Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - Gwinnett Medical Center - (Page 21)

chemical signatures for diseases such as lung, breast and prostate cancers. “While quite provocative, this clearly needs considerably more validation,” Topol writes in his book, which also describes another breakthrough technology called the IntelliCap, being developed by Philips Research. It’s an electronic pill, complete with sensors, a tiny computer and a wireless transmitter, that patients would swallow. It “can be wirelessly activated to release a drug at a particular site in the gastrointestinal tract,” Topol writes. “We’ll soon see whether wireless technologies can improve [drug] compliance and outcomes for patients.” WHAT’S NEXT: Kraft predicts we soon will be living with embedded sensors throughout many aspects of our lives. “One of the things that’s going to happen in the future is the concept of sensors everywhere,” he says. “Your fridge will know how many times you opened it at 3 in the morning. Your bathroom scale will be able to tweet your weight or put it on Facebook. Social pressure can be powerful, right? So if you declare that you’re going to lose weight, your technology can be a bit of a monitor, and it can give you an edge to staying on your diet. Or it can be something simple like having your kids brush their teeth. If you could put a little sensor on their toothbrush, you could tell if they really brushed for two minutes or for only 20 seconds.” WHAT’S NEXT: Kraft predicts a day will come when a warning light about your health flashes on your smartphone where you track your diet, exercise, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. “A lot of diseases are detected late,” Kraft says. “What if your vital signs detect early that you’re running into heart trouble?” Are You Feeling Social? Of all the things that have changed about healthcare over the past few decades, maybe the most transformed aspect is how we learn and receive information about it. Gwinnett Medical Center recognizes that fact and embraces it. To keep its community informed about the latest health procedures, tips and information, GMC has launched into the social Web realm like no other hospital in Georgia. “We feel that to best care for and inform our community, we need to meet them where they are,” says Dolores Ware, GMC’s director of marketing and community relations. GMC has met its community all over the Web, maintaining a website full of great health and hospital information, one of the top hospital Facebook pages in the state, an interactive and consistent Twitter feed, as well as a highly informative blog—not to mention a Web series of short health videos. To see any of these channels in action, visit gwinnett medicalcenter.org and click the social media links at the top of the page. SMARTPHONES: HEALTH IS CALLING WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: Smartphones are transforming nearly everything we do. Now they are merging with other technologies that might make it possible for them to save our lives. One example is AliveCor, which captures a patient’s real-time heart rhythm through a smartphone. The gadget makes it possible to perform a do-it-yourself electrocardiogram by placing one finger from each hand on each of its two sensors that record your heart rhythm. “Using this device, an individual with palpitations, lightheadedness, or faintness can use his or her phone to acquire heart rhythm data and send it directly to a physician for interpretation,” Topol writes. But that’s not all. Other smartphone tools can track your blood sugar levels or keep tabs on your blood pressure. With an app and a blood pressure cuff that connects to your smartphone, “it makes you want to take your blood pressure a lot more often because it’s so much fun,” he adds. “This is exciting because we have 70 million Americans with high blood pressure in this country, half of whom do not have it under adequate control. The potential impact here is quite profound.” mobile Visit our website from the comfort of your phone. GMC’s website has been made “mobile friendly.” Take a look at gwinnettmedicalcenter.org on your mobile device. Get Gwinnett Medical Center to Go Vim & Vigor · WI NTER 2012 21 http://www.gwinnettmedicalcenter.org http://www.gwinnettmedicalcenter.org http://www.gwinnettmedicalcenter.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - Gwinnett Medical Center

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - Gwinnett Medical Center
Contents
Phil’s Feature
All in the Family
Good Sport
Because I Said So!
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
The Future Is Now
Everyday Hero
What Does 200 Calories Look Like?
JOHNNY BE GOOD
In the Driver’s Seat
We’ve Got Your Back
Bank on Your Health
Virtual Health
PrimeTime Health
Back on His Feet
Meet the Raineys
Out of the White
Transforming Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - Gwinnett Medical Center

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