Blood Pressure and Technology

¶ … Technology in Medicine: Distant Medical Surveillance Technology for Diabetics in the Less Developed Area of Texas An estimated 26 million Americans live with diabetes. When not properly treated, diabetes could be fatal as it occupies the seventh position on the list of major mortality causes and it is also a strong causative factor of renal failures, sight damage and clinical limb removals among Americans. Diabetes occurrences are approximately 17% higher in less developed areas.

Ethnicity and race are also major factors in determining the risk of suffering from the disease as it affects the smaller factions more. Distant medical surveillance can be very helpful in acquiring daily data about a diabetic's sugar levels, dangerous signs, feeding habits and therapy devotion. This method could help patients take their medications appropriately.

Even though certain patients could decide not to adhere to their treatments and thus render this technology useless, the group who get absorbed by work or other activities could find devices like unique alarm watches, pillbox timers, smart pill containers or automated pill dispensers quite helpful as it helps remind them to take their medications in time. This technology makes serious health disorders much easier to manage successfully for both the sufferer and the health workers.

Home installed equipment such as pills, scales, blood pressure bracelets and pulse oximeters collect and transfer readings via an extremely guarded wireless system to physicians at a clinic. Equally, monitoring devices transfer blood sugar level information to a public powerful device via Bluetooth which sends this information to a confidential virtual store. Only those with clearance given by the patient in question will have access to this information. These supervisory devices are efficient in reading several kinds of information from the patient including weight, blood pressure and sugar levels etc.

These readings could be very helpful as they help to ascertain if these technological devices are effective in enhancing treatment's efficacy on the patient, availability of medical intervention and general medical therapy. Introduction Distant medical surveillance technology can be defined as the use of technological devices to monitor the medical condition of a person 24/7. This technology doesn't deliver instant medical treatments but it makes provisions available for this if needed from a community health center or telehealth.

Distant medical surveillance technology can be made to work together with telehealth carried out by family nurses or by illness management programs (Nangalia, Prytherch & Smith, 2010). When these tracking devices are used for bodily and other health parameters' checks by the patients themselves, "self-monitoring technology" should be the name to be used in this case.

Distant medical surveillance technology as well as self-monitoring technology could sometimes be carried out via mobile gadgets and these forms of technology have a high importance when community-based care coordination (CCC) programs are to be carried out. An estimated 26 million Americans live with diabetes. When not properly treated, diabetes could be fatal as it occupies the seventh position on the list of major mortality causes and it is also a strong causative factor of renal failures, sight damage and clinical limb removals among Americans (Greenwood, Young & Quinn, 2014).

Personal discipline and endurance on the part of the patient is a key part of successful diabetes treatment and it could enhance instant relief from the comorbidities of diabetes. According to the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), eating balanced diet, exercising regularly, tracking vital signs, dedicated medication use, productive lifestyle, healthy and safe living are the seven basic self-management abilities known as the AADE7 (Greenwood et al., 2014), that are crucial to influence general lifestyle changes that could help health outcome of diabetics.

Importance of this Study Diabetes occurrences are approximately 17% higher in less developed areas. Ethnicity and race are also major factors in determining the risk of suffering from the disease as it affects the smaller factions more. An investigation into the availability of proper diabetes training have revealed that minority races face more difficulty in accessing high quality training that agrees with their traditional beliefs (Helseth, 2014).

For rural areas with characteristic long distance between homes and hospitals or clinics, lack of transport systems and a high number of the aged and low-class people with no personal transport means, home visits by medical personnel is the best and most effective choice. As more people fall prey to the scourge of diabetes, ensuring everyone has access to necessary health care so as to cut down death and chronic illnesses should form the sole objective of those in charge.

Diabetes therapy include interviews, clinical tests, self-management trainings and encouragement sessions all combined with basic health treatments for the normal problems associated with the disease (Hale, Bennett &Probst, 2010). Examinations based on national data have been carried out to monitor variations in the quality of diabetes treatment, especially among certain ethnic groups. Just a few studies have been carried out to research into how this treatment varies with respect to population living in rural communities.

Rural dwellers are often left short of appropriate levels of basic health and specialist services (Balamurugan et al., 2009), a situation which could have adverse effects on the community's diabetics and even general health. According to the ADA, it is advised that all diabetics take advantage of the Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME). DSME has been proved to be effective in enhancing the quality of lives of diabetics; nonetheless, examinations of DSME in the rural settlements have uncovered problems linked to the running and continuity of the program (Hale et al., 2010).

How much these problems have affected the quality of care available to diabetics has not been thoroughly established. Benefits of this Technology Distant medical surveillance technology helps monitor the diabetic's glucose levels, signs of infection, eating habits and devotion to therapy 24/7. When implemented, this technology can immediately reduce the frequency of diabetes related conditions such as high blood glucose level.

