eNeighbor® Remote Monitoring System by Healthsence® |
Other systems are used to remind and assist people in checking their vitals each day. The same machine can assess and record your weight, blood pressure, temperature, and send all of the information to a monitoring program. If your vitals show evidence of a risk to your health, a nurse from the monitoring program will call you and ask that you see your doctor right away. These, and other technologies also remind you to take medications, and ask questions that prompt new instructions. Machines may, for example ask questions like: “Are you experiencing more difficulty breathing today?” or “Are your ankles more swollen than usual?”
Of course, technologies like eNeighbor are new and unproven. They are also often expensive and are not yet covered by government benefits or private insurance plans. Doctors are also not yet trained to treat patients using remote data, and currently have no mechanism to be paid for doing so. And like all technologies, the devices — including motion sensors, pill compliance detectors and wireless devices that transmit data on blood pressure, weight, oxygen and glucose levels — may have unintended consequences, substituting electronic measurements for face-to-face contact with doctors, nurses and family members.
But as similar technologies become more mainstreamed and dependable, they could be used to help ensure a higher quality of life for elderly citizens who live at home, and could allow them to stay at home much longer than they would have been able to before such technology existed.
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