APPLYING BIOMETRIC MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES

A boomer is a term used in Australia for a male kangaroo.

It is a also a term for a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. This is one of the largest demographic bubbles in history with about 78 million boomers in the US (450 million worldwide) born between 1946 and 1964.

Starting around 2016, another boomer will turn 70 years of age every 7.5 seconds - a trend that will continue for over 15 years. That is a very large market of consumers who are going to demand a variety of new technologies to make their final 30-40 years of their lives more comfortable. Yes - Most boomers will likely become centenarians.

This will spur innovation in many areas including medicine, robotics as well as biometrics. With this in mind, applying technology to an aging populations will be a running theme of this blog.

At the January CES show, in Las Vegas, a couple of different "TechZones" were dedicated to digital health and the "silver bubble". I have been tracking this trend for a number of years. What I found most significant at this year's Consumer Electronics Show was the entry of some "Big Boys" into the game - especially in the area of biometric monitoring.

Most notable to me, was Qualcom, the communications giant, hosting a number of biometric monitoring solutions in their booth, including a company called MedApp.



This is just the nascent tip of the iceberg. The combination of bio-sensors including wearable devices, Bluetooth, wireless data transmission, and a new world of services will form the foundation for applying biometric monitoring technologies.

Of course the military are also ALL OVER THIS, for monitoring soldiers in the field.

IMAGINING APPLICATIONS
The team from Firehouse 19 arrived a mere 12 minutes after the call came in.

The building was smoking heavily and flames were shooting out of a 4th floor window. This was not just a regular residential building but a Senior Living Facility.

Johnson was the team's Information Specialist. His portable command center was up and operating almost before they parked. He quickly scanned for medical data signatures. Bingo! They were on the Qualcom Healthnet. His HIPAA override request needed to be approved by the cyber-judge on duty. "Damn the bureaucrats" he muttered as he lost precious minutes to override the medical privacy requirements that would allow him access to the biometrics of the facility's patients.

Moments later, he was cleared to intercept the biometric stream. "We've got three bogeys on the 4th floor who did not get out", he spoke calmly into the headset mic. "Pulse elevated, breathing shallow for two of them, and very low O2 for all. I am sending locations and names now! " he transmitted.

He scanned the rest of the building. If there were others, they were not wearing bio monitors.

He switched over to his own ResponderOne biometric net. After all, keeping an eye on his fighters was the real reason he had a job. The new sensor embedded undergarments they now wore were genuinely amazing. They not only measured pulse, temp, BP and all the other regular stuff, but they also wicked off the perspiration from the firemen and ran real time diagnostics on the fluids.

He watched the display as his fighters reached the victims on the 4th floor. They were going to be OK!. A red dot started pulsing. "Calm down, Mendoza!" he cautioned a young Latina rookie over the radio, "Your BP is WAY up there. Turn up your O2 and slow down!"

"Roger!", came the reply.

"OK. Williams, your salt level is way down. Sip some gator."
"Bite me. Johnson", the scruffy vet came back. "You just sit back in your comfy little truck and let the real men get on with fighting this fire!". Johnson sighed, and noted that Williams was sipping the electrolyte water. It was going to be a long night.

Theo, monitoring how to apply biometric monitoring technology!