I am able to review my genome sequence and monitor physiologic signals such as heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation etc.. Health promoting activities are easily logged and benchmarked but, does anyone care about how I feel? I wake up with numbness in my hands and feet. I got 7.45 hours of sleep but feel stiff in the morning. Is that normal?
My cell phone sends my blood pressure and body weight to electronic depositories but to talk to someone, I have to wait weeks for an appropriate appointment, miss work time, exchange an hour in a waiting room for ten minutes with a nurse or assistant and maybe ten minutes with a physician who mainly stares into a terminal and either sends me home with his favorite med or sends me for multiple tests and and home with his favorite med. Is it too hard to provide a reasonable explanation and plan for my problem, a time line along which progression or improvement is followed with more or less interventions respectively.
Traditional medical care can be positively altered for many patient consumers by moving toward virtual health delivery. Many patients with chronic conditions, non-emergent and minor medical abnormalities as well as those recuperating from some procedures can be monitored and directed over a connected network. Heath status can be monitored for overall fitness and disease prevention.
Telemedicine originally developed to provide emergency care in remote areas but has now has evolved into a means of communicating data from and about patients. Testing and imaging data is now transmitted to appropriate providers in the health delivery process. Learning has been enhanced by graphic simulation and visual communication all of which have evolved significantly during the technology explosion. Preventive measures and medical information are now integral parts of telehealth or e-health which already has expanded into the digital space of the health consumer.
Virtual health delivery: Impediments.
- the major obstacle concerns the health care industry's inability to bill and collect for such services. Presently you can be treated on line at more than one delivery site. Such delivery is usually a one time event and requires a credit card. There usually is no follow-up or coordination and for the most part is a concierge service, not covered by insurance and not coordinated with usual providers and records. A good environment for virtual delivery will overwhelm the industry's ability to oppose it and actually lessen overall costs.
- Security and privacy are always concerns and should be major priority in the development of a connected network.
- Overlooking a serious medical problem is more important than resultant medico-legal events. Using proper expertise, the course of a particular health problem being monitored over a virtual network will have sufficient safeguards along the way that would generate a intervention with an appropriate provider. Of course at the beginning, certain forms of illhealth will not be applicable to virtual treatment.
Communication is the essence of virtual documentation and delivery. Lengthy text description of health status is cumbersome, slow and often ambiguous. Graphical signals are fast, well understood and provide intuitive comparisons. The brain processes graphical data many many times faster than text. Visual communication of health data is the key to virtual health.
Visual Communications
Most information originates from visual communications. Anything delivered in a visual format qualifies as visual communication including text, graphics, charts, props, gestures and animations. More commonly it refers to signs, symbols and other graphical components in the information transfer process.
One does not need to spend much time at a digital screen without being directed by a series of icons and symbols. They take up small spaces and their directions are intuitive. They are the new "language" of digital communication.
The majority of health data is transcribed directly or voice recognized. It is also scanned (from intake material) into an electronic health record. Such electronic medium has has been mandated by our government. Its intended advantages have been subverted by commercial profit seekers. Digital record systems are unable to communicate with each other (as promised) have been designed for billing and collection rather than improving delivery and frequently used by hospitals and insurance companies to pressure physicians into specific practice patterns. Electronic Health Records potentially should have a great positive effect on care health care which currently is a mess with continued rising costs, inaccessibility and quality deficiencies.
Text dominated electronic records have made insurance companies and computer technicians significant profits but have shortchanged the average individual. Many of these records are unreadable because of the safeguards required for maximum billings. "Cut and paste" maneuvers employed by delivers to save time and lessen complexity further compromise their reliability. Important data obtained directly by medical workers v are entered without adequately questioning the targeted individual. Data is frequently copied from one visit to another or confused by newer overlapping questions and answers.
Many physicians have difficulty using and reviewing electronic health records. Some need more hours in their work day, others see fewer patients because of the added burden in using the an EHR. the In many states, patients have a right to see their health data but the experience for the most part is unrewarding. Experience medico legal experts usually hire others to review and interpret records in cases involving medico legal testimony.
Photographs are important visual communications in health. There use is very inconsistent by deliverers. Cell cameras make possible better visual communications especially with algorithms that allow inscriptions, comparisons and learning opportunities.
Organization Graphical Information Process Exchange
GITP - Rational
- Individuals help create a picture of their own health status
- Heath information can be easily and rapidly reviewed. Changes are easily noted."A picture is worth a thousand words"
- Health and healthcare are not a point in time but a continuous state or flow. Reviews every 3-6 months are archaic and not in keeping with available technology.
- When health is connected, it is continuously monitored and its course predicted.
Graphic representation of our health is a means of potentiating a connected health environment. It is not yet applicable to all abnormal health conditions but has great application for non emergent and chronic problems. It can bring order to busy lives and free up medical offices schedules to concentrate on more needed reviews.