1. Have you ever observed a health informatics project in your (other) organization? Please provide a brief introduction.
I have never been directly observing health informatics projects. However, at our company, we are developing support services for wearable medical-alerts devices. The device is an in-house development but not at our business unit. The services we provided are to support the monitoring of the elderly and vulnerable.
2. Do you think that this health informatics project can help to improve the current practices, how?
As we all aware, Thailand is an aging society. We are gaining number of elder old but failed to keep the growth rate of working age. The question is, Who will take care of the elder?
In terms of cost, replacement of human carer with the device is cheaper. In terms of user satisfaction, it depends on who is the actual services-receiver. If it’s the elder themselves, they will feel safer which fulfills their needs. But if it’s their family member, the family for sure will feel fewer concerns about their parents when they are at work, but the elder may feel abandoned. In term of superior outcomes, such as aging-associated diseases. The faster the sign of life-threatening conditions is found, the faster the patient is to be taken to doctor which can be lowering severity and mortality.
3. Are there any challenges or difficulties in implementing the project?
The most challenges are precision of medical sensor, data collecting and transmission and interpretation of collected data. Oversensitivity of the sensor can flood alert system while under-responsivity means life.