STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), one of the world's leading semiconductor companies, and Mayo Clinic, a premier health-care organization, are collaborating on a novel platform for remotely monitoring patients with chronic cardiovascular disease. The platform will provide a comprehensive and unobtrusive solution that monitors person-specific data and physiological parameters and influences lifestyle and treatment choices.
Telemedicine, which allows medical professionals to monitor or treat patients even when they are not in the same location, is widely recognized as an essential step in reducing the escalating cost of healthcare. Instead of entering a hospital or visiting a doctor for check-ups, the patient wears a small device that continually monitors a number of relevant physiological parameters. This approach has many potential benefits, including maintaining wellness, earlier detection of developing health conditions, improving lifestyle, and lowering healthcare costs.
"Mayo Clinic has always committed the best available resources to caring for patients with cardiovascular disease. This collaboration, by enhancing our ability to record important physiologic information while patients are outside the medical environment and active in their daily lives, will extend our ability to prevent and treat illness," said Paul Friedman, M.D., a cardiology consultant and specialist in cardiovascular electrophysiology at Mayo Clinic, who added that an initial program of patient trials is already underway.
This platform is the result of an R&D collaboration that combines ST's expertise in developing innovative solutions using its advanced sensor, microprocessor and communication products and Mayo Clinic's best-in-class medical expertise. It uses a combination of sensors, ultra-low-power microcontroller and wireless modules, and interfaces to provide information about the patient's heart rate, breathing rate, physical activity and other measurements wirelessly obtained from external medical devices.
"Combining the worldwide recognized clinical expertise of Mayo Clinic with our ability to provide highly integrated volume solutions at affordable costs, we are convinced we will open new frontiers to bring quality healthcare to everybody," said Alessandro Cremonesi, Vice President, Advanced System Technology, STMicroelectronics. "ST is utilizing its strong expertise to develop advanced technologies and products satisfying the requirements of telemedicine platforms. This will allow medical device manufacturers and health-care providers to develop new products and services to enhance the quality of medical support for their customers and patients."
Telemedicine is expected to play an increasingly important role in helping solve the growing costs of healthcare monitoring and delivery, especially in the context of an aging population. For example, in the USA, which spent over $2 trillion on healthcare in 2007 - nearly twice the average per-capita spending of other developed countries - the Congressional Budget Office estimates that, with current trends, by 2025 some 25% of the national economy will be tied up in healthcare.
In addition to better service to the patient, the potential benefits of remote monitoring may include:
- lower costs due to reduced physician visits for routine check-ups;
- earlier diagnosis of impending health problems, leading to earlier intervention, in turn reducing hospitalization, costs and enhancing the probability of successful recovery from illness;
- lower environmental burden due to reduced necessity for travel;
- acquisition of comprehensive and integrated data for epidemiology, drug safety, and other research studies to advance medical knowledge regarding diseases.
Remote monitoring thus offers important opportunities to reduce healthcare costs and enhance patients' quality of life.
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