Techsource and Alfa-Laval in collaborative project - with the tools of the future

Techsource and Alfa-Laval in collaborative project – with the tools of the future

 

The world is becoming an increasingly connected place. From machines to simple consumer products, we are interacting with these, and each other. This technology paradigm is called Internet of Things (IoT) and has been identified as an important factor in creating future businesses and new business opportunities.

Alfa-Laval and Techsource are cooperating with each other for wireless data transfer to optimize machines and processes.

The value-add is that Alfa-Laval’s products can be monitored throughout the globe and their operations optimized, which gives energy savings and reduces the environmental impact. Another critical feature is to obtain timely information about servicing and maintenance needs before operations shutdown. This kind of a system is on the lines of Techsource’s expertise, which is – IoT Solutions for a greener world!

IoT is a technology that connects with both machines and people. It saves energy, improves communication, reduces the need for travel, and improves opportunities for adequate care.

Techsource Europe AB is a privately held pioneer of IoT, who saw the potential of improved and automated communication early on. Keeping the human experience always at the center, Techsource creates efficient ecosystems and collaborates with partners from all over the world.

Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.

The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol.

Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, oil and gas exploration, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.

 

Contact person:
Ulf Norrstam
Telephone: +46-761195462
Mail: ulf.norrstam@techsource.io
www.Techsource.io
Address: Techsource Europe AB
Anckargripsgatan 3
Malmö – 211 19, Sweden

 

 

E-Health or No-Health

eHealth means different things to different people. While to most people, eHealth is just relegated to increased use of electronic patient records, eHealth is actually a lot more than that. The Journal of Medical Internet Research, JMIR, describes eHealth as the convergence of “medical informatics, public health, and business, referring to health services and information delivered or enhanced through the Internet and related technologies”.

Needless to say, eHealth is playing a larger role with each passing year, and more specifically in the area of preventive patient care. But what has prompted this trend or movement towards eHealth? This can be best understood by taking examples of specific countries as against a complete world-view. Sweden, which has been at the forefront of automation in every sphere of life, places a lot of emphasis on eHealth initiatives.

A report published by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Govt of Sweden documents various challenges in today’s Healthcare sector. While the study covered Sweden in particular, most of these challenges are common to many countries.
• Empowering the patient
• Managing geographical and socioeconomic inequities in health
• Improving patient safety
• Shorter waiting times and better access
• Managing a new disease panorama, pandemics, resistant bacteria, lifestyle diseases
• Further developing IT-services to support healthcare
• Population group over 65 years of age will increase by 28% before year 2020
• Healthcare expenditure is expected to increase by 20% before year 2030

Each of these challenges are significant. For example, when it comes to waiting time, hospitals have long queues of patients waiting to receive care. This and the fact that there are a large number of older patients mean, healthcare is gradually shifting to the homes of patients. However, with lack of an intelligent Healthcare systems, nursing is done too early, by the hour, or too late, when something has already happened, and not precisely when needed.

That is, nursing needs are planned by the hour whether they are needed or not, as a result, resources are being used when an incident or accident has already occurred. This means that resources which are in short supply are further stretched, when they should instead be used for preventive patient care.

IoT-enabled eHealth addresses challenges like these through connected health devices and sensor data. Smart sensors or patient activities monitored by sensors, connected hospitals and care centers help improve nursing surveillance and lead to initiatives like smart diapers, monitoring leaving from bed, prevent accidental falling from bed, and create a culture of open doors or open medicine. Data analytics in conjunction with continued business improvement can change the healthcare landscape drastically.

The Swedish Health Ministry report has also documented the benefits of eHealth technologies. Some of them are:
• 10% reduction in hospital acquired Infections
• 17% reduction in adverse drug events
• 41% reduction in drug interaction errors
• 52% rise in patients with documented self management goals
• 7% reduction in average length of stay in hospital
• 48% reduction in duplicate laboratory/chemistry tests
• 19% reduction in hospital admissions for chronic conditions
• 83% reduction in medication errors due to mistaken identity

As is evident, eHealth has far-reaching impact on Healthcare. As per a Gartner study, eHealth contributes significantly to:
• Patient Safety
• Quality of Care
• Availability
• Empowerment of the patient
• Continuity of Care

If you are a Hospital Administrator or a Health Policy maker, it’s now time to re-evaluate your Healthcare environment and incorporate more eHealth initiatives, for both short-term and long-term gains.

