This site represents a Technology Based Initiative to create a Worldwide Market-Driven Affordable Whole Healthcare System and is seeking forward thinking and innovative companies, organizations, Universities, and individuals to participate and lead in the Vision, Standards, and the Development of the System... Check back for updates (lots more data to input). Site History
Hospitals, Clinics, and Doctors
Medical, Security, Fitness, Control, Environmental, and Network Device Companies
The System supports a great number of Industries, Devices, Applications, Service Providers, Integrators, and End-Users. The System is modular, which allows it to be configurable for many different applications, able to phase in features and enhancements over time, and allow features to have their own roadmaps.
The System is Standards Based, so multiple organizations, developers, and integrators can all contribute. It has common interfaces and functions allowing developers to concentrate on their specific device or service, and inherit the other functionality. The Core and 3rd Party Components can be configured in different ways to support a wide variety of different need and uses.
Within this realm, there are many opportunities for Public/Private Partnerships. This initiative is not to reinvent the wheel, but leverage as much as possible from existing efforts and organizations. The following sections represent some of the relationships that different groups would have with the System.
There are many different types of Medical, Security, Fitness, Control, Environmental, and Network Devices and Applications. Some are Legacy, requiring Gateways, while others can be designed or modified to be partially or fully compliant.
Creating the right Standards, Common Object Interfaces and Methods, Common Tools and Documentation, and Common Development/Test/Demo/Training/Deployment platforms are all important aspects of the System. Defining these will need input and support from a wide variety of companies in different industries, and then reap a wide variety of benefits in the areas of design, development, test, documentation, marketing, volume, training, time to market, support costs.
Hospitals, Doctors, and Clinics are some of the main users of the System and they need to have a voice in how things are implemented. They are also collaborators for vision of the System, trials, envisioning new tools and applications, identifying challenges, and helping to push the required knowledge or certain testing and examinations to technology and Medical Assistants. Some of the benefits will include:
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Lower Cost Labor
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Process Improvements (efficiency, mistakes, costs, support)
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Better baseline and current data on patients using common easy to read reports and graphs
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Pooled and Franchised On-Call Telemedicine Support for Emergency Room Overflow, Rural Clinics, Disaster and Humanitarian Relief, Neighborhood Clinics, Mobile Medical Clinics, and Emergency Situations
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Extended on-call and scheduled Telemedicine (home or remote lab) for Remote Presence Patient Visits (current issue, pre/post-op, emergency)
People require a great number of personal services if they are confined to, or have limited access outside, their residence. They need more than food and occasional cleaning or person checking on them. They can need plumbers, handymen, emergency cleanup, in home tests, tech support, haircuts, pet groomers, the list goes on.
The System is designed to make it easy and safe to do business between individuals and businesses, and add additional home checks for people living alone, shut-ins, and/or limited mobility outside of their residence.
For most Individual Personal Service Providers & Cross Service Provider Dispatch Companies, this would reflect new opportunities, and they would get Apps that work with their Cell Phones/Laptops/Tablets, to establish an agreement, have a service requested, approved if needed, scheduled/acknowledged, performed (or automatically escalated if it isn't performed), set up follow-up if they identify an issue, billed, paid, and rated.
For other Providers, they are a critical part of the System, and many of the needed functions already exist in one form or another that can be leveraged on. The System will need to rate, verify, and flag any issues with Service Providers. Agreements/Contracts will need to be able to be put in place. Billing, approvals, and payments will also need to be supported.
PC/Tablet/Smartphone Providers (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Dell, etc.) have already done an outstanding job of creating Swiss-Army Knives on steroids, that have fostered amazing innovation and tools that we use in our everyday lives, and followed many of the same principles of letting people concentrate on innovating their ideas, and provide the common object interfaces and methods to implement them on the platforms.
Most (if not all) of the currently envisioned System, can use PCs, Tablets, and Smartphones as they exist today, but there are improvements (additional object interfaces and additional features) that could be added that would make the System even better. Many of the companies that develop the HW and SW (and Specialty Apps) have Business Units that are dedicated to different areas like Healthcare that would be extremely valuable to the vision, standards, and stewardship for the System.
Personal Services Providers and Cross Provider Dispatch
Information and Transaction Providers
Public-Private Partnerships
Universities (one or more) are in a unique situation to be able to participate in a number of different areas.
