After a preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos in August, Fort Worth native Thomas Herrion collapsed in the 49ers locker room in Denver and died later that night. The cause of the offensive lineman’s death was not clear, even several days after the tragedy. A newspaper report speculated about his heart, while another media outlet harked back to the heat-related preseason death four years ago of Minnesota Viking Corey Stringer.

Amid tragedies like this, the idea of using technology to provide real-time health monitoring of football players is beginning to catch on. According to the technology news site News.com, three NFL teams (Philadelphia, Jacksonville, and Minnesota) in the last three years have begun monitoring the body temperature of players using a swallowable pill-like sensor made by HQ, Inc. of Palmetto, Fla. The company also makes hardware and software that can monitor and transmit heart rate data.

The CorTemp sensor pill, developed by Johns Hopkins University for NASA, includes a tiny crystal that vibrates in concert with the temperature of the gastrointestinal tract of its host. That vibration, coupled with coils inside the pill, results in a changing magnetic field that can be detected as a signal. HQ sells a detector (it looks like a calculator) that displays the temperature data instantaneously and stores it for downloading to a PC running the company’s software or Microsoft Excel.

In the most elaborate setup, a team’s trainer could monitor the temperatures of as many as 20 players at once by equipping each detector with an optional wireless transmitter and equipping his PC with a “receiving station.”

HQ measures more than only gastrointestinal tract temperature, which is important, considering that temperature may have played no role in Mr Herrion’s death. The company also makes a chest belt that measures heart rate. The belt can transmit that data—time-stamped to correlate with temperature data from the pill—to the detector. While the coaches are watching for timely blocks and sharp passes, the trainers can watch for signs that players are laboring harder than is healthy.

Although the use of this technology may not have saved Thomas Herrion, teams are right to use any means available to monitor the health of their players.

From telemetry to telemedicine
The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which has been providing telemedicine and distance education services since 1998, is investing in a major upgrade of the videoconferencing systems that allow physicians to treat patients remotely.

The school expects to spend up to $12.5 million to upgrade its systems with new cameras and software, according to Glenn Hammack, executive director of UTMB’s Electronic Health Network. He said the upgrade will improve video quality, allowing for better remote diagnosis of maladies.

The Electronic Health Network connects UTMB physicians with patients in area clinics in real time over an interactive network that combines video conferencing with computer imaging, an electronic medical record system, standardized drug formularies, and disease management guidelines.

UTMB has a substantial telehealth program, which also provides distance medical education and remote medical services to clients ranging from Texas prisoners to scientists at the South Pole. The Antarctic contract with the National Science Foundation clinches the idea that nowhere is too remote to be reached by modern health care.

The author of this monthly column, David Orenstein, is a technology and business writer in Silicon Valley. If you have a question about a Computing Care column or to request a future topic, email him at davealli@comcast.net.