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…)

What can the US learn from the UK’s approach to healthcare?

February 8, 2015 | by

The Guardian article recently published an article entitled “What the NHS can learn from the US Obamacare system” which disappointingly spends almost all of its text talking about the challenges of implementing Obamacare, and just a few sentences espousing three very weak lessons, the first of which  is:

…Obamacare had a clear overarching goal: reduce the number of uninsured. Who can stand up and make such a clear case for the Health and Social Care Act 2012?

The rest are (go to DHACA website to read more)

Chronic Illness Bingo, or the silly things we say to those with…

February 8, 2015 | by | 2 Comments

From our occasional Canadian contributor and genuine Heart Sister Carolyn Thomas is a handy (and funny) Bingo card with squares describing many of the ‘helpful’ things one may say to those with chronic illness, especially the invisible sort. As our readers are engaged with services and/or technologies which help others to manage chronic illness, or have lived through our own or those close to us, perhaps we are more sensitive…but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t educate, or be aware of the occasional silly remark we still make. Also read the linked article, ‘But you don’t look sick…” Let’s all play Chronic Illness Bingo!

1 in 5 UK care homes fail key national quality standards: BBC

February 8, 2015 | by

The BBC Radio 5’s ‘5 live Investigates’ broadcast today (Sunday) their report on failing care homes. Starting with third-party research from the firm LaingBuisson, which found in examining 10,000 care homes that 20 percent failed to meet one or more ‘key quality measure(s)’, the 5 live team further examined 50 sample homes which failed inspection and found in their reports:

Some homes were found to be placing residents in danger because of insufficient or poorly trained staff.

There were cases where the wrong drugs had been given out. Other homes were dirty, unhygienic or smelt of urine.

In one establishment, dementia patients were being washed in cold water, and staff had not had criminal record checks and worked up to 60 hours a week.

The program was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live Sunday, 8 February at 11:00 GMT. BBC News page. Unfortunately there is no indication of a podcast or rebroadcast. Hat tip to Guy Dewsbury via Twitter.

Blueprint Health’s latest class tackles nosocomial infections, transitional care

February 8, 2015 | by

The New York-based Blueprint Health accelerator announced this week its Winter 2015 class of seven: GlucoIQ, GroupHub, HealthyBytes, Limestone Labs, Moving Analytics, Signifikance and TapGenes. Most have a genetic analytics or payer emphasis. Of special interest to our readers are:

  • The home-based cardiac rehabilitation system of Moving Analytics, which uses a smartphone app, Movn, to guide patients through their care plan, joined with active patient management engaging them with nurses who call weekly to review progress.
  • Toronto-based Limestone Labs‘ UV-C sanitization system for portable devices (the ubiquitous tablets and smartphones) which aren’t being cleaned effectively with wipes, and are becoming a new vector for hospital-based infections. They claim 99.99 percent kill rates with treatment of only 30 seconds. It started piloting last month in healthcare settings.
  • Healthy Bytes’ food management app, engaging patients with dieticians to monitor food intake with photos, time and other comments plus coaching.

The public demo day for this class will be 24 April. Blueprint Health is now taking applications for their summer class to be launched on 13 July. MedCityNews

Lūbax skin cancer detection app in clinical trials

February 7, 2015 | by

What is that spot? A question that many of us have worried over. A skin cancer detection app developed by Los Angeles-based Lūbax is being tested with physicians and dermatologists in the US, Australia and the UK as of 4 February, World Cancer Day. It uses image recognition software and algorithms to search a proprietary dermatology image database of over 12,000 diagnosed lesions. Their initial large melanoma clinical trials with Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the University of São Paulo showed sensitivity and specificity in detecting large melanomas in patients. According to their website, they are expanding the database and algorithm to include basal and squamous cell carcinomas in addition to amelanotic melanomas. There’s a signup for the clinical trial only for iPhone, but their execs in a news item have met with Samsung. BioSpectrum Asia, release on Biospace.com, startup profile on Gust.com

News highlights for Friday

February 6, 2015 | by

AnthemHealth didn’t encrypt, Blueprint Health collects, HealthSpot funds again, Sense4Baby goes to Europe, Apple Health pilots in hospitals and buddi gets bigger still.

