The Future of Telehealth according to Leslie Saxon, MD

USC chief of cardiovascular medicine Leslie Saxon, MD has been in the news a lot lately. A professor of clinical medicine at USC, she has been host of the USC Body Computing Conference (BCC) since 2007 (The 2011 BCC event was held recently). One of her primary interests is telehealth. As a cardiologist, Saxon is especially interested in the potential of keeping an eye on patients remotely and telehealth technology's ability to transform care. And for good reason. Once broadly adopted, telehealth could completely transform the way that doctors and patients interact. “What is dynamic and profound about [telehealth technology] is that it scales so beautifully,” she said last night during a chat on BBC 5 Live. As a cardiologist, she feels limited that she can only reach patients she comes in close contact with. “How amazing to think that I could reach millions of patients through software?” she asks, adding that many patients are frustrated that they aren’t able to interact with their doctor as much as they would like.

Telehealth could transform our lives in other ways, too, if some of the ideas Saxon discusses become reality. For instance, she mentioned a number of interesting examples where monitoring technology might be used in the future. One that has stuck in my mind is sensor technology that can be integrated into cars to detect the driver’s heartbeat. Being able to see that data while driving could help people learn to modulate their heart beat and stress levels.

Other examples that were mentioned include the AliveCor iPhone ECG (pictured here along with other iDevices) and smart shirts that wirelessly monitor health data of athletes on the field. Saxon explained that she was at a party once and noticed that someone wasn't feeling well. She was able to use the AliveCor device to determine that the issue wasn't a "cardiac thing." The device is now being tested on a group of approximately 100 patients.

Devices such as smart shirts could turn sporting upside down by letting coaches know when their players are getting fatigued. (There are interesting implications for gambling there as well.)

Saxon notes that one of the things that she is trying to do with the body computing efforts is to “bring a little bit of popular culture to medicine and a little bit of medicine to pop culture.” As an example, she cited Steve Jobs and Apple’s knack for optimizing user experience. She thinks we’ll begin to see more of that in healthcare in years to come.

She also says, because of the explosion of data made possible by modern technology, she thinks patients will increasingly learn to partner with their doctor. Wireless technology will help “transform the notion that you and the doctor must be in the same room.”

In the BBC interview, when asked about doctors who may not be sympathetic to being fed reams of patient data about demographics, she acknowledged that the explosion of data could leads some physicians to feel that they might feel spread thin. But, she adds that data could ultimately end up saving time. “Analytics are so sophisticated now that much of what we do is automated,” she explains. “[For example, I could use remote monitoring to] look at the patients that need me and let the rest know they are fine,” she adds. “In terms of liability risk, I don’t think we can afford not to look at this data.” She says that data gather could be simplified using artificial intelligence and sophisticated analytics that are available "on the shelf."

—Brian Buntz

In other recent news, California passed new telehealth legislation today.

Image of Leslie Saxon by Emily Shur.