Many in the industry see digital health as a market that has only just begun to take full advantage of technology. Dimi Kyriakou investigates the latest developments in this sector, including how the custom installer can integrate this initiative into the connected home.

Over the last 15 years, society has seen technology have more and more of an impact on the delivery of healthcare. This is particularly important because the population that we know today will change dramatically in the future.

As the baby boomers grow older, the younger generations will lessen in comparison. It will come to the point where the number of people over the age of 65 will double in the next 30 years, while those who are over the age of 85 will quadruple.

This ultimately means that the dependency ratio is significantly outweighed: the older members of society will demand high-quality service in volume, but the qualified professionals who can provide this support will be in short supply.

This is exactly why the custom installer must be aware of the issue at hand and prepare for the growing role that digital health will play in the future of home automation.

Intel Australia is one company that has recognised the potential in this sector and has studied the integration of technology and healthcare for the past 12 years.

In November 2005, Dr George Margelis took on the role of industry development manager for Intel’s new Digital Health Group. As a registered medical practitioner and optometrist, George saw this as an opportunity to take an active role in changing the way that healthcare was delivered in Australia.

Recently, George spoke at the annual Connected Home Conference in Sydney to explain why digital health has the prospect to become an impressive feature in home automation.

“Intel sees health care as a large market which hasn’t really taken advantage of technology as yet. It’s a very conservative market because there is a high risk associated in everything that we do,” he says.

“We saw that the process of implementing new technologies was stagnating, so we thought it was a good opportunity to break into that market and help it to develop.”

While the initial focus centred on healthcare in hospitals, Intel soon demonstrated that the use of technology resulted in the increased efficiency of doctors and nurses. There were improvements in quality and safety, including medication delivery and the management of patients.

“We found that not only could we make life more efficient, but it could also lead to better outcomes for the patients. At the time they were being treated well in hospital, but going home and then ending up back in hospital because the management of their health wasn’t perfect,” George says.

“So we started looking at what sort of solutions we could do in the home, while also recognising that the target population is one that hasn’t grown up around technology. We decided to concentrate on developing solutions specifically for the residential sector and found that’s a huge area, because the younger generation is taking a more active role to ensure that their elderly parents stay at home longer, rather than end up in a nursing home.”

Obviously, this initiative came with its fair share of hurdles that had to be overcome in order for digital health in the connected home to work effectively. While the seamless management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease was problematic, so was the alien nature of this new technology in an elderly person’s home.

“The biggest issue was to provide them with technologies that were easy to use and basically ‘plug-and-play’ from an installation perspective. The idea was to take the complexity away from the user and build it into the system,” he says.

“That’s where things like the National Broadband Network (NBN) come into play because it can provide the connectivity to get them started. Health waxes and wanes so the patients may not always need to connect to it, but the fact that high-speed broadband is always available, reliable and robust will make their lives a lot easier.”

Getting back to how digital health will impact the work of a custom installer, George says that this initiative also has a strong opportunity to give the connected home sector more credibility as a whole.

“Home automation today is very driven by entertainment, but these systems can be integrated to keep you safe, manage your health and maintain contact with family and friends, so there’s a much bigger value proposition,” he says.

“This is especially true for the older population – you don’t need to add complexity to a 75-year-old’s life because they have enough of that already. Once you start bundling automation with healthcare, it provides many more benefits.”

According to George, there are studies worldwide that suggest home healthcare is potentially a $50-$100 billion market worldwide. This because baby boomers are starting to retire, looking forward to a life that they can manage effectively and efficiently as they grow older.

“Australia now has the second longest longevity in the world. There is an average of about 20+ years between retirement and death, so it’s a hugely growing market that is supported by the government. From a sheer market size, it’s an exponentially growing sector.”

Ultimately, the primary message that George would like to send to custom installers is simple: a broader understanding of digital health is needed from those who are involved in the technology sector. Healthcare is a huge market and there are countless opportunities for custom installers to add value to their business and residential projects.

“In Australia we believe that healthcare is a right, rather than a privilege. So whatever we can do to help scale that out to people who currently don’t have access to it will make a big difference.”

George says that we need to shift from a model of healthcare which is designed around managing illnesses to a model which is designed around providing people with services to make sure that they’re healthy.

“An interesting statistic is that 16% of people who enter an Australian hospital will have an adverse event as a result of their hospitalisation, be that wrong medication or wrong procedure,” he says.

“If we manage these people more effectively in their homes and improve their quality of life, we can significantly improve the productivity of the rest of the nation by providing these services. If all we do is develop technology solutions without clearly understanding the needs of the people who use it, we will end up in a mess. Healthcare is much more than capturing vital signs; it’s about improving the quality of life.”

Contact:
Intel Australia
www.intel.com