Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., has started sending laboratory kits to patients in advance of their physicals. Patients, especially those who live far away, can get blood drawn at a local clinic and send it back for standard lab and genetic analyses and discuss results with their doctors virtually. The future, says Carl Andersen, medical director of the clinic’s executive health program, is “bringing healthcare to patients where they are as opposed to asking them to come in.”
Mayo eventually expects to gather additional patient information remotely via smartphone and smartwatch apps, wearable sensors and blood pressure cuffs that enable monitoring of such health indicators as blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, physical activity, heart rate, heart rhythm, blood sugar and sleep quality. Doctors elsewhere have begun adopting this strategy; some experts believe it is poised to fundamentally change how the physical is done and could prompt patients to engage more proactively in their health.
More changes in healthcare from CEO of Geisinger Health
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