monitoring.
All of my medical perimeters could be continuously monitored as I sit here in this seat, at home, in front of my computer, using fixed/wireless smart systems connected as needed, directly through telecommunications to my doctor, period. In many general medical conditions, smart systems being developed can analyze - for now with telecommunicated infor - and provide care information and prescriptions, etc.
If the present for profit Health Care system ever expects to save money it will be when patients stay out of the doctor's office for an extra day, week, month,years. Additionally, we need to break up large conglomerate health care systems, or by other mean, improve competition. This could mean fewer doctors needing volume to make money with additional non-expert - like nursing - health care.....
Nonetheless, I beleive that, due to coming advances in science, ultimately we will end up with single payer, and then, free basic medical care despite remarks like 'If you believe that medical care is expensive, just wait until medical care is free' remarks...."www.drwarpenstein.com".
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