San Diego’s Eric Topol Outlines a Coming Wave of Innovation in Wireless Health

Bruce V. Bigelow10/29/09Comments (3)Follow @bvbigelow

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develop ways of diagnosing ailments while patients are at home or work, and to continuously monitor people with chronic diseases. The innovations he discussed include:

—A San Francisco-based venture, iRhythm, has developed a card-size ECG (electrocardiogram) sensor that a patient can wear on belt clip, or on a lanyard around their neck, for up to 30 days. The device continuously measures the electrical activity of the heart. While the company is developing wireless capabilities, Topol said after 30 days that patients can drop the device into a pre-addressed envelope and mail, enabling doctors to retrieve and review the data.

—A “smart bandaid” like one under development at Corventis, a venture-backed medical device company based in San Jose, can be stuck on a patient’s chest to automatically collect a range of physiological information. In the first clinical trial to be done through San Diego’s new West Wireless Institute, Topol said Corventis is using its technology in a 600 patient sample to show if such data collected 24/7 can help doctors make better and more accurate diagnoses.

—Topol also described technology under development that could enable patients to have their own brain scan, by wearing a wireless cap that transmits data of electrical activity produced by neurons in the brain to a data storage device that doubles as “a really nice alarm clock.” Topol displayed data showing his own sleep patterns in a chart that also quantified the different stages of brain activity during sleep, including the deep sleep stage that is most beneficial. “Who would ever have thought that you could have your own EEG? [electroencephalography]” Topol asked.

With such innovations in wireless medical devices, Topol said it should be possible make health care more available and affordable by keeping people out of the hospital. “The hospital bed is far more expensive that the Presidential Suite at this hotel,” Topol said.

With the innovations that have been made over the past 20 years in cellular technology, Topol said, “Mobile phones have made a bigger difference in the lives of more people in more countries than any other technology.” Now he anticipates a similar reign of innovation in wireless health, saying the field represents one of those rare events beyond the realm of normal expectations—“the black swan of medicine.”

Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego. You can e-mail him at bbigelow@xconomy.com or call (619) 669-8788