`
`ABC NEWS.com
`
`February 26, 1999
`
`Your Personal Health Buddy
`New Devices Allows
`Doctors to Monitor Patients
`From Afar
`
`‘ The Health Buddy Is an easy way tor
`doctors and chronlcally lll patlents to
`
`eommunlcate. (Health Hero Network)
`
`
`By Jack Smith
`ABCNEWS. com
`
`Feb. 26 — Imagine if a doctor could
`—e- monitor a patient’s status 24 hours a
`day, from anywhere. That’ s the idea
`behind new technological
`breakthroughs that use smart-card technology
`and the Internet to change the way doctors and
`patients interact.
`The Health Hero Network, a 10—year-old company
`based in Mountain View, Calif., has created a new
`
`way for patients to report on their own health, and for
`doctors to give them instructions and
`» recommendations online.
`
`“The people who need the most health care .. .
`often have the least contact and the least ability to
`contact their health care provider on a regular basis,”
`says Steve Brown, CEO of the Health Hero Network.
`“They are disconnected from the system most of the
`time."
`
`Remote Monitoring
`Brown hopes to reconnect patients and doctors with a
`pager-like device called the Health Buddy. The device
`is intuitive and easy-to-use, and doesn’t require the
`patient to have any special skills. The base of the
`wireless unit connects with normal telephone lines.
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`Through the Internet and the Health Hero Network's data center, doctors
`and pntlents can relay lntormatlon to each other quickly and efflclently.
`(ABCNEWS.eorn)
`
`On the other end, the physician accesses a special
`Web site on his or her desktop computer. Health care
`providers can send messages and questions to patients
`whenever they want, asking how they feel or if
`they’ve remembered to take their medication, and
`monitor their answers.
`
`The questions and reminders show up on the LCD
`screen of the Health Buddy, and the patient chooses
`one of four possible responses to each question. For
`example, a prompt asking the patient how he or she is
`feeling may offer responses such as good, fair, poor or
`very poor.
`In addition, the Health Buddy system can be
`hooked up to other “smart” devices that. can measure a
`patient’s blood pressure, glucose, temperature, etc. If
`the physician feels the need for a follow-up, he or she
`can call the patient and make further arrangements.
`“Oh, this is easy to use,” says Joline Lyons, a
`diabetes patient using the Health Buddy. “All you
`have to know is how to turn it on, how to use the
`buttons, and it’s wonderful.”
`
`Future Care
`
`Doctors believe that through the use of smart devices
`and the Internet, whole arrays of remote devices will
`fundamentally change the way long-term patients are
`treated and monitored in the next century.
`“You would have clothing that would monitor your
`health if you are diseased,” says Dr. Rick Satava of
`the Yale University Medical School. “You would
`perhaps have rooms in your home that you would go
`to that would be able to check you on a day-to—day
`basis.”
`
`In the very near future, devices such as these could
`give chronically ill patients the independence they
`desire with the monitoring they need — at a fraction
`of the cost. I
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