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’. 

Hanover Housing Association enters Tunstall’s ‘world’ (UK)

March 10, 2014 | by

Tunstall‘s win of the Hanover Housing Association for their alarm call and door entry framework is highly significant beyond the initial installation of the Communicall Vi warden call system and Lifeline Vi dispersed alarm system (PERS). Hanover’s size makes this a major win for Tunstall. Their rationale is understandable: to rapidly replace current telecare equipment in eventually up to 17,000 properties, to build out for the future across a large portfolio and to work with Tunstall to offer a range of present and future integrated technologies including those represented by Tunstall’s ‘Lifetime of Care’ program. No mention here of Tunstall’s ‘my world’ premiered at last month’s Housing LIN Conference [TTA 21 Feb], but undoubtedly this will eventually be included. But here again is the Tunstall system; there’s no mention of partnership with other technology providers to provide innovation and ‘best in class’ service for Hanover residents. As this Editor asked at the end of the February article, ‘But is a closed system the best quality, most economic and effective arrangement for individual, a community’s or a council’s needs?’ Tunstall release

Editor’s Note: For non-UK readers to grasp the size of Hanover Housing, it has 600 estates with 19,000 properties and 22,000 residents, making it comparable in number of locations to Brookdale Senior Living in the US but far more dispersed. Brookdale concentrates its 52,000 residents in larger, mainly assisted living buildings (AL). Hanover focuses on retirement housing across England and Wales, a focus on what in the US we call IL (independent living), including the interesting notion of ‘downsizer homes’. They also have 2,500 ‘Extra Care’ properties with 24-hour care. It is also a not-for-profit, which perhaps makes it more comparable to Ecumen.

Intel and its ‘Basis’ instinct

March 7, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/intel-basis-smartwatch_large.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]Intel now in the smartwatch business…or are they?

TechCrunch reported yesterday that fitness tracker Basis sold to Intel, ending weeks of speculation of a sale to Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft. The price is between $100 and $150 million according to TechCrunch’s sources. A higher-end ($200) watch which recently entered the sleep tracking area, Basis’ Health Tracker B1 currently tracks steps (accelerometer), calories burned, heart rate, skin temperature and perspiration through wrist contact. Their proprietary software loads up the information to a dashboard for analysis and tracking. Basis has not developed into a major fitness smartwatch, having 7 percent of the market according to TechCrunch but far less according to NPD Group’s 2013-4 retail sales year , with Fitbit at 68 percent, Jawbone at 19 percent and Nike FuelBand at 10 (Mobihealthnews). With Intel premiering at CES a smart chip called Edison for wearables and a Siri-like Bluetooth headset dubbed Jarvis, the speculation is that the purchase is to give Intel both entreé into and a ready-made working team for the Internet of Things and wearables, since it largely missed the boat in mobile.  Also Motley Fool, Apple Insider and one tech observer on why Intel shouldn’t be in the smartwatch business.

The PROTECT Act for HIT doesn’t: mHealth Coalition

March 6, 2014 | by

The mHealth Regulatory Coalition, which is a four-year-old alliance of legal and software companies in the health IT/software area, and whose most vocal spokespersons are well-known industry legal counsels Brad Thompson and Kim Tyrrell-Knott of Epstein Becker Green, has come out against the PROTECT Act (S 2007). PROTECT, which was proposed by Senators Fischer and King, would limit FDA regulation of certain ‘low-risk’ clinical software in the interest of fostering innovation and reducing regulatory burden. Original reports indicated that this responsibility would be transferred to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [TTA 28 Feb]. According to Mr. Thompson, “The rush to avoid expert reviews of complex technologies with far-reaching health ramifications ignores the fact that we cannot separate the high risk from the low risk apps using broad terms in legislation.” His example: a theoretical smartphone app designed to diagnose melanomas from photos. PROTECT is being supported by IBM, athenahealth, Software & Information Industry Association, Newborn Coalition and McKesson. The bill also would exempt certain health IT software from being charged a 2.3% medical device tax, which is perhaps the ‘long game’ being played here by the aforementioned companies, as most Washington watchers give the bill as it stands little chance of clearing both houses of Congress and a congressional committee, much less being signed into law. The question remains: how best to speed less clinically significant wellness software to market without logjamming FDA.  iHealthBeat summary, Clinical Innovation + Technology, MRC press release

