LifeTech Corp.

Memo
To: Chief Executive Officer
DR. MEREDITH GREY, MD

From: SAMANTHA WANN, PROJECT MANAGER

TIMIOTHY CLERMONT, RESEARCH ANALYST
FLORENCE SAMOITA, MATERIALS CORDINATOR

CC: DR. SANDI HUBNIK

Date: NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Re: PROPOSAL FOR INVESTMENT IN SMARTWATCH TECHNOLOGY

Purpose

The purpose of this proposal is to request the authorization to research the varying uses
and effectiveness of smartwatch technology within the health care system. Our goal,
primarily, is to determine if this technology could improve patient wellbeing and
communication with providers, thus improving the efficiency of the healthcare system.

Introduction

On October 27, 2020, our Chief Executive Officer Dr. Meredith Grey asked our team to
research and examine if the smartwatch technology can be used to improve patient
wellbeing, quality of care, and the overall quality of the patient-provider relationship.

Currently, LifeTech Corporation manufactures, sells, and provides after-sale support for
medical equipment, to hundreds of thousands of hospitals and private practices
globally. The recent emergence of smartwatch technology, and its wide array of
potentially beneficial uses in healthcare, have piqued an interest with healthcare
providers and executives alike. Smartwatch technology could potentially provide better
monitoring of physical activity, physiological measures, as well as help to ensure more
regular communication between patient and provider.

Healthcare professionals are seeing an increase in cases where conditions could have
been better treated, or prevented entirely, if there had been better monitoring of

1
patients, and communication between patient and provider. Providers are often very
limited in the information they get from their patients primarily because the average
patient does not recognize early symptoms of most comorbidities as being “worth the
hassle” of talking to their doctor. The time commitment involved with face-to-face visits
coupled with the inaccuracy of a patient’s ability to recall symptoms that may have
happened weeks ago can occasionally lead to cases where an ailment is discovered too
late, or even misdiagnosed. In cases where patients are able to answer these questions
accurately the lack of access to technology may mean the doctor isn’t asking everything
that should be asked, and due to a lack of the immediate access to notes and history
that smartwatch technology allows for.

Two areas that have caused major concerns in the past because of this inefficient
relationship between patient and provider are Epilepsy and Cardiology patients. The
remote monitoring technology of smartwatches could potentially alert health care
providers, or patients themselves, to early warning signs of more serious conditions in
certain cases. The amount of data that could be available to providers could possibly
change the way diagnosis are made, and “obtaining and analyzing information from
wearable devices is an important aspect in realizing the promise of precision medicine,”
(Trayanova, Natalia “From genetics to smart watches: development in precision
cardiology”, 2019). The potential heart rate monitoring capabilities would be especially
useful to providers for patients at a higher risk of contracting heart disease because
they could have access to regular heart rate measures. Regular monitoring of blood
pressure could alert a provider to a patient having a sudden rise or decline in blood
pressure before it leads to any long-term conditions or damage. Smartwatches could be
“of great value due to their ability to detect [epileptic] seizures with accuracy,” (Tiwari et
al., 2019), possibly allowing someone to either stop the seizure, or get help before the
seizure occurs. The daily monitoring that could be available to providers could possibly
allow them to better understand triggers for seizures, or other issues that come with
Epilepsy.

LifeTech Corporation’s mission is the never-ending pursuit of efficiency in healthcare.

We aid in this by actively developing and producing top-of-the-line medical technology,
improving the efficiency of providers in the field, and ultimately saving lives. The
capabilities of smartwatch technology could very well be the next step helping us fulfill
this mission.

Proposed Tasks

With the permission of CEO, Dr. Meredith Grey, MD we would like to complete the
following tasks to determine whether LifeTech Corp. should invest in and develop
smartwatch technologies to better improve the efficiency of healthcare.

Task 1: Research healthcare professionals’ insight/studies on the potential

applications of smartwatch technology, and any real or perceived benefits it may
include.

2
By researching the opinions of front-line healthcare professionals we can gain better
insight to potential improvements these technologies could provide. We can learn more
about the specific areas of concern for medical professionals and see how we can
address the issues they believe are most pressing. Healthcare professionals can
provide vital insight into whether or not they believe certain technologies are worth us
investing into. Different providers from different specialties may desire different features
of the technology, but “[they can see] value in all [features],” (Alpert et al,. 2020).

Task 2: Research the general public opinions on using smartwatch technology in

conjunction with healthcare professionals as part of their overall medical care.

