10 Ways The Internet of Medical Things Is Revolutionizing Senior Care

In 2000, about 10% of the world’s population were age 60 or over. By 2015 that had risen to 12%. United Nations projections indicate that will have increased to 16% by 2030, and jumped to 22% by 2050. The percentages may not seem alarming, but to put this into perspective, let’s look at the following: by 2025, the world’s population is set to be 8 billion, of which approximately 15%, or 1.2 billion, will be elderly. Essentially, that is almost equivalent to the population of the second most populous country in the world–India. Another alarming statistic is the projected decline in the working-age population (25-59) between 2030 and 2050, meaning that there will be fewer people to support the growing elderly population–financially and otherwise.

Virtual home assistants and portable diagnostic devices will help provide better elder care and in turn control medical costs.

In 2000, about 10% of the world’s population were age 60 or over. By 2015 that had risen to 12%. United Nations projections indicate that will have increased to 16% by 2030, and jumped to 22% by 2050. The percentages may not seem alarming, but to put this into perspective, let’s look at the following: by 2025, the world’s population is set to be 8 billion, of which approximately 15%, or 1.2 billion, will be elderly. Essentially, that is almost equivalent to the population of the second most populous country in the world–India. Another alarming statistic is the projected decline in the working-age population (25-59) between 2030 and 2050, meaning that there will be fewer people to support the growing elderly population–financially and otherwise.

But why does this matter so much? The answer is medical costs! Healthcare expenditure on the elderly is a growing concern, as it accounts for a higher share of expenditure compared to other age groups.

A majority of seniors suffer from non-communicable diseases, including cardiac ailments, diabetes and hypertension. For cardiac patients, heart monitors that can monitor ailments such as arrhythmia and can alert doctors to adverse events in real time and help prevent further complications. For example, InfoBionic’s MoMe Kardia device does exactly that. Other monitors, like Cortrium’s C3 Holter monitor and Uber Diagnostic’s CardioTrack, are also available. “Smart” glucometers such as Dario that can communicate measured blood glucose readings to an app on a smartphone for storage, tracking and managing diabetes can help elderly patients better manage their diabetes. Regular activity monitoring and heart rate monitoring can be achieved by one of several available consumer wearable devices and smartwatches. Even when hospitalized, IoMT platforms such as the one provided by Vitls can help nurses and off-campus physicians continuously monitor seniors’ vital signs without disturbing patients.

2. Medication Adherence Tools

Seniors have several medications they need to take, and with age, remembering everything becomes a challenge. Missed doses can result in exacerbation of medical conditions, and in some severe cases can even lead to serious consequences requiring hospitalization. Several IoMT products address this challenge by helping users remember when to take their medication. Products from AdhereTech, Amiko.IO, MyUBox, MedMinder and Vitality GlowCaps tackle this challenge in their own unique ways, helping the healthcare industry by saving on costs.

3. Virtual Home Assistants

Quite a few seniors live alone or with their spouses or partners, who are also most often likely to be elderly, and require daily assistance as well as companionship. Virtual assistants like Catalia Health’s Mabu robot or Intuition Robotics ElliQ robot serve this purpose well. Not only do these interact with seniors via voice and touchscreens, they can also help them stay connected with their family and friends digitally–via social media platforms and video chat.

4.  Portable Diagnostics Devices 

The senior age group needs to have biomarkers tested more frequently than others to monitor existing conditions, diagnose new ones and check on overall well-being. Instead of frequently visiting a pathology laboratory for getting urine or blood tests done, smart and portable diagnostics devices can help seniors perform such tests in the comfort of their homes, and get results in formats that allow them to be instantly shared with their care providers. Consider the Scanadu Urine Kit for biomarker analysis or the Cue device that can test Vitamin D levels. In the future, additional tests may become available that will expand the potential of home testing for seniors. The added convenience means seniors can perform diagnostic tests more frequently, helping to diagnose diseases and thus to begin treatment sooner, ensuring complications are prevented to save avoidable healthcare costs.

