I’ve railed against these ridiculous caps on data volume in the past. Last night, however, I discovered another way that wireless might indeed be hazardous to your health.
I had the privilege last night to Chair a panel on wireless applications of medical devices for the Medical Development Group, a diverse organization of professionals dedicated to advancing both the technology and business of medical technology. I gave a short talk on the basics of radio (really, a semester’s worth of engineering reduced to ten minutes), and three other speakers discussed various aspects of the craft, from engineering challenges to regulatory issues. All in all, a very interesting evening.
But one of the speakers, Robert Havasy of Partners Healthcare, mentioned something I really hadn’t thought about before. Specifically, services like texting and even broadband are being applied to help those with chronic conditions manage their care and, ultimately, their health. The tools and techniques – and the possibilities – are very interesting; after all, we’ve been talking about eHealth and mHealth and such for some time, and the early days of this potential revolution have finally arrived.
The downside he noted: some people don’t have texting, because, of course, of the cost, and budget texting plans often have monthly limits on the number of messages sent or received. Similarly, the soft caps on broadband data services, designed to discourage use, might result in what are effectively denial-of-service situations, where information vital to someone’s health can’t be communicated. Really? This is where we’re going?
On another topic, security was also a key concern of the audience. Electronic devices used in healthcare must be secured against eavesdropping (HIPAA and all), but, equally important, against hacking. Can you imagine one of those irritating commercials that so frequently interrupt the evening news “The new NetPumpTM wireless insulin pump can free you from having to monitor your blood sugar and inject insulin when needed. It’s constantly monitored by your doctor. Side effects – blah, blah, blah – and death when some hacker downloads rogue firmware because we know a lot about insulin pumps and absolutely nothing about information security, just like the FDA.”
So much promise. And so far to go.
