Fast takes for Friday

November 15, 2013 | by

Changes at Center for Connected Health, DecaWave’s chip, Happy Hackers ♥ Healthcare.gov

Center for Connected Health executives to head Portuguese ‘body dynamics’ company in US. Associate Director Joseph Ternullo, who over the years was one of the key organizers of the Connected Health Symposium, is leaving Partners HealthCare/CCH after 17 years to lead the US subsidiary of Kinematix (formerly Tomorrow Options) located in Boston. This was announced by email to CCH contacts today. Kinematix in October raised $2.6 million in Series B funding from Portugal Ventures. Heading the US board is another Partners HealthCare alumnus, Jay Pieper, formerly CEO of Partners International Medical Services. Kinematix’s two products focus on sensor-based monitoring for foot health assessment and to prevent pressure sores and falls.  Release. Boston Business Journal….ScenSor senses you to 10 centimeters. A 6 x 6 mm chip (more…)

A change of guard at GrandCare Systems

November 14, 2013 | by

This Editor has often referred to her former competitor GrandCare Systems as one of the ‘grizzled pioneers’ on the Conestoga Wagons of Telecare–even more grizzled than QuietCare (circa 2003-4) since their ur-system dates back to 1995-6, when it kept track of founder and CEO Charlie Hillman’s mother Clara. In the years since, the closely-held company has broadened its original telecare and activity monitoring tech into telehealth, socialization and home automation/monitoring into the most fully featured system in telecare/telehealth for older adults. Without making huge splashes, being beholden to VCs or moving from bucolic West Bend, Wisconsin, the company has grown through multiple alliances, the most unusual being home automation association CEDIA. GrandCare has a residential base of customers but has also developed a solid footing in senior communities both in assisted and independent living. Earlier this year, they reached into UK to partner with Saga [TTA 24 Jan, 10 Jan] and received the CE Mark for approval of its telehealth features for EU distribution.

The news is that they have a new CEO–Daniel Maynard, who is joining from (more…)

Cancer patient app grant to Partners HealthCare

November 14, 2013 | by

This may be the first app to assist with patient cancer management of symptoms, medication and side effects. The Center for Connected Health division of Partners HealthCare in Boston is developing an app targeted to oral chemotherapy patients to better monitor their symptoms, adverse treatment effects and improve medication adherence. The research is being funded by a grant from the McKesson Foundation’s Mobilizing for Health initiative. The smartphone app will be tested for three months with a group of 104 patients at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Features include self-care strategies for symptom management, a medication tracking device which also provides feedback on symptoms, strategies to prevent side effects, patient education and psychosocial support.  CCH release, iHealthBeat

Diagnosing Parkinson’s in a 30 second phone call

November 13, 2013 | by

…and with 99 percent accuracy is the claim made in this TED video by Max Little, an applied mathematician who has devised a voice test/analysis explained in this video. The challenge is to enable early diagnosis as there is no blood test and other diseases can mimic Parkinson’s disease. Neurological tests must be done in a doctor’s office and cost $300. This is algorithmically based, non-invasive and uses precision voice analysis. Parkinson’s is one of the most widespread neurological diseases, affecting 6.3 million people worldwide (the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation estimates 7-10 million) with at least 1 million in the US and 127,000 in the UK (Parkinson’s UK). He now is examining 10,000 voices gathered on his website, the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative with Aculab and PatientsLikeMe. Mr. Little is a TEDGlobal 2012 Fellow and a Wellcome Trust-MIT Postdoctoral Research Fellow. TED Talks page. Hat tip to readers Bob Pyke and Wen Dombrowski, MD.

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

Mental health apps for veterans (US)

November 13, 2013 | by

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has signed a 12 month contract with Chicago-based Prevail Health Solutions to further develop the Vets Prevail online supportive behavioral health program in 2014. In development for five years in various pilots, it has corporate support from Goldman Sachs Gives, the Robin Hood Foundation. the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and PepsiCo. Vets Prevail is an online program using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based e-learning lessons and peer-to-peer support, also routing into select established Veterans Health Administration resources. Mobihealthnews profiles the 10 apps Prevail is using plus others that the VA has developed such as PTSD Coach, smoking cessation app Stay Quit Coach and Care4Caregiver.

