Company debuts, news: 3rings, GrandCare Systems

February 6, 2014 | by

3rings debuts (UK)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3rings-logo-only.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]If you remember back in the landline-only days, a clever and toll-free way to let a family member or friend that you had arrived at your destination and you were fine, was to ring their number three times, then hang up. 3rings.co.uk brings this idea back for older family members and their families in a slightly different form. The older person either calls 3rings or answers their call, and the system generates an ‘all’s well’ message sent to designated family, neighbors and friends via smartphone app (iOS and Android), call, text, email or web. Lack of contact generates a red alert. What is new is that if one person in the group clicks on the alert to indicate that they will check on the person, an amber alert is created to advise all others on the notification list. A green ‘all clear’ is sent once it’s confirmed that the older individual is fine. There is a free trial with two levels of subscription services (£5.99/month and £9.99/month). Founders Steve Purdham (Chairman) and Gareth Reakes (CEO) have a successful entrepreneurial track record, most recently with UK/Ireland music service WE7, sold to Tesco in 2012. They were inspired by Gareth’s nan, Vera, and Steve’s mum, Iris, who appears in this video on the 3rings YouTube playlist. ‘How it works’ video (YouTube), press release (PDF)

GrandCare Systems’ fund raising (US/UK)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GC-banner.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]One of telecare and telehealth’s true ‘grizzled pioneers’ in telecare remote monitoring and now socialization, Wisconsin-based GrandCare Systems, has announced a $2 million capital raise. New CEO and local investor Dan Maynard is leading the charge to pitch GrandCare to large family investment funds, institutional investors and strategic investors such as insurers. Like 3rings, family reasons were behind GrandCare’s development and it’s remained self-funded to date. Of note is that the company has reached 1,000 units in use, even at a premium $699 plus monthly subscription fee, and is projecting an increase to 10,000 units. New agreements have been inked with UnitedHealthcare, CenturyLink Home Security Services and Amazon.com’s 50 Plus section. Saga Group also distributes GrandCare in the UK (TTA 24 Jan 13, 10 Jan 13). This Editor, a former competitor, has to cheer the founder, Charles Hillman and his team, notably Laura Mitchell who is a relentless marketer in only the best sense of the term, for sticking with the vision and making it successful. Milwaukee Business Journal

Health Affairs review of telehealth/telemedicine studies

February 6, 2014 | by

Just published in Health Affairs is Connected Health: A Review Of Technologies And Strategies To Improve Patient Care With Telemedicine And Telehealth, an overview of several studies on telehealth and telemedicine in use for congestive heart failure (Center for Connected Health), care coordination (VA), ‘store and forward’ imaging, remote ICU, medication adherence (CCH with Vitality GlowCaps) and e-referrals. The article closes with a (too-short) discussion of the three criteria that telemedicine must meet to demonstrate effectiveness: assurance of quality (met), aligning financial incentives in using telehealth to provide desired outcomes (in progress) and more research on quality and cost impact (ditto). Authored by Dr. Joseph Kvedar of CCH, Molly Joel Coye of UCLA and Wendy Everett of NEHI. Full text in PDF, HTML. Hat tip to Editor Chrys.

Dr. Topol in the AT&T house: a reboot of ForHealth?

