6 Challenges Health Care Executives Face with Data Governance
Following the tragic event surrounding the shootings at the Sandy Hook elementary school, VeepWorks set out to build a platform making use of near-field communications (NFC) and Big Data that alerts individuals in the event of an emergency in a specific location regardless of where they are. Now VeepWorks wants to apply that concept to health care.
By leveraging Big Data, algorithms, graph databases, and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), VeepWorks CEO Aaron Madolora says the ability to embed an NFC chip in a wristband, the availability of smartphones with cameras, wearable devices from companies such as Fitbit, and digital assistants such as Alexa from Amazon collectively make it simpler for individuals or groups to be kept informed in the event of an emergency.
In the immediate aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, many people had no idea what was occurring around them or where they should be going in the days after the event. Now VeepWorks is moving to apply its core technology to health care by, for example, employing a geofencing application to immediately inform not only all the patient’s caregivers, but also family, when an individual falls victim to a stroke.
The most unique aspect of VeepWorks is that it makes use of NFC to access multiple data sources. Madolora says VeepWorks can leverage connections to the IoT to identify gunshots, which in turn sets off a cascading series of alerts to the individuals in that area. By feeding all those alerts into a Big Data analytics application, Madolora says VeepWorks can provide individuals with much more information about their particular situation than they might be able to glean on their own by listening to newscasts, for example.
Thanks to the rise of REST application programming interfaces (APIs) and Bluetooth networking protocols, Madolora says it’s becoming easier to integrate a wide variety of device types into the core VeepWorks platform. That should create opportunities to apply VeepWorks in other vertical segments as well.
In the meantime, whether VeepWorks evolves beyond a prototype in commercial use cases such as health care remains to be seen. But an interesting mix of Big Data and communications technologies is coming together with the potential to transform how we communicate with one another in the event of an emergency.