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The System is very modular and many of the modular features consist of incremental roadmaps that can be implemented by one or more students for senior or masters projects
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The System development spans across multiple departments (language arts, computer engineering, computer science, and medical sciences)
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Universities have further opportunities to be the sponsor for the Innovation Center, Interoperability Lab, Product Support, Development of "Systems in a Box"
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The System can be revenue and grant generating activities for the University, Departments, Professors, and Students
<Read more about University Involvement>
Universities
The Government (US as well as other developed and developing country Governments) is in a unique position to leverage and help direct some of the features of the System, while reaping many benefits. The System leverages off of existing and emerging technologies to solve and improve many areas that are typically supported by Governments. Some of the primary benefits include:
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Providing better care, to more people, in more places, using less skilled individuals, at less cost
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Provides inexpensive Small Clinic capabilities (with backup telemedicine) in Mobile and Fixed formats
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Providing cost effective solution for Contingency Planning and Disaster and Humanitarian Relief, and Service Outage Support
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Provides tracking and supply of goods and services for "at risk" populations
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Creates Postal App to help identify people and property issues
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Helps reduce costs and improve care for "at risk" populations
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The System provides low cost solutions for taking care of the elderly and disabled
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The System is designed to support multiple languages and adjust for regional differences
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The System can lower the costs of Healthcare, while increasing capability, coverage, and care for individuals
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The System reduces requirements for highly trained individuals to be involved with certain medical testing, monitoring, and analysis and moves a lot of the work to technology
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The System would create many jobs at many different income levels, with a majority at a reasonable rate <Read more about New Job Opportunities>
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The System includes a wide variety of features, "Systems in a Box" and applications to provide low cost and enhanced Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Relief, and Regional Outages
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The System supports Common Object Interfaces and Methods which should help with any integration into Government Systems as well as speed up any regulatory approval for applicable new and updated devices, services, and applications
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The System helps support service for the Homeless and near Homeless
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The System can help meet the goals and principles for the care of all humans
<Read more about various Government Involvement>
Governments and Government Agencies
The use of Social Advocacy groups is an important aspect of the System to get support for certain groups of individuals that may have additional special needs or are underserve through "normal channels". Some of the targeted populations include:
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Alzheimer‘s/Dementia/Developmentally Disabled Individuals
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Homeless
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Transitional Housing (or people that move frequently)
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People living alone
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People that want added safety (against severe injuries)
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Lost children and missing individuals
The System has many low cost features to support these individuals individually, through family/friends, and through Social Advocacy Organizations. As with many other Social Programs, it would be expected that some of the costs could be picked up through donations and Government Grants.
Goals include:
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More Independence and Safety
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Better Health and Life
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Additional Lifelines
Some of the Applications include
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Identity and Information Services
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Residence Medical, Security, and Control Monitoring
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Passive “are you still functional”
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"System-in-a-Box" Call Centers
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Service Tracking within and across Agencies
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Postal Service Monitoring
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At Risk support during Disasters and Outages
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Organizational and Individual Volunteer Applications
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Global Message Board
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and many others
Insurance Companies
Social Advocacy Groups
Insurance Companies (including Government Programs like Medicare, Exchanges, National Health Plans, etc.) are an important part of the System to define what is covered and what approvals are required. Many already have their own systems and it is envisioned that they could support defined Health Network and Individual interfaces into the System to support these features.
As time goes by, more and more devices and services will be determined as medically necessary. This helps streamline the process and drive down costs.
There are also opportunities for Insurers to create new inexpensive Whole Health Policies to handle a wide variety of current, new, and emerging technologies and services, including allowing people to stay at home longer, with low cost support.
Retirement Homes and Centers, Assisted Living Centers, Nursing Facilities, and Small Private Call Center Services can all benefit from the and can provide input and receive information on how they can use the System to support their clients as value added services, safety, and peace of mind.
