Apple Watch may not be as ‘healthy’ as touted

February 18, 2015 | by | 2 Comments
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/apple-watch-beauty-shot.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]According to multiple press sources in the past 24 hours, the anxiously-awaited Apple Watch is rumored to be having big trouble with its more advanced healthcare measuring features. We noted at the time “Haptic engine and heart rate monitor; 4 lenses. infrared, LED, photo sensors detect pulse.” plus daily activity [TTA 9 Sep, 11 Sep 14]. Well, not quite. The Wall Street Journal broke the news that it will not debut in April including monitoring of “blood pressure, heart activity and stress levels” as originally planned because, simply, the watch did not measure them reliably and accurately (hairy, sweaty arms!), they were too complex or required regulatory approval (not so–see FDA and MDDS).

Apple has relied on the Watch to defend its Still Most Innovative Company Post-Jobs turf, (more…)

Healthcare Innovation Breakfast Series (Dallas, Texas)

February 18, 2015 | by

Having met and been impressed at mHealth Summit by Health Wildcatters [TTA 26 Apr 13], a Dallas Texas-based healthcare accelerator, they are doing some smart marketing in sponsoring a series of local networking breakfasts called The Pulse to connect entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and other innovators from the thriving Dallas healthcare and business communities with healthcare startups. Their launch is Thursday 26 February from 7:30-9am. Coffee and continental breakfast is provided and the cost is an affordable $15. Reserve here. Hat tip to Hubert Zajicek of Health Wildcatters via Twitter

Tech, approaches for caregiving at a distance falling behind

February 17, 2015 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/8001846820_6d2df50ffa_z.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]There’s plenty of telehealth systems and apps that remind older adults of their meds, appointments and take their vital signs–but where are the ones that take care of the reality of ‘aging in place’: the loneliness of the man or woman who lives alone, how that person can communicate with family with their own lives 50 or 2,000 miles away, how family members can better oversee or coordinate her care? The problem hasn’t changed when first addressed over a decade ago by the earliest telecare systems. The technology, while more abundant, is largely uncoordinated, putting the burden on the caregiver. Laurie Orlov points out that ‘finding care is not the problem’ but that the care is at extremes: either too light (daily non-medical assistance) or a move to assisted living housing (average move-in now 80+). No company has truly organized a larger solution (more…)

Your robot update for Tuesday

February 17, 2015 | by

Catching up on our robot friends (?), we have a potpourri of developments which concentrate on either improving health or advancing robotic capabilities:

The ASSAM (Assistants for Safe Mobility) project is not about tea, but assisting older adults with everyday mobility and facilitating autonomy centering on physical mobility assistance for declining walking capabilities, but encouraging physical exercise; cognitive assistance for declining visual and mental capabilities by obstacle recognition and avoidance, and orientation and navigational aid. ASSAM upgrades existing DME (durable medical equipment) via sensor and computing hardware/software packages. It is coordinated by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and receives funding from the EU’s Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme and the national ministries of Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. ASSAM website, YouTube video  Hat tip to the German Center for Research and Innovation

A robot scientist may make ‘orphan drugs’ an obsolete term. Eve, a robot scientist (more…)

Will there be more remote consultation pilots than BA has, as well?

February 15, 2015 | by

News comes via Prof Mike Short of another remote consultation pilot planned – this time the ELECTOR project involving Denmark, UK and the Czech Republic. As it seems to have no website yet, we can only offer a Twitter handle. There’s also info on the Brit in the video on the above link, Dr Anthony Leeds, on the University of Surrey website, (explaining that he has recently been appointed a Visiting Professor at the University of Copenhagen).

This information comes a few days after the previous remote consultation pilot we covered that was featured in Pulse. Is this reviewer being unduly pessimistic in wondering whether we are about to suffer the same pilotitis that afflicted telehealth that led to the original “more pilots than BA” jibe? If so, what can be done?

