Music, art app for Alzheimer’s patients; diagnosing brain performance

March 25, 2014 | by

GE Healthcare has developed an iPad app, MIND, for patients with Alzheimer’s and other neurological disorders which presents favorite music, music videos and a virtual art gallery. The aim is to stimulate the brain, evoke emotions and promote social interaction.  This extends the pioneering research from New York City’s Institute for Music and Neurologic Function‘s Music and Memory program, which provides personalized music on iPods for those with both cognitive and physical challenges in long-term care to improve quality of life and reduce anti-psychotic drug use. GE release. Website.

Another approach to brain diagnosis and therapy for Alzheimer’s, stroke and brain hemorrhage may be pioneered by Multineurons. This startup has developed a head-worn sensor device that works with an iPad app, WakeUp, for non-invasive brain diagnosis and therapy. It measures speed (connectivity of neurons), fitness (neuroplasticity) and robustness – at 10 different points in the brain. Testing is planned to start in a Swiss rehabilitation facility this summer. MedCityNews

Augmenting human performance in the USAF

March 25, 2014 | by

A pointer to the future is how the US Air Force is taking a new look at what we call telehealth and they call Human Performance Monitoring. Current sensors are large and complex in measuring heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and skin temperature–critical data for pilots and other airmen. For instance, the USAF measures O2 in F-22 pilots to determine effects and compensate to keep both man and machine safe. Not only do they want to make sensors smaller–like skin patches–but also these are key to a new concept in aviation medicine called Human Performance Augmentation, which will measure human health status in real time. And both play into Human Systems Integration, which integrates man and machine. The implications here for civilian use are many: miniaturization of sensors into wearables, real time telehealth and machine assistance for human tasks. Performance-detecting Biosensors (Armed With Science)

CVS Caremark’s employee wellness ‘stick’ revisited–in court (US)

March 25, 2014 | by | 3 Comments

Exactly a year ago, retail drug store/onsite clinic/PBM giant CVS Caremark unveiled its ‘big stick’ approach to employee wellness–if you are in their health plan, you must participate in their ‘voluntary’ health screenings and management program or be charged $50 per month. One employee is now suing about this in Alameda County (Oakland/San Francisco, California area) Court.

According to the Courthouse News Service, the complaint states that “During the ‘Wellness Exam,’ a doctor performs blood work, which, upon information and belief, is utilized by defendants to ‘flag’ employees who are at risk for a variety of medical conditions.” Also from CNS, “In addition to the exam, which Watterson says she had to pay for, CVS made her fill out a survey that asked personal questions such as weight, body fat percentage, whether she drinks or smokes and is sexually active. The survey was “required in lieu of a $600 fine,” according to the lawsuit.” (Editor’s emphasis) If she had the exam in-house–at a CVS MinuteClinic–it also would have cost her $125 out of pocket, so she went to a private physician who charged her the co-pay, $25. She’s seeking compensation for “class certification and damages for failure to pay hourly and overtime wages, failure to indemnify, illegal wage deductions, failure to provide accurate wage statements and unfair competition.” 

All of which was easily predictable that CVS Caremark would be asking these questions, as they are fairly standard in a health workup –but is the ‘cross the line’ part (and what most of the dither may be about) the last item noted?  (more…)

Apple-ologizing Healthbook

March 22, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/healthbook-book.jpg” thumb_width=”300″ /]With the same obsession that Kremlinologists had during the Cold War, the Apple-ologists at 9to5Mac observe emanations and permutations emitting from Cupertino. Based on their inside sources, they have the lowdown on how Apple will Go Big into healthcare monitoring and fitness tracking.

  • ‘Cards’ in the Healthbook allowing entry for vital signs such as blood pressure, blood glucose, breathing rate, weight, hydration and oxygen saturation (O2). (photo at left above a ‘recreation of screenshots’ by 9to5Mac)
  • Sleep tracking. Apple in February hired Roy J.E.M. Raymann, one of the world’s experts in sleep tracking including wearables and sensors, out of Philips.
  • Emergency Card with customer’s name, birthdate, medication information, weight, eye color, blood type, organ donor status, and location.

The rumors tie it to the introduction of iOS 8, the iWatch or both. But beyond the sensors on the phone and/or the iWatch–there’s no information on how telehealth apps, devices or sensors would wirelessly transmit the information. “While Healthbook is capable of tracking, sorting, and managing various types of health and fitness-related data, it is currently uncertain where this data will actually be sourced from.” But Editor Toni noted in February (link below) that Apple just patented headphones which are capable of monitoring temperature, heart rate and perspiration levels. This is Healthbook, Apple’s major first step into health & fitness tracking (9to5Mac). And Wired thinks Apple’s Upcoming Health App Is the Start of Something Huge (Wonder if South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will impound it as an unapproved medical device!)

