[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/robot-cosmobot-85532261-slide-2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]HP, a tech name not often associated with health monitoring, focuses on health tech in its Winter 2015 issue of HP Matter (produced by Fast Company). Focusing on monitoring and assistance for older adults, the Robot Caregivers article profiles the US’ GeriJoy, a ‘virtual pet’ on a tablet which acts as a therapeutic companion and, through the tablet camera, provides 24/7 video monitoring; Sweden’s Giraff Plus which combines home digital sensors with a tall mobile robot to comprehensively monitor personal well-being; and its pint-size cousin, CosmoBot (US), a character robot for education and therapeutics targeted to younger children. The wearables article notes AdhereTech‘s very smart IoT pill bottle and Proteus Digital Health’s smartpill to body sensor to smartphone monitor. There’s more about bionic prosthetic knees and making healthcare unhackable (!) promoting HP’s security software.
75 percent of patients interested in telemedicine….(US)
…and 73 percent have never participated in a video consult. Those are some surprises contained in a recently published study summary, “Patient Interest in Adopting Telemedicine,” conducted by Software Advice, a site which publishes reviews on medical (and other) software. The interest is indicative of a greater willingness to use virtual visits despite concerns on the lack of in-person interaction, technical problems, no physical examination and not knowing if health insurance covers it. 63 percent of telemedicine users had increased satisfaction, and both users and non-users overwhelmingly preferred at least the notion of telemedicine to an emergency room visit. Other key benefits are ‘the comfort of home’ and not having to travel–more so than quick access to care. Also valuable in the study (more…)
TMD–too much data–going nowhere
Here is a tech-savvy person lamenting (ranting?) in Venture Beat that there’s no one place to put all of his health data that he needs–weight, PHR (personal health record), his spin class and aerobic training data. AppleHealth/Apple HealthKit? Only the weight via a Withings scale maps to it, and you have to scroll past oodles of data categories, such as your molybdenum levels, to get to more vital things like weight and heart rate. FitBit lasted three months in his life before being tossed in a drawer. What took center stage at International CES were more devices dumping more data that doesn’t map into a central database. He acidly notes that Apple HealthKit is free because it is is worthless. Is there something broken here that we in telehealth need to deal with, quickly? My health data is killing me (figuratively) Hat tip to Tom Greene posting in The King’s Fund LinkedIn group Digital Health and Care Congress, this year 16-17 June. A reminder–call for papers closes 13 Feb!
Catching up with: Mobisante, Parkinson’s Voice Initiative
(Editor’s note: This Editor is always gratified to see that some of the tech developments your Editors covered in early days pop up again having moved successfully forward. This article and the next on minimally disruptive healthcare follow up on articles respectively in April, December and June 2013.)
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Mobisante-185×185.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] Mobile ultrasound developer Mobisante is alive, well and well beyond their kit days we profiled back in 2011 (when they gained FDA approval) and last in April 2013. The smartphone is now a dedicated integrated mobile device called the MobiUS SP1 with applications in primary care, ob/gyn, emergency and vascular medicine, with the entire system under 12 ounces. It also has a big brother in a tablet-based system. Both are highly portable and take quick imaging to the max (and developing countries). Interview with Sailesh Chutani, CEO and co-founder. Hat tip to reader Sandeep Pulim MD of @Point Of Care via TwitterThe Parkinson’s Voice Initiative headed by the UK’s Max Little, currently a visiting professor at MIT, is moving forward having collected voice samples from 17,000 volunteers. He is seeking to develop a non-invasive, quick, accurate test for Parkinson’s through analyzing the patient’s voice patterns. Mr Little is adding to this the Michael J. Fox Foundation challenge in analyzing movement data captured through smartphones. Originally profiled in November and December 2013. Fast Company: Co.Exist (which also has his 2012 TED talk). Hat tip to Ashley Gold in today’s Morning eHealth (POLITICO)’s ‘What We’re Clicking’.
Is how we are treating patients for chronic diseases (and pre-diseases) all wrong?
A look again at minimally disruptive healthcare. In June 2013 we wrote about a contrarian approach to treating chronic disease–and now the ‘pre-diseases’ which have been discovered, like Columbus with America, with all good and proactive intentions for the patient. There’s increasing pressure, and rigidity in applying, guidelines and quality standards which are both performance and financially based. Measure, measure, measure!! Prescribe, prescribe, prescribe!! Is your patient at goal? Yet we are losing the Battle of Real Results and improved health. Telehealth and telemedicine are being touted as ways to increase compliance, but do they complicate matters and add to–not reduce–the burden?
We return to the originator of this minimally disruptive approach to care, Victor Montori MD, an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic, via a MedCityNews article by cardiologist John Mandrola MD and this video from a primary care conference, the NAPCRG annual meeting in New York. (At 45 minutes, you’ll want to save it for later).
