DOCTOR YOURSELF
... AND LIVE LONGER !
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Remember when doctors made house calls?
Web Lifestyle people do much of their own doctoring – at home. And
they will live much longer and save much time and money by doing so.
The Baby Boom trend toward a healthier lifestyle,
together with new tele-medicine gadgetry, sees increasing numbers of
people doing their own doctoring at home. That saves patients lots of
time, and even some money on fewer or cheaper prescriptions.
Millions of people also buy many of their health supplement needs online,
again saving time and money. And if they have their own business, they
actually make a profit on what they buy for their own health and
nutrition.
People are increasingly self-reliant in maintaining their physical and mental well-being.
The better-informed people are, they usually make better lifestyle
decisions and play a much more active role in their healthcare.
The Webolution thus rewrites the implicit doctor-patient contract. Many patients simply find more help in cyberspace than in their own doctor’s office.
"Web-informed" patients
– not their doctors – will drive healthcare. In turn, electronic house
calls will become an everyday part of a Web Life. Seeking control over
our health, we will routinely go online, not only to download health
info but to get diagnoses from online experts, review our own charts,
and track our own treatment plans.
| As people demand more time and convenience, treat-yourself-at-home medical devices are proliferating.
- Asthma patients
can use a pocket-size airway monitor to send data to their doctor.
- Diabetics
can monitor their blood-sugar and zap results to
their doctor.
- Heart patients
can send pacemaker data to doctors; those with
defibrillators can send real-time data to
cardiologists 24x7, or even
have the implant reprogramed online.
External defibrillators are being set up in public places
(alongside fire extinguishers in malls, airports, sports stadiums) for
use by co-workers, travelers and passersby. Patients thus get attention much faster than
waiting for paramedics.
An online medicine cabinet uses face-recognition
to identify each household member and their special needs. Sensors on
prescription bottles help the cabinet to identify each drug so it can
alert patients if they take the wrong bottle – or the right bottle at
the wrong time. The cabinet also can monitor vital signs, chart them,
and send the data to the doctor. Before a
prescription gets used up, the cabinet automatically refills it online –
for immediate home delivery.
Diagnostic and clinical lab stations will be commonplace – right inside our homes and across our communities. In turn, fewer of us will have to sit around in germ-ridden waiting rooms, exposed to contagious illnesses, coughs and sneezes.
And that has to be a major Web Lifestyle blessing!
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