Networked care: IT-assisted tools (wearable sensors) for patients at risk

Abstract

Networked care should be conceived as a paradigm shift in care. We shall discuss networked care with regard to feasibility (monitoring, transmitting, and interpreting of physiological data), user-network interfaces (patients, medical professionals), and perspectives (personalized risk management). IT-assisted tools for patients should address the shortcomings of a health care system (due to its sectoral structure) and add something new to it (real-time physiological data, extension of care to preventive and rehabilitative measures, self-empowerment of the patient), which by and large is divided into delimited players. IT-assisted tools for patients at risk are made up of digital companions, mainly external, some internal (implanted, such as pacemakers). The objective is to build a mobile, virtual drop-in clinic (mobile health, mHealth) by 1. designing a health-care app to monitor patients at high risk, 2. monitoring with different kinds of wearable sensors and point-of-care blood tests, 3. developing the eHeart Center with telemedical services for data management and patient guidance.We report about initial steps of networked care with the help of IT-assisted tools for cardiovascular patients at risk: as a new framework and a laboratory of care for similar regions. Overall, the philosophy of a boundaryless hospital could lead to a patientcentered work-flow. This work-flow can be organized by digital companions creating a sheltered way amidst individual health hazards and through the inevitable risks of life.