Blueprint Health’s 8th Demo Day: 8 new companies show their stuff

October 6, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/blueprint-health1.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]Last Friday, in the middle of a NYC nor’easter, Blueprint Health had its eighth Demo Day, where startup companies in this accelerator’s latest three-month Summer class, having worked on their innovations and developed a business plan, ‘graduate’ and ‘pitch’ their audience. There’s been a shift over the past few classes to B2B-oriented digital health, from reducing readmissions through geolocation (Position Health)  to HIPAA compliance (HIPAAfix) to streamlined billing for chronic care management (Oculus Health), but half are more consumer-oriented companies, providing more accessible genetic testing (Bind Health), workplace stress reduction (Psocratic) and point of service lending to patients with high-deductible health plans (Crediyo). The other two companies are MedPilot (simplifying patient billing and debt through electronic billing) and DocDelta (streamlining provider talent search). Annually, Blueprint Health’s invites in about 20 digital health companies with an investment of about $20,000 each, has graduated 68 companies and hosts in their space over 24 digital health companies. Release. Company profiles.

Better’s fast fail, ending health assistance service 30 Oct

October 2, 2015 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Better.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]Better is sadly not. This two-year old service that provided personal health assistance, including a real, live health assistant, to guide members through health questions, the thickets of insurance claims, finding doctors and specialists, apps and more, announced earlier this week that it was ending operations as of 30 October. While it was announced via their Twitter feed on Tuesday, most of the industry learned of it through Stephanie Baum’s article in MedCityNews today. Better formally debuted only 16 months ago [TTA 23 Apr 14] and at the time this Editor felt that it was a service in the right direction, a kind of ‘concierge medicine for the masses’ needed when individuals have to direct more and more of their own care.

A solid start, as our Readers have seen, does not guarantee success, but this fast fail is still fairly shocking. A concern at the time was the pricing for the full service model at $49/month, which later became the family price (individuals were $19.99/month). CEO/co-founder Geoff Clapp was among the most Grizzled of Health Tech Pioneers; he had been a co-founder of Health Hero/Health Buddy from 1998 to its sale to Bosch Healthcare, a very long pull in telehealth, and he had spent much of his post-Health Hero time generously advising other startups. Yet despite the involvement of blue chip Mayo Clinic as a service provider, its financial backing from their investment arm and socially-oriented VC Social+Capital Partnership, it managed to raise only its initial seed funding of $5 million (CrunchBase).

So what happened? (more…)

76 percent of post-surgery patients prefer telehealth followup: study

October 2, 2015 | by

A 50-patient study at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee found that online-only post-surgical followup was acceptable to 76 percent of patients after uncomplicated surgery (hernia repairs, laparoscopic gall bladder). These patients, all of whom had internet access and a smartphone, tablet or digital camera, took their own pictures of their surgical site and transmitted these digital images through an online patient portal established by Vanderbilt. Both patient and doctor communicated through the portal to discuss follow-up care (though not necessarily at the same time). Another plus was that the online visits took significantly less time for patients (15 versus 103 minutes) and surgeons (5 versus 10 minutes). The surgeons reported a comparable effectiveness number–68 percent–for both online and in-person visits. Clinic visits were more effective in 24 percent and online visits for 8 percent. What was also notable was that no complications were missed via online visits. The program used to analyze images, typically used in wound management, was not disclosed in the study, which was performed between May and December last year. mHealthNews, Journal of the American College of Surgeons (abstract only)

NJ Innovation Institute gains $49 million HHS grant

October 2, 2015 | by

The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), a New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) corporation, has been selected as one of 39 health care collaborative networks participating in a Health and Human Services (HHS) program, the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative. According to their announcement, NJII was selected as a Practice Transformation Network and over four years will receive up to $49.6 million for technical assistance support to help equip 11,500 clinicians in the New Jersey region with tools, information, and network support needed to improve quality of care. This is part of a $685 million HHS program awarding grants to 39 national and regional health care networks to help equip more than 140,000 clinicians with the tools and support needed to improve quality of care, increase patients’ access to information, and reduce costs. This is in addition to an $2.9 million grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC-HIT) announced in August for sharing of quality data through its New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN). Through its Innovation Labs (iLabs), NJII brings NJIT expertise to key economic sectors, including healthcare delivery systems, bio-pharmaceutical production, civil infrastructure, defense and homeland security, and financial services. Release via Ridgewood Patch, HHS release. Hat tip to contributor Sarianne Gruber via LinkedIn.

