欧姆龙：别小看血压计!

总部位于日本京都的欧姆龙(Omron)以其消费性家用医疗保健设备驰名世界，不过该公司的旗舰型血压计与其他竞争厂商产品──例如IMEC所开发的心电图(ECG)监测无线贴片、Fiso Technologies所设计的植入式血压感测器、以及ST开发的青光眼治疗隐形眼镜等等…──相比较，感觉在技术上稍嫌“低阶”了点。 但 在日前于2013年嵌入式技术大会(Embedded Technology 2013)上发表“下一代智能医疗保健技术”专题演说的欧姆龙医疗保健产品研发部门技术专家志贺利一(Toshikazu Shiga)表示，别被那些感觉很炫的新玩意儿迷惑了，要在下一代智能医疗保健战场中胜出，关键并不在于技术的感测能力有多强，更重要的是你的技术所“感 测、追踪、累积、分析与传送”给慢性病患主治医生的确切资料。 志贺开玩笑地表示，诸如植入式医疗电子装置等各种新兴先进技术，在市场上掀起了激烈战火──至少在表面上，其杀伤力足以“把一些像是欧姆龙这样的小公司摧毁”。他在专题演说后接受EETimes美国版编辑访问时透露，欧姆龙一直在密切注意每家医疗电子新创公司，也看到了一些具潜力的收购目标。 据 志贺表示，会让欧姆龙特别关注的收购目标或新创公司，是能与医疗社群主流专家们建立有力关系的那些：“我所说的是与那些在医疗社群扮演中心角色的人士，并 非那些在外围工作的人士。”在被问到欧姆龙是如何与医疗社群建立关系、特别是在日本以外的区域时，志贺自信地表示：“我们不只是建立关系，我们是牢牢抓住 了他们。”他解释，欧姆龙具备数十年历史的血压计技术经验，赢得了大多数医师的信任。 在专题演说中，志贺透露了欧姆龙如何看待医疗电子战场的未来发展。该公司认为，在医疗保健市场背后，有三种不同的主要厂商：第一是家用感测装置的制造商(如欧姆龙、Panasonic、Samsung、Sharp、Roche…等等)，其二是网络/云端服务供货商(如IBM、Microsoft)，其三是打造专业医疗设备的厂商(如GE、Siemens、Philips、Medtronics)。

欧姆龙认为，医疗保健市场背后的三大产业类别是感测、网络与控制
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“如 果GE或Siemens最后成为主导下一代智能医疗保健领域的厂商，我相信他们将会放弃像是血压计这样的家用感测装置；而如果是网络服务业者最终取得主导 权，同样的事情也会发生。”志贺表示，因此对欧姆龙这样的家用医疗保健设备业者来说，要在海啸中生存：“我们必须及早定义并掌握医师所需的数据类型，并在 足够长的时间内将之建立成为具意义的数据库，让医疗社群觉得有用并且信任。” 幸运的是，血压是一个永远会被医师们需要的生命 征象数据，因为病患的血压甚至会在一天之内不断变动，因此相关数据的收集成为可协助医师诊断病患情况的有价值信息。而最新的方法并不是让病患自己手动收集 血压数据再交给医生──志贺表示，有些病患会自己常常量血压，再从中挑选他们“认为医师会喜欢”的数据交出去。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：每个人都需要为自己的健康负起责任

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• 家庭便携医疗设备的广阔前景，专家怎么看？
• 飞利浦医疗中国影像研究学院成立
• 政策带动，医疗信息化市场加速增长Y9Desmc

{pagination} 在日本，欧姆龙与电信业者NTT Docomo为年长者合作开发了一个“健康连结(Wellness Link)”平台；志贺解释，藉由内建3G调制解调器的家用血压计，银发族只要轻松按下按键就能测量自己的血压，然后数据就会自动传送到一个由医师所使用的 “媒介链接(Media Link)”。“健康链接”与“媒介链接”使用的平台是相同的，但前者是让消费者在家里收集数据，后者是让诊所或医院的医护人员应用那些数据。 随着人口迅速高龄化所带来的医疗保健成本持续升高，日本已经成为许多先进国家未来景况的蓝本；志贺表示，从2005年到2055年，日本人口估计将会减少 30%，而届时该国人口组成人数最多的，将会是超过80岁以上的老人。因此志贺认为，要避免医疗成本升高，每个人都需要为自己的健康负起责任。 而 未来智能医疗保健的关键，就会需要每个人在家里保存一份自己的健康纪录，好让负责疾病管理的医师应用。志贺指出，随着人口高龄化，对民众健康威胁最大的将 会是所谓的“生活方式(lifestyle)”疾病，例如中风、心脏病、肥胖、二型糖尿病(type 2 diabetes)，以及慢性shen功能不全等等。 要 管理这类疾病，最重要的就是让每个人了解自己的生活资料，包括睡眠、饮食、运动习惯，但很少有病患采取行动，因为他们并没有自己保存相关纪录，也看不到自 己的问题所在。欧姆龙希望能藉由为消费者开发全新、易用的感测装置，在其中扮演关键角色；同时该公司将自己的任务定位为收集这类基本数据，并使这些数据的 格式是让医疗社群可以取得、并觉得容易使用的。 而除了血压数据，在被问到欧姆龙还认为有那些其他健康数据也很重要、需要被电子化追踪，以协助医疗社群进行糖尿病等生活方式疾病管理时，志贺表示：“显然血糖值是其中之一，还有其他的一些东西，但我们现在要先卖个关子。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Omron: Never Underestimate Blood Pressure，by Junko Yoshida