FCC sharply elbows up to the mHealth regulatory table

March 6, 2014 | by

That other three-letter agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has shown a distinctly competitive face versus the FDA on Federal healthcare tech policy over the past three years and more, has formed–drum roll–a task force to examine adoption of wireless technologies by health care organizations. Connect2HealthFCC will “identify regulatory barriers and incentives to expand the use of wireless health technologies; and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders in the telehealth and mobile health industries.” If this an accurate statement of the task force’s purpose, the parade not only has gone by, but it’s also three counties away. Yet going back in our files, this Editor notes that the FCC has vigorously fenced not only with the FDA, but also with HHS, NIH, NIST and Congress for its place in the Federal HIT regulatory firmament. With issues such as ‘net neutrality’, wireless bandwidth and rural broadband, the FCC has a heaping healthcare helping on its plate just in assuring national access and removing conflicts in frequency demands by devices. However, the task force is headed by Michele Ellison, lately the FCC’s top regulatory enforcer with, as The Hill notes, 6,000 actions under her belt. In Foggy Bottom, things are never what they seem. iHealthBeat

Wearables solving real ‘jobs to be done’

March 6, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/orcam-device-web11.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]This Editor strongly believes that the heart of a great product is that it addresses, in Clayton Christensen’s terms, a ‘job to be done’–or as pre-social media marketing writing put it, ‘not a ‘nice to have’–a must-have’. Venture Beat, usually a facilitator of the D3H (Digital Health Hypester Horde), has an unusually sober and personal article from writer Christina Farr highlighting five wearable devices and how they could be ‘must-haves’, improving quality of life for significant groups of everyday people.

  1.  The OrCam computer-assisted vision device (above) for those with low vision, which interprets nearby visual inputs, including letters, faces, objects, products, places, bus numbers, and traffic lights–and describes them to the wearer through a bone-conduction device heard by the user only. From Israel and available only in the US at present, the initial pricing is around $2,500.
  2. Physician, surgical and law enforcement decision support may be the best use of Google Glass–not exactly the ‘hipster on the L train’ picture promoted by Google.
  3. Emotiv’s mind-controlled wheelchair, which is controlled by a headset (EPOC) capable of picking up electrical signals.
  4. For autistic children and adults, Neumitra and Affectiva are both bands that measure and alert for physiological stress that may lead to inappropriate wandering or acting-out.
  5. Red-green color blindness affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. It can be dangerous–think of traffic lights and wiring–and EnChroma’s correcting set of glasses is a simple, useful solution. Reportedly there is a 30 percent improvement in color identification and a 70 percent improvement in color discrimination. The pricing is fairly standard at $375-460.

NY-based accelerator, pilot programs up

March 6, 2014 | by

Pilot Health Tech NYC 2014 is again providing $1 million in funding from a variety of partners for 10 or more pilot projects centered in New York City. Its purpose is to match early-stage health technology companies with healthcare organizations such as hospitals, employers, payers and pharma companies. Supported by NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and Health 2.0, the application deadline is past but for those which have applied, the matchmaking sessions are on 11-12 March with a deadline for joint applications 23 May and Pilot Day 25 June.  Website.

Still open is the New York Digital Health Accelerator (NYDHA) program sponsored by the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the Partnership Fund for New York City. Applications are due 11 April which will fund up to 10 early and ‘growth-stage’ companies with $100,000 plus entry into a mentorship program with thirteen New York metro healthcare providers. Funding is being provided by several investors, Genentech, Merck, Pfizer and Infor. Website, release.

Crime-sensing hair clip points to ‘fashionable safety’

March 6, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/first_sign_clip-1.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The First Sign hair clip is designed to sense impact/fall, send a panic alert, then transmit the information to a smartphone to a monitoring service–and more. The app activates an onboard microphone which transmits audio, then activates audio, video (through the smartphone camera) and GPS, sending information to the internet. The phone barks “help is on the way and evidence collected” to deter the attacker. All is live centrally monitored and if not a false alarm, the phone automatically calls out for emergency assistance and to emergency contacts. It’s being priced on Indiegogo for $75 inclusive of the first year of monitoring ($50 without) and has various decorative covers. In places like New York which have fairly low and non-violent levels of crime, First Sign definitely has an ‘assurance’ market, and the developers are wise to the uses it has for older adult safety, lone worker, driving and travel. Especially for older women, a decorative clip is far more attractive than a pendant (as long as you have a smartphone–a possible tie in with GreatCall/5 Star?) However, in places like India, which have high levels of violent male-on-female street crime [TTA 4 April 13, 2 Feb 13] — or East St. Louis, Missouri, Detroit or Flint Michigan or Camden New Jersey — the minor element of a barking phone and distance monitoring is not going to deter very much. First Sign is a bit more than halfway from its modest Indiegogo goal of $50,000, with only seven days left.  Gizmag

Mobile in healthcare: HIMSS Analytics infographic

March 4, 2014 | by

You can read the full 3rd Annual HIMSS Analytics Mobile Survey of 170 health IT and clinical staff or treat yourself to the highlights in this infographic. It summarizes key findings such as 59 percent have a mobile technology plan and 29 percent are developing a mobile technology plan; 62 percent indicated that they offer patients access to at least one of the mobile tools identified in the research, including patient portals, telehealth services and remote monitoring devices; only 22 percent indicated that three-quarters of the data captured by mobile devices was integrated into the organization’s EMR. Developed by HIT Consultant.

