Apple purchasing 3D gesture control developer PrimeSense

November 19, 2013 | by

Breaking News

Based on the report you read, the deal is done or nearly done, but it is highly likely that Apple will be acquiring Tel Aviv-based PrimeSense for an amount in or around $345 million. PrimeSense developed the original 3D gesture control behind Microsoft Kinect (replaced by their in-house version); the company currently works with Asus and probably Apple. The purchase will enable Apple to add controls with body movements and hand gestures to its smartphone, tablet and TV products, as well as more closely defend its own patents in 3D gesture control lined out in Apple-ology blog 9to5Mac. Nothing in this or other reports about the Apple foray into smartwatches or wearables, but the capability fits. Watch 9to5Mac, TheNextWeb and TechCrunch for updates.

TSA Crystal Awards winners

November 19, 2013 | by | 7 Comments

The Telecare Services Association (TSA) announced its Crystal Awards winners [TTA 7 Nov on shortlist] at their gala dinner last week, and they are:

Most creative application of technology including telecare, telehealth, telecoaching: STAY (Sandwell Telecare Assisting You) and Red Embedded Systems Ltd. for their use of innovative video supporting those with learning disabilities. Receiving the award were our Contributing Editor Alasdair Morrison of STAY and Adam Hoare of Red Embedded.

Enhancing lives through technology enabled services: Peninsula Community Health for their home-based telehealth solution addressing a spike in UTIs in their locality.

Professional of the Year: Sarah Wyke of Stafford and Rural Homes

An additional award for 2013 Overall Winner, signifying the highest level of excellence across all three categories, was awarded to Peninsula Community Health.

More information on the awards and judging panel in their release (PDF)–and click the headline to view comments. Hat tip to the TSA’s Mark Leivesley for the updates.

eHealth not rocket science: former rocket scientist (Australia)

November 19, 2013 | by

Prof. Michael Georgeff is the aforementioned rocket scientist (actually the Program Director for the Space Shuttle’s control software) who is now CEO of Precedence Health Care. The company has developed what they claim is the first-ever chronic disease management network, cdmNet, accessible via broadband and mobile. Instead of controlling the shuttle, cdmNet controls the workflow end-to-end from care plans to follow up including all documentation. It is part of the Collaborative Care Cluster Australia initiative and is also the core technology infrastructure for Australia’s Diabetes Care Project. Post-discharge and chronic disease management integration into hospital/practice workflows is of course a huge issue elsewhere in the world, and perhaps the solution is found Down Under. eHealthSpace.org

Disrupting the hospital room

November 19, 2013 | by

The new frontier of disruption is design. Long-term housing for the cognitively impaired is being rethought [TTA 4 Oct]–why not the hospital room, when the last big change in the US was going from wards to semi-private and private rooms? The typical hospital room now houses tons of technology, but resembles a spaghetti bowl of wires and also is a nexus of nosocomial infections. Rethinking it is NXT Health’s Patient Room 2020 designed with a team from Clemson University’s Healthcare + Architecture Graduate Program and with support from the US Department of Defense. The many interesting features include mood adjustment, noise blocking, hand sanitization stations before room entry, nonporous flat surfaces on equipment and seamless flooring for efficient sanitization, UV light for same and multiple built-ins. Wall Street Journal article, full size illustration with callouts.

Hospital Directions

November 19, 2013 | by

London, 27-28 November 2013, ExCeL London Convention Centre

The second annual Hospital Directions conference focuses on Secondary Care and care integration, including the crisis of emergency care with winter looming, the benefits of telehealth in secondary care and comparatives from the US, notably the Kaiser Permanente model. There are seven speaker streams, seminars, workshops and hands-on skill sessions and an exhibition. Presented by CloserStill. Please see attached and their website for more information and registration.

NYeC Digital Health Conference 2013: the trends

November 16, 2013 | by

Updated 21 November

The third annual New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) Digital Health Conference in New York City attracted several hundred people from the worlds of hospitals, public health, academia, policy makers and health insurers–and the myriad related products and services which will enable these entities to improve their health IT, organization and engage patients in their own health. If there were three buzzword phrases setting the tone, they were interoperability, patient portals and technological innovation. All relate to data–data transfer of patient records between providers to be available regionally (RHIOs) and throughout the state via the SHIN-NY health information exchange (HIE); using data to help people visualize and improve their health;  putting data into ‘whole person’ context for providers, integrating it into workflows and to save lives; using data to serve process improvement and tougher standards. And finally there is that old devil cost: reducing the cost of care, reducing expensive readmissions plus co-morbidities and making those tools to do this job more affordable for providers and patients.

NYeC has developed considerably since its early days seven years ago (more…)

Telehealth saves $55 million in the Basque Country

November 16, 2013 | by | 3 Comments

Faced with an aging population (18 percent over 65) and a failing Spanish economy, the Basque Country Health System is testing telehealth systems to keep its older population healthier and out of the hospital (23 percent are readmitted to hospital). The Accenture-developed TEKI is based on a Microsoft Kinect and connects to a heart rate monitor, pulse oximeter and a spirometer, using the Kinect to evaluate their mobility and provide prescribed exercise therapy as part of rehabilitation. TEKI is part of an Accenture-developed ‘Multi-channel Health Service Center’ that provides a variety of counseling and education services to the local older adult population. The Kinect is also used as a telemedicine platform to communicate with the patients in the study. Results achieved by the program:$55 million saving in Year 1 through eliminating 52,000 hospital visits, a 7 percent cost reduction per patient. CNBC/Philips feature, MedCityNews, video of Osakidetza Hospital staff using TEKI with respiratory patients, Accenture paper.

Staples: a new market for health tech? (US)

November 15, 2013 | by

Staples is following Amazon’s lead and getting into lines of business–including home health care and personal care–totally unrelated to its core merchandise of office supplies. E-commerce blog GetElastic takes a critical look at their business goals in driving towards over a million SKUs, bringing in third-party sellers (“marketplace”) and drop-shipping, plus sourcing and stocking an extended inventory. The news for us is that one of those marketplaces could be fitness tech/wearable items that employees use in wellness programs such as Fitbits, Jawbones and FuelBands, sensors for Samsung’s S Health program–or glucose meters and blood pressure cuffs. (Already Staples stocks DME, personal care, ostomy and respiratory supplies.) And since Staples already sells smartphones, the potential for cross-selling fitness add-ons and apps is excellent. Can Staples Succeed as an Everything Store?

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International CES unveils in NYC

November 15, 2013 | by

The trends and items of note for next January’s show in Las Vegas

  • The ‘Internet of Things’ is the phrase-du-jour–embedding anything and everything with sensors (digital elements) and blending the physical and digital worlds
  • Consumer Digital Health Care was listed as #3 of CEA’s 2014 Technology Trends to Watch (PDF link). What is hot is self-tracking (1/3 of mobile users have tracked using a smartphone and tablet, and over half are now concerned about data security), integrating tech for seniors (touching on Selfhelp’s Virtual Senior Center [TTA 17 Mar 2010], remote monitoring (telehealth and telecare) including GrandCare Systems and kiosk HealthSpot Station, patient adherence, FDA approval of apps and the home as a healthcare hub.
  • Robots were the #4 trend: consumer robots such as home cleaners Roomba, Ecovacs; robots in eldercare; humanoid robots like NAO; robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons.

Digital health will again be showcased as a TechZone  (more…)

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.