Previously in TTA: Apple-ologists discern ‘new’ interest in health tech and telehealth [20 July 13], Apple’s tarnished luster, Round 2 [29 July 13], Apple purchasing 3D gesture control developer PrimeSense [19 Nov 13], Apple patents health monitoring headphones with ‘head gesture’ control [19 Feb]

The King’s Fund: Self-Care in the Digital Age

March 21, 2014 | by

24 June 2014, 11 – 13 Cavendish Square, London

Morning session: 9.00am – 12.30pm
Afternoon session: 1.00pm – 4.30pm

How can the UK manage its health and social care needs, now and in the future? How can new technology aid in the evolution of our perceptions of health and care? And how is self-care being adopted across the UK? Sponsors dallas (Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles At Scale) and The King’s Fund will explore and expand that debate with an audience including government ministers, health care practitioners and patients themselves. This free half-day conference is running twice on the same day; once you register on Eventbrite,  you will be asked whether you want to attend either the morning or the afternoon session. The organizers will then contact you to confirm your place (subject to availability). Registration, information.

Short, ‘springy’ takes for Friday

March 21, 2014 | by

IBM Watson crunches the genomics for glioblastoma. A clinical trial at seven locations is being developed in partnership with the NY Genome Center to identify potential treatment options for the most common type of brain tumor–one where diagnosis and treatment time is of the essence.  iHealthBeat, Modern Healthcare….Also in NY, Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx is evaluating several mobile initiatives including a current pilot for texts/care management to support diabetic teenagers, as well as evaluating interacting with diabetics on fitness and  biosensor monitoring. FierceMobileHealthcare….Yecco’s social media platform for families caring for older adults [TTA 13 Mar] adds insurance. Allianz Global Assistance UK announced Yecco Home Care insurance, providing up to six weeks of assistance at home following an accident, injury or hospitalization. Release….Six US Senators seek clarification on FDA mobile health regulations. The letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg inquired on FDA plans and asked if legislative assistance might be required. The FDA/ONC-HIT framework report originally due in January now has a deadline of 31 March. iHealthBeat. The Hill ‘Healthwatch’….The Samsung Galaxy S5 won’t be considered a medical device by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. According to Engadget, it was the heart-rate sensor that subjected it to stricter regulations under current South Korean laws. Oy….And it took a while, but finally the Tunstall Americas management page lists new CEO Casey Pittock at the top! (No release yet though.)

Box.com’s odd swerve into healthcare cloud storage and PHRs

March 20, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] Both The Gimlet Eye (filing from a remote island) and Editor Donna have been pleased users of the Box.com file storage site for storing all sorts of files in the ‘cloud’ (a/k/a Somewhere Out There On A Whole Bunch Of Internet Servers), sharing and collaboration. It’s simple to use, it works and, for our needs, actually free. However founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, who look barely old enough to shave (but smartly have A Touch of Grey in their management team), have their eyes set on far bigger prizes than our mediocre needs. Now they have added ‘special advisers’ Aneesh Chopra, first US CTO, and Glen Tullman, former CEO of Allscripts. Mr. Tullman certainly does add major luster (and connections) and Mr. Chopra, despite the Eye’s consideration of him as hyperbolic and politically, not technically, qualified for his previous positions in the Government and the state of Virginia, adds the inevitable political ones. Having them on the roster also adds heft to their imminently rumored IPO (TechCrunch; update, filed 24 March) and ultimately acing out other file sharers Dropbox in the enterprise area. Expectations are high; Box has $414 million in funding from a roster of investors (including Telefónica and Australia’s Telstra) through a Series F (CrunchBase) with a valuation of $2 billion (TechCrunch) and undoubtedly they’d like some of it back. Soon. (The completely overheated Castlight Health IPO only whets the appetite.)

Healthcare one key to a rich IPO. Box’s healthcare moves point in the enterprise direction. (more…)

Digital health attracting small–and very big–investment action (US)

March 17, 2014 | by

Last week Validic, a data integrator for payers, providers, preventive wellness companies and pharma, received $1.25M in convertible note funding from SJF Ventures. Recently profiled by guest columnist Lois Drapin [TTA 27 Jan], in August 2013 they received $760,000 in seed funding and are bridging with this to their Series A. According to Mobihealthnews, they are building out their team and adding three senior executives in marketing, business development and operations. They are also presently registered as a Class 1 MDDS device with the FDA. Styling as a mobile health conduit for payers, providers and preventive wellness seems to be a persuasive position. Also CrunchBase.

