Overview
Busy lifestyles that leave little time or motivation for fitness and
weight management; a rise in chronic diseases; an aging population that
requires escalating levels of supervision and medical intervention – these
are the lifestyle, health and demographic trends that are directly
contributing to skyrocketing health care costs.
- More than 1 billion people in the world are overweight, and at least
300 million of those are clinically obese [1]. Without
action, more than 1.5 billion people are expected to be overweight by 2015
[2].
- Over 600 million people worldwide have chronic diseases, and the
spending on chronic diseases is expected to increase [3].
For example, in the US alone, spending is expected to increase from $500
billion a year to $685 billion by 20203.
- Globally, the number of persons 60 and older was 600 million in
2000. It is expected to double to 1.2 billion by 2025
[4].
The personal telehealth opportunity
In a system well-designed for improving health, people with heart disease
or diabetes can transmit their vital signs – blood pressure, heart rate,
glucose levels, temperature, weight, respiration – seamlessly from home to
their health professional, and get real-time feedback on their condition. A
busy professional is able to receive a daily electronic check-up on the
health status his aging parent who lives alone, suffers from a series of
chronic conditions and is on multiple medications. A traveling
businessperson can have a real-time discussion about the workout she just
completed with a trainer who is hundreds of miles away.
Today, technologies like these that can enable more proactive personal
health exist and are being applied – but not nearly as commonly as needed to
radically improve health and quality of life and eliminate unnecessary costs
from the healthcare system. To become a central component of the way we
manage health, personal health and medical devices must be fully
interoperable with each other and with other information sources. Because
broad interoperability has yet to be achieved, it is an emerging priority
for health systems and for the medical and information technology
industries. Creating a rich eco-system of interoperable health and fitness
devices will:
- Empower individuals and patients to better manage their health by
providing them with information regarding their fitness and health through
personal medical devices and services.
- Allow loved ones and professional care givers to more accurately
monitor and coach chronic disease patients and elderly individuals living
independently.
- Enable medical and fitness device manufacturers to rapidly develop
interoperable devices and services using industry developed connectivity
standards.
- Enable health care providers to offer better quality care through
personalized health solutions assembled from a rich marketplace of
interoperable health care devices and services.
Key Information
Press
Release September 12, 2007
Continua
Overview Presentation.pdf
Continua Backgrounder
Continua Health Alliance Press Announcement Webcast
Continua
Health Alliance Spokesperson Quotes
[1] World Health Organization. (2003). Obesity and
Overweight: Dr. P. Puska, Dr. C. Nishida, Mr D. Porter.
[2] World Health Organization. (2005) Ten Facts About Chronic
Disease. Retrieved May 19, 2006, from http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/chp/07_en.html.
[3] (2001). Scaling Mount Proteome to Bring Down Chronic
Disease. The Pfizer Journal®, Global Edition Volume 1I, Number 2, 2001,
4-9.
[4] World Health Organization. (2006, February 13). The world
is fast ageing - have we noticed? Retrieved May 19, 2006, from http://www.who.int/ageing/en/.
