The health disruptors, about to be themselves disrupted

May 31, 2015 | by

FierceMedicalDevices on Friday had an article on disruption of the hearing aid business that looks like it could have slipped through a time warp from a few years back – it even mentions faxing as a part of the new process.

The disruption it transpires is separating hearing test from hearing aid provision, the results of the test being sent to a provider “via fax or email”. This it seems is likely to reduce device costs (no mention of the tests costs) from $1,000-$6,000 to some $700/pair.

However, as a Royal Society of Medicine audience heard recently, (more…)

“Mainstreaming medical apps; reducing NHS costs; improving patient outcomes” – a brief summary

May 10, 2015 | by

What follows is a brief summary of the presentations given at the Royal Society of Medicine’s third “Appday”, held on 9th April 2015. All three events have been sell-outs.

Anne Hayes, Head of Market Development at BSI, opened the event with an excellent presentation on the then shortly-to-be-finalised PAS 277 on mHealth apps (now available, free, here). She particularly welcomed the opportunity to present to clinicians, as too often her audience was primarily technologists. The presentation was especially impressive because Anne had only agreed to do the presentation the previous Friday, following realisation by both MHRA & NICE that proximity to the election meant neither could present. Anne explained that PAS 277, as a Publicly Available Specification, is not mandatory – it is essentially a checklist for developers and purchasers of medical apps to consider.

Julie Bretland, CEO of OurMobileHealth, then presented on the preliminary conclusions of the NIB Workstream 1.2 on how best to approve medical apps. (more…)