ATA seeks comment on draft ‘telemedicine’ guidelines

January 16, 2014 | by

Most readers will be aware of the TSA Telecare & Telehealth Integrated Code of Practice which has developed over time from the TSA’s original telecare code, and many will be aware of the recent arrival of the Telehealth Services Code of  Practice for Europe (TeleSCoPE).  Now the ATA in the US has produced revised draft telemedicine core guidelines for comment that provides an interesting comparison with these two.

Before I go further, a word on definitions. The definition of ‘telehealth’ in TeleSCoPE includes telecare so it covers the same areas as the TSA code. This ATA draft does not cover telecare, and includes telehealth into the definition of ‘telemedicine’. However by also explicitly covering clinician to patient communications where the patient is attending a location away from their home and where care is provided professionally, it also covers a wider range of services than the normal UK understanding that telehealth is primarily aimed at the patient in their own home, or, via their mobile device, their own private setting. The comparison across the codes is not therefore exact.

The TSA code is of course accessible to members and those seeking accreditation only. Those who have read the many sections of it will be aware that (more…)

Telehealth leads to same health outcomes as face-to-face consultations

January 16, 2014 | by

Researchers working for the US military National Centre for Telehealth and Technology (T2) have concluded that telehealth based on [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/National-Center-for-Telehealth-and-technology-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]videoconferencing leads to the same health outcomes as treatment by traditional face to face consultations for treatment of depression. In an analysis of care for depression symptoms Janyce Osenbach and colleagues found that there was no statistically significant difference in effectiveness between telehealth based consultations and face-to-face consultations.

The conclusions were drawn from an anlysis of 14 previous studies and has been published in Depression and Anxiety the official journal of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Osenbach says in an article on the Defence Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury website that another study (albeit a very small one with 7 participants) by T2 into the usability and feasability of using FaceTime with active-duty service members produced mostly positive results.

‘F for Fake’ in peer-reviewed journals

January 15, 2014 | by

F for Fake was the film master Orson Welles’ last released film; it was a small documentary on the art forger Elmer de Hory, with a side serving of Clifford Irving (the author of the fake Howard Hughes autobiography), and explored the nature of authorship and authenticity. We now have a burgeoning ‘F for Fake’ scandal in peer-reviewed open-access scientific journals which can’t–or won’t –detect bogus research. A Science Magazine (American Association for the Advancement of Science–AAAS) journalist, John Bohannon, drafted a ‘spoof’ paper which was submitted to 304 peer-reviewed, open-access journals. It detailed the anticancer qualities of a chemical derived from lichen. Despite the complete fabrication of the discovery, the researcher and his university  (more…)

The 10th National Health Summit (Ireland)

January 14, 2014 | by

Wednesday, 19 February 2014, Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland

Ireland’s most important annual healthcare management summit brings together the range of stakeholders in the management and delivery of Ireland’s health service to discuss and debate the ever-changing healthcare environment. In 2014, they will have three separate tracks: Health Insurance, Hospital Management & Digital Healthcare. The last will be chaired by David Doherty, CEO of 3G Doctor/mHealth Insight. “This track concerns itself with how technology can enable a radical improvement in the quality, productivity and accessibility of healthcare. It will, through the effective implementation and use of smart technologies, explore strategies to improve patient engagement, IT integration, process development and productivity. But, can it do all this against a background of budget cuts i.e. can better outcomes be achieved whilst still saving money?” Find out on the conference website and on Mr. Doherty’s brief article containing the speaker/panelist list. Editor Toni is scheduled to attend and report from the conference.

The CES of Health: post-scripts

January 14, 2014 | by

It’s Everywhere, Everyday, Disruptive, Not Impressive and Still ‘Bicycles for Fish’.

Neil Versel’s first major article recaps the Digital Health Summit ‘Point of Care Everywhere’ panel with Dr. Joseph Kvedar of Partners HealthCare/Center for Connected Health, Walter De Brouwer, founder and CEO of Scanadu (the tri-corder everyone’s waiting for) and Laura Mitchell, VP of business development at ‘grizzled pioneer’ in telecare and telehealth GrandCare Systems. The key is integration–for Dr. Kvedar, making it ‘about life, personal and social’; for Mr. DeBrower, bringing digital health into the home; for Ms. Mitchell, persuading long-term-care providers that technology provides useful, actionable information. Some surprises here: Scanadu will be shipping 8,800 units in March to its Indiegogo supporters and is going into a Scripps Health clinical trial; Dr. Kvedar admitted that the latest CCH startup, social wellness site Wellocracy [TTA 30 Oct] is “still searching for its audience.” The headline is “Mobile health has a lot of power, but it’s raw and new”–but is that helpful in positioning it to the Big Users–payers, pharma, providers–who are not all that daring? Mobihealthnews 

Everyday Health with the Digital Health Summit announced on Thursday their 2014 awards for innovation to five US companies for ‘achievement in technology innovation aimed at improving health outcomes.’ They include Scanadu but also four less heralded companies: (more…)

Telecare – time to lose the last “e”?

