It’s the nature of the beast: being part of the “press/analyst” community, I am often briefed on technology topics and then I’m told I can’t talk about them. “It’s under embargo,” say the PR people. So for the past few weeks, I’ve had information that I just couldn’t talk about until today.
A few months ago I wrote about Intel getting into the digital health business. Intel wants to do for the medical industry what it did for the PC industry: encourage industry standards that will allow interoperability of multivendor systems. Now, as an IT person, this might not excite you, but as a consumer of health care, you should be very interested.
Intel and about 20 other companies have joined to form a new digital health care alliance called the Continua Health Alliance. Some of the leading firms in technology, medical care and insurance processing are members.
The purpose of the alliance is “to empower people with the information they need to better manage their health and the health of their loved ones,” according to David Whitlinger, Chairman of the Continua Health Alliance and Director of Healthcare Device Standards in Intel’s Digital Health Group. “We are creating an organization where several seemingly disparate industries can work together to combine their products and services through connectivity standards and provide millions of people with the tools they need to better manage their health and the health of their families.”
Friends, we are looking at the start of something exciting here. Soon we should be able to have common (PC based?) devices in our homes that allow us to monitor our blood pressure, measure our blood sugar level, track diet and fitness information and tie it directly to health conditions. While this is not intended to replace doctor visits or encourage self-diagnoses, it will empower we the people to take charge of basic health conditions and chronic disease management. And for those of us with aging parents, we can monitor what’s happening with Mom and Dad from a distance. Did they take their pills today? Have they gotten out of bed yet? How is their blood pressure?
Tens of millions of baby boomers (like me) are entering the years when health issues are more of a concern than ever before. It’s nice to know that we’ll have the power to do more for ourselves. Just as the Internet has opened whole new worlds for people where communication is concerned, the Continua Health Alliance has the potential to revolutionize personal health care.
For more information on this topic, see http://www.continuaalliance.org.