Nintendo’s next move: entertaining healthcare

March 4, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

Nintendo, which has sold 100 million Wii consoles but is facing a shrinking market and increased competition in video gaming both from established companies like Sony and mobile gaming providers, has announced its intention to shift the notion of ‘entertainment’ into ‘quality of life’ (QOL) and health. This will be set up as a separate new business area. CEO Satoru Iwata said that Nintendo wants to “create an environment in which more people are conscious about their health and in turn expand Nintendo’s overall user base.” Although this sounds terribly vague, this Editor recalled that the Wii console had a brief vogue a few years ago in senior communities for fitness and that Editor Emeritus Steve had written about its use in rehabilitation and telehealth as far back as April 2008! (Additional articles here) One wonders what corporate imperatives discouraged the initial exploration of Wii for health. Now the field is thick with competitors from fitness bands (Jawbone, Fitbit, Misfit) to smartphones to Samsung’s new iterations of the Gear watch. Venture Beat.

Could virtual reality in games like Wii be useful therapy in relieving the phantom limb pain (PLP) from amputation? A recent Swedish study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience (abstract) indicate that it might. Researchers Max Ortiz Catalan and his colleagues developed an augmented reality therapy where muscle signals from the amputated arm activated a virtual arm that performed virtual tasks, and relieved the pain in a subject who had painful PLP for 48 years. “The patient reported that his pain gradually reduced, and he experienced pain-free periods over the course of his virtual reality treatments. He said his hand changed from feeling painfully clenched to feeling open and relaxed.” According to the article in Scientific American, the Swedish team has developed an at-home version if approved, and the technology may be adapted for other rehab such as post-stroke or spinal cord injury.  Also FierceHealthIT.

VA, DoD aren’t collaborating on EHR: GAO

February 28, 2014 | by

Your ‘Dog Bites Man’ item for the weekend (no, it’s not in reverse!) is that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has determined that Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) have not yet proved that their current two-system path, having rejected a single EHR, actually will be workable. In February 2013, both agencies abandoned a joint system after $1 billion in spend, and $4 billion in fixes/upgrades to their separate VistA and AHLTA systems. [TTA 15 Dec] By the two agencies going their separate ways, the GAO is mystified on what is going on with interoperability. The answer: not much. And as mentioned in our 15 December article, there was a 31 January deadline for an interoperability plan (or single system) to be implemented by 2016, mandated by the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Obviously, this deadline has come and gone. FierceEMR article, GAO recommendation (full text PDF)

One way to overcome the interoperability problem and too much in the EHR? Get rid of those pesky backlogged patient records! The Daily Caller uncovered a VA whistleblower’s complaint to the VA’s Inspector General and their office of special counsel, plus Congress, that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests going back more than one year–and that the delay on exams went back 6-9 months. The deletions started in 2009. There is a wrongful dismissal (of said whistleblower) suit and other joy. Article, audio (02:21) Updates 3-4 March:  according to Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel, the Daily Caller report was ‘scurrilous’. He stated that about 300 records were closed but not deleted after administrative review, generally for old imaging requests, and there was no effort to delete records to boost performance.  According to FierceHealthIT, the backlog is about 400,000. Also Military Times. According to EHR Intelligence, both DoD and the VA agree with the GAO recommendations; GAO will update its findings once the agencies have taken action. Also iHealthBeat.

Changes afoot at Aetna’s Healthagen?

February 28, 2014 | by

Recent rumors predicted changes at Healthagen, the rebranded ‘Emerging Businesses’ unit of health payer giant Aetna, and that these would be apparent at HIMSS14. Mobihealthnews attempts to ‘Sovietologize’ Aetna chairman Mark Bertolini’s appearance (sponsored by Healthagen, not Aetna) and what products were included in the Healthagen (not Aetna) show floor display. First, the booth: only Accountable Care Solutions and health info exchange Medicity were featured.  Former star iTriage (the original Healthagen product) was relegated to a distant booth. The much-touted CarePass consumer wellness platform? Absent. InvolveCare, the Healthagen caregiver app introduced last fall? Announced to be discontinued 28 April. In the true tradition of Sovietology, omissions are as apparent as inclusions. Second, the keynote: oddly, there are no content points cited from Mr. Bertolini’s speech in Mobihealthnews. We turn then to the Dan Munro in Forbes article, where Mr. Bertolini calls for the ‘creative destruction of healthcare’, a stock rallying point since 2009 (Yes, it doesn’t work. No, it’s not sustainable. It’s an iron triangle. Etc.) The bottom line was his announcing that Aetna’s business going forward would be ACOs and “driving a consumer healthcare experience.” Hopefully that will mean access and quality for the rest of us. Will Healthagen CEO Charles Saunders be part of leading the charge? Not a mention. One could say that the Magic 8 Ball says ‘cloudy’ for the present situation at Healthagen. Perhaps more changes will be revealed in coming weeks. 