An incredible 34 teams for the Tricorder X Prize

November 12, 2013 | by | 2 Comments

The qualifying round of the Qualcomm Foundation-sponsored $10 million Tricorder X Prize has winnowed down the rumored 255 teams to a mere ($5-10,000 paying) handful. And not all of them are named Scanadu–they are included along with 33 others including Smart McCoy (named after ‘Bones’ on Star Trek), Phrazer and Photon Institute. Mobihealthnews has snap profiles of all 34 from Arkansas to South Korea and Aegle (from a Johns Hopkins University team) to Zensor (Intelesens) from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Counting the hits in a helmet with nano-enabled foam

November 12, 2013 | by

Cushioning blows to the head, whether in football, soccer (football ex USA), hockey, cycling and in combat, is something that present helmets don’t do terribly well, if worn at all–thus the prevalence of concussions not being diagnosed properly, or the cumulative sub-concussive blows that may result in CTE. A Brigham Young University (Utah) team has developed a helmet with what they dub ‘ExoNanoFoam’ in contact with the player’s head. The foam is piezoelectric–when there is pressure on the foam, it produces an electrical voltage. (more…)

Depressed? A woman? There’s an app for that.

November 12, 2013 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/T47screen-166×300.png” thumb_width=”130″ /]A new app still under development, Thrive 4-7 (the 7 is the seven dimensions of health) is meant to be used as a supplement to traditional therapy (and presumably medication). The app ‘thrives’ on constant interaction and uses gamification (!), behavioral psychology and influential design to modify the user’s behavior, for instance by sending special messages at times of daily stress. The developers want to connect the app with wearables and peer support groups as well. However, the time of their in-market–best case scenario is a debut at the end of 2014– is dependent on FDA clearance if it’s required–yet to be determined. The business plans, depending on this, may be direct to consumer or sold through health plans, hospitals and employer groups. The therapist you sleep with (MedCityNews) does seem like encouraging an unhealthy behavior, though.

Telecare for monitoring temperature, power outage (UK/EU)

November 12, 2013 | by | 4 Comments
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Envirotxt-plugging-in-1-small.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]With winter very near, and the UK already having a bout of wild weather, something necessary to know but often overlooked until there’s a problem for carers is if the heat or power is on in an older or disabled person’s home. Thus a press release sent to Founder Steve got this Editor’s attention. This simple plug-in device, Envirotxt, detects whether the temperature falls below a set low or high temperature, rises suddenly (possible fire) or the power is out. It then alerts via one of three pre-set text messages sent via GSM to a mobile phone of your choice (family member, local authority). The cost is a little high (£99) but there does not appear to be any additional monthly subscription cost. South Derbyshire-based Tekview has several similar devices for both UK and EU users (Envirotxt appears to be UK only at present; they do not have US-suitable versions). For larger installations they have management software with some enhanced features. Worth looking into for your local authority or simply for your personal use. Website page. Press release. Video. If you know of or have used similar notification devices, please add them in Comments.

The train, plane and car wreck that is Healthcare.gov and Obamacare

November 8, 2013 | by

If the ACA and Healthcare.gov were Boeing or Airbus aircraft–they would have been grounded on 3 October.

Wherever you reside in the over 150 countries TTA is read in, if you need more convincing that the US Government is unable to be successful (and Editor Donna is being restrained and charitable) at 99 percent of everything contained in this misbegotten Act, all one needs to do is read our previous coverage and this latest update in the Daily Mail along with their links to their own previous coverage. Are you sure it’s going to be fixed within weeks, Mr. President? This is Obamacare website riddled with garbled messages today

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/article-2491576-1943076800000578-829_634x378.jpg” thumb_width=”600″ /]

Except in the minds of White House and HHS planners, the obvious solution would be to STOP: halt the enrollment process, suspend the ACA implementation, restore the right to current coverage for the millions who have been blocked from renewing their current individual coverage and take the entire website down. Rethink all the elements including the coverage structure and the website, send it back to Congress for relegislating and implement a program that works sometime in 2015 IF a way can be found. But no, Americans get piecemeal fixes on a website and system that increase the vulnerability of personal information to hackers and identity theft–and coverage they cannot afford. (And this is only in the individual and small group market. Wait till it applies to large employers–other than unions which have been exempted.) (more…)

The lack of evidence in health IT and patient engagement

November 8, 2013 | by

In health economist/consultant Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s lengthy analysis of the IMS Research report, Patient Apps for Improved Healthcare: From Novelty to Mainstream, ‘mainstream’ does not necessarily mean that apps deliver value–in health outcomes, health support or behavior change–which is why doctors have largely ignored them. For the 43,000+ ‘health apps’ so categorized in the Apple iTunes store, only 23,000 met IMS’ criteria of a ‘genuine health app.’ Few apps manage chronic disease for the highest health spenders or assist seniors, amazingly 5 apps =15 percent of all downloads with most apps having less than 500 downloads. Most apps provide information only and only 20 percent capture/track user data. Not dissimilar to the Manhattan Research smartphone study [TTA 30 Oct], the bulk of apps address behavioral health, eyes and hearing, endocrine and nutrition, heart/circulatory, musculoskeletal, and cancer. In IMS’ view, (more…)

