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Intel’s Dishman Helps NHIA Members Explore Technology’s Role in Creating New Health Care Models
Monday, March 10, 2008
 Intel's Eric Dishman demonstrates a device developed for testing tremor activity in patients with Parkinson's Disease. |
Health care delivery needs to move from a “mainframe to a PC-based” model, according to Eric Dishman, General Manager and Global Director for Intel Corporation’s Health Research & Innovation Group. Dishman was today’s keynote speaker at the 2008 NHIA Annual Conference & Exposition, being held in Phoenix, Arizona this week.
Alternate-site infusion will be a key component in the emergence of new care models—care models that must move away from the institutional setting, according to Dishman. “That ‘mainframe’ model is reactive, crisis-driven, collects patient data in an unnatural setting, uses population-based treatments, and hopes for compliance,” he said. With the “perfect storm” created by an aging population and spiraling health care costs, America “can’t afford to do health care in the mainframe model,” Dishman asserted.
Through the aid of technology, new care models can be “preventive, pervasive, and employ treatments that are based on individual needs, based on data that is collected in real settings,” Dishman explained. The most efficient new care models will increasingly include home- and alternate-site care.
Dishman demonstrated several technologies developed by his team of Intel social scientists to meet the needs of patients in their homes. From an automated pill dispenser and a home equipped with reminders for Alzheimer’s patients, to new ways of testing for tremor activity in Parkinson’s patients, the team creates ways to better collect data that can be used to individualize therapies and allow patients to live independently longer. Of particular interest was a laptop designed for home care nurses that reads fingerprints rather than requiring passwords and is the first of its kind that can be washed without damaging.
“You are already in the home and understand the challenges and opportunities of delivering care in that setting,” said Dishman. As part of the “ecosystem” alternate-site providers are in the position to drive research and development of new technologies and join with other industry groups to advocate for support of new care models that include their services.
“Your challenge is to create a shared vision,” said Dishman, challenging audience members to think of how health care providers can partner with non-traditional businesses, such as computer and content development companies. “How are you preparing for the perfect storm? Who will be your competitors and your partners? What will the model of personal health care delivery look like?”