January 12, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

Many years ago when I co-founded eForum to promote what was then called “eGovernment”, it was common for smart speakers to begin their conference presentations by saying that it’d soon be plain “government”, which indeed it has been now for many years; around the world, government sector workers have embraced technology to offer huge improvements in quality of service to citizens at reduced cost. Sadly health services have proved far more resistant to the beneficial use of technology, so eHealth & mHealth seem likely to take rather longer to lose their prefixes, in spite of pleas from the VA. If any support for this view was needed, the telehealth news from the flat earth society of a recent survey of GPs (more…)

The 10x Medical Device Conference

January 11, 2014 | by

12-14 May 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota, DoubleTree by Hilton – Minneapolis Park Place

Top industry experts headline this conference designed for professionals in (and serving) the medical device industry, with an emphasis on medical device companies in high growth mode. It focuses on strategies to help grow small- to mid-sized medical device companies.This conference is organized annually by the 200,000+ member Medical Devices Group on LinkedIn. Agenda, speakers, conference and registration information. Hat tip to Joe Hage of the MDG. 

11th Wearable Technologies Conference 2014 I Europe

January 11, 2014 | by

27-28 January 2014, International Congress Center, Munich, Germany

The 11th Wearable Technologies Conference is the leading event to experience the most comprehensive line-up of technology innovations, discuss the latest trends, and meet doers and makers, thought leaders and innovators, as well as groundbreaking start-ups in this area. Featuring smart watches and smart glasses projects, and the industry giants Samsung, Sony and ST Microelectronics, the 11th Wearable Technologies Conference Europe gives you the chance to get in-depth insights into the future of lifestyle, sports, and health devices and other application fields for wearable technologies. Another highlight is the award ceremony of the Wearable Technologies Innovation World Cup on Jan. 27, 2014, where the finalists will present their solutions, and the “WT Innovator of the year” will be announced. Website. Speakers. Registration.

The CES of Health (Friday)

January 10, 2014 | by

Rounding up the 10 Ring Vegas Circus-Circus, it’s time for ‘best and worst lists’: hopping with the Kiwi tracker, no one’s kind to Mother, in the kitchen with 3D printers and what may be up with Google, FDA and contact lenses.

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/02-itoi-620×400.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]ZDNet rounds up its Friday coverage with a Best of CES selection. It’s always interesting to get the broader non-healthcare techie view of ‘what’s hot’–they spotted fitness bands early when even diehard QSers were skeptical– and to then see if their picks make it into the broader market. Their health tech picks are the Mimo Baby onesie + detachable turtle monitor from Rest Devices (sure to be a hit at your next baby shower; TTA 10 Sept], movement profiler Notch(see Thursday; it also made The Guardian’s roundup), MakerBot’s home 3D Replicator Mini (Wednesday) and the Epson Moverio BT200 digital content projection smart glasses  (in-market March, @ $699.99 a bargain for what use?). Au contraire, see 11 born-to-fail worst gadgets which includes being mean to Sen.se’s Mother and, in worst design, an iPad video ‘periscope’ from iTOi which looked like it was stolen off the set of the 1956 space opera Forbidden Planet. For today’s market, it definitely could have used a steampunk vibe to carry off its ‘Blue Blazes’ design.

Yet one of their writers gives Mother, a/k/a the “M2M Mollycoddle”, “part-Russian doll and part-Doctor Who monster”, a more thoughtful once-over. (more…)

WellDoc raises $20 million from Merck, others

January 10, 2014 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BlueStar-promo-image-WD.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]WellDoc, developer of a prescribable Type 2 diabetes management smartphone app (BlueStar), announced today a $20 million Series A round from Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Windham Venture Partners. The interest by Merck is understandable in several ways. Pharma companies are moving beyond the meds into other management models as blockbuster drugs become scarce (those cuts in R&D do hurt down the line), operating costs higher and profitable drugs go off patent. Because it is prescribable, BlueStar is reimbursable by US insurers (not disclosed by WellDoc); it is currently offered as a pharmacy benefit by Ford Motor and major drugstore chain RiteAid. In addition to these, WellDoc has developed strong partnerships (AT&T, Alere) since their founding in 2005 (see below). BlueStar also can be considered a strong fit for a Merck subsidiary, Vree Health.  (more…)

The CES of Health (Thursday)

January 10, 2014 | by

Beaucoup fitness bands and wearables, an ‘all-in-one’ glucose meter and finally, a lack of hype!

