How has technology advancement transformed healthcare and medicine?

Technology advancement has significantly transformed healthcare by saving innocent lives, improving human health, and increasing longevity. Medicine and healthcare are among the domains experiencing the most remarkable impacts and innovations from technological development.

Wearable Tech as the New Tool in Proactively Monitoring Public Health

Q: How does AI predict disease risks and detect health problems early?

AI technology synthesizes and analyzes data from wearable devices to monitor, detect, and predict disease risks based on cardiovascular specifications. It generates warnings about disease characteristics and provides recommendations for early intervention, particularly for stroke and cardiovascular conditions.

Technology has profoundly transformed human life, with medicine among the fields experiencing the most significant impact and innovation. Advances in digital tools are helping save lives, improve overall health outcomes, and extend life expectancy across populations.
In recent years, the adoption and development of wearable technology have accelerated, particularly among major brands such as Apple, Omron, Samsung, and Xiaomi. For example, Cerebrotech Medical Systems, Inc. provides real-time assessment of brain fluid distribution for patients undergoing neurological evaluation, enabling earlier intervention to help prevent further brain damage. Samsung engineers have also developed a prototype wearable sensor capable of monitoring brainwaves to detect early signs of stroke. Meanwhile, researchers at Yonsei University in South Korea have created an application that runs on a handheld device to objectively assess the pronator drift test and evaluate its feasibility in stroke patients.
With the goal of contributing advanced technologies to community wellbeing, FPT has taken initial steps to develop the healthcare ecosystem based on IoT and AI. This ecosystem aims to provide solutions for early stroke risk prediction and continuous monitoring of cardiovascular-related conditions.

Written by

Nguyen Chi Thanh

Published on

February 17, 2020

Summary

This article examines how wearable health technologies enable proactive public health monitoring through continuous data collection and intelligent analysis. It presents an ecosystem that connects individuals, caregivers, and hospitals to support early risk detection, faster interventions, and more coordinated care, positioning such platforms as key enablers of preventive medicine and community health management.

Key Points:

Defines a connected healthcare ecosystem using wearable devices and applications to continuously monitor individual wellness indicators.
Highlights enhanced preventive care by enabling early risk detection, timely alerts, and more informed clinical decisions.
Explains improved coordination among patients, families, and healthcare providers through shared insights and remote guidance capabilities.
Discusses challenges and future opportunities around adoption, data governance, and integration with broader public health strategies.

System Components

The system is built from two main components: sensor-integrated wearable devices and a mobile and web-based application platform.

Sensor-integrated wearable devices: These devices monitor key cardiovascular indicators and continuously collect and store data such as heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. They function as a personal health companion, supporting daily health monitoring.
Mobile and web-based application platform: This platform processes and transmits collected data and is organized into three application groups tailored to different end-user categories.

The application platform is divided into three groups based on end-user classification:

USafe – designed for patients.
UCare – developed for family members and doctors.
UConnect – intended for hospitals and medical centers.

General patient data, such as name, age, gender, occupation, medical record, and health indicators, are stored on the FPT’s healthcare server and can be accessed from any application. However, each application group provides customized functionality appropriate to its specific users, ensuring both data security and information relevance.

Use Cases

Within the healthcare ecosystem, AI technology leverages data collected from wearable devices to synthesize, analyze, monitor, detect, and predict disease risks based on cardiovascular-related indicators. The system generates timely alerts regarding a patient’s condition for patients themselves, notifies family members when necessary, and provides actionable recommendations to doctors.

Various types of sensors can be integrated into wearable devices to support this process, including:

PPG and ECG sensors: measure and analyze heart-related indicators
IMU sensors: monitor human movement and activity patterns
GPS: identifies the user’s location and, when necessary, recommends the nearest treatment center within the healthcare ecosystem

USafe: Personal Health Monitoring and Stroke Risk Warning

USafe is a mobile application installed on patients’ smartphones that supports users in tracking daily activities and essential health indicators. Based on collected data, it enables users to proactively protect their wellbeing and respond promptly to potential health risks.

Key capabilities of USafe include:

Monitoring daily activities such as step count and calories burned
Tracking health indicators including blood sugar levels and heart rate
Providing personalized recommendations based on each patient’s health status
Analyzing data to assess stroke risk
Issuing early warnings for users at high risk of stroke
Immediately transmitting critical health data to hospitals to enable timely intervention

In summary, when USafe detects changes in a user’s health condition, it conducts a detailed analysis and automatically initiates appropriate follow-up actions.

UCare: Clinical Anomaly Alerts and Remote Medical Support

UCare focuses on patient safety by issuing alerts when abnormal clinical indicators are detected and by guiding family members and healthcare professionals through emergency situations.

Key functions of UCare include:

Detecting abnormal clinical indicators and sending timely alerts
Providing step-by-step emergency guidance for family members, including first aid, hospitalization procedures, and directions to nearby hospitals
Enabling doctors to access patient medical records for remote consultation or to guide local healthcare providers
Protecting healthcare professionals during the treatment of infectious diseases through wearable devices and secure data transmission
Supporting the monitoring of infected individuals’ movements to reduce the risk of disease spread within the community

UConnect: Streamlined Patient Intake and Hospital Coordination

Hospitals and medical centers at all levels, from national to local, can use the UConnect application to streamline patient intake processes and enhance coordination with other healthcare facilities.

With UConnect, healthcare providers can:

Quickly complete patient registration and admission procedures
Connect with satellite hospitals and stroke monitoring and alert centers
Receive timely treatment recommendations to minimize patient risk

Overall, the FPT’s healthcare ecosystem is expected to deliver significant positive impacts on public health and to become a key partner in the development of hi-tech healthcare and smart home solutions in the near future.

Interested in Digital Healthcare? Discover how FPT has been applying technology to streamline healthcare systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key components of wearable health monitoring systems?
Wearable health monitoring systems consist of two main components: sensor-integrated wearable devices that collect cardiovascular data such as heart rate and blood pressure, and mobile/web-based application platforms that process and distribute this information to different user groups.

How has technological advancement transformed healthcare and medicine?
Technological advancements have significantly transformed healthcare by saving lives, improving health outcomes, and extending longevity. Medicine and healthcare are among the fields experiencing the most profound impact from ongoing technological innovation.

How does AI predict disease risks and detect health problems early?
AI synthesizes and analyzes data collected from wearable devices to monitor, detect, and predict disease risks based on cardiovascular indicators. It generates early warnings and provides recommendations for timely intervention, particularly for stroke and cardiovascular conditions.