Telemedicine: Reaching Beyond Traditional Methods

When you think of telemedicine, does data connectivity first come to mind?

For many people, it’s the idea of video conferencing with a physician, definitely something that has been happening more and more during the current coronavirus pandemic!

There are many things that excite us about telemedicine, but one is that it can aid with so much more than just the “traditional” sense of a doctor’s visit. Here are some use cases that we’re seeing, taking telemedicine to new levels:

Remote data access

Could remote access to sensor data be considered a form of telemedicine? Here’s an example:

We at Galen Data were approached by a pharmaceutical company conducting a clinical trial for a new drug across 500 patients. Their aim was to measure the temperature of every patient, every hour over a three-month trial period. The trial involved multiple clinical sites.

In terms of logistics, it is readily apparent this is a massive undertaking. With “old-fashioned” monitoring methods, a team of researchers would be taking subjects’ temperatures around the clock and then record the data accurately. Across such a sample, there is a lot of room for error, especially when someone is trying to record patients’ data at 3 a.m.!

“Easy, consistent, and efficient” were the requirements of the pharmaceutical company. Lack of compliance or reliable temperature measurements would jeopardize the entire study.

Wearable technology provided a solution. Initially, the pharmaceutical company found a new wearable temperature sensor that could transmit data to a local smartphone, however, that was only a partial solution. This approach didn’t give them needed remote access to the temperature readings.

This is where Galen Data came in. Our pre-existing, FDA-compliant software is built for this specific scenario. Within a very short time, we had temperature sensors transmitting data to the secure Galen Cloud, with controlled remote access in place for both patients and the study coordinator.

For the pharmaceutical company, this will allow them to streamline the entire setup of their study. There was minimal chance of a temperature reading being missed or of other information being recorded inaccurately. (And no one was up taking temperatures at 3 a.m.)

VULCAN (Virtual Ultrasound Learning Control and Analysis Network)

Here’s another example of how telemedicine, powered by connected data, is enabling a revolutionary technology.

Galen Data’s customer, Tienovix is the inventor of VULCAN, an impressive suite of technologies. VULCAN includes patented and proprietary human-machine interface systems that are capable of facilitating training, diagnostics, remote monitoring and analysis, and data acquisition and retention through augmented reality.

Here’s a potential use case: what if there is an emergency in a very remote location and a non-medically trained person is called upon to perform an emergency ultrasound on a patient in physical distress? By wearing a heads-up display, the person can be guided by VULCAN through the procedure, without any type of specialized training.

The data gathered can be immediately transmitted to someone who is trained, and potentially guide the operator through an emergency procedure to help the distressed patient.

An interesting note here is that VULCAN has worked closely with NASA, who have a keen interest in using the technology. While data transmission won’t happen (without a 30-minute delay) in deep space, there are still several scenarios where they can use the technology.

Final thoughts

Telemedicine is so much more than a remote consultation with a physician. While those services remain important, especially for reaching remote populations or for helping to keep a distance during quarantine, telemedicine is seeing new horizons via connectivity.

From clinical trials to augmented reality procedures in remote locations, data connectivity is forming the basis from which all-new use cases can be brought into telemedicine.

Galen Data is ready to help fuel those technologies. Our platform is an FDA-compliant, cloud-based, access-controlled solution for connecting medical devices and enabling remote data-gathering.

Schedule a demo with us here.