A New Meaning for Connected Health at 2016 Symposium (Part 2 of 4)

Tullman’s principles of simplicity, cited in the previous section, can be applied to a wide range of health IT. For instance, AdhereTech pill bottles can notify the patient with a phone call or text message if she misses a dose. Another example of a technology that is easily integrated into everyday life is a thermometer built into a vaginal ring that a woman can insert and use without special activation. This device was mentioned by Costantini during her keynote. The device can alert a woman–and, if she wants, her partner–to when she is most fertile.

Andy OramSuper-compact devices and fancy interfaces are not always necessary for a useful intervention. In a keynote, John Dwyer, Jr., President of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation, discussed a simple survey that his organization got large numbers of people to take. They uncovered a lot of undiagnosed cases of mental decline. I imagine that the people who chose to take the survey were experiencing possible symptoms and therefore were concerned about their mental abilities. Yet they apparently had not expressed concerns to their doctors; instead they responded to the online suggestion to take a survey.

Health care in the US has historically been fragmented, whereas in France it was unified under government control. But the Affordable Care Act in the US has brought more regulation to the market here, whereas private health care providers (combining insurance and treatment) have been growing in France. As of January 1 of this year, France has required all employers to include a private option in their health care offerings. For the first time, French individuals are being hit with the copays and deductibles familiar to Americans, and are weighing how often to go to the doctor. Although the US market is still more diverse, and burdened by continuing fee-for-service plans, it is comparable to the French market for a vendor such as BewellConnect...