Bodily Email: Internal Organs that Communicate for Themselves Could Differentiate Your Cardiology Marketing

Your body has its own IP address

There's another survey out that (again) confirms that physicians are reluctant to connect with patients via email. (More on that in a future post.) You know; concerns about workload, reimbursement, privacy, security, liability, etc.

But now some human hearts can start the digital dialog on their own. A new type of wireless body area network (BAN) device can originate messages and emails directly from inside the patient to a cell phone. Just a monologue really, but a conversation starter nonetheless. And differentiation for cardiology marketing.

The Health++ BAN device, from Imec in The Netherlands, was demonstrated at the recent Wireless Health Conference. And without getting deep into the technical particulars, the company describes it as a low-power “mobile heart monitoring system that allows you to view your electrocardiogram on an Android mobile phone.” Data can be also be reported to PDAs or laptops, configured to send text message or email alerts, and forwarded to physicians.

In addition to monitoring ECG/cardiac performance, the company believes the BAN approach can enable reliable, long-term remote monitoring of other health parameters such as EEG/brain activity and EMG/muscle activity.

There’s more info at the Imec site.