Verizon adds Telcare, Genesis to monitoring platform

February 28, 2014 | by

Verizon received a second FDA clearance for its health management software platform, and added blood glucose management monitors Telcare and Genesis Health as part of it. The first clearance, according to Mobihealthnews, covered five telehealth devices from Ideal Life. Verizon’s intentions are to ‘white label’ market the system to providers who plan to use personally gathered telehealth as part of a patient management program in integrated delivery networks (IDNs), where it is currently in trial–plus health plans and self-insured employers. Verizon’s platform also has ‘gamified’ educational and motivational functions, including its own virtual currency for rewards. If this is proven in the US, will this be marketable in the UK and EU–and will Verizon go it alone or seek partners? Hat tip again on the story to reader Mike Short via Editor Charles.  

It’s iAwards time again!

February 28, 2014 | by

As the US East Coast faces low temps (down to 12 degrees again tonight) and another dumping of snow Monday, a small sign of spring, like flash-frozen daffodils and crocuses (crocii?), is the annual application call for the Triple Tree iAwards for Connected Health to be presented at the Wireless-Life Sciences Association (WLSA) 9th Annual Convergence Summit 14-16 May at the Omni in San Diego, California. Twelve finalists will be selected from applicants based on

criteria including the uniqueness of their solution; marketplace traction; clinical, operational or consumer relevance; size of addressable market and international presence across three categories:

    • Operational Effectiveness: Solutions that address the financial, compliance or operational needs of a healthcare organization.
    • Clinical Effectiveness: Solutions that address the care delivery and clinical effectiveness for a patient.
    • Consumer Engagement: Solutions that empower consumers to make better healthcare decisions.

Finalists attend not only a dinner, but also for the first time this year a private business review session. Online applications can be accessed at the TripleTree and Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance websites along with a $195 fee. Registration for the conference is here. Hat tip to Editor Charles and reader Mike Short.

‘Grizzled pioneer’ VRI receives major investment from Pamlico Capital (US)

February 28, 2014 | by

US telehealth monitoring and medical alert provider VRI (Valued Relationships, Inc.) of Franklin, Ohio earlier this month received a majority investment/recapitalization from Pamlico Capital, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based private equity firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Current lead executives CEO Chris Hendriksen and President Andy Schoonover will remain in active management and retain significant ownership in VRI, which they founded in 1989. Regarding the investment, Mr. Schoonover to this Editor stated that the funds will be used for expansion purposes. “It is another vote of confidence (alongside the Cardiocom acquisition) that telehealth is getting great results and is here to stay. The capital will support VRI’s growth objectives, particularly in executing a couple of large projects with health plans that VRI has booked for 2014, and the hiring of additional sales talent.” 

Despite being in a rather ‘non-buzzy’ area of telehealth, the investment attracted the interest of some major players. VRI was assisted in evaluating its options by well-known digital health financial advisor Triple Tree; legal counsels were McDermott Will & Emery for VRI and Alston & Bird LLP for Pamlico. Pamlico specializes in the ‘middle market’ and has previously invested selectively in mid-sized healthcare providers such as Greenway (EHR), Healthcare First (home health software) and Physicians Endoscopy (surgical centers). Overall, and interestingly, this appears to be a positive, long-term vote for telehealth and medication monitoring, as well as for the viability of traditional medical alerts and some of the patient engagement/hospital readmission reduction models VRI has been developing with major payers such as Humana. Pamlico Capital release, Triple Tree release.

Is *less* regulation the answer for mHealth? (US)

February 28, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

What if the solution to the mHealth/digital health logjam of approvals at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to take clinical and health software completely out of their approval purview–and hand it to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is not a regulatory body but a standards-development organization. That is the solution proposed by the PROTECT Act of 2014 (Preventing Regulatory Overreach to Enhance Care Technology), proposed by Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska). It’s put some of the better known organizations into a swivet, along with high profile attorney and mHealth legal expert Bradley Merrill Thompson with Epstein, Becker & Green. Possibly little to no regulation would be applied to EMRs, clinical support software and wearables/fitness apps–which is promptly being conflated by the usual suspects to heavy-duty equipment such as CT scanners.  FDA also finalized its guidance last September on telehealth and telemedicine applications, which this would render irrelevant. The Washington betting is that this Senate bill will go exactly nowhere, but it’s indicative of the jockeying for position this Editor is seeing within the present government and now with advocates/lobbyists [TTA 13 Feb]. MedCityNews, FierceMobileHealthcare