Other lasting benefits of this technology, which are dependent on the associated lifestyle change of the patient, are its ability to reduce the risk of diabetes' comorbidities including loss of sight, hypertension and serious renal problems (Hale et al., 2010). Furthermore, checking for physical disorders like foot swellings could reduce more critical medical conditions. Distant medical surveillance technology helps increase devotion to regular medication use.

Even though certain patients could decide not to adhere to their treatments and thus render this technology useless, the group who get absorbed by work or other activities could find devices like unique alarm watches, pillbox timers, smart pill containers or automated pill dispensers quite helpful as it helps remind them to take their medications in time.

In some cases, the patient only gets a reminder and sometimes, the technology closes and opens the drug cabinet itself at preset times and then alerts the supervising family nurse of the removal of a tablet from the cabinet (Balamurugan et al., 2009). More developed systems that can confirm that the tablet was really swallowed are being developed though they could face a moral battle when and if they are implemented.

Distant medical surveillance technology is an effective tool in the successful management of serious health disorders and it makes life easier for both the health personnel and the patients. Portable surveillance devices reduce the number of times a patient has to see a doctor for checkups, leading to less travel time and days-off at work. These devices are also very effective in rural or underdeveloped communities, which are seriously handicapped when access to quality care is concerned (Shah &Garg, 2015).

Continual reading and transmission of vital information to health personnel or the patients themselves helps to identify when preventive treatments are needed. This helps to reduce deterioration and costly advanced therapy. Incorporation into Medical Treatments Distant medical surveillance technology basically describes a complex method of keeping tabs on vital body readings that updates a patient and his/her family on their medical condition and how to maintain it, and at the same time, keeping health personnel updated through inbuilt communication systems.

Specially developed health gadgets read and transmit data from residences to specific health personnel over secure wireless connections. Some of these gadgets include tablets, weight scales, blood pressure cuffs, and pulse oximeters. This method allows a patient to rate the quality of care received (Shah & Garg, 2015). Manufacturers and installers of this system should do a financial analysis of the lower cost associated with using the technology compared to the conventional system.

A blood sugar meter, which checks and sends blood glucose level readings or a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device, which measures the amount of glucose in body fluids at a set time of 300 seconds, are some of the gadgets used in distant medical surveillance technology. Distant medical surveillance basically involves reading and collecting data from the body's vital organs that the patient could find helpful in guiding his/her lifestyle and/or alerting a specialist of the need for immediate medical intervention (Nangalia et al., 2010).

The specialist studies the data from these devices and then gives instructions such as a switch of medication or a lifestyle tweak to remain healthy. Typically, these monitoring devices transfer blood sugar level information to a public powerful device via Bluetooth which sends this information to a confidential virtual store. Only those with clearance given by the patient in question will have access to this information and they will advise the patient accordingly. However, a number of the patients are often faced with challenges in using these devices.

Some of the patients in this group are technology illiterate or suffer from other medical problems like arthritis or sight defects. This could be a hindrance to using the system as there's need for the patient to work with the technology for it to be effective (Nangalia et al., 2010). How the Data is Utilized by Medical Health Workers Distant medical surveillance can be very helpful in acquiring a large number of important medical readings including weight, blood pressure, oxygenation level, pulse and electrocardiograms.

All these readings are then sent to medical personnel in health centers including hospitals, community health centers, emergency care clinics and other types of medical establishments (Nangalia et al., 2010; Shah &Garg, 2015). These medical personnel keep tabs on the patient privately, and then give out lifestyle advice on the basis of the data received. Distant medical surveillance technology makes use of continuous measurement gadgets including glucose meters used by diabetics or blood pressure monitors used by patients with heart disorders.

The acquired information is transmitted to a doctor using specially developed telehealth networks which is controlled by special software set up on the patient's Internet-enabled gadget such as desktop computer, laptop or tablets (Shah &Garg, 2015). The data transmitted is kept in private storage where the medical specialist can access when needed for reference or analysis. Distant medical surveillance is common with geriatric and seriously sick populations mostly in need of medical surveillance and care.

Distant medical surveillance methods provide a platform for the patients and their doctors to work together and give advice when necessary. From the research conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which formed part of the National Broadband Plan developed some time ago, it was established that the application of distant medical surveillance technology together with electronic health records (EHR) would lead to a savings of over $700 billion over the next two decades.

Lobby the Local Authorities for Financial Backing of Distant Surveillance in Texas As a native of this state, my initial move will be to book an appointment with the congressman representing the region. Next, I would write to the health department of the state via the congressman's office. The objectives of these actions are to breakdown the challenges and enumerate how distant surveillance technology could solve them effectively. To further galvanize a response, I will do proper follow up with the government officials i.e.

the congressman and the officials of the health department. The media will also be involved.