7 ms·
There is a conference in Germany every year called medica. If you are interested in medical devices, I highly recommend going there and checking it out. It's
by blhack 6y ago
There is a conference in Germany every year called medica. If you are interested in medical devices, I highly recommend going there and checking it out. It's an absolutely MASSIVE grounds with THOUSANDS of vendors showing everything from MRI machines to boroscopes, ambulance equipment...anything related to the medical field.
Something which absolutely surprised me when I was there a few years ago was the amount of IoT health devices available in other markets outside of the US.
There were blood pressure braclets, tons of smart watches that measure health data, connected scales, connected...everything, and TONS of platforms wanted to warehouse this data. My coworker and I were there looking for exactly those sorts of things, and it was great to see so much.
It was actually a bit depressing to see how much stuff is available, just not available in the US. The connected health revolution is definitely coming. Something I was a bit frustrated about this year is how much of this would have been helpful as a covid19 early warning system. Imagine monitoring population-level SPO2 levels, temperature, and activity level.
- DoofusOfDeath 6y ago> and TONS of platforms wanted to warehouse this data. My coworker and I were there looking for exactly those sorts of things, and it was great to see so much. As I read your comment, I had a growing expectation that you were about to express horror at the mass gathering and warehousing of individuals' health data. I was very surprised when you expressed such excitement at the prospect.
- blhack 6y agoYour doctor already captures this data.
- sm4rk0 6y agoIn real time and willing and able to sell it to whomever bids more?
- blhack 6y agoWell yes in some cases it is in "real time", but do you know of doctors offices caught selling health data? That seems wildly unethical, and also very illegal. I'd imagine anybody caught doing that would be in jail.
- sm4rk0 6y agoMy point was that your data is safer with a doctor's office then with a "platform": > And while you might assume that this information is legally protected the same way your hospital and medical records are, that’s not necessarily the case. https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/are-health-apps-putting-your-privacy-at-risk/ https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/are-health-ap...
- blhack 6y agoCan you be specific about what you're trying to get at here? I don't understand why you think there is a difference between taking a health reading at your doctors office and having it included in your patient chart, or taking a reading at your house and having that included in your patient chart. I'm wondering if I'm missing something that is just being unsaid.
- everly 6y agoI think they are just saying the data is more likely to be secure if it is recorded at your doctor's office, which seems reasonable to me. Let's say it is a blood pressure reading taken by your Fitbit and uploaded to Google's servers. That data is not subject to HIPAA regulations. When your doctor takes your blood pressure and records it in your chart, it is subject to those regulations (as you say, it would be wildly unethical for them to sell it). Separately, even if the two scenarios were subject to the same regulations, I would still expect the doctor's office scenario to be more secure. I think that any given patient's home network/device/security practices are more lax than those of most healthcare organizations.
- baxtr 6y agoIf you acknowledge the threats, you should acknowledge the opportunities as well. Expressing "horror" every time data is mentioned in connection with health data is a very one-sided reflex. Surely, there are challenges, but why not solve them?
- dr_dshiv 6y agoCompletely agree. A lot of suspicion out there; a balance with optimism is important
- DoofusOfDeath 6y ago> Expressing "horror" every time data is mentioned in connection with health data is a very one-sided reflex. Good call. It was a mistake for me to post such a once-sided comment.
- fatsdomino001 6y agoSounds amazing. Wondering if you could shed some more light on what's possible these days with IoT health devices? I've been a bit out of the loop on these developments
- blhack 6y agoUnfortunately I haven't been in that space for a while. The parent company to the project we were working on got acquired, and they didn't pursue our project. We were trying to bring connected health/predictive analytics to a larger, existing healthcare company.
- tootie 6y agoAny idea how this BP device actually works? Is it optical? How is it possible to measure without a cuff?
- tdy721 6y agoRead the article? You pinch it I think. Put it on your forehead for temperature
- nsajko 6y agoI guess this is the underlying tech: https://www.leman-micro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/LMD-White-Paper-2020-EN.pdf https://www.leman-micro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/LMD-W... So the pressure is just measured with a MEMS (microelectromechanical) device, the temperature with a different one, and there's also a pulse oximeter (optical).
- nradov 6y agoThere have been IoT connected blood pressure monitors, scales, and smart watches with SpO2 monitoring available in the US for years. Check out the products from Withings, Garmin, Apple, etc. What exactly are we missing?
- blhack 6y agoThat most of them aren't FDA certified, and can't be used for diagnostic purposes. These things are mostly marketed for "fitness". (This at least was one of the major hurdles we faced. Maybe the regulations have changed in the last 4 years or so. I'm not in that space anymore. The recommendation to go check out medica is still valid though. It's really cool!)
- jwr 6y ago> It was actually a bit depressing to see how much stuff is available, just not available in the US One reason for this is strict regulations. U.S. FDA Title 21 CFR Part 11 is very strict as to what a medical device company needs to do, and it's not easy to meet those requirements. Most people do not realize that even in the early startup stage, if you build something that is a medical device, there are rules to follow (mostly about traceability: you have to know what you've built, using what parts, and where those came from). Shameless plug: I am the solo founder of PartsBox (https://partsbox.com/ https://partsbox.com/), which helps a lot with managing traceability when building electronics.
- pueblito 6y agoI would be interested in knowing more about the tradeoffs between their system and ours, if you could expand a bit?
- jwr 6y agoWhat do you mean by "their system"? Similar restrictions exist in the EU, Canada and Japan — I'm not familiar with the rest of the world. I suspect developing new products in China is much easier, and you can showcase them anywhere.
- blhack 6y agoYep. This was my major takeaway. There is so much incredible opportunity there, but the regulators are in the way.
- HPsquared 6y agoIt's just like the condition monitoring and predictive maintenance market, but for humans.