Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony - (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?” Telehealth from Centura Health Helping patients avoid rehospitalization is a priority of national health reform. For St. Anthony Hospital and other partners in Centura Health, it has been a major priority for several years. In fact, Centura Health at Home was the first in Colorado to launch a telehealth system that enables healthcare professionals to monitor patients using in-home monitoring stations. This advanced system features such components as: • blood pressure meter • scale • pulse oximeter • glucose meter Patients and family members using the telehealth system remark on the added confidence they gain from having a “virtual checkup” in the comfort of their own home. Should monitoring indicate a health concern is recurring, the Centura Health at Home telehealth nurse can assist in early intervention. 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.” CALL Telehealth is just one of many services Centura Health at Home provides Colorado residents. It’s also an excellent in-home resource for skilled nursing, rehabilitative therapy, medically related social-work assistance, and spiritual care. For more information, call 303-561-5000 or visit centurahealthathome.org. Interested in Home Care? Vim & Vigor · WI NTER 2012 21 http://www.centurahealthathome.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Community Connections
The Speed of Life
Pinpoint Precision
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
Be a Proactive Patient
The Solitaire Strategy
Top Honors
By the Numbers
From the Foundation
Ask the Experts

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2012 - St. Anthony