In addition to treating chronic conditions, telemedicine aims to improve the quality of preventative in-home care. The Continua/IEEE standards for medical devices such as blood glucose meters also apply to preventative products such as pedometers and modules for aerobic exercise. Notably, Nike has developed a pedometer that links their running shoes to an iPod for later download to a healthcare database.

Preventative care would be even more powerful if healthcare providers received cohesive data from gym records, exercise logs, and other personal health products used by their patients. Through advances in home healthcare devices the data could be recorded directly, time stamped, and made available for both patients and doctors to review. When viewed on a well-designed online portal, personal health data could provide quick feedback to the patient to adjust their lifestyle long before any health problems occur.

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