5. Personal Emergency Response Systems

The concept is well known for many elder care market participants. Several products are already well established and serve many needs of seniors, inside and outside of their residences, such as fall detection, emergency assistance and navigation guidance back to residence (for dementia patients, for example) or even boundary perimeter breach alerts (for Alzheimer’s patients, for example). Some products even include additional features such as medication reminders. Several companies, ranging from healthcare majors such as Philips to smaller companies and startups like Everon, Qmedic, Lively, Motech, MobileHelp, Jupl and UnaliWear, provide these products. In addition, a unique concept that goes beyond simple fall detection is that of ActiveProtective’s smart belt, which detects falls and deploys air bags to prevent fall-related injuries and uses Bluetooth technology to trigger an alert to designated emergency contacts. Technologies such as these can help save avoidable fall-related healthcare costs.

6. Disability Assistance Tools

Varied smart products are available for some disabilities that seniors suffer from. One of the most interesting ones is Opn smart hearing aids by Oticon. With features such as direct Bluetooth connectivity to smartphone for calls or for streaming music and the ability to control volume and switch programs on television with smartphone app support, it is a “smart” solution for seniors. Another solution for sensory- and cognitive-impaired seniors is Nominet’s PIPS for management of daily routines. The customizable colored buttons installed in seniors’ residences flash until the task that patients are being reminded of is performed and the button is pressed by the user. Pressing a button activates the next button in sequence. Functions can include daily tasks such as brushing teeth or even medical tasks such as taking medication.

7. Smart Implants

Pacemakers that communicate data to smartphone apps for sharing with physicians (Medtronic MyCareLink), sensors that are embedded in orthopedic implants to communicate performance post-surgery (OrthoSensor) or glucose sensors that communicate diabetics’ glucose levels to smartphones or dedicated readers (such as products in development by GlySens, Senseonics, Echo Therapeutics or Google’s smart lens) are all examples of smart implants. These can help seniors take care of their health and manage their conditions better, ensuring medical intervention is sought immediately when required.

8. Smart Senior Homes

Care staff can monitor seniors with the use of wrist-worn wearables that track their location as well as activities performed (such as bathing, walking, sleeping, etc.). The Tempo wearable by CarePredict also allows seniors to request assistance with the touch of one button and will soon also provide two-way audio communication with care staff. But the true power of the technology lies in machine learning and predictive analytics to derive insights from seniors’ daily routines as well as any deviations. Insights could include emerging physical or mental health conditions, which can help alert care providers to the need for immediate medical intervention. A similar example is the Mimo-Care solution that can issue three types of alerts to care staff for monitored seniors–red alert (potential fall or night wandering), orange alert (irregularities in daily routine, such as not eating regularly) and yellow alert (for domestic issues such as refrigerator door left open).

9. Family Caregiver Remote Monitoring Tools

Products from 3rings, Evermind and Sonamba help family members monitor seniors remotely without contacting them directly. For example, the 3rings smart plug notifies family members each time the connected device is turned on–a coffee machine, for example–allowing the family member to know that it was turned on at the regular time, indicating normalcy in routine. Any deviation in routine will be detected, and family members can contact seniors to ensure that seniors are, indeed, all right. While Evermind provides a similar product, Sonamba’s product line goes beyond this by also providing medication reminders, an emergency panic button and the ability to share digital photos with senior loved ones, as well as a texting interface that is easy for seniors to use. A slightly different approach is Welbi’s platform, which connects existing fitness trackers or smartwatches to monitor health and activity and alerts caregivers when any deviation occurs. These technologies ensure that seniors are constantly but non-intrusively monitored and receive immediate attention and medical assistance when it may be needed the most.

10. Other Approaches

Several innovative devices are being developed to address medical challenges. Consider the Opnwatr.IO approach of developing a wearable device that could provide MRI-level details in the bodies or brains of wearers. For seniors, this means not having to frequently undergo expensive procedures, and receiving more knowledge about their conditions without the discomfort of being surrounded by large scanning machines, and at a much lower cost. Another device is the Gyenno “Smart Cup” for Parkinson’s patients, allowing them to use cups independently despite tremors they may be experiencing. Sensors detect and help counteract the action of tremors to keep the cup steady. Similar spoon and fork products, although not necessarily true IoMT devices, are also available from Gyenno as well as LiftLabs. These products can help seniors become independent, and help reduce, at least partly, the costs of constant care support.

