Breaking news: AliveCor’s integration with Apple Watch – hugely impressive!

March 16, 2016 | by

Kardia bandAliveCor have today announced the Kardia Band which replaces the ordinary strap on an Apple Watch. Touch the band with your other hand and it records a one-lead ECG (EKG=US) that communicates with the Watch app, Kardia by AliveCor. The Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Detector then uses an algorithm to instantly detect and inform the wearer of the presence of AF, the most common cardiac arrhythmia and a leading cause of stroke. Other ‘detectors’ look at the ECG to determine normal heart rate and rhythm or if you should retake an ECG so physicians receive only the highest quality recordings.

Users can also record voice memos on their Apple Watch to accompany each ECG that give doctors and caregivers a clearer picture of what was happening at the time of the recording — describing symptoms such as palpitations or external factors like caffeine intake. Kardia also integrates seamlessly with Apple’s Health app to include ECG data with steps and calorie intake to provide richer, personal analysis over time.

A short note at the end indicates that the FDA-cleared AliveCor Mobile ECG, best known for snapping on to an iPhone but works on Android smartphones as well, has been rebranded as Kardia Mobile to establish a product family.

Most impressive.

In the US, the Kardia Band is pending 510k clearance and is not currently for sale. Plans for the UK have not been formally announced but anticipated soon.  AliveCor release.

Digital health for pets – more

March 14, 2016 | by

Our item on telehealth for pets has prompted Prof Mike Short to draw my attention to an article on digital health at Crufts over the weekend. Offerings include:

  • PitPat, a fully-fledged fitness tracker for dogs, particularly to help avoid obesity;
  • AnimAlarm, makers of a heat sensor for dogs in cars (similar perhaps to the heat sensor for babies in cars that won a previous Blue Blazes award), have now branched out to create what is claimed to be the world’s first auto-inflating life jacket (for dogs presumably – the technology’s been around for humans for a while). Described as a life-saving piece of equipment, it is aimed at “giving pooches everywhere a fighting chance should they be thrown overboard at sea”. (Is the logic that if dogs have to be protected from owners that leave them in hot cars, they’ll need protection from owners doing other crazy things too?)

 

The AAL Smart Ageing Prize: €50,000 could be yours!

March 14, 2016 | by

The Active & Assisted Living (AAL) Programme has launched the AAL Smart Ageing Prize – a €50,000 challenge prize to find the best innovation in internet connected devices and technologies (Internet of Things) that will empower older adults to achieve the social & independent qualities of life they aspire to.

The prize aims to find innovations that improve connectivity between older adults, devices and technologies related to any aspect of their life (e.g. home, social, work, study, transport or services). The idea should present a business opportunity which has the potential to be commercially viable. Applications must involve older adults in the development and testing of the technology.

The AAL will help the most innovative ideas turn into real products that can be financially sustainable. Fifteen of the most promising applications will be chosen as finalists and will be invited to a social innovation mentoring academy in Brussels in July to progress their ideas. Each of the finalists will be awarded a €500 Euro grant to develop a prototype to demonstrate.

The winner will be awarded a prize of €50,000 at the AAL Forum in Switzerland in late September. The Prize is open to individuals, groups and organisations in the 28 member countries of the European Union, as well as Israel, Canada, Norway and Switzerland.

The deadline for applications is Friday 13 May 2016 at midday (12pm) Central European Time.

For full details and to apply please visit the AAL website.

Good luck!

HealthSpot winds out to Ch. 7 liquidation, assets for sale

March 11, 2016 | by

The object lesson of HealthSpot continued its sad revelations in a Columbus, Ohio Federal bankruptcy court Thursday (10 March) with the confirmation of liquidation under Chapter 7 rather than reorganization under Chapter 11. According to the report in MedCityNews, the bankruptcy trustee is now accepting offers for the assets valued by HealthSpot at $5.1 million. The bulk of these assets–$3.5 million–consist of 191 telemedicine kiosks of which 54 had been deployed with customers such as Rite Aid and Cleveland Clinic. The trustee has been permitted by the court to list these assets on a website. Whether there is any market for the hardware, or the intellectual property of HealthSpot, is a very open question indeed.

