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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:37 pm Post subject: Talk about being wired to the net! |
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This technology has some interesting implications for the future. Cochlear implants have been available for ten years now, allowing people's brains to be directly wired to an electronic "ear". GPSs are cheap, there are security cameras everywhere nowadays, and some people are having identity chips inplanted in their dogs, and even in themselves.
Imagine, maybe 5 to 10 years from now...senior citizens, alzheimers patients and other people with health problems being "wired" to the Internet, so that doctors could monitor the health of thousands of patients from a long distance.
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Wireless defibrillator makes Quebecer a 'new man'
Last Updated: Friday, July 14, 2006 | 2:17 PM ET
CBC News
A man in rural Quebec is the first in Canada to receive a wireless defibrillator that doctors can use to monitor patients from a distance � even in other cities. Pierre Giroux, 67, is a retired fast-food operator at risk for cardiac arrest and sudden death. His condition requires a defibrillator to shock the heart back to a normal rhythm if it starts to beat too rapidly.
Patients with traditional defibrillators must return to hospital periodically to have the device monitored and reprogrammed. Since Giroux lives in the Outaouais countryside, about two hours from Montreal, cardiologists opted to implant a new defibrillator with wireless technology built in.
"It's opening up a whole new frontier of telemedicine," said Dr. Peter Guerra, head of the electrophysiology department at the Montreal Heart Institute. Giroux received the device on July 6, days after Health Canada approved its use for people with a high risk of death from heart attack. The implantation was the first of its kind in Canada, according to the hospital.
Device changed his life
"I am a new man," Giroux told CBC News. "Everybody says, 'Hey you're bionic.' I say, 'Not yet,'" he said with a laugh. The defibrillator is combined with another device, allowing the patient to sit at home while doctors are notified if a shock is delivered. "We will be able to find out if the patient had any electrical shocks from his device or if the patient is developing heart failure," said Guerra. "We can call them up and readjust their medication."
Giroux said he hopes the device will help him live the next 20 years more peacefully. Giroux can now climb stairs, and said he aims to become fit enough to play golf and play with his two grandchildren. Each new Concerto device is $20,000 to $30,000, about $1,000 more than a conventional defibrillator. Guerra said he'll only implant it in patients who live out of town.
Health Canada says it will be another month or two before the device, made by the U.S. company Medtronic, is approved for widespread sale. The cost of the units would be paid by each province.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/07/14/defibrillator.html |
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fiveeagles
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:45 am Post subject: |
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Not old news...2000 year old news.  |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:12 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
This technology has some interesting implications for the future. Cochlear implants have been available for ten years now, allowing people's brains to be directly wired to an electronic "ear". GPSs are cheap, there are security cameras everywhere nowadays, and some people are having identity chips inplanted in their dogs, and even in themselves.
Imagine, maybe 5 to 10 years from now...senior citizens, alzheimers patients and other people with health problems being "wired" to the Internet, so that doctors could monitor the health of thousands of patients from a long distance. |
When I said interesting implications, I meant not necessarily positive ones.
Information technology has influenced the boundaries between the public and the private. On the one hand, previously "dangerous" or unmonitored spaces can now be monitored by inexpensive security cameras wired to a network or to a bluetooth-type system. This means, for example, that university campuses can be safer places for students at night. It also means, however, that 'spy cams' can be placed in certain places without people's knowledge - or even with their knowledge. In Korea, for example, some hogwans now place cameras in classrooms so that teachers can be monitored during their teaching time. The availability of the technology raises legal and moral questions about appropriate use.
The proliferation of the Internet has had many positive impacts, but one negative one is how difficult it has become to maintain anonymity and personal privacy. On any given day, there are thousands of websites that require registration, or place cookies on your computer without your knowlege. The average person probably has their name and other personal information in literally hundreds of databases around the world.
The article above is interesting because it raises another wrinkle in the relationship between the proliferation of information technology and its impact on personal privacy. In the article above, the patient has chosen to have a monitor implanted inside his body that would allow doctors, at a distance, to be aware of when his defibrillator goes off. If this technology becomes cheaper and more available, it could be used by hundreds, if not thousands, of people with certain health conditions.
It raises issues of medical ethics. Is it appropriate, for example, to place this kind of monitor on a person with advanced Alzheimer's disease, so that their location and health can be monitored, for their own safety? And if large numbers of people do choose to become 'wired for health', what is to be done with the data that is collected? Would it be appropriate to have a health monitor installed in your body that could detect dangerous conditions you might not be aware are developing? Such as tumors, high blood sugar or blood pressure, etc.?
It's probably safe to say that some individuals would be willing to trade off part of their personal privacy for better health. But if so, would we be headed down some kind of slippery slope, if we're not already? How could we "carve some notches in the slope", so to speak, to get the benefits of this technology without trading off too much personal autonomy and privacy? |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| fiveeagles wrote: |
Not old news...2000 year old news. |
Hahaha, you are a gem mate, please, please, please don't stop being you! |
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