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/razer-nabu-main-banner.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Mobihealthnews rounds up 18 mobile health launches in a slideshow format (a bit difficult to page through). It’s heavy on fitness monitor bands and wearables from well-known and startup companies at price points from the $100 range up well past $400:  Sony, LG, Garmin, Polar, Razer, Virgin Pulse (clipon), Lumo, iFit, Movea, Wellograph and Epson. (Also see Medgadget’s roundup if you can’t get enough!) Outside of fitness monitors: from China’s iHealth Lab (Andon Health), a blood pressure monitoring vest, an ambulatory ECG device that supposedly sticks to the wearer’s bare chest (no FDA approvals yet); Zensorium Tinke’s pulse oximeter plus for Android (seen by this Editor at New York CES in November 2012), the Qualcomm Life-backed YoFiMeter cellular glucose meter (more below) and the Medissimo Medipac GPS tracking pill box from France. Already covered here: Withings Aura, Qardio, Mother, Kolibree. (more…)

App helps guide the visually impaired

January 9, 2014 | by

You may be familiar with the floor tapes used in large buildings to guide people to different areas or departments – [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Kirugi-Hospital-Floor-Lines-2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]I have seen these in many hospitals. A team in Italy’s University of Palermo have extended the idea to develop an inexpensive way to guide visually impaired people.

In a paper published last month Pierluigi Gallo and colleagues have described their work in developing Arianna, a system which can be used to guide people along complex paths (more…)

The CES of Health (Wednesday)

January 9, 2014 | by

Qardio, Withings, CSR, iOptik, ‘Robotics on the Runway’, 3D printing and…Mother

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Qardioarm.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Qardio is making its official debut with the QardioArm blood pressure cuff and the QardioCore chest strap for monitoring EKG (plus heart rate, heart rate variability, physical activity intensity and skin temperature). Both were previewed by this Editor at CEWeek 2013 in June and do not yet have FDA nor CE approvals. A price for QardioCore was revealed in Business Insider–$449. QardioArm is listed at $75 on Indiegogo where $29,500 of their $100,000 goal was raised in the past three days. Video. Also MedCityNews.

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Withings-aura.jpg” thumb_width=”130″ /]Withings’ Z-Z-Z-Z market entry, the Aura, gets a fave rave at length from Dan Munro in Forbes, adding that the price will be $299. Its stationary aspect, nothing to wear and pricing makes it ideal for high-end QSers who don’t travel a lot or have multiple homes.  (more…)

Certifying health apps: is it at all possible?

January 9, 2014 | by

This article in iMedicalApps takes a look back at the controversy that swirled around Happtique only four weeks ago–when Harold Smith III of Monckton Health and Fixmo went public on major data security flaws in two of their 19 certified apps–and moreover how Happtique did not respond to his concerns either in December or on the process in March [TTA 13 Dec]. It was the talk of the last big US gathering prior to International CES, the mHealth Summit.

Unfortunately, Satish Misra, MD, one of their editors, provides an argument best described as a ‘circular firing squad.’ Dr. Misra is absolutely correct on the enormity of curating and certifying tens of health/medical apps. But the point of the article seems to be that any kind of evaluation mechanism or certification is a fool’s errand.

The logic presented as this Editor interprets the article: Since Happtique’s certification process had standards which were complicated and arbitrary (plus, as it turned out, flawed), it proves that it’s useless to pursue standards and certification. In addition to being ‘resource intensive’ for reviewing tens of thousands of apps, standards cannot decide what app is the right choice, even if that was not the intent of the certification. So doctors and ‘end users’ have to become ‘app-literate’; hang the fact that the point of curation and certification is to do at least some of the heavy lifting (pre-screening) job for them beforehand! Back to the start: reading all the peer review stuff on thousands of medical apps, if it’s reviewed at all, as iMedicalApps does for some. (And will these reviews be 100% accurate? Will they subject every app to data security screening? What are their standards?) Back to Square One: DIY and Dodge City. Apps present too much (unpaid) work for docs to think about, patients use (then abandon) apps that can be privacy risks, because they don’t know any better and they aren’t white-hat hackers after all….

Remaining unconsidered by iMedicalApps is the plausibility of what Master Data Cruncher IMS Health is taking on with AppScript and AppNucleus [TTA 15 Dec]: a proprietary 25-point methodology (AppScore) that automates the classification and evaluation of health apps plus a hosting platform that uses IMS information to assist developers in creating secure, effective apps.

A far more detailed exploration of why at the very least an objective certification/evaluation process is needed is explored by Editor Charles in his continuing series Driving Up Medical App Usage in the UK, especially Part II (Part I here.) Watch for Part III shortly.

Driving up medical app usage in the UK – part II

January 8, 2014 | by

Introduction

This series of posts covers some work I have been doing over the past three months: attempting to answer the question of how best to improve the perception by clinicians and patients of the efficacy of health-related apps. This work has been done for the i-Focus project, part of the Technology Strategy Board’s dallas programme.

Part I attempted to summarise the EU regulations covering health-related apps. The point was made that any health-related app must comply with data protection and consumer protection requirements, irrespective of whether the risk level is sufficient for it to be classified as a ‘medical device’. Where an app is classified as a ‘medical device’ it also has to be classified so that the appropriate adjudication work can be determined for it to receive a CE mark (Class I, lowest risk, requires least investigation; Class III, highest risk, requires greatest investigation).

This post summarises the principal findings from discussions with a very wide range of potential stakeholders, (more…)