Some digging by this Editor has revealed a possible precipitating event to the company’s shutdown, and an obvious, non-recoupable drain on the time and funds of a teetering company. A District Court order issued 4 December on the patent infringement legal action by Nevada-based Computerized Screening [TTA 8 Jan] is now available online. It appears to have been conceded by Computerized Screening as “non-infringement on the basis of the absence of the limitation of “controller”” which is technically a win for HealthSpot. But HealthSpot then sought in September to collect attorney’s fees of a stunning $829,500 from Computerized Screening (more…)

3rings enters the Dragons’ Den, comes out with strategic investor

March 10, 2016 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/steve-purdham-3rings-david-capper-westfield-health-with-3rings-plug.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]About two years ago, we started following 3rings, a Stoke-on-Trent (UK) company that develope an appliance plug that automatically ‘checks in’ an older person based on their morning behavior of turning on a tea kettle, TV or other appliance. We’ve received word from their CEO Steve Purdham that they’ve announced today (Thursday) a substantial strategic investment from not-for-profit insurer Westfield Health. Mr Purdham (picture left) had appeared on the BBC program Dragons’ Den with mum Iris (prominently featured in their ads) to raise £300,000 for a 10 percent share in the company. (For our US readers, Dragons’ Den is similar to Shark Tank or Project Startup.) According to the website release, Westfield Health was attracted to the company through the show, has invested more than twice the funding requested by Mr Purdham from the Dragons, and will be offering the 3rings plug to their current and future customers.

David Capper, their Commercial Director (picture right), acknowledged the attraction of technology in their first major external investment in this type of health tech.  (more…)

Hyperbole, pets & apps: a brief romp around the digital health scene

March 10, 2016 | by | 1 Comment

In technology, over-use of the term “groundbreaking” is common. However it takes some nerve to use the term to describe “Home Assist”, a push-button pendant-based telecare service now being sold by Boots (provided by Tunstall). Whilst TTA can only applaud the arrival of another high street offering, we would counsel a more realistic service description for a telecare service already offered by many.

Research via Boots’ own website reveals that in addition to the advertised push-button pendant, a falls detector is available as well. This site gives price details too, which look quite competitive at the basic level with non-subsidised local authority telecare schemes, though of course without the linkages to local services, including response services in the event eg of a fall, that some of these schemes also offer. Downloading the in store leaflet gives yet further information, for example that the pricier ‘advanced’ package includes a smoke detector (surely for older people almost as important as a basic pendant, and ideally one/floor of your house?) and bogus call detector, as well as falls detector etc.

Meanwhile in a far off land (Los Angeles to be precise) Active4Pets are busy recruiting to accelerate the US rollout of their “innovative” telehealth communication platform for pets. The (admittedly far-fetched) thought of pets regularly reporting vital signs electronically conjures up all sorts of bad, (though unavoidable) puns such as: (more…)

Our wrapup of news and tart takes on HIMSS 16 (updated redux)

March 9, 2016 | by

Lions Lie Down With Lambs, and Other Miracles!

HIMSS 16’s main ‘breaking news’ centered on HIT interoperability. The lead was US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell’s announcement on how Lions Will Lie Down With Lambs, Or Else. 17 EHRs that cover 90 percent of electronic health records used by U.S. hospitals–including the bitterest of rivals, Epic (the EHR everyone likes to hate) and Cerner, 16 providers including the nation’s five largest private healthcare systems, and more than a dozen leading professional associations and stakeholder groups (including HIMSS) pledged to implement three core commitments that allegedly will improve the flow of health information to consumers and healthcare providers. They are consumer access, no information blocking and standards. When? Where? How? Strictly TBD. HHS release, MedCityNews, Modern Healthcare, which dubbed it ‘another year, another promise’.

