eHealthNews release – November 2019
Cardboard village to give vision of healthy future
Visitors to Digital Health Week NZ 2019 will experience a smart home and health clinic of the future as they make their
way through a cardboard village created specifically for the event.
Chief executive of Ventures Future Health John Macaskill-Smith says the village will highlight that the home of today
and the future is where most health and wellness information is generated and where the system can support people to
live healthy lives.
The AWS Experiential Village is a collaboration between Amazon Web Services and Network 4, New Zealand's four largest
primary health organisations; Compass Health, Pinnacle Midlands Health Network, Pegasus Health and Procare Health.
In the smart home, visitors will be able to check out a smart fridge, home-based telehealth tools such as an ultrasound
device and a raft of wearable devices with displays and analysis of biometric data.
Real diabetes patients will be live streaming data from glucose monitoring devices, the smart fridge will check its
insulin levels and an Amazon Alexa device will prompt them to increase their insulin or carbohydrates intake.
The smart home has voice activation for people to order repeat prescriptions or seek advice via teleconferencing into
the health clinic.
“The doctor of the future should be about sharing of information so everything in the clinic is voice activated or touch
screen so the doctor and patient can sit side by side, sharing and making collective decisions,” Macaskill-Smith says.
“We will show how all of that data, including from the home and health clinic, can flow into a massive community data
lake.”
A number of lifestyle stores will also feature in the village and attendees can be screened for how they metabolise
caffeine according to their genetic make-up.
The village will be open to visitors during Digital Health Week NZ from 19-22 November in Hamilton.