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• 家庭便携医疗设备的广阔前景，专家怎么看？
• 飞利浦医疗中国影像研究学院成立
• 政策带动，医疗信息化市场加速增长Y9Desmc

{pagination} Omron: Never Underestimate Blood Pressure Junko Yoshida Smart healthcare about data, not devices YOKOHAMA, Japan — Omron, a leading electronic component supplier based in Kyoto, is best known among consumers for its home healthcare products. However, Omron's flagship blood pressure monitor for home-use sports a decidedly low-tech look compared to a host of emerging digital medical electronics such as a wireless patch for ECG monitoring (developed by IMEC), implantable sensors for blood pressure readings (designed by Fiso Technologies), and contact lenses to treat glaucoma (developed by STMicroelectronics). But don't be fooled, insisted Toshikazu Shiga, Omron's Mr. Healthcare, during his keynote speech on "next-generation smart healthcare" on Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Embedded Technology 2013 conference. In order to win the next-generation smart healthcare battle, Shiga cautioned, it matters not so much what your technology can sense. More important is the exact data your technology needs to "sense, track, accumulate, analyze, and send" to doctors who are treating patients' chronic, lifestyle illnesses. Shiga, advisory technology specialist at Omron Healthcare Co.'s R&D dept., joked that new advances such as implantable medical electronics devices pose a serious competitive challenge, at least on the surface. He said that they "look disruptive enough to blow a little company like Omron away." Toshikazu Shiga, Omron's Mr. Healthcare In a brief interview with EE Times after his keynote, Shiga added that Omron has been closely tracking each and every emerging medical electronics startup. He acknowledged that Omron sees them as its potential acquisition targets. Omron is looking specifically for a company or a startup with a strong relationship with mainstream experts in the medical community, Shiga told us. "I am talking about ties with doctors who can play a central role in the medical community, not the ones working in peripherals." Asked how well Omron itself is wired into the medical community, especially beyond Japan, Shiga said with confidence: "We are not just wired. We take a firm grip on them." He explained that decades of Omron's work on blood pressure monitors have earned the implicit trust of the majority of doctors. Three industry groups Shiga laid out in his speech how Omron sees the medical electronics battleground will shake out in the future. In Omron's view, three distinct industry groups are after the healthcare market: vendors that build home-use sensing devices (e.g., Omron, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Roche); network service providers and those that work on the big data in the cloud (e.g., IBM, Microsoft); and medical technology companies that build systems to control illness (e.g., General Electric, Siemens, Philips, Medtronics). "If GE or Siemens ends up becoming the most dominant player controlling next-generation smart healthcare, I'm convinced that they'll eventually start giving away -- for free -- home sensing devices like the blood pressure monitors we make. If the network service provider takes ultimate control, the same thing would happen," said Shiga. For home healthcare product suppliers like Omron to survive the turmoil, "We must identify and capture, early on, the types of data doctors need, and accumulate it long enough to build the meaningful database the medical community finds useful and trusts." Three distinct industry groups -- sensing, network, and control -- are after the healthcare market. (Source: Omron) Wellness Link and Medical Link Fortunately, blood pressure is a vital sign doctors will always need. Further, because a patient's blood pressure fluctuates even during the same day, cumulative data becomes valuable information that helps doctors diagnose potential medical conditions. Rather than having patients manually record and submit their blood pressure data to doctors (Shiga said patients tend to check their blood pressures often, so that they can cherry-pick numbers they think their doctors like), senior citizens are now put on "Wellness Link," a platform for a healthcare service system Omron and NTT Docomo jointly developed in Japan. By using a home-use blood pressure monitoring device embedded with a 3G modem, senior citizens simply push a button to check their own pressure, with data automatically transmitted to "Media Link" used by doctors, Shiga explained. Both Wellness Link and Media Link use the same platform, but the former is for consumers to collect data at home, while the latter runs applications to be used by doctors in clinics and hospitals. Japan is already showing a blueprint of where many advanced countries are likely to end up -- as its rapidly increasing number of senior citizens results in the unsustainable growth of healthcare costs. From 2005 to 2055, Shiga notes, the Japanese population will decrease by 30 percent, while the peak age of the nation's population in 2055 will be in the 80s. To manage soaring costs, individuals will be pressured to take responsibility for their own health, Shiga believes. The key to smart healthcare will require everyone to keep a personal healthcare record at home, which then will be used by doctors responsible for managing illness. As the population ages, the biggest threat to people's health will be so-called "lifestyle" illnesses, according to Shiga. Such illnesses include stroke, heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and chronic renal failures. In managing life-related diseases, it's important for individuals to understand their own lifestyle data, said Shiga. That includes: how well they sleep every day; how much they eat; and how much they exercise. "Everyone understands the importance of sleep, meals, and exercise in general terms; but very few take action, because they don't keep their own personal records, and they don't see it as their own problem." Omron hopes to play a critical role in developing a slew of new, easy-to-use sensing devices for consumers. Meanwhile the company defines its mission as the accumulation of such essential data and making it available in a format the medical community will find easy to use. Beyond blood pressures, Shiga was asked by EE Times what else Omron believes important to track electronically -- data points deemed necessary by the medical community in managing lifestyle illnesses such as diabetes. "Obviously, for one, the blood sugar level. There are a few more things, but we are keeping them confidential for now."