Personal health ‘big data’ exchange is all good, right? Perhaps wrong.

September 29, 2015 | by

Many of our recent stories have touched on ‘big (health) data’ as Achieving the Holy Grail–how it can be shared, how it can work with the Internet of Things and how poorly implemented personal health record (PHI) databases can derail national health systems (and careers) [TTA 22 Sep]. They are, after all, 1) extremely difficult to design to preserve privacy and 2) must satisfy patients’ requirements for easy use as well as privacy including opting out. But when despite all good intentions, data goes awry, the consequences can be severe.

  • A daughter applies for health insurance from Aetna, and her mother’s medications, about which she had no knowledge, are attributed to her. How? Data mining off Milliman’s IntelliScript data service which mixed up the records.
  • EHR exchange can spread errors such as a dropped critical health or medication record. One led to the death of an 84 year old woman. VA also had a problem with its EHR (not cited but likely VistA) slotting medication histories into the wrong patients’ files. An Australian hospital mixed up discharge files in electronically sending them to doctors. The more records are exchanged, the more possibility there is for propagation of errors.
  • More information is shared with third-party suppliers; survey companies are increasingly tapping into these databases to send annoying, potentially privacy-invading treatment questionnaires to individuals.

Bloomberg Business’ conclusion is that this could be a problem, but much beyond the tut-tutting doesn’t get into solutions. The Pitfalls of Health-Care Companies’ Addiction to Big Data

A ‘feel-good’ car seat to reduce driver stress

September 24, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]In-car massage and therapy? A notion that gets The Gimlet Eye off the beach…again! Now a Canadian (HQ’d France) auto design company (sixth largest globally) gets into the wellness act with a prototype car seat that when you are stressed, gives you 1) a specific massage and 2) more refreshing air. Sensors built into the seat monitor respiration and heart rate, gauging stress and energy level. If your energy is low, you get an energizing massage; stressed, a relaxing one. Faurecia’s ‘Active Wellness’ seat was announced at the big Frankfurt Auto Show, and while it didn’t drown out the breathless hubbub around Volkswagen’s dodgy diesel emissions (turn on that refreshing air!), it made the Drudge Report. The non-contact sensors are from Hoana Medical in the US; Faurecia also worked with the Spine Research Institute at Ohio State University to develop the algorithms and signal processing. It also connects to wearable fitness devices so the ‘read’ begins when you start ‘er up. While Eye have no need for any of this being A Million Miles From Dull Care on A Dot On The Map, the poor New Yorkers living through this week’s UN General Assembly/Pope Francis Traffic Disaster do today and almost every day. But they’ll have to wait till 2020. Yahoo!Canada

Does telemedicine video quality influence clinical acceptance?

September 24, 2015 | by

A pointer for connected health designers. An Australian study reviewing telemedicine virtual consults examined the technical factors that may influence clinical acceptance. It compared the quality of cellular (3G) connectivity with broadband fiber-based service during virtual visits. While overall clinicians rated the telemedicine visits highly–equivalent to or better than a home visit 76 percent of the time and conducting a video consult compared with a home visit as equivalent or better 90.3 percent of the time–the lower audio/video quality of the visits over a 3G data connection versus broadband was apparent, enough that ‘statistically significant associations were found between audio/video quality and patient comfort with the technology as well as the clinician ratings for effectiveness.’ The high failure rate of 3G was also dramatic–23.5 percent of visits calls dropped.

