The Wave of the Future: Apps to Manage your Health

Life Science Alley (LSA), formerly Medical Alley, a membership-driven industry organization in Minnesota provides a tremendous resource for companies and the healthcare ecosystem in MN and beyond to converge on major topics of interest in medtech.  On December 7th, 2011 LSA held its 13th annual conference (since the name was changed from Medical Alley) at the Minneapolis Convention Center. 

After having attended these meetings over the course of 15+ years, I have observed a really remarkable trend: the topics are shifting from device features and effectiveness, to the merging of stakeholder interests and the ability of software to impact outcomes.  Case in point:  the opening breakfast general session was titled "Seeing Beyond Silos - Innovative Collaborations among Providers, Payors, and Industry," and on the panel were Richard Kuntz, Chief Scientific, Clinical & Reg Officer at Medtronic; David Moen, President of Fairview Physician Associates; Alison Page, CEO of Baldwin Medical Center; and Craig Samitt, President of Dean Health System.  They spoke of the needs for cost-effective outcomes, not just clinical outcomes, and approaches that solve the hospital's need to become Accountable Care Organizations.

The luncheon general session was led by Dr. Leslie Saxon, Chief of the USC Division of Cardiovascular medicine and chair of a group she started called the USC Center for Body Computing, a long-time customer, clincal researcher, and friend of the medical device industry.  Her topic was "The Future of Networked Medicine."

A remarkable point she makes on slide 3 is that 75% of the world population will be a a mobile user; perhaps this is a prediction of the future, but it certainly seems plausible.

Dr. Saxon also makes the point that in Body Computing today, we are focused on chronic disease management, prevention & wellness, sports, and gaming & entertainment designs that help people relate to the technologies that help them.  For example, she cited a young diabetes patient who could view managing their blood sugar like an angry - birds game, and could even set up analogous games with non-diabetic friends so they would view the game as positive and not negative in their lives. 

Smartphone apps are alson in development ofr cardiac condition monitoring and others.  She cited Boston Scientific's ALTITUDE Clinical Science program, which was developed ~ 2006, that delivers real-world data and real-life benefits when patients and doctors are able to be more aware of remote device follow-up data and act earlier.

Health websites are growing as well.  Quitting smoking on LiveStrong.com.  Everydayhealth.com.  A leader in the pack WebMd.com.  We are a dot.com society now.  Here's what she said about MyQuitCoach:

Dr. Saxon's final conclusion is that there is blurring the lines between popular culture and medicine now, and that these revolutionary new software and networked technologies pose the real possibility of changing the world in so many ways.  Great food for thought as we think about the direction of medtech innovation as the target for benefit expands to all stakeholders - patients, providers, and payors, and how the solutions fit within our popular high-tech socially-networked culture as well.