IP connectivity opens new healthcare paths

In the digital age consumers, businesses and healthcare providers are demanding innovative services, with IP networks as the conduit. In Australia, the National Broadband Network (NBN) is providing a platform for radical advances in science and healthcare that have direct effect on consumers.

Earlier this month leading research groups  including the CSIRO and NICTA joined forces with NBN Co and over twenty members to collaborate with Alcatel-Lucent's on its IP network based business innovation program, Ng Connect.

"Ng Connect offers an exciting opportunity for NICTA to engage with leading commercial innovators in critical areas such as health and transport and logistics, and I look forward to working together with other members to establish new commercial opportunities," said NICTA chief executive Hugh Durrant-Whyte said.

The program, which has already been successfully implemented overseas, facilitates collaboration between organisations, big business and start-ups across industries to create and develop new business and social service oriented concepts across IP networks, by matching their existing products and expertise.

Members in Australia include NBN Co, HP and the University of Melbourne's Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society, as well as a number of digital start-ups including Alive Mobile Group, CloudHerd, Interesting, ManageMy Group and Switch Automation.

NBN CO is already working on innovative health related trials that showcase the effectiveness of IP related connectivity. The national network has been conducting detailed clinical trials of  a ‘Fall Prevention Program’ which  combines commercially available video gaming technology with remote monitoring by health professionals.

The fall prevention programs are delivered via broadband to the home and are encouraging the implementation of new approaches to treat neurological conditions and help reduce the incidence of falls among older people, who are often isolated or need constant monitoring.

"With a growing number of people having to care for family members living with diseases that affect their mobility or their mind, a reliable high speed broadband network such as the NBN is a huge breakthrough."Dr Stuart Smith, Senior Research Officer, Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA)

NeuRA has partnered with digital media and video game development companies like Motion Therapies and Current Circus  that design solutions that use video games and virtual reality to facilitate exercise programs designed to improve balance and motor skills."The real value of this solution lies in the video feedback - with doctors being able to see how people move and monitor their progress. High speed transmission of data, via the NBN is essential for this," said Dr Smith.

As the population ages and many families  having to care for family members living with diseases that affect their mobility or their mind, the concept of IP technologies and high speed broadband network such as the NBN present a huge breakthrough in the optmisiation of care and control on social and health situations and provide technology companies with new fields for innovation.