The study was conducted at south Australia’s Flinders Telehealth in the Home (more…)

ROBOSOFT’s Kompaï-2 assistive robot debuts, wins award (FR)

September 24, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/steve-kompai-19may11.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /] [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Kompai.png” thumb_width=”200″ /]It’s a far cry from May 2011, when Founder Steve visited with the early version of the French Kompaï assistive robot for what is delicately termed ‘frail people’ (left). Kompaï-2 (second left), still with the tablet in the front, appears a bit taller and has acquired a backpack basket (for wine, a baguette, Le Matin), a rotating torso, laser autonomous navigation, a 3D camera, facial expressions and a new color. Other new features include physical assistance features plus the ability to assist with position changes, walking and medications to reduce caregiver workload. (more…)

ONC gets in study game in designing the Consumer Centered Telehealth Experience

September 23, 2015 | by

ONC (the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, HHS) in the spring conducted a design session on creating a more consumer-centered telehealth experience, commissioning the engagedIN research firm to help select a panel, run it and produce the study. The white paper focuses on how telehealth can either further fracture or integrate PHR (study pages 7-11), and what’s needed to make telehealth and telemedicine more convenient and effective for consumers. The panel avoided the big telemedicine providers (a bone that Mobihealthnews picks with the study) which typically dominate these panels–to this Editor a positive action–but included other telehealth providers like Qualcomm Life, Care Innovations and Zipnosis, as well as the US’ largest user of telehealth, VA Home Telehealth. Among the key drivers of telehealth are HHS’ and private insurers (UHC) shift to value-based payments; CMS’ target of 50 percent of Medicare value-based care is cited (page 5). There are nine principles at the end (pgs 13-16) to guide the way forward. Designing the Consumer Centered Telehealth and e-Visit Experience (PDF) (Though it is confusing why e-Visit was used rather than ‘virtual visits’ or, in fact, telemedicine.)

The difficulty in bringing telehealth to those needing it most

September 23, 2015 | by

California’s Center for Connected Health Policy, which is the National Telehealth Policy Resource Center, has published a study which concludes that community health centers (CHC)–a general term covering Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and Rural Health Centers (RHC)–have difficulty sustaining telehealth programs to support the underserved and ill with chronic conditions including mental health without grants or other subsidies. Consultant Milliman studied five California CHCs and determined that other than financial, major impediments to successful implementation were structural: complex billing and reimbursement rules, and difficulty tracking telehealth visits through multiple EHRs that weren’t necessarily compatible with each other or with billing systems. Many of these CHCs cannot financially provide telehealth without grants or other subsidies. This study holds lessons for telehealth companies which are working with ACOs, hospital discharge programs and practices in rural areas, as well as the Indian Health Service. Study (link to PDF), Healthcare Informatics, California Healthline  Hat tip to Elizabeth Olis of Viterion Digital Health

FDA, new technology approval and the Ossification Tango (US)

September 22, 2015 | by

When it comes to new technologies–and drugs for that matter–the worst thing that can happen to your invention is to receive a letter from FDA that you have been classified into Class III. Based on regulations passed by Congress in 1976, there are three FDA classes primarily based on device risk. Exception: Class III. Anything not ‘substantially equivalent’ to an existing device is automatically put into Class III, regardless of risk level. Author and health tech legal advocate Bradley Merrill Thompson of Epstein Becker Green takes a comprehensive review at this flawed and outdated system that puts groundbreaking health tech at an extreme disadvantage in his latest article on regulation in Mobihealthnews. (more…)

IoT’s biggest problem? Communication of Things.

September 22, 2015 | by | 3 Comments
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The Gimlet Eye joins us for a ‘blink’ from an undisclosed, low-tech dot on the map. The fave rave of 2015 is IoT, the annoying shorthand for Internet of Things. Well, can Aunt Madge go into a store and buy an Internet Thingy? But it seems fundamental that The Things Speak with each other, if only to compare football scores and conspire against their owner to drive him or her Stark Raving Mad by producing too many ice cubes in the fridge, turning lights on/off at the wrong times or sending out for a deli order of 20 pounds of Black Forest sliced ham. Our fear about The Things was in considering that they could be hacked in doing Things Against Their Will and Not In The Owner’s Manual. But never mind, it’s not this we should be concerned about, or whether Uncle Aloysius will go off-roading in his Google Galaxie after it’s hacked for fun by an eight-year-old Black Hat. It’s that practically all of these same or different brand TVs, parking meters, cars and health/activity monitoring devices to make life simple for Auntie and Oncle are built on different platforms without a communication protocol. The Eye is now relieved of the fear that IoT devices will be crawling out of the water onto her faraway from dull care beach anytime soon. But you may not be. The Biggest Problem with the Internet of Things? Hint: It’s Not Security (Tech.co) Hat tip to follower @ersiemens via Twitter