 

Paradigm, IoT, Digitalization

IoT according to Darwin

’Paradigm Shift’ is a concept that has gone overboard. Relatively insignificant developments are being called this way, which erodes the true meaning of the concept. A bit like the story of Peter and the Wolf – once everything is said to have a ’transformative impact’, we react to such statements with a shrug, or do not even react.

Today, we face another paradigm shift – called the ’Internet of Things’. Now, don’t be deceived by the rather silly-sounding name, or its acronym IoT – for its impact can change our view of what it means to be offline, and ultimately how we work or live; be it at work, at home or at play.

IoT can briefly be described as a product and / or service that is made “smart”. In other words you can direct, control and read data from objects by using a sensor, for example. This is interesting for most businesses as it will improve their efficiency and ultimately the economy. But the promised paradigm shift will occur when all products and services can communicate with each other – ’when 50 billion products, at least in theory, can communicate with each other – something that is expected to become a reality by 2020’. What this means, we do not know today – the only thing we know is that it will have a transformative impact on almost every single industry – directly or indirectly. Difficult to imagine? Yes, it is a paradigm shift no doubt, much like the Internet or smartphone, but of a Himalayan dimension. Smart products, smart homes, smart cities, etc will be a reality in the near future.

The thing about what we call a ’paradigm shift’ is that its hard to ignore it – as it has a drastic impact on society at large. Some of the large organizations of the world today are aware of the power of IoT, and are acting accordingly. The question is not whether one should act and begin developing smart products – but when? But what makes companies hesitate is the usual reason – uncertainty! The uncertainty over what are the standards that will prevail, how to get the timing right, if the right skills are available in-house, what are the competitors up to, should one let go of the security of something familiar for the uncertainty of something new, how mature are the customers, what is the return on investment? We can only conclude that uncertainty is high and there are too many questions to answer.

So what do you do when you see that change is happening – yes, you begin to adapt gradually. Darwin’s theory “Survival of the fittest” applies equally to the business world. Or as he puts it; “It is not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one who is best able to adapt to change.” And there are those who are flexible enough to adapt, in order to survive.

IoT is a matter of life or death – boundaries between industry sectors will blur, entire business organizations will be wiped out, and new products or services will take their place. What or who will be affected, we do not know – the only thing we know is that those who are best prepared for change have a greater chance to adapt to the new, “smart” world.

TechSource Europe AB is a specialist in the IoT. Our strength lies in developing intelligent and connected IoT solutions in which man and machine interact. Our second business segment is insourcing of  Techn consultants – in areas such as Software development, IoT, Embedded Systems and Big Data. We are based in  South Sweden. Additional information is available on www.techsource.io.

Today we see a fantastic evolution of smart devices and services that have the potential to improve the quality of life from a convenience perspective. However the focus is highly technology driven and often focused on coolfunctions instead of quality of life.

If we want to move from the Smart Home concept basically functions and gadgets that is supposed to optimize comfort and security we need to understand how people dwell, i.e.to really understand what creates meaning in every day life.

Envision Future Homes as an evolution of today’s Smart Home with a more human approach, balancing comfort and automation with wellness and companionship and coaching. This will require increased interoperability between plug and playconnected devices and services prepared for personalisation with focus on quality of life and sustainability, and intelligence that help services and devices to adapt to your needs based on your preferences, where you are in life and by measuring the quality of performance and adapt again.

Health is a key issue for all of us as a wide concept, including values as loneliness and social interaction. Intelligent coachingcan improve wellness and health where loneliness is an issue. Add on connectivity and all new devices for individual monitoring of health related information and its possible to improve health/wellness even more. The participating care concept have the potential to contribute with data and expertise when you need help from the healthcare system. This collaborative care solution will open for a longer life at home and a smooth transition with healthcare.

To make this a reality, Smart Home and services etc. need to share a conceptual model describing how things are related including ethnographic studies in order to understand social needs. This model in combination with knowledge repositories will establish a backbone where different services, devices and appliances can connect and share their data.

Our vision for Future Living includes adaptive models for increasing interoperability with eHealth services, physical service providers and predictive analytics to establish proactive adjustments for our living arrangements before they happen. Maybe we will actually be able to understand ourselves better by bridging the gap between smart home technology and individualised analytics based on behavioral sciences?

For more information please contact Techsource IoT team.

Techsource Europe AB is specialized within IoT. Our strength is to develop smart and connected IoT solutions in which man and machine interact. Our second business area is the insourcing of IT consultants in areas such as software, IoT, embedded systems and big data. We are based in south Sweden.