Earlier this year I wrote a piece entitled Big Blue Will See You Now. In it I discussed how IBM’s forays into RFID and medical search engine technologies were positioning the company to profit handsomely from the lucrative health care market by helping both doctors and hospitals become more efficient.
Well, it now appears, that IBM isn’t satisfied in just helping the physical you, it now wants to create a 3-D representation of you (in the form of an avatar) upon which all of your digital health care information can be quickly and easily displayed and, thus, recalled by doctor.
Dubbed the Anatomic and Symbolic Mapper Engine (ASME), the software will allow a doctor to click a computer mouse on any part of your avatar’s “body” and it will trigger a search of all relevant medical records.
Say, for example, that you have a history of back pain. This technology would immediately pull up all medical x-rays, radiographs, and MRI’s, as well as labs results and any other information that your doctor might have noted in your previous visits.
It appears to me to be a very promising technology and if you are like me and don’t enjoy being asked the same questions or being poked and prodded in the same uncomfortable areas every time you visit a doctor, this technology might save you that hassle and instead force your digital stand-in to deal with those assorted indignities.
I have said it before and I will say it again, the health care industry is poised for radical change in the years ahead; but the companies leading this change aren’t going to be what most people regard as traditional health care companies. They are going to leaders in the field of computer and information technology—companies such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard and, as this latest innovation demonstrates, IBM.
If health care executives want to “jump the curve,” they need to begin familiarizing themselves with these companies initiatives because they could the potential to save the industry vast amounts of time and money.
Related Articles:
HP’s Pain-Free Future
Intel’s Healthy Outlook
IBM Improves it’s Pedigree
Jack Uldrich is a writer, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequenter speaker on future trends, innovation, change management and executive leadership to the health care and aging services industry.
