Data security, RFID installations, solar power, air quality data, and the Internet of Things — I don’t think you could find any more buzzwords to describe our August Hangout. The topic is the Internet of Things in healthcare, but we won’t be talking about an Industrial Internet that is 10 (or 15 or 20) years away. MedCity News will host a conversation with people building, using and learning from new networks right now. An analyst from Frost & Sullivan will be our reality check if we drift too far into the future. An entrepreneur will talk about how she is using smart park benches to create a public Internet of things. An IT professional and a process expert will cover security and how to actually deploy a network of connected devices in a hospital.
Bookmark this page or join us on Google+ at noon Eastern on Wednesday, August 27 to listen in on the conversation. You can tweet your questions to #MCNHangout now or on Wednesday. Here are our panelists.
Clint Abernathy is the professional services officer at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance. He will be talking about an RFID project at the hospital that has improved infection control, the discharge process and overall workflow.
Jutta Friedrichs is a co-founder of Changing-Environments, which is the company behind the Soofa. The Soofa is a solar-powered park bench that collects air quality data and provides a public phone charging station.
Currently there are four Soofas in Boston and there is an early adopter program that lets people apply to get a bench in their neighborhood. Each bench has a name – Boris, Mia, Spencer and Sunny – and the devices currently collect four data points: daily visitors, hours of solar power provided daily and weekly, and solar power collected in a week. The next data collection step for Soofa is weather, noise level, and air quality.
Daniel Ruppar is the global research director for connected health at Frost & Sullivan. His recent research has included the top growth opportunities in digital health, price transparency and telehealth. He also has a smart and funny Twitter feed that you should be following.
Tim Williams is the director of product management for Absolute Software. He has worked in IT for 20 years and helped to develop tools for managing multiplatform and mobile environments. He also has written about managing security on the Internet of Things. He has advice for hospital IT managers about how to build a scalable infrastructure and how to secure all the devices on the network.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Here are some of the questions we will be discussing during the August Hangout at noon Eastern on August 27:
- What is the biggest barrier to implementing the Internet of Things at a hospital?
- What is the biggest potential benefit to building that kind of network?
- How could this kind of connectivity improve patient care?
- What is the ROI or benefit to a business?
- What is the ratio of hype to actual potential in the current discussions of the Internet of Things?
- What is a Soofa and What is the health component?
- What are the security issues around an Internet of Things?