Key points:
Gait and balance detector Kinesis QTUG successful in MS assessment study
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/QTUG.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]TRIL Centre (Dublin, Ireland) spinoff Kinesis, which developed the wearable sensor-based QTUG system for assessing fall risk through measuring gait and balance, was part of a recently presented study of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients presented at the IEEE International Conference. The QTUG test was used in assessing patient mobility and fall risk over time. The base test, Timed Up and Go (TUG), is manually performed with a timer and observer; the patient rises from a chair, walks three meters, turns around, walks back and then sits back down again. Using this test, the Kinesis sensors reliably assessed the state of patient MS in 21 patients, using 32 of the 52 sensor parameters. In October, according to Mobihealthnews, Kinesis inked a deal with Intel-GE Care Innovations to distribute the system in the US; Intel and GE also are major funders of TRIL. IEEE Xplore abstract (full access on paid site).
Another Xerox healthcare move: reducing readmissions
About two months ago [TTA 13 Nov 14], we noted Xerox’s interesting investment in telehealth/virtual consult kiosk HealthSpot Station. We thought at that time that Xerox was not active in healthcare services and thus found the HealthSpot Station investment unusual. Right on the diagnostics, wrong on the data crunching. Notably, their Midas+ subsidiary concentrates on healthcare quality management, analytics and benchmarking solutions. Midas+ has entered into the readmissions fray by combining its proprietary database, compiled over 1,900 Xerox hospital clients, with five years of Medicare and claims data to help hospitals better predict 30-day same-cause readmissions. The Midas+ Readmission Penalty Forecaster uses the data to project in “near real-time” both patient patterns and reimbursement rates. Commenting to MedCityNews, Justin Lanning, SVP and managing director of Xerox Healthcare Provider Solutions, said the Forecaster has a 1.5 percent margin of error within the predictive model, with quarterly updates provided to participating hospitals. Midas+ also offers, beyond the model, onsite consulting. HealthSpot Station theoretically could throw off a lot of data on outpatient disease and treatment. Midas+ Forecaster white paper, eWeek.
We also note that MedCityNews, one of the livelier publications that covers a wide swath of the US healthcare scene, is being acquired by Breaking Media, a New York City-based digital publisher. CEO Chris Seper will remain with the publication. Article.
Health IT Entrepreneurial Connections Program (US)
The New Jersey Innovation Institute, a corporation part of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark, NJ, is inviting healthcare technology and HIT entrepreneurs to be part of an acceleration/scaleup program for growth companies. The NJIT School of Management at the Enterprise Development Center runs a structured learning program in bi-weekly group sessions for qualifying innovative IT companies which are seeking to boost their annual revenue by 20 percent or more. It is free to participants, as funded partly by JPMorgan Chase’s ‘Small Business Forward’ initiative. Participants must have some market traction (the minimum is $250,000 or more in annual revenue).The deadline for application to be part of cohort #2 is early February; the program starts late February. Unlike other local programs, there is no requirement that the company operate in the state. For more information and to apply, see the form here. Hat tip to Michael Ehrlich, Associate Professor of the NJIT School of Management
A possible win for diabetics–a glucose monitoring ‘tattoo’ patch
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/102337982-tattooHR.530×298.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]A possible advance in the perpetual Battle of Stalingrad that diabetics face in their self-monitoring has been developed through research at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD)’s Center for Wearable Sensors. A flexible skin tattoo-like patch has been used to monitor pre- and post-meal blood glucose levels. It works by using a small electrical current directed to the two small electrodes in the clear patch which activate an enzyme that reacts with glucose, giving a reading to the researchers on the seven subjects which correlates to conventional needle-stick metering. It’s not so advanced yet that it delivers information to a smartphone or dedicated meter, but directionally it’s in the right direction. And think of the savings both in disposables and cost ($1 each). The Center for Wearable Sensors is further developing (more…)
Nominations wanted for our 10th year
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/10.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]You may have noticed from our header above that it is the 10th year of Telehealth & Telecare Aware’s service to the industry. To mark our anniversary, we intend to invite leaders in the field to reflect on the past ten years and (if they dare!) to speculate on the next ten.
But first we would like you, dear Reader, to become involved in the process. Think for a moment…exactly who would you like to hear from? Whose views do you think best represent the last decade of changes taking place in healthcare and technology, improving (we hope!) care delivery, personal safety and well being?
Please post nominations as a comment or email Editor Donna.
