GPS Wellness

GPS Wellness

GPS Personal Location Services (PLS) are Health 2.0 initiatives focusing on catalyzing the collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, visionaries, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, policy makers, and other stakeholders in health providing support for improving the safety, efficiency, and quality of health care. 5.6 Million Amricans are over 85 years

The boom that has become a crisis: 37.8 Million Seniors

We are in the midst of a health care crisis. Currently twenty percent of the United States population suffers from one or more chronic diseases costing one trillion dollars annually. The percentage of chronic disease patients is expected to increase significantly within the next 10 years – this owing to the rise in numbers of boomers becoming seniors requiring health care support and their extended life expectancy. “Current medical care delivery model is unsustainable unless there is a shift from acute careto preventative care:”  2007 Parks Associates The pending chronic disease crisis is compounded by a national shortage of appropriately trained health care professionals and the limits of available insurance coverage. These deficits will increase as the problem worsens. Home Health Self Monitoring will offset trained staff shortages –

Remote Vital Sign Monitoring

GPS/PLS will provide easy-to-use devices that remotely collect real-time patient data – with minimal interaction of the user – to medical specialists located anywhere in the world. Chronic conditions consume disproportionate amount of resources: 5.3 Million With Alzheimer’s —  20 Million Diabetics —  2.2 Million With Arrthymias.  With Remote Vital Sign Monitoring medical professionals can be immediately notified of homeostasis exceptions and the precise location of the patient allowing fewer staff to monitor greater numbers without degrading the responsiveness of the services offered.

Telemedicine

“Currently 81 percent of patients have incomplete medical records which accounts for up to 8 percent of all medical errors. There will be 7 bllion wireless accounts by 2020 … A significant percentage will have GPS capabilities. By appending the collected GPS/PLS blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, ECG and oxygen saturation measurement data with other available databases medical professional will not only have a more informed patient work-up, but the opportunity to collect and store the data from the event and use it to securely collaborate with other medical professionals.

In the United States, there are five million victims of Alzheimer’s. Every minute another person is afflicted with the disease. Of those aged 65-74 it is estimated that 2% suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. This percentage increases to 42% for those 85 and older.

 The victim counts will more than triple by 2050, driven in part by increases to the average life span. The greater the population of elderly, the greater the number of Alzheimer’s victims. Scientists have yet to agree on the cause of the disease. It could take from five to 20 years until a disease-modifying drug is available which guarantees the duration of suffering will be extended for the patient and care giver. The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias currently amount to more than $148 billion annually in the U.S.