Well one obvious cause of the problem is (more…)

A primer on why startups fail

February 13, 2015 | by

What makes for a successful startup? Or the converse–what are the Elements of Doom for all those Better Mousetraps? Since many of our Readers have Been There, Done That or Considering That, this blog posting by David Skok of VC Matrix Partners (with only minor holdings in healthcare) could be illuminating. Five factors are detailed succinctly and in plain English: market problems (timing, value proposition), business model failure, poor management, running out of cash and product problems. The calculation of CAC (Cost of Acquiring Customer)/ LTV  (Lifetime Value of Customer) with a multiple of CAC:LTV at 1:3-5+ essential. To this Editor, these Elements also apply to later stages. For Entrepreneurs, “Why Startups Fail.” Hat tip to MedCityNews via Twitter.

TripleTree iAwards: applications open

February 13, 2015 | by

Applications are now open through 13 March for the seventh annual TripleTree iAwards, which recognize the most innovative companies in connected health. Finalist CEOs present at the 10th annual Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA) Convergence Summit 26-28 May in beautiful (and warm) San Diego. Previous finalists are a chronicle of the changing connected health scene: marquee names still with us (Qualcomm Life, AliveCor, GreatCall, Proteus)–and those vanished from the scene (Healthrageous, WellAWARE, Diversinet, Zeo). Information and application.

Integrating spiritual care into healthcare: conference (US)

February 12, 2015 | by

2015 Caring for the Human Spirit, 20-22 April, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando Florida

The Health Care Chaplaincy Network (HCCN), which we’ve recently profiled in ‘Chaplain Care for Veterans’, has been integrating online and tele-consultative (email, phone and video chat) resources into spiritual and mental health care in chaplaincy service. This year’s conference highlights include a workshop on TeleChaplaincy: The Online Practice of Professional Chaplaincy. Featured speakers are primarily from the US, but include The Rev. John Swinton, University of Aberdeen, King’s College School of Divinity. Conference registration is also available for a real-time webcast of all sessions and workshops. Brochure  Previously: Patient engagement meets ‘palliative care’ in a care plan pilot with VOX Telehealth [Disclosure: Editor Donna is a volunteer on the HCCN’s marketing advisory council.]

Florida to try telehealth legislation – again

February 12, 2015 | by

After repeatedly failing to pass a law to formalise payments for telehealth, Florida State [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Florida-House-of-Representattives.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]legislature is to try again this year, according to Florida state senator Aaron Bean. Moderating the Telemedicine and Telehealth session at the Florida Health Care Affordability Summit on Monday, 8 February, Sen. Bean has suggested that the latest bill, highly focused on telehealth, will be only 3 pages long. Attempts to legislate in in the previous session of the Florida House of Representatives resulted in failed bills in both chambers due to the inclusion of many controversial items.

(more…)

Hackermania running wild, 2015 edition

February 11, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hackermania.jpg” thumb_width=”300″ /]

Do we need the Hulkster Running Wild against Hacking? It’s so heartwarming to see the mainstream press catch up to what your Editors have been whinging on for the past few years: that healthcare data is the Emperor With No Clothes. Here we have Reuters and the New York Times with a case of the vapors, seeking a fainting couch. Reuters dubs 2015 ‘The year of the healthcare hack’. The FBI is investigating the AnthemHealth breach, while their counterparts UnitedHealth, Cigna and Aetna are in full, breathless damage control mode. The Times at least delves into the possibility that it was at least partially instigated by China and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unit that trolls for intellectual property.

Our Readers, savvy to your Editors’ warnings since at least 2010, were aware that the drumbeat accelerated this past summer. (more…)

Data breach fail at AnthemHealth: an inadvertent ‘inside job’ (updated)

February 11, 2015 | by

US health insurance giant AnthemHealth, which had a data breach of reportedly up to 80 million beneficiaries [TTA 6 Feb], was an inadvertent ‘inside job’. The Associated Press reported that the credentials of at least five employees were used to access information, at least one of whom was an administrator who viewed his credentials being used to query the data warehouse. It’s easier than you think to get them. In an analysis published by security firm Tripwire and also in MIT Technology Review, the writer Ken Westin outlines how easy it is to find that the Anthem warehouse is TeraData, and to match up employees engaged with it, through using public employee profiles on places like LinkedIn and job postings. Then it’s deductive to find exact email addresses (find the pattern–lead generation companies building business contact lists do this all the time) and send these key employees phishing emails  (more…)

Widespread remote GP consultations getting closer; no shortage of implementation advice

February 10, 2015 | by

Following our previous item on the topic, on January 16th, Tim Kelsey made it very clear to this editor at a PICTFOR event that the £1b promised to GPs for premises improvement included a strong requirement that GPs also invest in electronic support, including remote consultation technology.

