Referenced video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTLO1Md4BSw
Kate Milliken
Title: Patient, Entrepreneur & Host, HIMSS TV
Interviewing
Anders Strömberg
Title: Head of Health Solutions Division,
Sony Network Communications Europe
[Scene: Connected Health Conference in Boston, Oct 2019]
0:00
[Kate] Anders, you have started a new department
0:02
at Sony, dealing with wearable devices
0:04
and health. Tell me a little bit about
0:06
how that came to be and what you're
0:08
working on. [Anders] We started off this as
0:09
innovation competition! So we did a lot
0:12
of feasibility studies last year. In 2018 where
0:15
we interviewed a lot of elderly people
0:17
and people with different clinical
0:19
conditions about their experience with
0:22
digitalization - and a lot of what we came
0:25
up with was that it is really
0:27
complex to use smart phones,
0:30
and smart watches. All this seems
0:33
really hard. [Kate] Seems really hard! [Anders] And
0:35
It was quite a stressful for a lot of
0:38
these people to really manage the
0:40
technology. So that was coming out, and
0:44
also that the technology were not
0:47
made for measuring different
0:50
kind of medical conditions of being part
0:52
of that kind of remote monitoring. So
0:55
that was the idea behind this, and with
0:58
that and looking at the different IP
1:00
that Sony have internally about IOT and
1:03
electronics and so on, we proposed to put
1:06
together a new sort of wearable which is
1:09
based out of IOT rather than…. [Kate] Internet of
1:12
Things! [Anders] Exactly! [Kate] Right, so…. and so what did
1:16
you come up with? [Anders] We come up with this [showing his Sony wearable device on his arm]
1:18
okay we have chosen all the technology
1:22
in here to get as much battery life as
1:24
possible, so we are looking at more than
1:26
seven days of battery life of this
1:28
device. We have seen some use cases
1:31
where it's actually up to a month
1:32
battery life, depending on how it's being
1:34
used for the different use cases.
1:37
We have chosen the black and white
1:39
screen because a lot of the feedback we
1:41
got is that these very colorful displays
1:44
is very difficult to read for elderly
1:46
people. So we have actively chosen a
1:48
display which is very bright. [Kate] And if it's
1:50
connected to the Internet of Things and
1:52
it's sensoring things in the house [Anders] So
1:54
it's sensing things both while typical
1:57
fitness & wellness sensors like heart
1:59
rate, heart rate variability, stress, sleep
2:01
and so on - but it can also connect our
2:03
using Bluetooth Low Energy to any kind
2:05
of other external sensor so your scale,
2:08
blood pressure monitor, or whatever - and
2:10
because it's always connected
2:12
It can always connect into the cloud
2:14
without having a smartphone with it, or a
2:17
Wi-Fi connection or anything like that.
2:19
It's always connected! [Kate] Wow!
2:21
So when you talk about your ideal client,
2:25
what do they look like? [Anders] Someone that
2:27
has the business within remote
2:29
monitoring or mobile health and they
2:32
have been trying to do a lot around
2:34
smartwatches and so on but not really
2:37
got the use case to work out for them
2:38
because their limitation of that
2:40
platform. So we want to be the add-on to
2:44
their their business and complement this,
2:47
because with this wearable it
2:49
actually covers a lot of these kind of
2:51
areas where they have a difficulty to
2:53
fulfill the needs: Always with you,
2:56
you can shower with it, you can have it
2:58
in the sleep, you can have it when you're
3:00
travelling, and everywhere. So it's really
3:02
adding a new value and a new capabilities
3:04
for these companies. [Kate] Certainly when
3:07
someone comes out with a new technology
3:08
there are always hurdles to be had. I'm
3:10
sure you've had many tech… technology
3:12
iterations - we don't have to talk about
3:14
that. What are some other barrier entries
3:16
that have appeared that are in real life?
3:19
[Anders] The barriers is have been more to
3:21
explain the benefit of the platform, and
3:25
always having this that it's not a
3:27
consumer device – it's a
3:29
business-to-business device. So, that
3:32
have been a bit of a struggle, because we
3:34
don't do the turnkey solution - we provide
3:37
a platform that can collect the
3:41
data. [Kate] To bring it all together! [Anders] Exactly!
3:44
So that have been so.. everyone is Sony in
3:47
healthcare? - Yes sort of, but not
3:49
really! [Kate] Obviously being a hub for all of
3:52
those types of things in the house,
3:54
you're measuring a lot of data and
3:56
getting a lot of real-time data, is that
3:58
always a positive? [Anders] I would say so, yes!
4:01
I think it's better to have the data, and
4:04
do something good about the data, and
4:08
treat it with privacy and integrity, so I
4:11
think it's good to have it! What is
4:13
interesting with our solution is that we have
4:15
this end-to-end encryption - so we are
4:18
really taking the data from the device
4:20
directly into our partners back-end
4:23
system, Sony
4:24
do not have any access to any of the
4:26
patient date or anything like that. If
4:29
you compare that with some of the other
4:30
vendors, they actually get the data and
4:33
and have access to that specific data! We
4:36
we are not in that business. We are
4:38
helping these companies to create a good
4:42
turnkey solution without interfering, so
4:44
to say, but still giving the security
4:46
of it. [Kate] In the world of compliance, in the
4:49
world of someone even putting the watch
4:50
on every day, what have you discovered in
4:53
terms of consistency? [Anders] Well, we are involved in
4:57
two research projects in Europe one is
5:00
looking at getting patients to be more
5:02
compliant to ordinations.
5:04
So they think that by having a wearable
5:08
that can keep reminding the person about
5:11
their taking their medicine taking their
5:14
weight, measuring the blood pressure, just
5:16
doing the kind of activity that the
5:18
doctor have given them as an ordination -
5:20
makes them more compliant! So, if you take
5:23
that - suddenly they wearable become
5:25
something that you work on every day
5:27
basis for improving your condition. And I
5:31
think the compliance both in keeping it
5:34
on will be much higher, because you
5:37
always interact for a good purpose
5:39
with it. It's not reading your
5:41
emails or streaming your music - it's
5:43
actually for your specific condition!
5:45
right, and that is quite motivating. [Kate] And
5:47
arguably all you have to do is put it on!
5:50
[Anders] Yes! right it's that simple.
5:52
So you charge it, you put it on, and it's
5:55
actually communicating and no extra
5:57
work. There are no pins, no nothing like
5:59
that – it's actually working out of the
6:01
box that way.
6:03
[Kate] Awesome.
[HIMSS TV logotype is shown]
[Video ends]
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