Most of these approaches are still being developed. But as they increase in sophistication, they have the potential to result in significant cost savings for the healthcare industry.

If you would like more insights on Internet of Medical Things, please connect with us! Email siddharths1@frost.com and speak to a thought leader in this field.

Medical Devices Hit By Ransomware For The First Time In US Hospitals

Is it possible that North Korea used a stolen National Security Agency hacking tool to infect medical devices at U.S. hospitals? Turns out, in today’s topsy-turvy world, it is.

When the NSA cyber weapon-powered WannaCry ransomware spread across the world this past weekend, it infected as many as 200,000 Windows systems, including those at 48 hospital trusts in the U.K. and so-far unnamed medical facilities in the U.S. too. It wasn’t just administrative PCs that were hacked, though. Medical devices themselves were affected too, Forbes has learned.

Is it possible that North Korea used a stolen National Security Agency hacking tool to infect medical devices at U.S. hospitals? Turns out, in today’s topsy-turvy world, it is.

When the NSA cyber weapon-powered WannaCry ransomware spread across the world this past weekend, it infected as many as 200,000 Windows systems, including those at 48 hospital trusts in the U.K. and so-far unnamed medical facilities in the U.S. too. It wasn’t just administrative PCs that were hacked, though. Medical devices themselves were affected too, Forbes has learned.

A source in the healthcare industry passed Forbes an image of an infected Bayer Medrad device in a U.S. hospital. The source did not say which specific hospital was affected, nor could they confirm what Bayer model was hacked. But it appears to be radiology equipment designed to help improve imaging. More specifically, it’s a device used for monitoring what’s known in the industry as a “power injector,” which helps deliver a “contrast agent” to a patient. Such agents consist of chemicals that improve the quality of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

A Bayer spokesperson confirmed it had received two reports from customers in the U.S. with devices hit by the ransomware, but would not say which specific products were affected. “Operations at both sites were restored within 24 hours,” the spokesperson added. “If a hospital’s network is compromised, this may affect Bayer’s Windows-based devices connected to that network.”

Bayer said it would be sending out a Microsoft patch for its Windows-based devices “soon.” The firm recommended hospitals work with their IT security teams and contact Bayer’s Technical Assistance Center “to ensure continued support of contrast-enhanced radiology procedures which use Bayer power injectors.”

But on Twitter, Woods explained the real impact of such attacks: “Medical device outages increase resource needs, delay care, trigger more clinical mistakes. The harm can go unseen unless you look for it.” Multiple U.K. hospitals reported that their radiology departments were completely knocked out by the ransomware outbreak.

North Korea + NSA exploits = infected hospitals?

Whatever the impact on patient health, the Bayer infections represent the first known instance of ransomware directly affecting the operation of a medical device. They’ve also provided the first evidence that the WannaCry outbreak hit U.S. healthcare bodies, showing that America’s own powerful intelligence tools have been turned against some of its most sensitive institutions. Not to mention that clues indicate possible North Korean involvement in the attacks.

Cybersecurity firms are developing increasing levels of confidence of North Korean involvement. The WannaCry hackers used tools first leaked by a shady crew called the Shadow Brokers, combining them with code linked to North Korean cyber operations. BAE Systems, a government arms contractor and cyber specialist, said it had found “multiple overlaps” between the WannaCryp malware and that controlled by the Lazarus Group, which the firm associated with North Korean activity.

The similarities included common source code that was previously unique to Lazarus, use of the same code compiler, unusual “leetspeak” (a kind of internet language popular amongst certain hacker communities), and both focused on Bitcoin, “presumably for stealing funds and money-laundering,” said Adrian Nish, BAE’s head of threat intelligence.

