The consumer electronics giant LG has announced a three-year project, starting next month, in association with the University of Alberta and costing CAN$4 million. The proposed cellphone-based device will use ‘new sensing technology to allow patients to send their physiological information wirelessly to their health-care provider’ and ‘involve monitoring blood pressure, pulse and temperature…glucose levels and other blood chemistry markers will be added as features’.
It’s great to see a company like LG moving into this arena, but as there are companies already marketing diabetes and blood pressure monitoring linked to mobile phone technology, one wonders if this Alberta Government-backed investment is going to be a case of too much, too late. Globe and Mail telehealth news item.