Telemedicine’s boffo year? Some confirmation. (US)
Big bets were made on telemedicine (video doctor-patient consults) in 2014. This Editor closed her 18 December article with ‘telemedicine providers received a $200 million+ vote of confidence from tough-minded investors. We’ll see if 2015 results fulfill these whale-at-Monte-Carlo wagers.’ Here may be the start of a tipping point. New York State’s new law requiring insurer reimbursement for telehealth services went into effect 1 January, making NY the 22nd state to require payers to pay up for virtual visits. Permitted providers are physicians, dentists (!), physician assistants, psychologists and social workers. This provider list is considerably broader than Medicare’s new rules applying telehealth for patients with two or more chronic conditions, which is tied to physicians’ offices and contracted third parties. Also cheering the industry are that Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee are holding hearings on potential legislation, with Missouri at the legislative bill stage. (more…)
MALCOLM final results now online (UK/FR)
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/MALCOM-Middle-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]If you are interested in the outcomes of SEHTA and Pôle-Tes‘ MALCOLM project, they are now published on the SEHTA website. The Anglo-Franco project analyzed remote care via ICT (information and communications technology) delivery (eHealth) and needs in the coastal Channel area: Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent in England, and Lower Normandy in France. The press release has more details on results, methodology and the funding.
Dr Topol’s prescription for The Future of Medicine, analyzed
The Future of Medicine Is in Your Smartphone sounds like a preface to his latest book, ‘The Patient Will See You Now’, but it is quite consistent with Dr Topol’s talks of late [TTA 5 Dec]. The article is at once optimistic–yes, we love the picture–yet somewhat unreal. When we walk around and kick the tires…
First, it flies in the face of the increasing control of healthcare providers by government as to outcomes and the shift for good or ill to ‘outcomes-based medicine’. Second, ‘doctorless patients’ may need fewer services, not more, and why should these individuals, who represent the high-info elite at least initially, be penalized by having to pay the extremely high premiums dictated by government-approved health insurance (in the US, ACA-compliant insurance a/k/a Obamacare)–or face the US tax penalties for not enrolling in same? Third, those liberating mass market smartwatches and fitness trackers aren’t clinical quality yet–fine directionally, but real clinical diagnosis (more…)
An interesting COPD telehealth pilot, mangled in the reporting
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/blue-blazes.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Our first ‘Blue Blazes’ of 2015 is the kind of press coverage that makes a PR pro or marketing director cringe.
Intel-GE Care Innovations along with OSF (Order of St. Francis) HealthCare and the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine at Peoria, the latter which have an interestingly named collaborative called Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center, are using the home telecare activity tracker Lively in a COPD patient tracking pilot. Reading the two articles found to date, one can eventually glean that vital signs like weight, blood pressure, O2 levels, lung capacity and qualitative feedback questions, as well as activity, is being tracked. The combination of activity + vital signs is interesting and different, but it takes detective work–viewing the video on the CIProud.com website (which charmingly turns sensors into senors in the headline)–to discover that the activity tracker is Lively, a CI partner. Lively does not report vital signs. How they are being collected remains a mystery as the Peoria Public Radio website article doesn’t furnish details other than a picture with an unidentified desktop hub/display (Health Harmony? It doesn’t look like it). Lack of detail + abundance of typos = bad reportage. In any case, the pilot of 30 patients continues into March, when it will be expanded to 200. Related: OSF/Care Innovations announcement from June 2014.
VOX Telehealth rolls out orthopedic pre/post-procedure service
Pre/post-procedure education and monitoring service VOX Telehealth launched their OrthoCare Program at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. OrthoCare was developed in conjunction with The St. Mary’s Orthopedic Institute for total hip and knee replacement procedures and provides a ‘patient care plan’ with specific educational content for the patient to prepare for the procedure and what to expect during recovery. The plan also includes patient reminders and symptomatic observations tied into a customizable alert escalation and notification system. The goal is to reduce post-discharge complications and readmissions. If this sounds ‘soft’, Stephanie Baum at MedCityNews makes two excellent points: joint replacement surgery is one of Medicare’s largest expenditures, and that ‘companies centered on navigating healthcare systems was the third largest target of digital health investments last year, according to stats from a StartUp Health report published in December.’ VOX release
Call for papers: King’s Fund Digital Health and Care Congress June 2015
Deadline is Friday 13 February for abstract submissions
The King’s Fund Digital Health and Care Congress will be taking place on 16-17 June at The King’s Fund in London, with the theme Enabling patient-centred care through information and technology. Interested presenters should see below:
You are invited to present current or latest research results and/or report on the progress and impact of innovative projects. Authors are encouraged to submit papers to one of the main themes indicated below.
Accepted papers will be presented at the congress by one of the authors and published in a special congress supplement. Acceptance will be based on quality, relevance and originality.
Conference themes
Authors are invited to submit under the following themes:
*sustaining independence as people age
*preventing and managing chronic illness effectively
*engaging health care professionals and commissioners
*digitally enabling service transformation
More information is available on The King’s Fund web page here. (Please also see the PDF in the sidebar)
TTA has been a media partner of The King’s Fund conferences in 2014.
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