On a recent visit to the hospital, Riley, who is five years old, swallowed a tiny white pill with an embedded sensor – roughly the size of a grain of sand. When it reached her stomach, it sent a signal to a patch she’s wearing on her skin and alerted her parents and doctors that she’d taken her medication.
Making sure Riley has taken her pills is especially important because she had a kidney transplant earlier this year.
Why would hospitals use this technology? Not only to improve patient health but to cement their relationship with patients.
Children’s hospitals are searching for the best way to monitor patients and keep them out of the ER. Digital health startups are looking for patients to test their products. Julie Hall-Barrow, Senior Director of Healthcare Innovation at Dallas Children’s Medical Center, says keeping kids healthy means finding partners outside of the hospital, in the home, in the school, and with faith-based organizations…
“These companies gave them convenience and an app, what we as an industry missed was they also wanted to extend the relationship with their network of caregivers,” Perialas said.
Combining the latest technologies with established medical providers seems to be a recipe for success for both the patient and provider perspective.