Intel reckons IT the cure for aging society. Scary or what?

[Bob Crabtree]

Intel chairman urges U.S. to address healthcare for aging society through technology innovation

New computer-based technologies and innovations in sensors, software and wireless technologies can allow such vital information as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns to be tracked remotely

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 12, 2005 –Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett today urged U.S. government leaders to seize the opportunity to apply technology to help solve the economic and social challenges faced by the country due to skyrocketing healthcare costs and a growing wave of aging citizens.

[Barrett] pointed to new computer-based technologies and innovations in sensors, software and wireless technologies that can allow such vital information as heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns to be tracked remotely.

Broadband Internet connectivity allows the data to be shared real-time between seniors and healthcare professionals, as well as amongst family members and friends who deliver the majority of care to seniors.

I don't pretend to speak for anyone but myself but...

...as someone who has spent a vast amount of time struggling with networking over the years (and with wireless especially in recent months), this looks to me like a recipe for random euthanasia.

Let's hope the UK government doesn't get wind of this and draw the same conclusion as me.

Read the release and let us have your thoughts on this whole idea.

Don't forget to let us hear your imaginary conversations with ISP and router makers' support hotlines over lost connections to your body-monitoring equipment.

Update - I've done a likkle opinion piece about this which you may or may not care to read.

[DavidM]

(Not to mention being rerouted by the obligitory international call centre...)

[Bob Crabtree]

I've done a likkle opinion piece about this which you may or may not care to read.

[Bob Crabtree]

Seriously astonished at how little people appear to worry about the outpourings of highly-respected industry figures such as the good Mr B.

Perhaps you're all much younger than me and don't take the threat of random euthanasia personally.

Or is it simply that you've become immune to such stuff and are no longer affected?

[MSIC]

Neither - I'm simply putting my faith in 'The Internet' to replace congress sometime soon.

Seriously though, it's a bit worrying but many one-off checks currently of things like blood pressure are done by machines that are often wildly out (by +/- 30% in my experience).
Also, often databases are down when recorded information / histories are needed urgently and written / paper information hasn't been kept.
We are already past the stage of not relying on technology.

PS would it be random euthanasia, or manslaughter?

[JF DVdoctor]

Well I happen to know Craig, and he is not only very smart, but has a good grip on reality and where techonlogy is going.

Given the choice of depending on someworking for a bit above minimum wage, on crazy shifts with little or no sleep, and then scribbling it down on a chart critical vital measurements based upon instruments of questionable accuracy, and then having this transcribed by another minimum wage clerk possibly in to a computer system of who know how old at the same time being charged an incredibly high fee per day (at least in the US) and having an HMO attempting to have you sent home with NO support, at the earliest possible sign of recovery

VS

Using WIFI to link the Output of the devices within your house, and then broad band internet connection to transmit this information, and having the ability for two way conferencing from your home to your doctor or health care provided does not sound all that crazy to me.

Telemed is already a major business, and it is only likely to grow at an incredible rate.
I remember people claiming the same "not on your life" with major expansion of technology into these types of areas.

I remember the same comments re PC's running Windows on Lans? connected by Phone Lines???

John

[Bob Crabtree]

John,

My opinion piece came about because Intel put out its Craig-centric press release soon after I'd recently had some very frustration hands-on experiences - experiences that I know for sure are very far from uncommon.

The point the piece makes - or, at least, I though it did - is that it is ironic to have the good Mr B banging on about the use of wireless and broadband for life-critical tasks when wireless, even in the relatively benign confines of a home, can be so hit and miss to set up, and when broadband can go down without any explanation and sometimes take days to get back up again.

But irony, I guess, might not seem the most appropriate response if you have witnessed at first hand the vagaries of the pay-as-you-go healthcare system in the USA that - you tell us - means you are more at risk from being in hospital than you are being at home with your life in the hands of these two still immature technologies.

[JF DVdoctor]

I guess you and I will just have to agree to disagree.

In general I believe that over time and with the right pressure, technologies mature, and tend to become more stable and reliable. Human beings especially those being over worked, underpaid, and under appreciated, tend to see performance deteriorate.

I think both the NHS and the US Health care system and probably many other health care systems suffer from financial pressures that are forcing people home earlier, and insisting on paying minimal amounts to the people who are in the day to day contact with the sick.

SO I do think that WI FI and Broadband can by alerting centrally located professionals on an exception basis of potential problems is a good way forward.

Craig Barrett, and Warren Buffett are both very much involved in the whole area of Telemedicine. Here in the US Warren Buffett has been making massive investments in that area. Certaiinly my experience with WIFI and Broadband here in AK has been a lot more positive than yours.

Cheers
John