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NIST researcher Dr. Edward Griffor has contributed to recent dialogs on the role of Internet of Things technologies to advance future healthcare. For a podcast, Griffor was interviewed by Dr. Rod Rodriguez-Fernandez, Global Health Advisor, Wellness & Mental Health of International SOS (ISOS) on the topic of integrating IoT in future Healthcare technologies for improved global delivery of Emergency Medicine (EMS) and clinical care under austere conditions. Griffor and Rodriguez discussed applications and challenges associated with the use of IoT devices and infrastructure, including:
- Challenges to merging and contextualizing patient data across instances of care
- Improving quality of care through continuous monitoring of patient status and response to treatment
- Implementing an integrated healthcare taxonomy as a widely accessible “database” to align future standards and to enable predictive diagnostics
- Use of AI/ML driven predictive analytics for global disease evolution and progression
- Integrating design and development of medical IoT with advances in biochemical foundations
In addition, Dr. Griffor was an invited Medical Internet of Things (IoT) panelist at a Palo Alto Meeting of medical experts and technologists on Future Healthcare, held on September 13-14, 2024. Healthcare is evolving rapidly, with innovations creating both challenges and opportunities. In this gathering, experts in the field met to share insights and explore strategies needed to stay ahead in the ever-changing landscape of global health.
Griffor discussed the integration of IoT in future healthcare for improved clinical and post-release care. In his remarks, Griffor emphasized pressing questions about the future of healthcare:
- How will AI reshape patient care?
- How might this change with the integration of IoT technologies?
- Can IoT help to reduce expenditures on healthcare?
Griffor described the cost of healthcare as being $4.5 trillion or $13,493 per person in the U.S. in 2022 — while countries like Japan, Germany, and Denmark achieve healthcare outcomes with less. He also discussed IoT applications and challenges for future healthcare including:
- Healthcare professionals’ concerns about automation, e.g. Pressure Control Ventilation interpreting exhalatory pressure as patient breathing effort
- Improving quality of care through wearable devices for continuous monitoring of patient status
- Implementing an integrated machine learning (ML) taxonomy to align pre- and post-clinical care standards
- Predictive diagnostics for cardiac medicine
- Assuring AI/ML analytics for assessing disease evolution and progression, e.g. demonstrating reduced readmissions for exacerbated heart failure patients
Griffor had previously held a joint workshop with EU and U.S. medical and technology experts at the Gdansk University Medical School (GUMED) in May 2024, and he is working with GUMED biochemists and Stanford Medical Center Cardiac ICU practitioners to devise novel computational models of signaling and metabolic pathways.