It is therefore particularly pleasing to see in yesterday’s Pulse Today, an item on a Skype trial in Central London that both patients and GPs seem to love. Some key quotes:

Almost all patients surveyed about their experience of the remote consultation service said they ‘would use it again’ (95%).

Although patients were warned that ‘the security of Skype isn’t 100%’, 83% also said (more…)

FDA final guidance on mHealth eases regulation of MDDS, mHealth (updated)

February 10, 2015 | by | 1 Comment

As anticipated, FDA issued final non-binding recommendations for guidance yesterday (Monday) that ease regulatory oversight of medical device data systems (MDDS), including image storage and communication devices, and mHealth devices.

In the MDDS guidance document, “(FDA) does not intend to enforce compliance with the regulatory controls that apply to MDDS, medical image storage devices, and medical image communications devices, due to the low risk they pose to patients and the importance they play in advancing digital health.” It defined MDDS as “a device that is intended to provide one or more of the following uses, without controlling or altering the functions or parameters of any connected medical devices: (i) The electronic transfer of medical device data; (ii) The electronic storage of medical device data; (iii) The electronic conversion of medical device data from one format to another format in accordance with a preset specification; or (iv) The electronic display of medical device data.” along with their hardware and software. It specifically excludes devices that are used in active patient monitoring.

Mobile health apps were covered in a separate and highly detailed guidance document, “Mobile Medical Applications”.

  • FDA will regulate only “those mobile apps that are medical devices and whose functionality could pose a risk to a patient’s safety if the mobile app were to not function as intended.” (more…)

Economist study on mHealth: improving outcomes, but revenue model?

February 10, 2015 | by

The Economist‘s just published survey of 144 healthcare executives in 23 countries, taken in June 2014, is a combination of cheering and dismaying.

The good:

  • Most executives surveyed (64 percent) believe that new mobile technologies and services that provide greater patient access to medical information “could dramatically improve health outcomes”.
  • 63 percent project that “greater patient access to their personal data will allow people to make better decisions about their health”.

Holding things back are factors as diverse as:

  • Risk aversion within the healthcare industry (institutional bias and conservatism
    within the healthcare establishment) cited by 44 percent
  • Patient privacy concerns (49 percent)
  • Patients finding technology hard to use (54 percent)

These executives are also not strong on wearables; they do not believe that it will alter healthcare in any noticeable way (21 percent). And still there is the consideration about how to make money in mobile health: 10% of respondents (and 19% of those in the US) believe mobile health has no promising revenue model.  PDF  Hat tip to Ashley Gold of POLITICO’s Morning eHealth on Monday.

State of telehealth in Australia – a GP’s view

February 10, 2015 | by

As we have noted in the past, Australia has provided incentives for GPs to implement videoconference telehealth [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AFP2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]consultations in remote rural areas. Simple though it may be from a conceptual point of view, providing the ability for people in isolated communities to have access to specialists can make an enormous difference to the healthcare they receive.

Dr Ewen McPhee, a GP from rural Queensland, writing in the Australian Family Physician’s December issue (“Telehealth: the general practice perspective”) briefly looks at the state of videoconference telehealth in Australia 3 years after the current incentives were implemented. “Three years later, the implementation of telehealth videoconferencing has been inconsistent and patchy, yet to be normalised as part of primary care practice” says McPhee.

Living in cities like London or New York it can sometimes be hard to imagine (more…)

UK’s Best SME Mobile Health App Competition – finalists announced

February 9, 2015 | by

This reviewer participated as a judge in the first round of this competition, sponsored by Patient-View, myhealthapps, techUK and the Department of Trade & Investment. From this, four finalists were chosen who will go forward to the second part of the competition at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (“MWC 2015”) in the first week in March.

The twelve competitors were:

11health – an app and device for determining when an “’ostomy” bag is full and needs emptying. Blue-toothed to a mobile or nurse station. It has transformed the lives of patients that have to use these and continues to save nursing time too.

23 Ltd – a website builder that has diversified into behaviour change to stop smoking. Ingenious business model though as yet (more…)