Applications are now open through 13 March for the seventh annual TripleTree iAwards, which recognize the most innovative companies in connected health. Finalist CEOs present at the 10th annual Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA) Convergence Summit 26-28 May in beautiful (and warm) San Diego. Previous finalists are a chronicle of the changing connected health scene: marquee names still with us (Qualcomm Life, AliveCor, GreatCall, Proteus)–and those vanished from the scene (Healthrageous, WellAWARE, Diversinet, Zeo). Information and application.
Integrating spiritual care into healthcare: conference (US)
2015 Caring for the Human Spirit, 20-22 April, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando Florida
The Health Care Chaplaincy Network (HCCN), which we’ve recently profiled in ‘Chaplain Care for Veterans’, has been integrating online and tele-consultative (email, phone and video chat) resources into spiritual and mental health care in chaplaincy service. This year’s conference highlights include a workshop on TeleChaplaincy: The Online Practice of Professional Chaplaincy. Featured speakers are primarily from the US, but include The Rev. John Swinton, University of Aberdeen, King’s College School of Divinity. Conference registration is also available for a real-time webcast of all sessions and workshops. Brochure Previously: Patient engagement meets ‘palliative care’ in a care plan pilot with VOX Telehealth [Disclosure: Editor Donna is a volunteer on the HCCN’s marketing advisory council.]
Florida to try telehealth legislation – again
After repeatedly failing to pass a law to formalise payments for telehealth, Florida State [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Florida-House-of-Representattives.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]legislature is to try again this year, according to Florida state senator Aaron Bean. Moderating the Telemedicine and Telehealth session at the Florida Health Care Affordability Summit on Monday, 8 February, Sen. Bean has suggested that the latest bill, highly focused on telehealth, will be only 3 pages long. Attempts to legislate in in the previous session of the Florida House of Representatives resulted in failed bills in both chambers due to the inclusion of many controversial items.
Hackermania running wild, 2015 edition
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Do we need the Hulkster Running Wild against Hacking? It’s so heartwarming to see the mainstream press catch up to what your Editors have been whinging on for the past few years: that healthcare data is the Emperor With No Clothes. Here we have Reuters and the New York Times with a case of the vapors, seeking a fainting couch. Reuters dubs 2015 ‘The year of the healthcare hack’. The FBI is investigating the AnthemHealth breach, while their counterparts UnitedHealth, Cigna and Aetna are in full, breathless damage control mode. The Times at least delves into the possibility that it was at least partially instigated by China and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unit that trolls for intellectual property.
Our Readers, savvy to your Editors’ warnings since at least 2010, were aware that the drumbeat accelerated this past summer. (more…)
Data breach fail at AnthemHealth: an inadvertent ‘inside job’ (updated)
US health insurance giant AnthemHealth, which had a data breach of reportedly up to 80 million beneficiaries [TTA 6 Feb], was an inadvertent ‘inside job’. The Associated Press reported that the credentials of at least five employees were used to access information, at least one of whom was an administrator who viewed his credentials being used to query the data warehouse. It’s easier than you think to get them. In an analysis published by security firm Tripwire and also in MIT Technology Review, the writer Ken Westin outlines how easy it is to find that the Anthem warehouse is TeraData, and to match up employees engaged with it, through using public employee profiles on places like LinkedIn and job postings. Then it’s deductive to find exact email addresses (find the pattern–lead generation companies building business contact lists do this all the time) and send these key employees phishing emails (more…)
Widespread remote GP consultations getting closer; no shortage of implementation advice
Following our previous item on the topic, on January 16th, Tim Kelsey made it very clear to this editor at a PICTFOR event that the £1b promised to GPs for premises improvement included a strong requirement that GPs also invest in electronic support, including remote consultation technology.
It is therefore particularly pleasing to see in yesterday’s Pulse Today, an item on a Skype trial in Central London that both patients and GPs seem to love. Some key quotes:
Almost all patients surveyed about their experience of the remote consultation service said they ‘would use it again’ (95%).
Although patients were warned that ‘the security of Skype isn’t 100%’, 83% also said (more…)
FDA final guidance on mHealth eases regulation of MDDS, mHealth (updated)
As anticipated, FDA issued final non-binding recommendations for guidance yesterday (Monday) that ease regulatory oversight of medical device data systems (MDDS), including image storage and communication devices, and mHealth devices.