Healthcare tech industry on alert

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, some of the world’s biggest healthcare tech companies have rushed out warnings about WannaCry and its impact on their products. Much the same as Bayer, they’re still developing adequate patches to protect systems from another similar attack.

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST), a privately held company that provides a cyber threat exchange platform for the healthcare industry, said it had reports of both Bayer and Siemens equipment being affected by the outbreak.

Siemens told Forbes it couldn’t confirm or deny reports its Healthineers technologies had been affected. But it publicly stated has been working with the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) to help get systems back online, with engineers deployed across the country to assist.

“Select Siemens Healthineers products may be affected by the Microsoft vulnerability being exploited by the WannaCry ransomware,” the firm wrote in an advisory. The firm is developing patches or remediation solutions for systems running the vulnerable version of Microsoft’s SMB v1, a component in Windows which was originally exploited by an NSA hacking tool known as EternalBlue before the WannaCry perpetrators abused it.

Another major healthcare tech firm – Becton, Dickinson and Company – put out its own warning: “At this time, we are actively monitoring the situation and working closely with customers to ensure the appropriate measures are taken to help safeguard our products.”

Woods said it was likely a wide range of medical systems were taken down by WannaCry. “Many of the bigger machines run the Windows operating system – X-ray, cat scan, MRI,” he said. But, importantly, the parts that actually control the heavy gear that generate the scans aren’t normally controlled by Windows PCs. Many of the pharmacy systems that dispense drugs also run potentially-vulnerable Windows systems, Woods added.

Numerous NHS hospitals are continuing to operate a limited service as of Wednesday. Barts Health Trust, the biggest such trust in the U.K., said it was having to cancel some operations and turn some patients away from the five hospitals it was managing, though some systems were coming back online.

Industrial control systems hit too

As for other critical IT infected during the WannaCry pandemic, the U.S.-government funded Industrial Control System Computer Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT) reported late Tuesday that alongside the healthcare providers, companies including ABB, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric had put out their own WannaCry advisories to assist customers.

Robert M. Lee, CEO and founder of the industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, said his team were “aware of infections that occurred in the industrial control system community and had impact.” Victims included small utilities and manufacturing sites in the U.S., he added, also pointing to previously-reported infections at Nissan and Renault car manufacturing plants, as well as the attack on Russian Railways. “Although no one’s been hurt and no safety was at risk.”

Ralph Langner, founder of German control system security consultancy Langner, said that in a typical industrial environment there were “lots of Windows boxes of which a majority is not up to patch.” Attacks on those Windows boxes shouldn’t halt production, however, because industrial machines work autonomously, he added.

But WannaCry has provided ample evidence of vulnerable critical infrastructure. And that’s why Langner’s outlook for the future if grim: “For a competent attacker it would be possible to use the encryption vector specifically against industrial targets and force a production halt. We haven’t seen that on a large scale yet but I predict it’s coming, with ransom demands in the six and seven digits.”

 By: Thomas Fox-Brewster, FORBES STAFF

9 brilliant ways drones can help tackle the world’s biggest problems

When it comes to alleviating some of the world’s most pressing problems, perhaps we should look to the skies.

The word “drone” might inspire images of counterterrorism strikes and the future of package delivery. But quadcopters and other autonomous flying vehicles are revolutionizing the ways we tackle the biggest social and environmental issues of our time.

Life expectancy is rising overall in the United States, but in some areas, death rates are going conspicuously in the other direction. These geographical disparities are widening, according to a report published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Life expectancy is greatest in the high country of central Colorado, but in many pockets of the United States, life expectancy is more than 20 years lower, according to the report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

By Joel Achenbach

Life expectancy is rising overall in the United States, but in some areas, death rates are going conspicuously in the other direction. These geographical disparities are widening, according to a report published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Life expectancy is greatest in the high country of central Colorado, but in many pockets of the United States, life expectancy is more than 20 years lower, according to the report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“Life expectancy in many places in this country is declining. It’s going backward instead of forward,” said Ali Mokdad, a co-author of the report and a professor at the university. “These disparities are widening, so this gap is increasing.”