On the other side of the continuum is Castlight Health with a Friday IPO that raised $180 million and eventually created a valuation for the company at a blindingly bright $3 billion. Not bad for a company with but $13 million in 2013 revenues and $100 million in forward customer contracts. Castlight’s tech platform enables employers to manage healthcare costs better and for employees provides better information for making decisions based on quality, pricing and convenience. Here at the top of the market is another attractive position–drive down big enterprise healthcare cost. Mobihealthnews

LeadingAge/CAST telehealth comparison tools; Independa whitepaper (US)

March 17, 2014 | by

A release from telehealth/TV + internet-based remote care services developer Independa drew this Editor’s attention to several useful new tools from non-profit aging services provider/supplier association LeadingAge‘s Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST). If you are outside the US, the technologies may not apply, but it’s a useful model for comparing and evaluating telehealth technology and services in long-term care:

  1. The Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Selection Tool helps the user identify needs and provides choices of available products and the functionalities they offer.
  2. “Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring for Long-Term and Post-Acute Care” is a whitepaper which explains their methodology and defining telehealth and remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies, uses and benefits.
  3. The Telehealth and RPM Selection Matrix has an extensive comparison of technologies with features detailed by business line (e.g. acute care), system type, embodiment (type of unit), program development and support, hardware and software (front-end and ancillary).

Independa in their release (PDF) highlights their inclusion in the CAST tools. The Independa TV with embedded remote care services, developed in partnership with LG, was also reviewed in a recent whitepaper written by aging services researcher Laurie Orlov, focusing on its potential utilization in post-acute care transitions to the home and skilled nursing.

Tunstall Americas’ change at the top

March 14, 2014 | by

BREAKING NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Casey Pittock has been appointed the new President and CEO of Tunstall Americas, replacing Bradley Waugh. No official announcement yet by Tunstall, but there is a video on YouTube (below) from the Medical Alert Monitoring Association conference this past Wednesday (12 March) with Tunstall Healthcare Group CEO Paul Stobart (himself only about 100 days on the job–TTA’s exclusive in November) introducing his “three days in the job” Tunstall Americas CEO (at 03:41 to end). Mr. Pittock’s LinkedIn profile also reflects his new company and title.

Mr. Pittock’s prior positions were generally with smaller, entrepreneurial companies. He was previously VP Sales and Marketing with BAM Labs, developer of a ‘smart bed’ monitor partnering with Stanley Healthcare, acting President of BlueLibris digital health trackers (sold to Numera Health) and President-CEO of once-promising fall detector/alert Wellcore which formally closed down last year. He was a founder of alert company TelCARE, sold to Lifeline (now Philips Lifeline). Mr. Waugh had been President and CEO of NaviNet at the time of its purchase and joined Tunstall shortly thereafter in September 2012–a 19 month tenure. The Tunstall Americas leadership team webpage has not been changed as of Monday 17 March, 23:20 US-EDT. Tunstall is still officially headquartered in NYC (Long Island City), but while Mr. Waugh was from the Rhode Island area (and moved many Tunstall operations there), Mr. Pittock’s LinkedIn profile locates him in a posh section of Silicon Valley in California. It will be interesting to see if there’s also a HQ move in store for Tunstall.

[This video is no longer available on this site but may be findable via an internet search]

Tunstall, CATCH, HMA Digital developing mobile platform

March 14, 2014 | by

Tunstall is making the news again, this time in developing a mobile platform for healthcare management, information and to support independent living for people with long-term conditions. The mHealth Assist concept is being designed in collaboration with two parties:  the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) at the University of Sheffield, and HMA Digital Marketing. CATCH’s contribution focuses on needs of vulnerable people–dementia, visual and communication impairments–and will be defining what is most useful. HMA is the lead digital developer for the working mobile prototype to be tested with various user groups. The marketer and project is also supported by investment from the Creative England NHS Digital Fund. Beyond this the release is unfortunately vague on specifics for the mobile platform, with no mention of Tunstall’s tablet-based ‘my world’ [TTA 21 Feb].

3D printed iPhone stethoscope–by 15 year old

March 14, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/product-img1.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Give a 15 year old with a cardiologist father a 3D printer and voilá, you get a stethoscope that snaps on to the back of an iPhone. The diaphragm on the back of the Steth IO channels the low frequency sound of a heartbeat through a network of tubes leading to the microphone, and an app visualizes and records heartbeat. Data can then be sent to EMRs and telemedicine consults. Suman Mulumudi, the designer from Seattle, designed the first version of the case in two weeks and has now formed his own company, Stratoscientific. According to Digital Trends, the Steth IO is now going through FDA approval.