February 5, 2014 | by | 2 Comments

HIMSS14 will tell. The big news that kicked off this snow-bound week in large parts of the US was Dr. Eric Topol joining Dallas, Texas-based AT&T ForHealth as Chief Medical Advisor. Well-known for his personality and evangelism of all things mHealthy, certainly Dr. Topol lends a certain star power to Big Blue’s efforts in this area–a shine that went completely dark in 2013 after a promising start in 2011 and strong partnering moves in 2012 (Alere and WellDoc diabetes management TTA 10 Aug 12; VRI monitoring in May). The quietude of 2013 deserves a closer look. Dr. Geeta Nayyar joined with fanfare in September 2011 as Chief Medical Information Officer and departed exactly two years later to join engagement company PatientPoint with the same title. ForHealth made no waves at International CES save for being an example in the controversial ‘sponsored data’ plan announcement (GeekWire). Even finding ForHealth on the AT&T website is not easy. It is buried under ‘Business>>Enterprise Business‘ and then in a dogpile of footer links as ‘Healthcare Solutions‘–not ForHealth. In marketing, this is a state usually termed ‘dead in the water.’ The fact that Dr. Topol is remaining as Chief Academic Officer at Scripps Health also indicates that he is no direct replacement for Dr. Nayyar, despite being cited by AT&T SVP Chris Hill as a “change agent” who will help “drive our competitive strategy”. We’ll see if HIMSS14 on 23-27 February where AT&T will be exhibiting and their subsequent activity marks a genuine reboot for ForHealth, putting Dr. Topol’s impressive abilities to work beyond a twinkle. AT&T press release, MedCityNews article

“mHealth: smartphones as saviours?” webcast Thurs 6 Feb

February 5, 2014 | by

Taking place at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, this seminar will be livestreamed starting tomorrow at 3:30pm UK time (10:30am Eastern Time US). Watch it below or at this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVxgkE02V0  A recorded version will be available on Friday morning. (90 minutes)

This seminar is part of the Oxford Martin School Hilary Term seminar series: Blurring the lines: the changing dynamics between man and machine

Cheap, accessible and easy to use, mobile phones are everywhere. With the advent of the smartphone has come a new kind of healthcare – mHealth – in which mobiles are playing a key role in monitoring and improving the health of communities around the globe. Linking remote communities in developing countries with professional healthcare, mobile phones are helping break down long-standing barriers to accessing treatment. mHealth is also growing in developed countries, helping patients to monitor and manage their own health, and thereby reducing pressure on health services. According to the World Health Organisation the burden of deaths from non-communicable diseases will climb from 28 per cent in 2008 to 46 per cent by 2030. The George Institute for Global Health is investing in research into innovative new strategies for tackling the burden of chronic disease.

Speakers: Dr Fred Hersch, James Martin Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health, Oxford Martin School: Dr Gari Clifford, James Martin Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health, Oxford Martin School

Join in on twitter with #humantech

Hat tip to Sally Stewart, Communications and Media Officer of the Oxford Martin School.

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

An essential link to mHealth devices and apps?

January 27, 2014 | by

Guest columnist Lois Drapin thinks so. She shares her insights on Validic, an emerging company in data integration for payers, providers, preventive wellness companies and pharma;how it evolved from its original concept in consumer health engagement, along with a few pointers its founders have for fellow entrepreneurs.

One of the keystone aspects of “ecosystems” is interoperability and this also applies to the data pipeline that flows from health apps and devices to the appropriate segment of the healthcare delivery system, and eventually, to the users—patients, consumers and/or medical professionals such as physicians and nurses or other clinicians. By now, we all know that the capture and analytics for both “big” and “small” health data are business imperatives for healthcare in the US. With data of this nature, we can embrace our understanding of behavioral change at the individual and population levels. The anticipated outcomes of behavioral change may power operational and cost efficiencies in the healthcare industry.

But data will no longer come from just inside the healthcare delivery system. In addition to the changing technology enablement within the health system, as we all know, data will flow from many things—in fact, The Internet of Things (IoT). This means that data that relates to our lifestyle, wellness and health will pour from the many types of wearable devices not now connected to the heath delivery system. In addition to our computers, tablets, phablets and smartphones, are the many sensors paired with tech innovations such as the wearables— from wristbands, smartwatches, clothing (from shoes to headbands), glasses, contacts, and pendants — to things such as refrigerators, clocks, mattresses, scales, coffee pots, cars, and even, toilets…all of which are predicted to become an important market in the coming years.

