SECTION A: Case Study

ROCHE: CHANGING MEDICAL CARE WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AND BIG DATA

Imagine a world where instead of calling the doctor for a check up, routine exam, or mild illness, the doctor called you. Imagine a healthcare system that monitors your bodys vital signs real time: heart rate, blood pressure, activity levels and dietary intake. Imagine receiving notices on your smartphone with recommendations for changes in diet and exercise or, better yet, congratulations from your doctor for successfully managing your health!

Welcome to the future world if connected! Sensors attached to your body, wirelessly, power this new model of healthcare delivery connected to your smartphone, which monitors and displays your health functions and makes personal recommendations. The data in turn is sent to a health monitoring facility, staffed by nurses and doctors standing by at their own desktop displays, who in real-time monitor your health using cloud servers, Big Data software analytics, and smart phone connections to their patients.

The connected healthcare model is the future of healthcare in advanced and developing countries for three powerful reasons. In advanced countries healthcare is typically the largest industry. In the U.S. healthcare consumes 17 percent of GDP, in Europe around 10 percent, and in the global economy about 8 percent. Healthcare is growing globally at twice the rate of inflation and driving budgets increases which are not sustainable in the long-term. Proponents believe that connected healthcare could reduce healthcare costs by 40 percent! Populations are aging and requiring more healthcare than in the past. The technology is available and inexpensive. The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies (sensors, wireless communication, cloud databases, massive storage facilities, and analytic software) honed in manufacturing to monitor everything from planes, trains, and cars, to home appliances are inexpensive, increasingly powerful, and have already been extended to the Internet-of-People (IoP) in the form of activity monitors, driverless cars, and smartphone which record many user activities.

A good example of the connected healthcare model is the AccuCheck View from Roche Diabetes Care, In. F. Hoffman-LaRoche is a Swiss-based global healthcare company with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. There are over 450 million adults in the world with diabetes, four times the number in 1980. The greatest increases are in Type 2 diabetes, which is related to diet, primarily the consumption of sugars and simple carbohydrates, leading to overweight and obesity.

Teaming up with the enterprise software company SAP, Roche in 2015 introduced a line of products that helps diabetic patients monitor their blood glucose levels using a handheld glucose meter connected wirelessly to a smart phone app developed by SAP. Called AccuCheck View, Roches new package combines a blood glucose monitor, a wearable fitness tracker, a mobile SAP app, SAPS HANA cloud platform, and related SAP Big Bata analytics software. The integrated package can measure a patients vital signs and blood sugar level in relation to their physical activity level and dietary intake in real-time. The data is sent automatically to healthcare providers who can monitor the patient remotely. The aggregated data is used by SAP analytic software to identify patterns in large populations for use in medical decision-making and treatment. The goal is to help diabetes patients make better decisions about their diets and exercise, and to improve the decision making of healthcare providers using body sensors, realtime monitoring, and Big Data analytics. Implantable glucose monitors are now being developed and in trials in Europe and the U.S.

Source: Roche-Diabetes Care at ATTD 2018, Symposium, February 14-17, 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

1. Technology gives healthcare providers opportunities and tools to extend healthcare reach beyond the clinical setting for routine care and chronic care. Determine and discuss FIVE (5) contributing factors of knowledge in healthcare.

(20 marks)

2. Information Technology (IT) in healthcare improves the quality of healthcare delivery, increases patient safety, decreases medical errors, and strengthens the interaction between patients and healthcare providers. Discuss FIVE (5) ways in which IT knowledge can benefit healthcare.

(20 marks)

3. List and explain in detail FIVE (5) Information Technology (IT) applications

that have been used in the healthcare industry.

(20 marks)

(Total: 60 marks)

SECTION B: Structured Questions

1. E-learning is becoming more popular over the last few years in academic online courses. Explain FOUR (4) possible limitations of e-learning.

(20 marks)