A new clinical trial named The Clepsydra Study yesterday announced its first inclusion.  The study will investigate clinical utility of the enhanced data collection possibilities in current generation pacemakers and ICDs.  Using additional sensors now present in some devices, study subjects behavior will be monitored to aid medical care givers who will examine the logged data for trends and patterns.  In addition to the obvious EKG data, accelerometer data and ventilation will be examined.

From a research perspective the following thoughts and questions popped into my head while reading the article:

1: What are the power implications of this increased level of sensing and logging?

2: I love the fact that we are getting closer to lifelogging, but I hope some thought has been given to privacy.  Every time we enhance the sensory and storage capacity of medical devices we should also enhance user knowledge and control over the personal data these devices record.

3: Are some of the analysis algorithms running on the implanted device?  Or will the analysis be run on raw sensor data on the care giver’s computer?

4: With such sophisticated features, are there software update mechanisms?  If so how are they validated?

More info: Business Wire article