Validic, based in Durham, NC, has put itself smack in the middle of that market (more…)

Telepsychiatry: a new practitioner’s experience

January 27, 2014 | by

Daniel W. Knoedler, MD in Psychiatric News chronicles his first week as a full-time telepsychiatrist, working for the Green Bay VA Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is definitely a bit stressed as he adjusts to working alone in a cold basement, his image in the video system and the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Psychiatrist who doesn’t have face-to-face contact with patients–and his own socialization. Yet he thinks telemedicine is useful in addressing the lack of access to care for patients and that the technology is not much of a barrier. He does worry about the consequences of not shaving, leading to some musings on Howard Hughes.  Telepsychiatry: First Week in the Trenches

Telepsychiatry pilot success in the Bronx

January 27, 2014 | by

More on telepsychiatry: a pilot at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx (borough of NYC) for adolescent telepsychiatry consultations reported success with only one in 10 patients being hospitalized after the telehealth consultation, according to Louis Capponi, M.D., chief medical informatics officer for New York Health & Hospitals Corporation, the parent of Lincoln Hospital. “The impact was very profound in terms of the number of patients that were able to (be) discharged safely.” HHC is considering expanding the pilot to patients who come in through the prison system. What is puzzling is that in the exclusive interview with Dr. Capponi in FierceHealthIT, there is no information on the duration of the pilot, the number of patients in the program, or details that would give our readers some framework beyond ‘engaging patients through technology’.

US, UK agreement on HIT

January 25, 2014 | by

Edited from the HHS release. US Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt on Thursday 23 January signed a bi-lateral agreement for the use and sharing of health IT information and tools. The agreement strengthens efforts to cultivate and increase the use of health IT tools and information designed to help improve the quality and efficiency of the delivery of health care in both countries.  The two Secretaries signed the agreement at the Annual Meeting of the HHS Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology. It concentrates on four key areas identified at the joint June 2013 summit:

  • Sharing Quality Indicators
  • Liberating Data and Putting It to Work
  • Adopting Digital Health Record Systems
  • Priming the Health IT Market

Collaboration efforts will be showcased at the Health Innovation Expo conference at Manchester Central 3-4 March (two weeks before HC2014) and the Health Datapalooza on 1-3 June in Washington, DC. A possible good sign for telehealth as there’s a great deal of mention of ‘preventive interventions’, ‘accessing and sharing data’ and the ‘health IT marketplace’.

Full memorandum of understanding text here. Also iHealthBeat.

HC2014

January 24, 2014 | by

19-20 March 2014, Manchester Central, Petersfield, UK

For over 30 years, HC has delivered thought leadership; informing and educating its audience on the how the latest innovations in technology support the increasing demands within healthcare. HC2014 will address all the current healthcare reforms with a number of themes referring to the call for paperless NHS by 2018. Key sessions will demonstrate technology to support Patient Engagement, Safer Hospitals and Integrated Care. Conference and exhibition presented by the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, in partnership with HIMSS. Conference keynoters include Tim Kelsey, NHS England; Andrea Sutcliffe, Care Quality Commission; Mike Pringle, Royal College of GPs; Kingsley Manning, HSCIC. Information and registration. Hat tip to reader Louise Sinclair. If there are TTA readers planning to attend, we are once again inviting you to contribute an article or a compilation of impressions. This can be filed within 72 hours of the close of event; alternatively, during or at day’s end/start. If you are interested, please email EIC Donna here (donna.cusano@telecareaware.com). It is expected that you can be selective and interesting rather than comprehensive. You will be credited of course but expenses and article will not be covered. 

 

Advanced haptics advancing behavioral mHealth

January 23, 2014 | by

Haptics is the feedback you receive through a sense of touch–think of the slight vibration you receive on a mobile touchscreen when you touch a ‘button’. Marry haptics to behavioral health and remote monitoring, and you have some interesting devices from MIT’s Touch Lab (formally the Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics) which have reached clinical testing stage. The four are Touch Me, Squeeze Me, Hurt Me, and Cool Me Down. Touch Me is an array of sensors that vibrate at the caregiver’s remote command to simulate touch. The related Squeeze Me is a vest that inflates, also remotely controlled, to simulate holding, similar to the T.Ware T-Jacket vest [TTA 22 Mar]. Both are for autistic children or those with sensory processing disorders. The touch is to calm and reassure them. Hurt Me is not for the local “dungeon” or Client #9–it’s to assist in the therapy of those who deliberately harm themselves such as ‘cutters’ by simulating the feeling of being bitten on the arm. The pins against the skin deliver controlled pain without breaking the skin. (more…)

