He’s been running the R&D for Intel’s health group, which basically means ethnographic research about over 500 households. They largely focused on using “caring machines” to monitor and support the care of the elderly in home, and the chronically ill. In his view care needs to be pro-active, needs to be personalized, connected (across the care network), continuous across conditions, and bionic. His other view beyond Intel is CAST has 500 companies doing major demo days like the White house conference on aging. The commission for aging in place technologies…

The current hospital system is what he calls “mainframe technology” — as people get old, that’s not going to scale. the same metaphor is true for health care—the power of the mainframe goes to the PC to the cell phone. And of course going from point intervention to continuous monitoring.

Sidebar: cool to hear a business executive telling his audience to read Michel Foucault

Dishman showed a prototype PHR/life management system that connects, which includes daily schedule, a “presence lamp” showing when other care-givers, family are in their houses, via sensor network. It includes a “social health” world which shows how close family members are to the person at the center, because it measures by phone sensors, and activity sensors (the more contact the closer people get to the middle). See the photo below for a poor representation of what the hell he’s talking about) This has been called “making the invisible visible”.

They’ve added photos of people calling and social network diagrams on the phone for those with memory loss (caller ID on steroids)

Intel also has a Parkinsons assessment box, which integrates the clinical tests done for parkinsons (moving pegs on a board), tracks motor skills, tremors etc….and then will titrate the drugs best on how people are doing.

Interesting stuff…but then he notes we’re working out how to pay for all this stuff……