How are you feeling? A social network model to monitor the health of post-operative patients

Mobile devices and cloud computing platforms have become increasing popular in recent years, as more ways in which to adopt these technologies to existing business and research models have been envisioned and implemented. What started as simply providing bandwidth and technology to mobile users in order to browse the internet from handheld devices now allows entire websites to be hosted on remote cloud platforms. Users now have the ability to trade and track stock market data from anywhere and anytime, automatically communicate data from wearable medical sensor devices, avoid vehicle collisions, track freight shipments, and a plethora of other applications. Healthcare is an area where the leveraging of these new technologies has the ability to have worldwide impact, with many exciting possibilities. However, much of the current focus is on more “doctor-centric” uses rather than “patient-centric” ones. The use of mobile devices to automatically sense and transmit data from the patient, devices to aid in dictation and communication within hospital settings, and cloud products to store patient data and other solutions help make the tasks of physicians easier, but do not necessarily improve the care given to the patient. There are bandwidth concerns, security concerns and the general cyberphobia that consumers commonly have with sharing personal information. This paper proposes a different type of solution that is more related to a social networking environment in which many people are already comfortable using. It concentrates on the collection of data from patients during a period of time that they are often suffering the most - after initial post-operative release from a hospital or clinic. It first explores technologies that are currently in use, and then describes a different model that allows the patient to control what information is being shared, who is allowed to consume this data, and how it might enhance the well-being of those that may make use of this new paradigm.