Aug
13
Tue
2013
Invited Talk: Remote Patient Monitoring – Challenges and Opportunities @ Amriteshwari Hall
Aug 13 @ 11:11 am – 11:44 am
Invited Talk: Remote Patient Monitoring – Challenges and Opportunities @ Amriteshwari Hall | Vallikavu | Kerala | India

Jaydeep Unni, Ph.D.
Sr. Project Manager, Robert Bosch Healthcare Systems, Palo Alto, CA


Remote Patient Monitoring – Challenges and Opportunities

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) is gaining importance and acceptance with rising number of chronic disease conditions and with increase in the aging population. As instances of Heart diseases, Diabetes etc are increasing the demand for these technologies are increasing. RPM devices typically collect patient vital sign data and in some case also patient responses to health related questions. Thus collected data is then transmitted through various modalities (wireless/Bluetooth/cellular) to Hospitals/Doctor’s office for clinical evaluation. With these solutions Doctors are able to access patient’s vital data ‘any time any where’ thus enabling them to intervene on a timely and effective manner. For older adult population chronic disease management, post-acute care management and safety monitoring are areas were RPM finds application. That said, there are significant challenges in adoption of Remote Patient Monitoring including patient willingness and compliance for adoption, affordability, availability of simpler/smarter technology to mention a few.  But experts contend that if implemented correctly Remote Patient Monitoring can contain healthcare expenditure by reducing avoidable hospitalization while greatly improving quality of care.

Plenary Talk: Biomaterials: Future Perspectives @ Amriteshwari Hall
Aug 13 @ 1:40 pm – 2:16 pm

SeeramSeeram Ramakrishna, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Nanofibers & Nanotechnology, National University of Singapore


Biomaterials: Future Perspectives

From the perspective of thousands of years of history, the role of biomaterials in healthcare and wellbeing of humans is at best accidental. However, since 1970s with the introduction of national regulatory frameworks for medical devices, the biomaterials field evolved and reinforced with strong science and engineering understandings. The biomaterials field also flourished on the backdrop of growing need for better medical devices and medical treatments, and sustained investments in research and development. It is estimated that the world market size for medical devices is ~300 billion dollars and for biomaterials it is ~30 billion dollars. Healthcare is now one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide. Legions of scientists, engineers, and clinicians worldwide are attempting to design and develop newer medical treatments involving tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, nanotech enabled drug delivery, and stem cells. They are also engineering ex-vivo tissues and disease models to evaluate therapeutic drugs, biomolecules, and medical treatments. Engineered nanoparticles and nanofiber scaffolds have emerged as important class of biomaterials as many see them as necessary in creating suitable biomimetic micro-environment for engineering and regeneration of various tissues, expansion & differentiation of stem cells, site specific controlled delivery of biomolecules & drugs, and faster & accurate diagnostics. This lecture will capture the progress made thus far in pre-clinical and clinical studies. Further this lecture will discuss the way forward for translation of bench side research into the bed side practice.  This lecture also seeks to identify newer opportunities for biomaterials beyond the medical devices.

Seeram (1)