People are less likely to live longer if they are poor, get little exercise and lack access to health care, the researchers found. Mokdad said the quality and availability of that health care — for example, access to screening for signs of cancer — has a significant effect on health outcomes. The United States, he said, needs to rethink how it delivers medical care, with a much greater investment in prevention, and a more holistic approach to creating healthy communities.

The new research echoes other findings in recent years that show that the United States is failing to keep up with improvements in longevity seen in other affluent nations. In 2013, researchers described what they called a “health disadvantage” in the United States when compared to peer countries. More recent research has focused on “diseases of despair” that have contributed to a dramatic spike in death rates among midlife working-class whites.

Mokdad said countries such as Australia are far ahead of the United States in delivering preventive care and trying to curb such harmful behaviors as smoking. “Smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure — these are preventable risk factors,” Mokdad said.

“We are falling behind our competitors in health. That is going to impact our productivity; that’s going to take away our competitive edge when it comes to the economy,” Mokdad said. “What we’re doing right now is not working. We have to regroup.”

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation researchers looked at death certificates from 1980 through 2014. Among the places with sharply increased life expectancy and lower deaths over that period are the District of Columbia and Loudoun County, Va. — where life expectancy is up 12.8 and 12.4 percent, respectively. Fairfax County has the lowest all-cause death rate in the metropolitan Washington region, significantly lower than the national average.

Of the 10 counties where life expectancy has dropped the most since 1980, eight are in Kentucky. The other two are in Oklahoma and Alabama. The report includes an interactive map of death rates county by county (and sometimes by city, when a city is not part of a county). The areas with the worst mortality metrics include central Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta and areas in the Dakotas with large Native American populations.

The list of counties with the most improved life expectancy includes a number of remote locations in Alaska, including the North Slope and the Aleutian Islands, and the boroughs of Manhattan (a.k.a. “New York County”) and Brooklyn (Kings County), as well as San Francisco.

An earlier study from the same research institute showed a huge disparity in the death rate from lung cancer. Summit County in Colorado, home to ski resorts and the town of Breckenridge, had almost no lung cancer mortality — a death rate of 11 per 100,000 population in 2014. The county with the highest rate, 231 per 100,000, was rural Union County, Fla., a small county that is home to a large prison population.

A.I. can be a game-changer for health care but convincing doctors, clinicians can be ‘tricky’

Imagine a surgeon asking a Siri-like digital assistant in the operations theater about the options available in a risky operation, based on the patient’s medical history matched with a global database of similar cases. The “assistant” comes up with several options in a split second and, the surgeon and his team, choose one that they think is best and proceed.

Imagine a surgeon asking a Siri-like digital assistant in the operations theater about the options available in a risky operation, based on the patient’s medical history matched with a global database of similar cases. The “assistant” comes up with several options in a split second and, the surgeon and his team, choose one that they think is best and proceed.

This could be one of the many possibilities that an Artificial Intelligence or A.I. can provide to the healthcare sector.

A.I. is poised to become a game changer for the health care sector, according to Steve Leonard, chief executive of SGInnovate, the government entity that supports entrepreneurs leading Singapore’s innovation efforts. But convincing doctors, clinicians, nurses, patients and other stakeholders to place their trust in self-thinking machines could be tricky.

“That’s a double-edged sword because health care is a very tricky area,” Leonard told CNBC at the sideline of the Innovfest Unboundconference in Singapore. “Doctors and clinicians are not so excited sometimes about new models or new processes – and I don’t mean that disrespectfully. It’s just that’s a reality.” He added regulation would also be a key factor to consider.

Singapore recently ramped up investments into A.I. by committing more than $100 million over the next five years. The city-state plans to use A.I. to address major challenges affecting Singapore society, including health care.

“A.I. could play a big role in supporting prevention, diagnosis, treatment plans, medication management, precision medicine and drug creation,” said Bruce Liang, chief information officer of Singapore’s Ministry of Health, in a press statement.