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Online training for existing and new staff
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Active and passive monitoring of their location and movements for a variety of Safety Reasons
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Automated Role/Shift based Scheduling, Escalation, Accountability, Verification, and Audit of Medicines, Treatments, and Other Services
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Tracking and Billing of Services
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Provide Small Clinic capabilities (with backup telemedicine) for standard whole health and emergencies, using in-house staff
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Provides environmental and security monitoring for the facility
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Promotes the expansion of Mobile Clinics (and portable examination kits) to provide on-site Medical and Lab Support
Retirement, Assisted Living, and Nursing Facilities
The System envisions several different types of Call Centers to provide the monitoring, support, escalation, and dispatch of services for individuals. The primary one that comes to mind, are the large all centers that exist today. These are still very important, and it is envisioned that they would likely interface their system into the System Object Interface/Methods to take advantage of the System features. They will and should have a say in the requirement and interfaces.
Another type of Call Center would be a wide variety of Smaller Users that would like to have a low cost System-in-a-Box deployment, that comes with everything they need, simple to use, supports on-line training, can be supported remotely by a 3rd party provider, and has a low cost of ownership. These systems can be manned within a facility, and/or by people working at home or other facilities. They can be supported by paid and volunteer staff, can be expanded in case of an emergency, and share staff to cover early and late hours.
They support all of the monitoring, escalation, scheduling, dispatch personal services, security and control systems, etc. as the System would do for an individual or their Guardian, but they are just managing more people and facilities.
Some of the targeted customers (and groups that input is needed from) include:
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Retirement Homes and Communities
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Assisted Living and Nursing Facilities
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Social Advocacy Groups (Poor, Homeless, Elderly, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and other disabilities and social concerns)
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Small Private Call Center Services (medical, security, and control systems)
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Local, Regional, National, and international Disaster Recovery and Humanitarian Relief Centers
Call Centers
The System provides a unique opportunity for HW, SW and Application Developers to develop their system, and leave most of the integration, interface, maintenance, and support functionality to a common set or inheritable libraries. The System provides a wide variety of functional and development tools to enhance their product, and aid in the testing, interoperability certification, and product support and maintenance.
The Common Object Methods and Interfaces support interfaces to configurable "System in a Box" deployments, or interfacing into customers’ existing systems.
The overall system is also flexible and provides the tools to increase innovation opportunities to develop new devices, services, and features to enhance the overall system.
With lower development costs, higher volumes, reduced training costs, built-in business development and marketing, and reduced support and maintenance costs, it should provide better coverage at lower costs.
For Standalone PC/Tablet/Smartphone Application Developers, according to the Associated Press (Sept 2013), there are 17,000 medical applications available ranging from Calorie Counters to High-Tech Heart Monitors. The FDA will be focusing on some that turn smartphones into medical devices (heart monitor, blood pressure cuff. FDA has already approved 75 (25 of which in the previous year).
The System is geared to store and help share data between APPs and combines and analyzes the data to get a better picture of the whole individual. It is envisioned that Common Interfaces and Methods will help with FDA approvals, and in addition to the interface and support methods, provide methods such as intelligent audible and visual input. For example verbally or visually reading the contents or nutritional label and ingredients, and have it check for allergies or log calories, fat, etc.
Application Developers
Integration Companies (with optional long term support) play an important role and have a big opportunity in deploying the System. Many companies are already involved with creating some of the end-user deployments, and would be encouraged to be adopters of the system. For others these present many new opportunities.
“Plug and Play” Devices and Applications (current and future) using low cost, small space, and high functionality devices and tablets/smartphones/PCs. Available new Applications and Services such as baselines, scheduling, escalation, telemedicine, treatment verification, remote technical support and upgrade, and many others.
All systems adhere to the same standards and interfaces that are tested in a common integration lab/platform.
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Disaster and Humanitarian Relief (fixed and transportable mobile clinics)
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Emergency Vehicles
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Emergency Rooms
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Doctor’s Offices
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Intelligent Emergency Medical Kits with optional Telemedicine (sporting events, large public gatherings, corporations, trains, ships, planes, fitness/health/spa centers, retirement communities, assisted living facilities, disaster recovery sites, etc.)
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Home Medical, Security, and Control Systems
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Mobile Labs/Examination Vehicles
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Neighborhood and Rural Clinics
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Remote Mobile Emergency Clinics
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System-in-a-Box Call Centers and Small Clinics for Retirement, Assisted Living, Nursing, and Social Advocacy Centers
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And many others...