Another hack attack claimed major US health insurer AnthemHealth, the former WellPoint. It’s estimated that 80 million of its customers, former customers and employees had data breached: names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, employment information, income, medical IDs and SSIs. The Wall Street Journal reports that Anthem didn’t encrypt data for analytics reasons. It’s unconfirmed where the hackers originated but Bloomberg’s latest report tags the usual Chinese state-sponsored suspects. Unusually, it was reported within days of discovery; Anthem has called in Mandiant (FireEye) to beef up its cybersecurity. Other reports: WSJ, Modern Healthcare….The Blueprint Health accelerator has a new initiative, the Collective. It is designed to pair up major healthcare providers and payers with startups and early stage companies. So far signed up are Aetna, AstraZeneca, HP, Montefiore, North Shore LIJ, New York-Presbyterian, Samsung, EmblemHealth, Philips and Razorfish Healthware. More information here….The HealthSpot Station telehealth/telemedicine kiosk is readying a $11.6 million funding round from four investors soon, based on (more…)

‘Chaplain Care for Veterans’ launches (US)

February 6, 2015 | by | 2 Comments

The HealthCare Chaplaincy Network yesterday debuted Chaplain Care for Veterans and Chat with a Chaplain. Both are online and consultative (email, phone and video chat) resources which provide professional spiritual and emotional support to veterans and current service members, as well as their families and friends. They are additional extensions of HCCN’s mission of training chaplains and providing spiritual support for the seriously ill as well as their families. While they are similar to their Chaplains on Hand and Chat with a Chaplain civilian services, the veterans’ version is oriented to service-related issues. (more…)

Smartphone lab attachment detects HIV, syphilis

February 4, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/85986-1024×546.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]Starting in 2010, your Editors have been writing about the work of UCLA’s Aydogan Ozcan and associates in miniaturizing microscopes (LUCAS) and labs that clip directly on smartphones. Examples: assaying food for allergy-inducing ingredients with the iTube [TTA 13 Dec 12] and accessories that run ‘analysis on a chip’ [21 Jan 13]. Columbia University researchers have now devised and tested a palm-sized device using microfluidics to run initial tests on HIV and syphilis with results in 15 minutes. It was tested on pregnant women in Rwanda, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine. (more…)

mHealth guide to the 2015 Mobile World Congress

February 4, 2015 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mobile-World-Congress-20151.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]For our readers attending the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) extravaganza 2-5 March, there’s plenty on health tech to be found, but the MWC organizers on their website don’t make it easy. Filling the gap smartly is David Doherty on mHealth Insight with his annual mHealth guide to the 2015 Mobile World Congress–both presentations and exhibitors. Personal logistics is important as the 70,000 delegates jam Barcelona and the 2nd Health & Wellness @ Mobile World Congress organized by the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) is held at two venues. Save it on your mobile and let it be your guide.

Caregiving a la robot: GeriJoy, Giraff Plus, CosmoBot

February 3, 2015 | by

[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)

February 3, 2015 | by

…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…)

UK’s Best SME Mobile Health APP Finals on Monday 2nd February

January 30, 2015 | by

The shortlist judging for the above, entries for which we sought in December, will take place on the afternoon of Monday 2nd February from 2pm to 7pm in St Bride, St London. Attendance is free, and offers an unparalleled opportunity to listen to the pitches of what are considered the twelve best SME mobile health apps in the UK. Details are here – do be sure to scroll down to click the ‘book now’ button as places are limited.

The judges (disclosure: of whom this editor is one) will select those SMEs to go forward to the finals at the MWC in Barcelona in the first week in March.

The event is sponsored by UK Trade & Investment, techUK, and PatientView/myhealthapps

A tale of two chessboards

January 28, 2015 | by | 2 Comments

Things happen ever faster on the second half of the chessboard. No sooner had the ink dried on our predictions for 2015, and Dr Eric Topol told the story of the first patient to call him with a smartphone diagnosis than Alivecor announced that they now have CE certification for their AF-diagnosing app.

Mind you, whilst Dr Topol might welcome this, it seems that others are still on a different chessboard: under the heading “Doctors fear that new health tech is turning UK into a nation of “worried well””, a recent survey of UK doctors showed that “Seven out of ten (76%) GPs said they had noticed a marked increase in number of patients “self-diagnosing” from the internet over the past twelve months” suggesting, in the words of 1066 & all that, that technology is a Bad Thing. What, this reviewer wonders, will be the reaction to (more…)

TMD–too much data–going nowhere

January 27, 2015 | by

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!