He added, “Health care manpower, augmented with A.I. tools, could better address increased health care demands in the future.”

Many companies — big and small — are already working on ways to integrate A.I. in this critical sector. Last year, Chinese search engine giant Baidu introduced an A.I.-powered chatbot that can connect with patients, field medical questions and suggest diagnoses to doctors.

In theory, this sounds beneficial — since machines can process information faster, A.I. could theoretically reduce waiting time at clinics, observe previously-missed information in electronic medical records and reduce human errors in diagnosis or dispensation of medicines.

Selling that idea to the masses still, has some way to go. Researchundertaken by professional services firm PwC across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa found about 55 percent of the respondents were willing to use advanced computer technology or robots with A.I. that can answer health questions, perform tests and make a diagnosis. However, 38 percent said they were not willing.

Some industry watchers also told CNBC that A.I. is still at an experimental stage — startups, companies and research institutes may be developing A.I. powered products and services but their rollout on a mass scale still has some way to go.

Leonard said among other industries, transportation — where autonomous cars are expected to be the next big thing — will inevitably be transformed by A.I.

“Transportation will increasingly not involve people,” he said. “Over time … we’ll look back and say what was this idea of people sitting behind a wheel and driving a two-ton piece of metal at 120 km an hour? I think that’s inevitable.”

Beyond transportation, there is already widespread use of A.I. in the financial services industry. From robot wealth advisers to chatbots, increasingly companies are looking into using machines to detect fraud and prevent crime in the industry.

Another area that could benefit is energy consumption — machines could theoretically usher in more efficient use of energy, using sensors and the Internet of Things for example.

“If we connect (sensors) to every part of every building, every place around the island, could we reduce energy by 1 or 2 percent? Doesn’t sound like a big number, but when you think about 1 or 2 percent across an entire country, it turns out to be many, many billions of dollars,” Leonard said.

Saheli Roy Choudhury – News Assistant

Why Jimmy Kimmel’s Emotional Plea for Better Health Care Is Making an Impact Where Others Can’t

Jimmy Kimmel made an emotional plea for improving the nation’s health care system on Monday night after revealing that his infant son was born with a potentially life threatening heart condition. The late-night host ignited a new conversation about America’s healthcare by bringing an emotional aspect to the debate.

The late-night host used his superior communication skills and an emotional story to bring the debate to a human level.

Jimmy Kimmel made an emotional plea for improving the nation’s health care system on Monday night after revealing that his infant son was born with a potentially life threatening heart condition. The late-night host ignited a new conversation about America’s healthcare by bringing an emotional aspect to the debate.

“We need to make sure the people who are supposed to represent us, the people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly,” says Kimmel, choking back tears and arguing that it shouldn’t matter how much money someone makes when it comes to saving a child’s life. “No parents should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life.”

Kimmel’s 13-minute monologue comes as House Republicans try to pass a bill this week that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. While CNN’s latest whip count shows the bill is two more “no” votes away from failing for the second time, Kimmel put a human touch on a dispute that has weighed on this country for years and will be hard for anyone to ignore. It was the top-trending video on YouTube Tuesday morning.

Kimmel used his top-notch communication skills and moving story to show his viewers the importance of health care through his newborn son William John Kimmel, or Billy for short. He focused on uniting Americans around something “every decent person wants” and the importance of upholding the 2014 law that prevents health insurance companies from refusing coverage because someone has a “pre-existing condition.”

“You know, before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease, like my son was, there’s a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance, because you had a pre-existing condition,” Kimmel says in his monologue. “And if your parents didn’t have insurance, you may not even live long enough to get denied because of your pre-existing condition.”

The typical funnyman broke down several times as he described when a nurse noticed his son’s unusual color and heart murmur. He thanked every nurse, doctor and surgeon who diagnosed Billy’s heart disease and who participated in his open-heart surgery. Billy, who is recovering well, will need another operation in several weeks and another when he’s a teenager, Kimmel says.

“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” Kimmel says. “I think that’s something whether you’re a Republican or Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?” Kimmel added, to an eruption of applause.