Wireless technology for doctors demonstrated in La Jolla

By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Sunday, April 15, 2007 12:41 AM PDT ∞

Yulun Wang, who is the chairman and CEO of Intouch Health, controls the RP-7 remote presence robot, made by Intouch Health, which is used by doctors to check on patients with a laptop and a Qualcomm wireless card from a different location than the patient during a wireless health care conference at the Estancia Hotel and Spa in La Jolla on Friday.
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LA JOLLA ---- Yulun Wang leaned over his laptop computer, grabbed the joystick and directed his robot forward.
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Nearly 200 miles to the north, the robot moved away from its charging station and rolled to a bed occupied by a mannequin "patient." A camera mounted on the robot focused on the patient's eyes, telescoping into high magnification to examine the pupils for signs of brain injury.

"If I was a physician, and I had a call from my emergency department ... I could be sitting here and I could see my patient, and interact with him," said Wang, chairman of Santa Barbara-based InTouch Health.

Wireless technology from Qualcomm Inc. made the new device possible. A card in Wang's laptop transmitted the joystick commands and visual data between San Diego and Santa Barbara, where the patient was. This and other demonstrations of Qualcomm's technology took place Friday at the Wireless Life Science Convergence Summit at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa.

Qualcomm is providing the high speeds needed for these applications by upgrades of its CDMA technology, used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS. Qualcomm's vision is to make CDMA as important to medical communication as it is now to regular cell phone service. Doctors will be able to reach and examine their patients virtually at will.

"It gives you complete mobility," Wang said of Qualcomm's technology. "If I get paged while in my car, I could pull over, pull out my laptop and beam in."

Patients will benefit by receiving constant remote monitoring of vital signs, enabling them to leave the hospital and still get immediate attention if a crisis occurs. And health insurance companies will save money by reducing the need for expensive hospitalization.

This vision is already materializing. More than 100 of InTouch Health's robots, renting for $5,000 a month each, are already in use, Wang said. In Southern California, they're at UCLA Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Orange County, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. They're also used by Silverado Senior Living, an assisted living company caring for Alzheimer's patients.

Across the room from Wang, Jim Sweeney, president of San Diego-based CardioNet, demonstrated a continuous heart monitoring device. The device allows people with potentially deadly heart conditions to be watched outside of the hospital. When patients develop any dangerous heartbeat patterns, the device alerts them and their health care provider, Sweeney said.

"Using wireless technology, we can take those patients and provide the same services at home or in an ambulatory setting at a fraction of the cost (of hospitalization)," Sweeney said.

The device is now available through cardiologists, who prescribe it to their patients. It is worn by the patients, attached to two electrodes on their chest, implanted just below the collarbones. Patients don't have to do anything else, and can go about their daily activities.

"It's like a baby sitter," Sweeney said.

In South Korea, a CDMA hotbed, diabetics can test their blood glucose on a cell phone, said Don Jones, Qualcomm's vice president of business development for health care. It's not yet available in the United States.

This phone is convenient for diabetics, who can carry one device instead of two, Jones said. In addition, it reduces the stigma some diabetics feel about carrying equipment that advertises their condition.

"A diabetic takes the test strip and inserts into the phone here in order to get their reading off a blood sample," Jones said, holding up the phone. "The reading will come up on this screen, and they can share their data with their health care provider or family member, and keep track of how often they're testing."

Jones also displayed a cell phone equipped with a fingerprint reader. The phone can be used to authenticate a person's identity when speaking with a health care provider. The privacy of medical records is protected under federal law, so doctors and hospitals are concerned about confirming patient identity. The fingerprint reader could be used to authorize transferring medical records from one doctor to another, Jones said.

Palomar Pomerado Health is considering how to incorporate wireless technology, Jones said.

"I sit on a panel of advisers at Palomar Pomerado Hospital District. We're helping advise them on using wireless technologies, helping them build what they call a hospital of the future," Jones said. "This is a panel made up of experts from various fields of technology and safety from around the U.S."

The wireless aspect will probably start by bringing in cell phone antennas to make sure the public cell phone network reaches throughout the hospital, Jones said.

"They're looking at taking advantage of text messaging and multimedia services to connect with patients and patients' families as part of their care. They can send out alerts and messages, and also for doctors for critical information they need to be alerted to," Jones said.

- Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.

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