There are 100 million Americans already living with a chronic health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or high blood pressure, wireless technologies may be able to detect important shifts in your health sooner, allowing you to have an early warning that there?s an impending problem.

As Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Foundation (who is one of the most outspoken critics of drug companies), pointed out in this video, wireless health care will be important for both preempting disease and managing illness.

Alzheimer?s patients could use the ?smart band-aids? to help with balance and vital signs, along with offering a way to track their location, for instance.

Asthma patients could track pollen counts and air quality before venturing outdoors, while heart failure patients could benefit from continuous monitoring of their heart pressures, blood pressure and fluid status.

Dr. Topol is the chief medical officer of West Wireless Health Institute:

“Regardless of the factor influencing a condition, wireless technologies offer great promise for helping people stay healthy. Wireless sensors, for example, can detect a ‘shift’ in health as soon as it occurs.

A patient with high blood pressure can be monitored with a wireless device that picks up changes and sends an early warning to the doctor ? preempting complications such as stroke, heart attack, or kidney disease.

Researchers have also developed algorithms that detect individual preference and treatment compliance patterns, making it possible to create personalized applications for end-users that provide timely advice and automated reminders to take medication or modify behavior.”

This technology is very exciting, however I hope it doesn’t replace face to face interaction between Dr.s and their patients. As I learned becoming a paramedic and nurse, treat the patient, not the monitors. Technological devices are tools, but aren’t the end all be all in patient care.