Researching the measure of public opinion on this kind of technology could provide
insight into how likely the average person would be to adapt to this new technology.
Accessing information like this would allow us to determine how likely people are to
wear their smartwatches regularly, while also gauging potential customer confidence in
benefits this technology could provide. We could also determine the negative opinions
on the matter, like concerns with device accuracy, (Cheung et al,. 2019), which would
allow us to address specific concerns relevant to our research.

Task 3: Understand how the smart watch technology works and the potential
uses of them in the healthcare system.

In order for us to implement smartwatches as an essential technology, we first have to

understand all of its potential applications. This will allow us to hone our products to
best serve as many needs, of both patients and providers, as we possibly can with this
product line. We can also research the accuracy of the measurements taken by the
technology as it would be crucial to their use in the healthcare system, (Hahnen, et al.,
2020).

Task 4: Determine what technology, software experts, and medical partnerships

are needed

To fully understand the capabilities of the smartwatch technology we will need to do

extensive research of studies that have been already conducted using this technology.
Preliminary research has already begun but is far from complete. The “recent advances
and exponential use of wearable and IoT technologies provide new opportunities for
users and caregivers,” (Jovanov, Emil. “Wearables Meet IoT: Synergistic Personal Area
Networks (SPANs). 2019,” and these advances could be key in the next step in the
evolution of healthcare.

Schedule

**Note: Green task are complete, Yellow tasks are in progress.

3
 November Notes:
Task 1 due:
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 11/13
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Task 2 due:
Memo 11/17
Complete Task 3 due:
11/23
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Task 4 due:
Memo Task 1 11/30
Sent Complete Progress
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Report due:
Task 2 Progress Progress 11/20
Complete Report Report Research
Complete Sent Report due:
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 12/7
Task 3
Complete

29 30
Task 4
Complete

December Notes:
Task 1 due:
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 11/13
1 2 3 4 5 Task 2 due:
Research 11/17
Report Task 3 due:
Complete 11/23
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Task 4 due:
Research 11/30
Report Progress
Sent Report
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 due: 11/20
Research
Report
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 due: 12/7

27 28 29 30 31

Experience/Qualifications

The use of smartwatches is a hot topic in the medical community, and LifeTech
Corporation will spearhead the investigation into whether or not we can enter the market
profitably, while also adhering to our mission. The team leading this investigation
includes:

4
- Samantha Wann is an aspiring Biologist, with a particular passion for
investigating and discovering resolutions to issues within the medical community.
Her specialty is the early detection and better treatment of cardiology cases. As
heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, Samantha
believes being able to regularly monitor a patient’s vital statistics could greatly
reduce a doctor’s chances of missing an early diagnosis of heart problems.

- Tim Clermont is an aspiring Nursing Informatics Specialist with over 15 years’

experience working with technology in healthcare. As Research Analyst, he will
be spearheading our investigation into the effectiveness, adaptability, and
profitability of smartwatch technology. His focus in this investigation will be on
improved patient care, as well as improved quality of life for providers.

- Florence Samoita is an aspiring Registered Nurse, who is currently pursuing her

Bachelors of Science in Nursing. She has an affinity for tackling problems that
have stumped healthcare professionals for decades. By exploring how
smartwatch technology can potentially save lives, Florence believes we may be
able to find solutions to some of our longest standing problems facing healthcare
today.

5
 Works cited

Alpert, Jordan M, et al. “Secondary Care Provider Attitudes towards Patient Generated
Health Data from Smartwatches.” NPJ Digital Medicine, Nature Publishing Group
UK, 3 Mar. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054258/.

Cheung, Man Lai, et al. “Examining Consumers' Adoption of Wearable Healthcare

Technology: The Role of Health Attributes.” International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, MDPI, 26 June 2019,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6650855/.

Jovanov, Emil. “Wearables Meet IoT: Synergistic Personal Area Networks (SPANs).”
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), MDPI, 3 Oct. 2019,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6806600/.

Tiwari, Shivani, et al. “Biosensors for Epilepsy Management: State-of-Art and Future
Aspects.” Sensors, vol. 19, no. 7, 2019, p. 1525., doi:10.3390/s19071525.

Trayanova, Natalia. “From Genetics to Smart Watches: Developments in Precision

Cardiology.” Nature Reviews Cardiology, vol. 16, no. 2, 5 June 2019, pp. 72–73.,
doi:10.1038/s41569-018-0149-y.