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Home Health Care Powered By Z-Wave
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Because Z-Wave is such a portable, affordable technology, it will have an intriguing part to play in one of the major growth areas in today's societal landscape -- health care. As technology assumes a central role in how we care for the elderly and the infirm, Z-Wave bridges a vital missing link between patients, caregivers and doctors -- that of communication.
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What's Next: Telemedicine
In the near future, Z-Wave will be a pervasive, resident technology on many of the devices commonly used in home and medical facility health care. For example, imagine a glucose monitoring device for diabetics that can signal a caregiver or family member when the reading is abnormal. Or a heart monitor that automatically triggers a phone call to the doctor or hospital if the patient has an arrhythmia.
This movement toward telemedicine will vastly improve the quality of health care and at the same time, cut costs dramatically through automation and data collection. Simple devices like cell phones will be used to send patient information to computers and caregivers, who can keep track of patient needs and progress, and alert busy doctors only if their attention is required. This trend bodes well for our changing demographics, where our aging population will depend more and more on in-home care, and also for doctors and medical facilities, which will be hard pressed to keep up with growing demand.
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Z-Wave will be the enabling technology that makes all this healthcare communication possible. It's inexpensive and "light" enough to be built into virtually personal technology, such as blood pressure monitors and weight scales. At the same time, it's powerful and reliable enough for critical healthcare applications. Imagine a Z-Wave enabled defibrillator that alerts a nurse when a heart patient needs assistance. When the nurse's console reacts to the communication, Z-Wave can also send an alert to the doctor, or trigger an indicator that would send a medic to check on the patient. |
Doctors and healthcare facilities are becoming increasingly reliant on technologies that can help them help more patients, and provide them with better, speedier access to vital patient information. In the near future, Z-Wave will be commonplace to these technologies, and a major component of our healthcare systems. |
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