BeVITAL: French telehealth, American multi-reading biosensor

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/HealthPatch.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Paris-based telehealth company BePATIENT has partnered with Silicon Valley biosensor company Vital Connect for a remote patient monitoring system dubbed BeVITAL. The unusual part is that the Vital Connect sensor, HealthPatchMD, is about the size of a standard bandage–it adheres to the skin by the heart–and transmits multiple vital signs including single-lead ECG, heart rate, RR interval, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, body posture, fall detection and activity including steps. The BePATIENT PC/mobile telehealth platform has a patient facing mobile app (‘Fast Path’) app, currently available in the Apple App Store, with a clinician-facing reporting module. BeVITAL has been piloted already in Europe for post-discharge monitoring of over 80 surgical patients in clinical studies at five hospitals, with two more deployments this summer. In the Americas, the two post-discharge pilots will concentrate on heart failure, in the US at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek and Concord, California and at the Hospital Infantile De Las Californias, Tijuana, Mexico. The latter study will be run by Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego.

BePATIENT’s platforms and ‘digital health modules’ are largely used in France, Europe and Australia, and also integrate devices from iHealth, Withings and fitness tracker Fitbit. The Vital Connect Platform is FDA-cleared, CE-marked and Ninsho Certified (Japan). In addition to the HealthPatchMD biosensor, which is reusable up to 500 times, they developed the single-use VitalPatch biosensor marketed in the US and Europe, and being tested by Philips for at-risk hospital patients (ZDNet). Release, KTVU News

Qualcomm (Second) Life: a conversation with Jim Mault

One of the surprises for this Editor, and for others attending the mHealth Summit, was to see the sizable presence of Qualcomm Life on both the exposition floor and during the sessions. From a near-nil presence at ATA 2014 and gone dark on news, the floodlights snapped on last week with new partners and a new emphasis: coordination of chronic and transitional (hospital to home) care management (CCM/TCM).

On the show floor, the spotlight was on the partner companies which mixed the established with (mostly) the early and mid-stage. Readers will recognize names such as AliveCor, Telcare, OMRON, Nonin and Airstrip; not so well known are Vaica, Orion Health, Monitored Therapeutics, IMPak Health, Vital Connect, Care Connectors, toSense (CoVa), Dexcom, InteliChart, TruClinic, ForaCare, VOXX, vitaphone (outside of Europe), Propeller Health and Noom Health (a NYeC Digital Health Accelerator 2014 graduate). The partners occupy different parts of the management continuum, integrating communications, record sharing, population health management, sensor-based monitoring, traditional and non-traditional vital signs monitoring, medication management, behavioral change methodologies and PHRs. The 2net Hub is still present for data transmission, sharing and storage, but more prominent is Qualcomm Life’s HealthyCircles platform which provides the clinical management ‘glue’: secure communications, record sharing and care team coordination. HealthyCircles was purchased in mid-2013. Founder James Mault, MD, FACS joined Qualcomm Life as VP/Chief Medical Officer.

We had some post-mHealth Summit reflection time by telephone this Wednesday while Dr Mault was in Boston. (more…)