Password Magazine - Issue 21: Healthcare
Personal Healthcare
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Healthcare today is still generally reactive, focused on disease treatment,
and centered around hospitals and other places for medical care. When
there is no direct need to consult a doctor, most people are not linked
to diagnostic and therapeutic systems. But people are increasingly aware
of their health as a very important value, and the willingness to take
a proactive role in personal healthcare is growing. Personal Healthcare
is an emerging field of medical and personal care which is looking at
technologies and applications that will empower people to do so.
DownloadPDF file of complete article (88 kb)
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Home Stroke Test (HOST)With HOST, Philips Research is investigating a personal-healthcare system for the home environment, aimed at patients with an increased risk of having a stroke. The idea is to assist users in detecting the symptoms of a stroke and make an early decision to call the ambulance to reduce the extremely critical time-to-treatment. Examples of these symptoms include sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, sudden trouble with speaking or walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination. The HOST project investigates methods for the early detection of these symptoms via speech recognition, face recognition and testing of voluntary movements. The interaction between the system and the user is vitally important for the success of the detection methods. In order to ensure the necessary domain-specific competence, this project is done in cooperation with the stroke-unit of the University of Düsseldorf, providing real-life expertise on stroke detection. |
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Reference Architecture for Care Everywhere (RACE)With the RACE project, Philips Research is contributing to the platform-architectural developments that are required to support the wide range of personal-healthcare applications and services envisaged. As a first step in the domain of professional care, RACE is supporting Philips Medical Systems in developing a secure, personalized healthcare communication platform for patient management that remotely connects patients to their care community of professionals, support groups and family. When integrated with innovations from Philips’ related personal-healthcare activities (for example, MyHeart) this will allow disease management, emergency response, post-discharge surveillance and safety and security monitoring for patients outside clinical institutions, for example in their own homes. Future developments will include the extension of the reference architecture to incorporate personal-healthcare appliances for consumers as well: the domain of self-care, prevention, and well-being where Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances may enter the market. |
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Fitness CoachSo, let’s be honest: how many times have you started a fitness programme, only to quit because of a lack of motivation, or a training schedule that was too complicated? What if you could start exercising in your own home with a personal coach, stimulating you to persevere, giving you all the information you need on your performance, and telling you what to do next for an optimal result? This is the domain of Fitness Coach, a sports application that monitors specific physiological signals via smart sensors, calculates the training intensity through dedicated algorithms, and helps to regulate the pace of training, based on you own personal data. The interaction between coach and user is based on personalized feedback, improving performance and motivation. Philips Research is working on the required technologies to make this happen: an early demonstrator has been developed and built, and is currently being tested with potential user in our HomeLab facility. |
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HeartStartSudden cardiac arrest (SCA) often strikes without warning, and the majority of cases occurs in people who have no previous symptoms of heart disease. When SCA strikes, the electrical system of the heart short-circuits, causing the heart to quiver rather than pump in a normal rhythm. Nearly 80 percent of sudden cardiac arrests happen at home. For the best chance of survival, a defibrillator should be used within 5 minutes. Defibrillation, an electric shock to the heart, is an effective method for restoring a normal cardiac rhythm of a patient suffering SCA. Philips’ HeartStart Home Defibrillator is the first of a new generation of defibrillators specifically designed for use in the home by virtually anyone. Clear aural instructions are given by a natural voice on how to use the device, and via a dedicated algorithm the device determines if the patient’s heart needs a shock. Philips is the worldwide market leader in portable defibrillators with over 175,000 automated external defibrillators deployed. |
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Joined forces: MyHeartMyHeart is a European project, led by Philips with a budget of EUR 33 million and 33 project partners from 11 countries, aimed at creating options for smart electronic systems and associated services that empower users to take control over their health status. It is an effort of industrial research institutes, academics and hospitals, covering the whole value chain from textile research, via fashion and electronic design, towards medical and home-based applications.The project focuses on cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the leading cause of death in the western world. It is commonly accepted, that a healthy and preventive lifestyle as well as early diagnosis can systematically combat the origin of CVD and save millions of life-years. MyHeart explores technologies to support people to adopt a more healthy and active lifestyle in order to reduce risk for developing CVD, and limit the recurrence rate of earlier acute events. One of the first results of MyHeart is a prototype of a wearable, wireless monitoring system that measures and diagnoses body signals of the wearer to detect abnormal health conditions. The measuring device can e.g. be integrated in wearable garments, such as women’s bras. |
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For more informationEric Thelen Head of the Medical Signal Processing group at Philips Research Europe-Aachen, Germany E-mail: eric.thelen@philips.com Dr Francisco Morales Serrano Head of the Personal Care Institute at Philips Research Eindhoven, the Netherlands E-mail: francisco.morales.serrano@philips.com
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