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> Recent-ish advancements in tech here have made it possible to continuously measure the amount of exhaled CO2 from a patient's breath, transmit EKGs wirelessly

> Recent-ish advancements in tech here have made it possible to continuously measure the amount of exhaled CO2 from a patient's breath, transmit EKGs wirelessly for review by a physician in a hospital, and automatically cycle a blood pressure cuff at any interval we want. None of these things mentioned require any recent tech advances. This could literally be done in the 80s. It’s more a testament to how slow meaningful progress has been made in healthcare tech for economic, political and scientific reasons - the non cynical aspect is that for a lot of the cost involved the benefits in outcomes are not necessarily there.

Teever 4y ago
I agree with you in principle but I think you're missing the magic that makes this all possible. That magic is the cheap and ubiquitous GSM wireless network which is something that wasn't possible in the 80s. I agree that we should have cheaper innovations in medicine, that we're held back by entrenched interests, and that we could have had cheaper elecommuncation network access a decade or so ago, but some of this simply wasn't possible in the time frame that you're talking about.
- fuckstick 4y ago
  No I am fully aware. We used to process credit cards over the AMPS (analog) mobile phone network - and this is also how EKGs were sent by EMTs in that timeframe - prior to that in the 1970s they used a dedicated chunk of 70cm spectrum. The items listed are a seriously small amount of data. Sure it’s a bit cheaper now - but we were integrating GPRS modules into embedded hardware in the 90s, it wasn’t that expensive.
  - Teever 4y ago
    What was the coverage map of something like AMPS? Was it ubiquitously available like GSM more or less is now?
    - fuckstick 4y ago
      It was ubiquitous enough in urban and suburban areas in the US and Canada. The coverage of AMPS was solid, what was limited was the bandwidth and capacity - but there were far fewer users. Coverage in remote rural areas was poorer but still - in the late 80s it was being used for EMT transmittal of telemetry. And as stated using dedicated spectrum this is a 1970s tech. On rereading the OP I am more puzzled what they are talking about because it seems like they are talking about EMT monitoring as opposed to continuous home monitoring - the former we have been doing for 50 years.

Teever 4y ago

I agree with you in principle but I think you're missing the magic that makes this all possible. That magic is the cheap and ubiquitous GSM wireless network which is something that wasn't possible in the 80s. I agree that we should have cheaper innovations in medicine, that we're held back by entrenched interests, and that we could have had cheaper elecommuncation network access a decade or so ago, but some of this simply wasn't possible in the time frame that you're talking about.

fuckstick 4y ago
No I am fully aware. We used to process credit cards over the AMPS (analog) mobile phone network - and this is also how EKGs were sent by EMTs in that timeframe - prior to that in the 1970s they used a dedicated chunk of 70cm spectrum. The items listed are a seriously small amount of data. Sure it’s a bit cheaper now - but we were integrating GPRS modules into embedded hardware in the 90s, it wasn’t that expensive.
- Teever 4y ago
  What was the coverage map of something like AMPS? Was it ubiquitously available like GSM more or less is now?
  - fuckstick 4y ago
    It was ubiquitous enough in urban and suburban areas in the US and Canada. The coverage of AMPS was solid, what was limited was the bandwidth and capacity - but there were far fewer users. Coverage in remote rural areas was poorer but still - in the late 80s it was being used for EMT transmittal of telemetry. And as stated using dedicated spectrum this is a 1970s tech. On rereading the OP I am more puzzled what they are talking about because it seems like they are talking about EMT monitoring as opposed to continuous home monitoring - the former we have been doing for 50 years.