In the MDDS guidance document, “(FDA) does not intend to enforce compliance with the regulatory controls that apply to MDDS, medical image storage devices, and medical image communications devices, due to the low risk they pose to patients and the importance they play in advancing digital health.” It defined MDDS as “a device that is intended to provide one or more of the following uses, without controlling or altering the functions or parameters of any connected medical devices: (i) The electronic transfer of medical device data; (ii) The electronic storage of medical device data; (iii) The electronic conversion of medical device data from one format to another format in accordance with a preset specification; or (iv) The electronic display of medical device data.” along with their hardware and software. It specifically excludes devices that are used in active patient monitoring.
Mobile health apps were covered in a separate and highly detailed guidance document, “Mobile Medical Applications”.
- FDA will regulate only “those mobile apps that are medical devices and whose functionality could pose a risk to a patient’s safety if the mobile app were to not function as intended.” (more…)
Economist study on mHealth: improving outcomes, but revenue model?
The Economist‘s just published survey of 144 healthcare executives in 23 countries, taken in June 2014, is a combination of cheering and dismaying.
The good:
- Most executives surveyed (64 percent) believe that new mobile technologies and services that provide greater patient access to medical information “could dramatically improve health outcomes”.
- 63 percent project that “greater patient access to their personal data will allow people to make better decisions about their health”.
Holding things back are factors as diverse as:
- Risk aversion within the healthcare industry (institutional bias and conservatism
within the healthcare establishment) cited by 44 percent - Patient privacy concerns (49 percent)
- Patients finding technology hard to use (54 percent)
These executives are also not strong on wearables; they do not believe that it will alter healthcare in any noticeable way (21 percent). And still there is the consideration about how to make money in mobile health: 10% of respondents (and 19% of those in the US) believe mobile health has no promising revenue model. PDF Hat tip to Ashley Gold of POLITICO’s Morning eHealth on Monday.
State of telehealth in Australia – a GP’s view
As we have noted in the past, Australia has provided incentives for GPs to implement videoconference telehealth [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/AFP2.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]consultations in remote rural areas. Simple though it may be from a conceptual point of view, providing the ability for people in isolated communities to have access to specialists can make an enormous difference to the healthcare they receive.
Dr Ewen McPhee, a GP from rural Queensland, writing in the Australian Family Physician’s December issue (“Telehealth: the general practice perspective”) briefly looks at the state of videoconference telehealth in Australia 3 years after the current incentives were implemented. “Three years later, the implementation of telehealth videoconferencing has been inconsistent and patchy, yet to be normalised as part of primary care practice” says McPhee.
Living in cities like London or New York it can sometimes be hard to imagine (more…)
UK’s Best SME Mobile Health App Competition – finalists announced
This reviewer participated as a judge in the first round of this competition, sponsored by Patient-View, myhealthapps, techUK and the Department of Trade & Investment. From this, four finalists were chosen who will go forward to the second part of the competition at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (“MWC 2015”) in the first week in March.
The twelve competitors were:
11health – an app and device for determining when an “’ostomy” bag is full and needs emptying. Blue-toothed to a mobile or nurse station. It has transformed the lives of patients that have to use these and continues to save nursing time too.
23 Ltd – a website builder that has diversified into behaviour change to stop smoking. Ingenious business model though as yet (more…)
What can the US learn from the UK’s approach to healthcare?
The Guardian article recently published an article entitled “What the NHS can learn from the US Obamacare system” which disappointingly spends almost all of its text talking about the challenges of implementing Obamacare, and just a few sentences espousing three very weak lessons, the first of which is:
…Obamacare had a clear overarching goal: reduce the number of uninsured. Who can stand up and make such a clear case for the Health and Social Care Act 2012?
The rest are (go to DHACA website to read more)
Chronic Illness Bingo, or the silly things we say to those with…
From our occasional Canadian contributor and genuine Heart Sister Carolyn Thomas is a handy (and funny) Bingo card with squares describing many of the ‘helpful’ things one may say to those with chronic illness, especially the invisible sort. As our readers are engaged with services and/or technologies which help others to manage chronic illness, or have lived through our own or those close to us, perhaps we are more sensitive…but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t educate, or be aware of the occasional silly remark we still make. Also read the linked article, ‘But you don’t look sick…” Let’s all play Chronic Illness Bingo!