HealthSpot Station kiosks add telepharmacy

January 23, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/booth-with_new_attendant.jpg” thumb_width=”180″ /]’Virtual consult’/staffed kiosk HealthSpot Station [TTA 29 Oct], most recently adding behavioral health EHR Netsmart and telemedicine provider Teladoc [TTA 5 Sept], as well as several health system providers, is expanding into telepharmacy through a strategic alliance with Canada-based MedAvail. MedAvail’s kiosks fill prescriptions in clinics, hospitals and office locations, including live assistance from a pharmacist, though the website video doesn’t explain how drugs not in stock in the kiosk are handled. What’s notable? Large kiosks are moving towards full-scope onsite clinics. HealthSpot in its three years of existence has quietly accumulated over $15 million in funding, $10 million in 2013 alone–a fact that is not included in Rock Health’s Digital Health 2013 report, unless this Editor overlooked it. Is this not digital health delivered? Correct me if I’m wrong. HealthSpot/MedAvail press release. Also see Editor Charles’ post on ‘The Future of Doctors’ below for more on this trend and its consequences.

Rock Health opens new HQ to wonder, sums up 2013

January 23, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/RockHealth_Photo©BruceDamonte_02.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]As seems to be the way in the West Coast Digital Health scene, the opening of accelerator/funder Rock Health’s new HQ in the Mission Bay district of San Francisco gained more heavy-breathing hype than its mostly positive 2013 digital health investment report. The soireé during last week’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, glowingly reported in Xconomy with plenty of pics of the achingly trendy interior design and Health Digerati/D3Hers (Digital Health Hypester/Hipster Horde) at play also was a demo of a different type–how insular interests interlock and circle in Fog City. Star guest San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee spearheaded the remaking of the district into a life sciences/tech center; the Xconomy-moderated panel discussion paired him with Rock Health founder/CEO Halle Tecco and Alexandria Real Estate CEO Joel Marcus;  Alexandria underwrites Xconomy and has a huge investment in life sciences real estate; the new Rock Health HQ is on the ground floor of an Alexandria-owned building. Of course Mission Bay is now hyped as the ‘US Digital Health Hub’ for all those Rock Health-accelerated, funded startups. It does give one pause: how much of this is substance, or is it the peak of style before tipping into The Trough of Disillusionment? The tartest takedown on this is courtesy of Neil Versel’s Meaningful HIT News column. Pointed pokes abound: at Silicon Valley for its health tech failures (Google Health among them), the odd duplications (Google-funded telemedicine provider Doctor On Demand sounds like American Well, Ameridoc, etc.) and the even odder lack of considering integration with payer/provider systems and workflows.  Keep wasting your money, Silicon Valley venture capitalists (Note to Neil: the circular swings seem to be a feature of Alexandria’s properties–they’re present at Alexandria Center NYC too. Image © Bruce Damonte/Studios Architecture)

With that aside, the highlights of the Rock Health Digital Health Funding Year In Review were generally positive, but some of them, looked at critically, weren’t, even when depicted in attractive charts and graphs: (more…)

Net neutrality’s end and effect on telehealth (US)

January 21, 2014 | by

With its recent decision in ending ‘net neutrality’ as directed in the FCC‘s 2010 Open Internet Order, the (Washington) DC Circuit Court of Appeals has changed the playing field for mHealth. The FCC regulation treated internet service providers (ISPs) like telecommunications companies by enforcing telecom ‘common carriage’ requirements that prevented ISPs from blocking or discriminating against types or providers of internet traffic. The current situation is now a double-edged sword for the ISPs: on one edge, ISPs such as Verizon, Comcast or Charter won, because they now can charge fees to, slow down or demand revenue sharing of high-demand content originators (Netflix) which also use a lot of bandwidth; the other edge is that the court affirmed that the FCC regulates the relationship between the two.