Health data changes Down Under: My Health Record, Tim Kelsey and Telstra

September 22, 2015 | by

Australia’s federal government is hoping for a boost to its national personal health records system, starting with a renaming of Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) to My Health Record. Proposed in the government’s $485 million budget announcement on eHealth is a resolution of implementation issues and introducing trials of participation models including designing opt-out approaches. Currently enrollment stands at a paltry 10 percent of Australians. Computer World (Australia) Hat tip to Mike Clark via Twitter

Come December, also taking the long trip there will be NHS England national director for patients and information Tim Kelsey to join Telstra Health as commercial director. Telstra is Australia’s largest telecom developing a footprint in health, and earlier this year acquired Dr Foster LLP, the UK-based health informatics company. Coincidentally (?), Mr Kelsey co-founded Dr Foster prior to 2006, when he joined the NHS to start up the information site NHS Choices. During his NHS tenure, Mr Kelsey faced numerous controversies which are detailed in the Guardian and IT news/opinion site The Register reports, mainly concerning the Care.data database for all English medical records. Concerns were raised about inadequate privacy, transparency and confidentiality provision in its design, and after a halt it has still not restarted, although 1 million people have preemptively opted out–another issue in common with My Health Record. According to the Guardian, “The scheme was recently labelled “unachievable” by a Whitehall watchdog, the Major Projects Authority, which said the future of the programme should be reassessed.” A successor to Mr Kelsey has not yet been named.

IMS Health report: mainstream health app adoption remains elusive

September 22, 2015 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Key-findings2-thumb-IMS1.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]Despite 165,000 apps (and counting). A followup to IMS Health’s report of 2013, Patient Adoption of mHealth demonstrates how far mHealth has to go. Over 50 percent of apps have a single functionality, but connectivity to external sensors (e.g. wearables) has improved to 10%. 36 apps account for nearly 50 percent of downloads and 40 percent of all health apps have 5,000 downloads or less. Providers give limited if any guidance to consumers on app choice despite greater interest; ‘curation’ efforts, including IMS Health’s own [15 Dec 13], have largely failed. Other barriers to adoption are reimbursement (though many are free), limited healthcare system integration, regulator and privacy unknowns.

Where’s the progress? Chronic condition monitoring (left), with clinical trials more than doubling in the past two years, and focusing on treatment/prevention largely for older adults. These clinical trails are looking at mental health, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, weight management and oncology. IMS Health also recommends that users and stakeholders, including clinical organizations such as the CDC, ASCO and the Cancer Support Community tap into their clinical resources to develop and promote patient-centered apps. Download report (information required.)  A decidedly less cheerful take on the report is Stephanie Baum’s at MedCityNews.

Have we arrived at another, multi-functioning generation of telecare?

September 22, 2015 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Onkol.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] Profiled in Reuters in an article on home monitoring for older adults is a desktop-sized, sleekly telecare unit called OnKöl (that’s On Call for those who wonder what an umlaut is doing there) for the home market. Debuting back in January at International CES, it monitors activity in an area of the home (that green eye looks like a vintage radio DuMont Magic Eye tuner) and is extended through home monitoring sensors such as bed, door and window. Like Lively, it also has an in-home wrist/pendant emergency alert device and is self-installed. But what’s new about it is its telehealth side–connecting via Bluetooth and USB cable to typical medical monitors such as weight scales, blood glucose and pressure, as well as a med reminder setup. These seem to be brand-agnostic. A unique safety feature is a caller ID recorder for tracking calls. Activity and health information are stored, with alerts going to designated family members. According to the article, the founder designed it for monitoring his mother recovering from colon cancer. The Milwaukee-based company is financed through Series A (Capital Midwest Fund, $2.8 million), moving towards Series B, and OnKöl will be in market early next year. What is not apparent (more…)