Innovate or Die. For companies and providers, it’s not about compliance anymore but about improving patient outcomes due to value-based care and incentives. Providers will increasingly be responsible for patient care throughout the community to make their numbers. Having made this sound point, Dr John Halamka then proposes they will need a ‘care traffic control’ system through data aggregation, with a laundry list of ‘enablers’, directories and connectors surrounding the EHR. How this all will work together, and who will buy in already challenged practices and ACOs, plus how those 17 notoriously territorial EHRs will work with said ‘enablers’ — or complicators — is a mystery to this Editor. Pass the Advil, please. MedCityNews

Read on for more Top 10s, roundups, DOD and VA EHR news, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback tackles the closing keynote, and 10 ways you can become a HIMSS speaker! (more…)

Mo’ money! Over $600 million in funding washes into digital health

March 8, 2016 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Looney-Tunes-Were-in-the-Money.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The unicorns may be getting gored, the bloom off the rose in health tech funding, and it’s a ‘hangover’ from 2015, but both January and February wound up being strong months for digital health funding, with over $600 million to companies in various stages. Mobihealthnews racks up the wins, leading with MindMaze (recovery for stroke patients) $100 million in February, Pear Therapeutics (digital tools + pharmaceuticals) with $20 million and Cala Health (hand/wrist tremor treatment) with $18 million. In remote patient monitoring, Vivify Health raised $17 million completing a 2014 round for $23 million and interestingly will use some of this funding to develop an IVR (interactive voice response) solution (Mobihealthnews 25 Feb). They don’t total in insurer Oscar which had a massive raise of $400 million bringing their funding over $765 million, not that far from Unicorn Territory–probably a good idea as they have some dizzying goals like 1 million members in five years from its current 145,000 members in New York and New Jersey, adding Texas and California. The caution on Oscar is that they are heavily dependent on narrow networks and exchange business that may be unsustainable. But if you sign up, you get a Misfit Flash tracker and access to their mobile app! Digital health funding in February reached $197 million (Mobihealthnews)

Pitch@Palace – it’s voting time + a great short video on wearables

March 7, 2016 | by

Our previous item on Pitch@Palace introduced this brilliant pitching event for entrepreneurs. Now the pitches have been put on the web for everyone to vote for.

We highly recommend readers to have a look at the pitches and vote for your favourite for the “People’s Choice” award – there are lots of health-related start-ups to choose from…overall the pitches give a great feel for what is hot just now.

And whilst you’re in video mode, have a quick look at this very short, excellent summary of recently launched wearables that Prof Mike Short kindly made me aware of today – a “must watch”!

Engaging with the UK Digital Health Industry: Getting Health Data Analytics onto the Map

March 5, 2016 | by

The Health KTN and UK Health Data Analytics Network (UK-HDAN) invite practitioners and industry experts to attend one of their regional workshops to contribute to a UK health data analytics roadmap for funders and policy-makers.

There is general recognition that health data analytics will play a critical role in transforming health and social care, but relatively poor understanding of the current UK landscape, research priorities and barriers to translation. Their aim is to provide a clear statement of opportunities and challenges that will help shape a national action plan for health data analytics.

The UK-HDAN is a newly formed community of health data scientists (current membership 350) working together to map the landscape and inform a national strategy for health data analytics research. They are particularly keen to (more…)

Deloitte’s consumer view of technology acceptance in home health

March 5, 2016 | by

The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions (DCHS), the research division of Deloitte LLP’s Life Sciences and Health Care practice, conducted six focus groups late last year to gauge the acceptance of technology in home health. They tested two main home health scenarios among 42 younger (<44) and older (45-64) adults, both drawn from healthy and chronic condition patients and with a mix of demographics.

In this qualitative study, the two scenarios tested were: technology that would help manage chronic conditions and tech to promote healthy living. The first scenario gives a very advanced vision of chronic care management that involves telehealth, telemedicine and residential monitoring in the management of chronic conditions (diabetes and CHF). The second involves lifestyle factors including eating, activity and exercise management and managing travel.

Some findings in the report summarized and linked for download here, including implications for companies:

  • Overall they were open to and optimistic about using technology to enable better home care of older adults who require it–including embedded sensors.
  • ‘Smart home’ has appeal, but there is a preference for the less intrusive (stove burner/cooking range sensors, fall detectors) and resistance to perceived invasions of privacy (sleep, bathroom and activity monitoring).
  • They understood the balance of reward and risk in consideration of broad categories of nutrition, physical activity, prevention, and dealing with an acute episode (see quadrant below, click to enlarge)
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/us-lshc-hcc-march1-my-take-p1.png” thumb_width=”200″ /]

Center Director Harry Greenspun, MD’s in his Health Care Current blog notes that TECS has the capability of providing services formerly provided only in a doctor’s office or hospital in the home, but “One question remains, “How quickly will consumers adapt and accept new technologies that bring care into their home?”–then answers his own question.