The meaning for mHealth? The amount of health data carried over the internet is growing exponentially and dependent on speed. If internet carriage can be held up for small providers to make way for high-paying content, it can and will change the revenue model for mHealth. From clinicians to fitness buffs, everyone wants their data right now. It may impact lower-income people and home health which uses internet tracking for healthcare. But it may also have a stimulative effect on ISPs–more bandwidth and speed means more revenue. How does this compare to UK/Europe/Asia/Oceania regulation? What do you see as the outcome?

More here: mHealth after net neutrality: Innovation drain or gain? (GovernmentHealthIT); Three Dangers of Losing Net Neutrality That Nobody’s Talking About (Wired), Net Neutrality is Dead! Long Live Net Neutrality! (Wall Street Journal)  And an advocate of Congress getting involved (!) is Greg Slabodkin in FierceMobileHealthcare. Hat tip to Editor Charles Lowe for pointing out the potential effect on mHealth.

‘Candy Crushing’ stroke rehab

January 21, 2014 | by

A development that deserves more attention is the use of ‘gamification’ in rehab. In one program, it’s using a combination of incentives, brain stimulation and robotics. The popular Candy Crush Saga game uses a moving candy target, rewards (to higher levels) and reduced reaction times at the harder levels. The Manhasset, New York-based Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-LIJ Health System is testing this notion with rehab for paralyzed limbs. Instead of concentrating on training other limbs to compensate for the paralyzed ones, the Non-Invasive Stroke Recovery Lab program focuses on gaining more movement in the affected limbs. Using robots to move the limb at first, then sensing when the patient is moving them on their own, they gradually train the brain to move the limb for whatever motion can be achieved. Therapists use these programs with patients to gain the “just-right” amount of challenge to maintain motivation and attention. According to their website, several programs are being tested using devices for the wrist, shoulder-elbow, hand and an anti-gravity one for the shoulder. A fifth one is in early development to improve gait post-stroke. Also in test is coupling this with trans-cranial direct current stimulation. mHealthNews. Feinstein Institute and researcher (Bruce Volpe) website.

Drug manufacturer Pfizer is also testing gamification for a different sort of rehabilitation–using Evo Challenge from Akili Interactive Labs in determining the status of and improving the abilities of those with cognitive impairments, Alzheimer’s disease (with and without amyloid in the brain) and ADHD. The game, which involves navigation around obstacles and rewards, is designed to improve the impaired processing of cognitive interference, a/k/a distractions. MedCityNews

Are health apps ‘discriminating’ against developing countries?

January 21, 2014 | by

The ‘discrimination’ noted here comes from a study published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research’s mHealth and uHealth (JMIR), which attempts to cross-reference ‘high-income country’ and ‘low- and middle-income countries’ diseases with the number of apps available for those diseases. The count is based on a review of literature and apps stores. Unfortunately the study, as reported in FierceMobileHealthcare, sounds quite broad-brush. In general, they assert, there are more apps for high-income country diseases such as dementia and ischemic heart disease. Apps for low-income country diseases, such as lower respiratory diseases and malaria, are fewer. Exceptions are apps for HIV/AIDS, which disproportionately affects low income countries but are abundant, and the dearth of apps for  trachea, bronchus and lung cancers prevalent in high and middle-income countries. No mention of whether certain diseases are more effectively controlled by app usage than others, though. JMIR study.

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/screen-shot-2014-01-10-at-3-00-24-am.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]Better than a ‘malaria app’ would be eradication, and a step towards this is rapid, accurate and inexpensive analysis of this increasingly drug-resistant disease. A Newcastle, UK company, QuantuMDx, founded by molecular biologist Jonathan O’Halloran, will be crowdfunding a miniature malaria blood testing device called Q-POC, which takes a blood sample; through DNA sequencing provides a malaria diagnosis and screens for drug resistance in a record 15 minutes, without running water or stable electricity. The crowdfunding on Indiegogo starting 12 February is to fund the device through clinical trials. Eventual markets are Brazil, India and Africa, then to extend the technology to TB, STDs and cardiovascular disease. MedCityNews