Thumbs up to CableLabs for its view of the future of healthcare.
At its summer meeting last week, the organization premiered a video, "The Near Future. A Better Place," the second in a series designed to provide a look at how broadband networks and increased connectivity could drive innovation in various fields, such as healthcare and telemedicine.
The film featured veteran actor Rance Howard demonstrating how his smart home, virtual reality (VR), and telemedicine help him live independently, stay connected with his family, and have non-invasive healthcare options from his own home.
Two of the most intriguing sections feature a pair of VR glasses. The gentleman played by Howard has a health issue, and we see him communicating with his doctor from his home. With VR, he is able to see her as if she is sitting across the desk from him. She is able to pull up 3D scans of his brain and explain to him a procedure he will have. To alleviate a blockage, she will send an army of nanobots into him (which is another incredibly cool application), and she shows him how this will work.
Using the VR glasses, Howard's character also is able to "see" his wife gardening in their backyard. In the scenario, she had passed away 10 years prior. The VR applications provide a way for him to stay connected to her.
Various other broadband applications allow Howard's character to communicate regularly with his daughter and friends. He has a robot named Cookie that interacts with him, reminds him of his medications and orders transportation for him.
CableLabs did an excellent job of creating a vision of some of the applications that could come down the road in the not too distant future that will utilize the gigabit speeds operators are working hard to provide today.
"It addresses the question of what … would consumers do with multi-gigabit networks in the home," said Phil McKinney, CableLabs president and CEO. "Storytelling is a mechanism for how the vision of technology plays out."
McKinney stressed that the video is not an announcement that the cable industry is getting into medical research; rather, it is about inspiring the companies that are creating these technologies by demonstrating what the cable industry could enable in the form of home networks.
"It is not just about speed and enabling WiFi or a fiber link in the home," McKinney said. "It is innovation with a purpose. What do these networks enable innovators to create to make the future a better place?"
McKinney said the types of applications demonstrated in the film are foreseeable three to eight years in the future and noted that making them a reality involves legal and regulatory components as well as technology and innovation. For example, some telemedicine applications that are in use now run into trouble because in some states, a doctor can only consult if he or she is licensed in that state. Security is another issue. It has to be tight in order to comply with HIPA requirements, for example.
"We are using the video to inspire (experts) to come around the table and (figure out) how to make it happen. We are committed to taking the message not just to cable, but to legislative and policy makers," McKinney said.
He added, however, that CableLabs does have a for-profit division, Kyrio, that takes research done within CableLabs and makes it available to others, such as the medical industry.
"(They) came to us and said they wanted to take advantage of the security work (we had done) and apply it to medical devices," McKinney said.
Getting in one final plug for cable, McKinney noted that the cable architecture is such that a cable modem has to be connected in a very specific way to a specific node. Thus, when a medical device is connected via cable, it can be verified that it is at a specific address.
"We bring this to the table," McKinney said.