All of these innovations have given us a level of insight and capability we could not have imagined even a few years ago. At the same time, each raises privacy concerns.

So why do we do it? Because we get something out of it.

 

‘VC tourism’ in Health Tech Land is over (updated)

March 4, 2016 | by

The ‘silly money’ is packing its bags and taking the next flight from the Coast. An exceedingly tart take out of Fast Company confirms what your Editors have noticed in Rock Health and other year-end reports. Funding for digital health may have surpassed $4.2 billion in 2015, but it barely eked over 2014’s total of $2.3 billion despite rising geometrically since 2011 [TTA 16 Dec 15, revised by Rock Health since then]. Since then, we’ve had the Trouble Every Day of ‘unicorns’ (overreaching) Theranos and (ludicrously) Zenefits [TTA 17 Feb]; EHR Practice Fusion stalled out and cutting 25 percent of its staff, hoping to be acquired by athenahealth–or anyone (Healthcare Dive); shaky Fitbit shares [TTA 20 Feb]. Perhaps the high point was last year’s ‘Corvette Summer’ with yet another big round to a company yet to fulfill its promise, ZocDoc [TTA 15 Aug 15]. Even Castlight Health with decent revenue (still at a loss) has been dubbed an ‘absolute horror show’ when it comes to its share prices, if you were foolish enough to buy it at or near its IPO.

Fortunately a large dose of sanity may prevail among VCs with a sobering realization–no different than five or ten years ago–that investment has to be strategic and far longer than the usual 18 month-and-out time frame. Too many companies have systems which work the same niche–you don’t need 50 companies doing these things: data analytics for care management, patient engagement platforms, med reminders or diabetes management. [We’ve already noted the ‘sameness’ in companies getting funded in 2015, almost as if investors were seeking reassurance in similarity, a sure sign of a coming fail–TTA 30 Dec 15.]

Developers must fill a need–uniquely. And have a superb business plan, squeeze the nickels till they squeak and forget about the party culture. Investors: Dumb Money For Digital Health Will Vanish As Quickly As It Came In

 

Telehealth reimbursement: a major growth obstacle overcome this year?

March 4, 2016 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Hurdle.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Will 2016 be the year where the hurdles are jumped? Telehealth systems and platforms are becoming more comprehensive and compatible with mobile technologies. While there are still discussions (arguments!) as to telehealth remote patient monitoring effectiveness in care models, with the occasional naysaying short-term or IVR study ‘proving’ RPM doesn’t work, the long-term positive VA Home Telehealth results since 2003, and the large body of research prove otherwise when integrated within a chronic or transitional care model. Yet at $14 million or .0025 percent, it was in 2014 a tiny part of Medicare payments because of CMS’ emphasis on rural telehealth at that point (and still). Medicaid (state programs for low-income children and adults under CMS oversight and administered through private payers) is more generous, with most states providing some payment and some having parity (with in-person visits) regulations.

A retrospective look at telehealth reimbursement is in a just-published paper by the Health Care Cost Institute (full PDF of report) which analyzed thousands of claims from four major insurers (Aetna, Humana, Kaiser Permanente and United Healthcare).to track trends in telehealth billings from 2009-2013. Key findings are summarized by senior counsel René Quashie of leading health tech law firm Epstein Becker Green in this article. It’s evident that the private payer sector didn’t exactly lead the way on commercial adoption of telehealth and telemedicine.

Here, the public sector is forcing change. Medicare rules on chronic care management changed for year 2015 to permit telehealth integration, and while complex (and not especially generous), CMS has further expanded them for ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and for new Next Generation ACOs. Yet only 20 percent of ACOs in the 2015 MSSP program actually used telehealth in care programs.

