Wireless technology has completely transformed the way we live, work and do business. But health care has yet to enter the digital age. By harnessing innovation in the wireless space—along with pervasive technologies such as ubiquitous sensing and data analytics—we can fundamentally shift the paradigm in health care delivery and dramatically lower health care costs. Ultimately, we have the opportunity to create a new “infrastructure-independence” model of health care, which translates into the right care, at the right time, wherever people need it.

Wireless health shouldn’t be confused with electronic health records, telemedicine or the broader landscape of health information technology. Instead, wireless health is the use of wireless technologies for health care delivery and personal health management. Wireless health encompasses end-to-end solutions that facilitate continuous access to health care information, expert advice, or therapeutic intervention—enabled by remote sensing, ubiquitous telecommunications networks, and smart systems and platforms.

Potential applications include:

Example A: John is discharged from the hospital after congestive heart failure and is given a wireless-enabled “smart patch” (like a Band-Aid) that is worn on the chest and can monitor specific and critical vital signs. The patch continuously monitors these parameters and detects negative physiological changes as they occur, alerting a physician long before John slides into an acute event. Such monitoring allows for early intervention, giving the physician the information he needs to adjust John’s medication, which prevents him from ending up in the hospital again.

Example B: Lisa has a high-risk pregnancy, and her doctor providers her with a wireless fetal monitoring device to help track her condition from home. She no longer needs to travel to hospital or clinic every time there is a non-critical change in her condition. This minimizes the cost and burden of excessive hospital visits and potentially improves monitoring capabilities for the clinician, who could more accurately determine when a visit is necessary.

Wireless health means continuous care for chronic disease and other conditions—a vast improvement from our current system of episodic and expensive rescue, or the typical “snapshot” of a person’s condition that is culled from a 10-minute office visit every few weeks or months.  Wireless health solutions help patients stay healthy and engaged in the management of their own health care, while lowering health care costs by keeping people out of hospitals and expensive facilities unless absolutely necessary.