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The health care system necessary to enable the story is perhaps harder to envisage than the technology. GPs are already under pressure dealing with their current workloads, which the King’s Fund4 has identified as having grown enormously not only in volume but also in complexity. How the service could be developed to manage incoming alerts from trackers from all their patients would need a major rethink about how GP services are delivered.
It could be argued that the early detection of potential problems has the potential to lead to a reduction in demand. It could also however lead to GPs having to manage an ever increasing workload as they have to incorporate responding to the information streams uploaded from patients’ home doctor systems, and calling them to arrange appointments or referring them to alternative GPs. It has been found that information alone does not lead to an improvement in care. A study5 looking at how the use of an electronic health record (EHR) affected the quality of care for patients with diabetes found that EHR use did not improve the clinical quality of diabetic care.
Dave’s anticipatory care
Dave finished his coffee and, as he did each morning, he slipped on his fitness tracker, weighted himself and took his blood pressure. The data gathered by all those Internet of Things devices were passed to his doctor.
As he packed (to leave for a conference in London), Dave felt cold. He turned up the heating, and again, the internet enabled thermostat reported to the healthcare computers.
Dave jumped into his car and set off for London. As his car pulled onto the motorway, his family physician/general practitioner (GP) arrived for work. The doctor had received a report by email; Dave Babbage’s blood pressure was up; his daily activity had dropped markedly; his temperature was up; and his weight had been trending differently too.
The GP pulled up Dave’s records and looked at Dave’s heart rate, both real time and historic, there was a problem. The GPs experience and the surgery’s AI-based augmentation systems agreed.
The GP could see that Dave was close to London. An appointment was made for Dave to see a GP close to his hotel and all of Dave’s medical records and data were made available to the new medic. The new GP gave Dave a checkup and provided him with a prescription. The doctor also provided some lifestyle advice. The medicine would be delivered to Dave’s hotel.
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