WebMD’s Avado acquisition and meaning (US)

November 8, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

Early-stage company Avado’s acquisition by content Goliath WebMD has rocked the small world of New York health tech, with both companies being located (or co-located) here. First is the acquisition price estimated by TechCrunch in the $20-30 million range. Co-founded by Dave Chase (whose Forbes articles we’ve occasionally commented on here), Avado developed its patient portal PRM (Patient Relationship Management) system, including direct messaging and the highly touted Blue Button, on relatively limited funding with a $1 million raise in March plus an earlier $300,000 from New York Digital Health Accelerator in addition to angel funding. Second, for WebMD, it is their first foray into anything that bridges from the patient to their physicians for messaging, reminders, and appointment scheduling. (more…)

10 sensor-based telehealth companies

November 8, 2013 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/biostamp.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Our First 10 For Friday is what is termed a ‘sensor technology renaissance’ in telehealth, mostly tied to that sensor-equipped device called a smartphone. The ten companies profiled in Bionic.ly, including an ingestible, are:

Sano Intelligence–wearable patch sensor transmitting blood chemistry data such as glucose and potassium

Zephyr Technology–performance shirts in partnership with UnderArmour [TTA 25 Mar]

Cardiio–developed by the MIT Media Lab, it uses changes in skin tone read by an iPhone to measure resting heart rate [TTA 21 Mar]

MC10 (picture left/above)–the Biostamp elastic sensor and sensors used by combat soldiers to measure hydration, temperature, impact and other body indicators [TTA 22 Feb] (more…)

Top 10 technology hazards–what pertains to telehealth?

November 7, 2013 | by

Our Second 10 For Friday comes from ECRI Institute, a non-profit which applies evidence-based research to improve patient care, has issued its annual Top 10 Healthcare Technology Hazards. Compiled from hospital reports, the FDA device experience database and ECRI’s proprietary database of incidents and testing, the most pertinent to telehealth out of the 10 are:

1. Alarm hazards–real alerts go unattended due to caregivers being overwhelmed, distracted or desensitized.

4. Data integrity failures in EHRs and other health IT systems–patient/data association errors, missing data or delayed data delivery, clock synchronization errors and more

7. Neglecting change management for network devices and systems–the “underappreciated consequence of updates, upgrades or modifications made to one device or system have on other connected devices or systems”

8. Risks to pediatric patients from “adult” technologies–mixups within EHRs, conversions from kilograms to pounds, even height and weight being recorded on different EHR screens.

HealthLeadersMedia

‘Personalized medicine’ targets psychiatric drugs

November 7, 2013 | by

A genetic test to help determine the efficacy of psychiatric medications for several diagnoses is under development by Cincinnati Ohio-based Assurex Health. Using a DNA analysis on a cheek swab sample, Assurex’s tests analyze a panel of genes in the cytochrome P450 family that are involved in drug metabolism. This information is then used to create a report that optimizes drugs for that diagnosis using a red/yellow/green code. Under development for seven years, the pharmacogenetic testing analyzes drugs for depression, anxiety, ADHD, chronic pain, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Assurex has also published a series of clinical trials conducted with the Mayo Clinic. It seems obvious that assessment beats the usual patient trial-and-error, but like most startups in the healthcare field, they are still trying to figure out the major reimbursement questions–who pays and how much. And somewhere there’s a digital health spin to this….MedCityNews

TSA Crystal Awards shortlist announced

November 7, 2013 | by

The Telecare Services Association announced its Crystal Awards nominees which recognize excellence across technology enabled services and creative technology development.

Most creative application of technology including telecare, telehealth, telecoaching
STAY (Sandwell Telecare Assisting You) and Red Embedded Systems Ltd
Contour Homes
The Medvivo Group

Enhancing lives through technology enabled services
The Medvivo Group
Peninsula Community Health
Stafford and Rural Homes

Professional of the Year
Bristol Careline
Stafford and Rural Homes
Contour Homes

This Editor notes that Medvivo, Contour Homes and Stafford and Rural Homes are nominated in two out of three categories, which if we were betting on the Academy Awards® would perhaps cancel each other out. Winners to be announced at the International Telecare and Telehealth Conference’s Gala Dinner on 12 November 2013. Release.