Integration Companies
The System creates a unique opportunity for a wide variety of Support and Maintenance Companies to become involved in areas that have been traditionally supported directly by manufacturers, and/or piecemeal through many different user and system interfaces.
With larger volumes, product event monitoring and analysis, "plug and play" integration, common interfaces, and built in remote upgrades and maintenance, it can make sense for manufacturers to turn over the service end of the products to Maintenance and Support Companies, and Maintenance and Support Companies can better whole systems made up of many compatible products.
<Read more about Maintenance and Support Companies>
Technical Maintenance and Support Companies
There are several different features that could be leveraged off of existing and new Information and Transaction Providers.
On the Information Side, there are a wide variety of different areas, some of which include:
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Rating and Verification of Services
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Focused Information for Answers to "Life Questions"
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Intelligent Image Recognition Medical Databases
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Medical Symptom Databases
On the transaction side there are fewer, but still a critical need of the overall system. Some of these include:
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General Transaction Expertise
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Handling agreements, billing, and payments for services
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Auto collection of services and treatments to an individual or cost center and attaching charges (for chargeable services) or costs (for non-chargeable services)
PC/Tablet/Smartphone Providers
Cloud Data Storage and Processing Providers
While Cloud Data Storage and Processing is not required, it can provide many advantages to individuals and groups using the System, as well as a jump start on getting some of the system up and running.
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Moves IT and backup support of the Resources to a 3rd Party
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Automatically expandable as needed (especially in Disaster and Humanitarian areas, but others don’t need to think about or plan as their needs grow)
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Can support HIPAA
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Redundant and High Availability
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Makes it easier to Share and Access Common Data
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Can create virtual machines for deployments, demos, and training
There is also individual user local and/or remote server data stored for institution use, and if there are network outages there is temporary storage of data offline.
Getting input and collaboration from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and WHO (World Health Organization) are important from a more Global Aspect of the System. They can help guide how data might be stored to allow for real-time and longer term trending for Diseases and Health Issues in specific Regions and Worldwide. They can help define what they need if a Epidemic/Pandemic is suspected, special instructions for Worldwide Healthcare Providers, and Healthcare Delivery Systems
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The Wireless Managed Whole Healthcare Reference Architecture and System is designed on "Embracing existing and emerging technologies, with common standards and tools, to create simple and affordable Whole Healthcare for everyone, providing support through all stages and situations of their lives“
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It creates a “System in Box” deployment that can use less trained individuals, in any language, in any region, using common “Look and Feel” and “Plug and Play” devices to test, exam, and treat individuals as close to where they live as possible
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The System Supports On-Line Training/Help, Remote Tech Support, Telemedicine, Intelligent Adaptive Examination Decision Trees, Automatic System Upgrades, High Speed Networks, and High Availability features
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The System supports Doctors to consult, review, and do virtual examinations (volunteer or paid) to help (or support emergency overflow conditions) Worldwide as needed, with full telemetric data, information on regional differences, and translation services
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The System automatically collects data through visual, audio. Machine-to-machine, and manually and stores and analyzes it using Cloud resources (as well as options to collect it locally).
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The system provides a Treasure-trove of data to analyze for regional and international issues and trends, as well as the ability to push out messages, instructions, and changes in Intelligent Adaptive Examination Decision Trees for emergencies
<Read more about CDC and WHO Partnerships>
CDC and WHO Health Organizations
Healthcare Networks have been some of the more innovative users of destructive technology in providing Healthcare. They have embraced PCs, Smartphones, Tablets, and APPs successfully to help provide better care, in more places, at less cost. Some of their implementations include:
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“Ask a Nurse”
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Online Appointments
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Emailing your Doctor for information
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Online Test Results
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Early implementations of Telemedicine in the Home
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Collecting data from home monitoring equipment
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Securely storing and sharing patient data
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Early implementation of patient skin analysis on suspicious spots
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Studies and implementation of programs to reduce and prevent illnesses
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Outreach programs into corporations street fairs
This is all great and can be leveraged off of as well as built on. While they may be differentiators between competing healthcare networks today, these will be expanded on and common in the future. The System plans to incorporate these and other features (many discussed on this website), to be used by a wider base of Healthcare networks, as well as individual hospitals and clinics. There is still lots of room for further innovation, and the Object Interfaces allow individual Companies to still incorporate their own differentiators.