3 novel concepts for digital health entrepreneurs. Build them!
Earpiece for tasks & comms
I’ve been a big believer in hearables (smart wireless earpieces) for a couple of years.
Recently I wrote an article around it for ICT&Health, giving an overview of players and the potential.
Despite following the scene up and close, I was still blown away by the hearables session earlier this year at SXSW. On short term hearables will be a “catch all” for different kinds of technology: listen, locate, authenticate, communicate, pay, assist, …
If you’re unaware about hearables, take a look at Bragi https://www.bragi.com or IQBuds http://www.nuheara.com
What I haven’t encountered, are earpieces for use in healthcare teams. As a caregiver you put in the earpiece (you are authenticated), enter a patient’s room (GPS kicks in and triggers the EHR), you hear the latest observations of the patient and tasks you need to accomplish. If you have any questions or need to hear the tasks again, your voice triggers the voice assistant in your ear (hey Alexa, Siri!).
Handsfree baby!
Build it!
PS1: Mayor obstacle will be cleaning the earpieces.
PS2: I’m selling my IQBuds after testing. Ping me :)
Discord for patient centred comms
Discussion with multiplayer gamers:
Me: What are you using to communicate with one another?
Player: Discord https://discordapp.com
Me: Why aren’t you using Skype, or Hangouts, or Teamspeak?
Player: Discord enables us to initiate a group conversation (around a certain game) very easily. From then on it doesn’t matter if group members leave or join, the conversation stays live.
Me: Cool, asynchronous voice comms.
Gamer: Whatever you say, man.
I see a lot of potential for patient centric collaboration (across disciplines), both in independent living as care organisations. Voice is much more powerful, faster and user-friendly than text. And participants can upload all kind of files in the conversation when needed.
Securing it might be challenging, build it nevertheless!
Soundbyte for healthcare organisation quick briefings
I’ve witnessed a pitch from the startup “soundBYTE App” (can’t find the URL anymore). The app makes audio sharing easy and fun. It allows you to record audio, called BYTES, and share conveniently with followers around the world. As said: voice is soooooo much more convenient than text. As a caregiver you can brief your colleagues with recorded voice ‘snippets’ about the condition of a certain patient, across different disciplines, including family.
Shouldn’t be to hard to create an end-user specific overview (‘overhear’ would be more correct), based on time, location, departement, etc.
What are you waiting for? Build it!
PS: Recently I’ve turned the Hyperadvancer old-school email-newsletter into something more semi-professional looking. Subscribe if you’re interested: http://hyperadvancer.com/contact