1 in 5 UK care homes fail key national quality standards: BBC
The BBC Radio 5’s ‘5 live Investigates’ broadcast today (Sunday) their report on failing care homes. Starting with third-party research from the firm LaingBuisson, which found in examining 10,000 care homes that 20 percent failed to meet one or more ‘key quality measure(s)’, the 5 live team further examined 50 sample homes which failed inspection and found in their reports:
Some homes were found to be placing residents in danger because of insufficient or poorly trained staff.
There were cases where the wrong drugs had been given out. Other homes were dirty, unhygienic or smelt of urine.
In one establishment, dementia patients were being washed in cold water, and staff had not had criminal record checks and worked up to 60 hours a week.
The program was broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live Sunday, 8 February at 11:00 GMT. BBC News page. Unfortunately there is no indication of a podcast or rebroadcast. Hat tip to Guy Dewsbury via Twitter.
Blueprint Health’s latest class tackles nosocomial infections, transitional care
The New York-based Blueprint Health accelerator announced this week its Winter 2015 class of seven: GlucoIQ, GroupHub, HealthyBytes, Limestone Labs, Moving Analytics, Signifikance and TapGenes. Most have a genetic analytics or payer emphasis. Of special interest to our readers are:
- The home-based cardiac rehabilitation system of Moving Analytics, which uses a smartphone app, Movn, to guide patients through their care plan, joined with active patient management engaging them with nurses who call weekly to review progress.
- Toronto-based Limestone Labs‘ UV-C sanitization system for portable devices (the ubiquitous tablets and smartphones) which aren’t being cleaned effectively with wipes, and are becoming a new vector for hospital-based infections. They claim 99.99 percent kill rates with treatment of only 30 seconds. It started piloting last month in healthcare settings.
- Healthy Bytes’ food management app, engaging patients with dieticians to monitor food intake with photos, time and other comments plus coaching.
The public demo day for this class will be 24 April. Blueprint Health is now taking applications for their summer class to be launched on 13 July. MedCityNews
Lūbax skin cancer detection app in clinical trials
What is that spot? A question that many of us have worried over. A skin cancer detection app developed by Los Angeles-based Lūbax is being tested with physicians and dermatologists in the US, Australia and the UK as of 4 February, World Cancer Day. It uses image recognition software and algorithms to search a proprietary dermatology image database of over 12,000 diagnosed lesions. Their initial large melanoma clinical trials with Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the University of São Paulo showed sensitivity and specificity in detecting large melanomas in patients. According to their website, they are expanding the database and algorithm to include basal and squamous cell carcinomas in addition to amelanotic melanomas. There’s a signup for the clinical trial only for iPhone, but their execs in a news item have met with Samsung. BioSpectrum Asia, release on Biospace.com, startup profile on Gust.com
News highlights for Friday
AnthemHealth didn’t encrypt, Blueprint Health collects, HealthSpot funds again, Sense4Baby goes to Europe, Apple Health pilots in hospitals and buddi gets bigger still.
Another hack attack claimed major US health insurer AnthemHealth, the former WellPoint. It’s estimated that 80 million of its customers, former customers and employees had data breached: names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, employment information, income, medical IDs and SSIs. The Wall Street Journal reports that Anthem didn’t encrypt data for analytics reasons. It’s unconfirmed where the hackers originated but Bloomberg’s latest report tags the usual Chinese state-sponsored suspects. Unusually, it was reported within days of discovery; Anthem has called in Mandiant (FireEye) to beef up its cybersecurity. Other reports: WSJ, Modern Healthcare….The Blueprint Health accelerator has a new initiative, the Collective. It is designed to pair up major healthcare providers and payers with startups and early stage companies. So far signed up are Aetna, AstraZeneca, HP, Montefiore, North Shore LIJ, New York-Presbyterian, Samsung, EmblemHealth, Philips and Razorfish Healthware. More information here….The HealthSpot Station telehealth/telemedicine kiosk is readying a $11.6 million funding round from four investors soon, based on (more…)
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