You can understand why from practices’ past experiences with payers. Becker’s Hospital Review cites from excerpts that while telehealth claims reimbursement on average rose 2009-2011 from $60 to $68/visit, in 2013 they dropped precipitously to $38. For all the hand-wringing over mental health, psychiatrists get the short end once again: a diagnostic interview exam (which is generally 1-2 hours if not more) cost $200 via telehealth (telemedicine) and $288 when the exam was conducted in person, but reimbursement was $77 and $105 respectively. After needing to invest in equipment and software, it’s understandable why physicians don’t look forward to getting paid less for their trouble.

But the argument is that things are changing for the better, and that is advocated by Nathaniel Lacktman, partner of tech law firm Foley & Lardner in his optimistic article in Advance Executive Insights, which maintains that 2016 is going to be the Year of Telehealth and remote patient monitoring. (more…)

Chubb Care System adds communities (UK)

March 4, 2016 | by

Chubb Community Care launched the Chubb Care System at the end of last year [TTA 13 Dec 15], and following up, they have already become the approved technology adviser and provider for the Northern Housing Consortium and the Knowsley Housing Trust’s Bluebell Park Apartments. KHT provides housing for 27,000 residents in Knowsley. The Chubb Care System is a hybrid communication/monitoring system for residents in sheltered and extra care housing to communicate with staff and integrates with TECS, telehealth and fire/safety devices and systems. As Editor Charles put it, some have portrayed Chubb as the weakest of the ‘big three’ telecare providers, and it is heartening to see them move forward quickly.

 

Tunstall and Boots go High Street with retail PERS (UK)

March 3, 2016 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Boots-Main-Logo.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Boots has entered the direct-to-consumer PERS business with Home Assist, supplied by Tunstall Healthcare. It’s a conventional (non-mobile) base unit and pendant with 24/7 response to Tunstall’s call center and a temperature sensor that will alarm at cold temperatures. The basic PERS is priced at £34.79 ($49) inclusive of VAT for the unit and a £19.99 ($28) monthly charge. Adding fall detection, the prices rise to £46.79 and £25.19. The most expensive option adds a smoke detector, reassurance calls and a bogus caller alarm for £58.79 and £31.19. Some end users may qualify for VAT-free pricing due to a qualifying disability or long-term illness, which lowers rates by £7-9. According to our former Editor and occasional contributor Mike Burton, this is a first for any High Street chemist and ups the game for all PERS and alert systems. It’s also a natural move, given that the US outpost of the Walgreens Boots Alliance has direct sold Tunstall (and earlier, AMAC) PERS units for 10 years. (Walgreens’ base monthly rate is about the same at $29.99 monthly for the same unit, but no unit cost on an annual contract.)  Home Assist website (Tunstall UK/Boots). The in-store leaflet link on the Boots website features Boots locations in London and Leeds only, along with a full application.

 

Care Innovations’ ‘record growth in 2015’; replaces CEO; GE departs partnership

March 3, 2016 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Care Innovations‘ recent (undated) press release (discovered as a LinkedIn update), if read without a Gimlet Eye, could be read as another one of those ‘good news’ releases that build company awareness and get it picked up on websites such as TTA. Certainly there’s a nice spin of positive news for remote monitoring technologies, particularly more complex ones in vital signs monitoring and broadening out their applicability. (More on those below.) But the observant eye will pick out a couple of ‘aha!’ moments at this company that got slipped in, but not slipped by, the Eye.

The first is that GE has departed the building. Always the junior partner except for the very beginning in 2009, GE apparently exited sometime after December based on the last press release with Intel-GE identification issued 1 Dec 2015. The boilerplate company description is no longer ‘Intel-GE Care Innovations’ but now ‘Care Innovations, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation’. Lift your eyes to the company logo at the top left of the web page, and there it is, ‘An Intel Company’. GE is not fully cleansed, still to be found on product pages such as Health Harmony and QuietCare, as well as the copyright line at the bottom of each web page. (More work to be done)

The second is the appearance of CI’s new CEO, Randy Swanson, in the executive quote and on the ‘team’ website page. His bio notes that he’s a 17-year Intel finance/business development veteran, at one point with responsibilities in the Digital Health Group. Tea leaf readers might well surmise that Intel will now emphasize profitability at CI after the major repositioning and partner expansion during the 2.5 years of Sean Slovenski’s tenure (a non-Intel’er departed in January to Healthways, TTA 13 Jan).

The release also has a few more interesting moments. (more…)