Digital Health with Kent Dicks

Robin chats with Kent Dicks, the founder & CEO of Life365, Inc., about the digital health care revolution. Dicks has been in the forefront of the Internet of (Medical) Things, (IoT), and connected care solutions, in integrating the home and telehealth as important components of health care. Now, through mobile phones, advanced technology, and new reimbursement models, the health care revolution is really taking off, according to Dicks. As an example, if a person with congestive health failure gains weight, physicians or nurse practitioners can be automatically notified and treatment can be ordered through phone calls and messages. Life365 has "navigators" who can assist patients through integrated services, and sometimes accompany them to appointments, if necessary. Life365 also works with partners and navigators who use rideshare programs, like Uber and Lyft, to assist patients in need. Life365 just came through a two-week immersion program with the Mayo Clinic, Dicks notes. Now, Dicks points out, large retailers such as WalMart and Amazon, are developing health care units and options, to help patients, especially in rural areas, through, for example, telemedicine. Each of these channels needs to be connected through the home to make sure patients are not heading to the hospitals, and that's one of the critical roles that Life365 plays in the digital health care revolution. Ten thousand people turn 65 every day, Dicks notes, and integrating health care through a common platform that puts together disparate vendors and deploys AI, that furnishes current data, is the wave of the future. This episode was sponsored by J & B Medical, www.jandbmedical.com  and Life 365, www.life365inc.com.