Looking at the future of ‘aging services’

March 14, 2014 | by

In the US aging services is defined as the combination of public and private support older adults need as they age, encompassing healthcare, housing, transportation, nutrition etc. What will they be like in the future? Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT AgeLab, spoke on a panel at the American Society on Aging’s recent General Session on the Future of Aging on how aging services will change to meet the four points of ‘new’ summarized in his BigThink article: the new consumer (quite different than the present old), new technology (robot companions, proactive sensing of health changes, connective communications), new strategic partnerships (public-private, retailers, senior housing providers, financial services) and the new aging services professional (a blend of technologist, gerontologist, social worker, clinician, business person and holistic care provider.)  For those with institutional or library access, the Oxford Journals Public Policy & Aging Report has two additional articles by Mr. Coughlin expanding on these points.

Medtronic and Aetna: the good and bad implications

March 12, 2014 | by

A break in the ‘Perpetual Battle of Stalingrad’ that is also a Pointer to the Big2Big Future

Last week US insurance giant Aetna announced a partnership with medical device Gargantua Medtronic to pilot a program for uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes. Aetna will use claims data to identify 300 members who meet candidate standards for insulin pump therapy, Medtronic will reach out to them through their physicians to enroll them in the Getting2Goal program–as long as the insulin pump is Medtronic’s. The two-year program’s metrics will evaluate overall health outcomes and medical costs such as reduced ER and hospital stays. This is a fairly solid, albeit small N program for both. Other Aetna/Medtronic partnerships are a program for congestive heart failure (CHF) detection announced at HIMSS14, where Aetna plans to monitor device data to track the extra water retention that is usually an indicator of progressing heart failure; and an implanted glucometer program to monitor insulin levels for diabetics to avoid hypoglycemia.

Is this a Pointer to a Limited Future for Small, Innovative Independent Companies? Is this now signalling the US’s Big Payers only want to deal with Big Medical Device? “Value-based arrangements with companies like Medtronic” (release) make it ‘one-stop shopping’ for payers when it comes to physician relationships, IT implementation, data sharing and analysis. Will the end result be that payers stifle the revenue opportunity for small to midsize innovators by saying ‘don’t bother to knock”? Are these financially and technologically the best solution for the patient and for outcomes? (It’s like specifying only one hip or knee implant for all, and may sound familiar to our UK readers who have been following our recent articles on a certain telecare provider.) Aetna release, MassDevice, MedCityNews

Proteus to build UK plant, work with NHS; PM’s 5G may save the day

March 11, 2014 | by

The Proteus smart pill, once found to be so ‘creepy’, is making its first significant international move by planning to build a UK plant ultimately capable of turning out 10 billion units annually, and also partnering with several NHS-affiliated groups: Eastern Academic Health Science Network (EAHSN), The Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) and Oxford University, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford Academic Health Science Network (OAHSN). According to their CEO Andrew Thompson (quoted in Mobihealthnews), this starts the long NHS tendering and commissioning process. Beyond the sensors in the Proteus pill, the signal is picked up by a disposable patch receiver which transmits via Bluetooth to a smartphone and a tracking app. The business model in their current and future projected digital health devices is based on delivering an outcome, providing vital information about medication-taking behaviors and how your body is responding, not selling the device. How this will blend with the NHS model is a good guess, but the article points out that this may take up some of the loss of pharmaceutical manufacturing business in the UK–a big plus.

And all the bandwidth that Proteus will take up will be no problem, since UK and Germany will be jointly developing 5G wireless networks in the next two years which verily will gulp down all that data, along with having all your devices share the IOT (Internet of Things) chat line while you fast forward that 800 MB movie. The team consists of the University of Dresden, King’s College University in London and the University of Surrey. Note PM David Cameron’s writing pad versus Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tablet/folder combo at the photo taken at the CeBIT 2014 announcement. Daily Mail. Hat tip on both items to reader Mike Short and our own Editor Charles Lowe.

Polymers to prevent infections, binding molecules for detection

March 10, 2014 | by

A multiple-university team along with the US Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center (NSRDEC) was granted a patent for antimicrobial polymers which could be used in wearables and in other products such as medical implants, filtration systems and paints. Surface-grafted antimicrobial polymers trap and kill bacteria either by itself or activated by light. Incorporating Antimicrobial Polymers to Protect Warfighters (Armed With Science)

Get your favorite PhD or biotech researcher to interpret this article, which describes an approach developed at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and Joint Science and Technology Office (JSTO).  Biosensors for detection of chemical and biological threats and enable better post-exposure treatments use binding molecules on demand (BMOD–remember, this is the Army). Binding Molecules on Demand  and Could a Computer-designed Protein Protect Soldiers? Developers: think about combining the two to support better health in hospitals, transplant patients, older adults and those with compromised immune systems–or children in those petri dishes called ‘school’.