Hot Topic: Technology Innovation and Healthcare

PISCATAWAY, N.J.—January 26, 2009—Given the modern marvels of medical science, many assume technology is already well-employed in healthcare. However, truth be told: the healthcare industry is in need for continued advancements in technology to drive global health initiatives. 

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society, is making great strides in supporting technology innovation that will ensure the health, wellness and safety of the global population. IEEE, in concert with numerous national and international organizations, both public and private, is focused on healthcare standards development, ranging from ensuring reliable healthcare networks to personalized healthcare informatics, wireless healthcare communications, telepresence in healthcare IT, standardized electronic health records and interoperability between critical patient care medical devices, to name a few.

“One area we are placing a significant global emphasis on is standardizing the manner in which some medical devices around the world ‘talk’ to and interact with one another,” said Todd Cooper, IEEE senior member and chair, IEEE 11073 Point-of-Care Medical Device Communication Standards Committee.  “This idea—founded in technology convergence—would aid global patient care—whether in North or South America, Africa, Europe or Asia, as devices would be able to communicate and share critical patient and medical record information with the click of a button. This level of data sharing would provide advanced flexibility for healthcare professionals to work without boundaries and leverage vital medical data to save human lives, globally.”

In addition to its relentless pursuit of international standards for the betterment of patient care, IEEE is also focusing its healthcare IT efforts on the following topics:

• Technology improving the world for the disabled 
• Advances in prevention of heart disease—one of the world’s leading killers
• Telemedicine—bringing cutting edge medicine to a location near you
• Technologies that are helping detect, treat and defeat cancer
• Personal health device communication standards surrounding basic electrocardiographs, international normalized ratio monitors, insulin pumps, body composition analyzers and peak expiratory flow monitors

In the U.S., President Barack Obama announced on 6 December that he was including a major investment in healthcare Information Technology (IT) to his economic stimulus plan for the country, which has fallen to 15^th in the world in terms of new technology adoption.

“IEEE is hopeful that scientists and engineers around the globe can work together to make advancements much needed in the global healthcare system,” said Dr. Bin He, President of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBS). “Once that happens, we’ll come one step closer to achieving our goal of providing all of the world’s citizens with cutting-edge technology to ensure that they are getting the best care possible.” 

For resources and experts to provide insightful commentary on healthcare topics, please contact IEEE at ieee-PR@ruderfinn.com.

About IEEE

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) is the world’s largest technical professional society. Through its more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, the organization is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed nearly 900 active industry standards. The organization annually sponsors more than 850 conferences worldwide. Additional information about the IEEE can be found at ieee.org.