Beck Vass of the New Zealand Herald reports on a new technology which aims to give patients greater freedom, and help keep them out of hospital.
The device, currently on trial by the Auckland DHB, uses mobile technology to send patients’ data to their doctors each day, so that they can be monitored without necessarily needing to go into hospital itself – saving both patients and doctors time.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“If the trial proves successful, the Auckland District Health Board (ADHB ) is hoping the technology will be used in future to help patients with other conditions including diabetes, respiratory disease, hypertension and asthma.
“Mr Freeman, who has had three heart attacks and one cardiac arrest that saw him revived with a defibrillator, said before he had the trial technology (a cellphone, blood pressure checker and electronic scales) he would end up in hospital when he developed health complications.
“”It would pretty much mean that I was confined to hospital which was a pain,” he said.
“”[It’s a] great place to be when you’re very sick but not a good place when you’re feeling quite reasonable.””