| | December 20208WHY DATA COLLECTION IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTHBy Sekaran Letchumanan, Vice President ­ Operations, Flex Indiaroperly treating pa-tients is a two-way street. The patient must follow pre-scribed treatment, and the doctor needs full transparency to make the right adjustments and determine the next steps. Despite the patients' best ef-forts, the process leaves a lot of room for human error.We research, develop and invest in modern technologies, such as sensors, IoT platforms and more, that are transforming the healthcare industry. The technology's ability to help capture passive data will have a big impact on success. Passive data works best Patients are people, which means they may not have the best follow-through when it comes to their health plan, whether it involves a prescribed medication regimen or lifestyle change. And when doctors receive inaccurate or incomplete information, both parties are at risk.Studies have shown that when patients need to follow specific directions on their own, compliance declines increasingly with each additional step, to the point that only 50% of patients take their medicine as prescribed. Lifestyle change compliance is even worse. Medical professionals are turning to passive data collection to identify and adjust for these missteps. Connected devices record and report on relevant patient activity, helping patients stay on track and helping doctors understand individual patient routines, without interrupting them.Transparency with technologyConnected medical devices like insulin pumps, wearable patches and mobile applications collect passive data. The devices gather and report data, like the frequency and amount of medicine taken, to the patient, family member or prescribing doctor. Patients aren't always forthcoming when they stray from a prescribed plan or medicine. Passive data collection in connected devices is an option for more precise and transparent treatment.Bringing the doctor to your homePassive data systems make it possible for patients to continue normal daily activities without stopping to manually log information. For example, when a patient that needs to be closely tracked injects their prescribed drug, the doctor could IN MY OPINIONPSekaran Letchumanan,Vice President ­ Operations,
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