USDA invests $16M in Distance Learning and telemedicine

February 7, 2014 | by

The US Department of Agriculture is investing nearly $16 million expanding distance learning and [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/USDA-Rural-Development.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]telemedicine, it was announced on Tuesday, 4th February. The Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, stated that the Obama Administration is investing in rural telecommunications equipment to help expand access to education, create jobs and improve health care in 25 states. This funding will help to support Obama Administration’s target declared last June to connect 99 percent of students to broadband in the next five years.

The funding is being provided through USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant program. It provides funding to rural hospitals, clinics, schools and libraries for equipment and technical assistance for telemedicine and distance learning. Grant recipients must demonstrate that they serve rural America, prove there is an economic need and provide at least 15 percent in matching funds.  (more…)

Health IT funding bubble seen by veteran investor

February 7, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/crystal-ball.jpg” thumb_width=”120″ /] How is health tech like the 1990s ‘dot-com’-ers? Veteran Silicon Valley investor (HealthTech Capital) and former entrepreneur Anne DeGheest projects a ‘Series B crunch‘ in funding health tech and IT in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch. The key factors: angels and ‘unsophisticated investors’ are pouring money into all sorts of devices, apps and related services in seed and Series A stages just to get on board in a hot sector. When the founders of these companies get to Series B and present to more demanding investors, the lack of a true value proposition and a detailed business plan that answers basic questions leave them standing on, as aptly put, ‘a pier to nowhere’ or as Joe Hage termed it last month, ‘insolvent with a great idea.’

Ms. DeGheest’s view that we are reprising the elements of the ‘dot-com’ bubble is confirmed by the numbers in Rock Health‘s and PwC‘s funding reports throughout 2013:   (more…)

Company debuts, news: 3rings, GrandCare Systems

February 6, 2014 | by

3rings debuts (UK)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3rings-logo-only.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]If you remember back in the landline-only days, a clever and toll-free way to let a family member or friend that you had arrived at your destination and you were fine, was to ring their number three times, then hang up. 3rings.co.uk brings this idea back for older family members and their families in a slightly different form. The older person either calls 3rings or answers their call, and the system generates an ‘all’s well’ message sent to designated family, neighbors and friends via smartphone app (iOS and Android), call, text, email or web. Lack of contact generates a red alert. What is new is that if one person in the group clicks on the alert to indicate that they will check on the person, an amber alert is created to advise all others on the notification list. A green ‘all clear’ is sent once it’s confirmed that the older individual is fine. There is a free trial with two levels of subscription services (£5.99/month and £9.99/month). Founders Steve Purdham (Chairman) and Gareth Reakes (CEO) have a successful entrepreneurial track record, most recently with UK/Ireland music service WE7, sold to Tesco in 2012. They were inspired by Gareth’s nan, Vera, and Steve’s mum, Iris, who appears in this video on the 3rings YouTube playlist. ‘How it works’ video (YouTube), press release (PDF)

GrandCare Systems’ fund raising (US/UK)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GC-banner.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]One of telecare and telehealth’s true ‘grizzled pioneers’ in telecare remote monitoring and now socialization, Wisconsin-based GrandCare Systems, has announced a $2 million capital raise. New CEO and local investor Dan Maynard is leading the charge to pitch GrandCare to large family investment funds, institutional investors and strategic investors such as insurers. Like 3rings, family reasons were behind GrandCare’s development and it’s remained self-funded to date. Of note is that the company has reached 1,000 units in use, even at a premium $699 plus monthly subscription fee, and is projecting an increase to 10,000 units. New agreements have been inked with UnitedHealthcare, CenturyLink Home Security Services and Amazon.com’s 50 Plus section. Saga Group also distributes GrandCare in the UK (TTA 24 Jan 13, 10 Jan 13). This Editor, a former competitor, has to cheer the founder, Charles Hillman and his team, notably Laura Mitchell who is a relentless marketer in only the best sense of the term, for sticking with the vision and making it successful. Milwaukee Business Journal

Health Affairs review of telehealth/telemedicine studies

February 6, 2014 | by

Just published in Health Affairs is Connected Health: A Review Of Technologies And Strategies To Improve Patient Care With Telemedicine And Telehealth, an overview of several studies on telehealth and telemedicine in use for congestive heart failure (Center for Connected Health), care coordination (VA), ‘store and forward’ imaging, remote ICU, medication adherence (CCH with Vitality GlowCaps) and e-referrals. The article closes with a (too-short) discussion of the three criteria that telemedicine must meet to demonstrate effectiveness: assurance of quality (met), aligning financial incentives in using telehealth to provide desired outcomes (in progress) and more research on quality and cost impact (ditto). Authored by Dr. Joseph Kvedar of CCH, Molly Joel Coye of UCLA and Wendy Everett of NEHI. Full text in PDF, HTML. Hat tip to Editor Chrys.

Dr. Topol in the AT&T house: a reboot of ForHealth?

February 5, 2014 | by | 2 Comments

HIMSS14 will tell. The big news that kicked off this snow-bound week in large parts of the US was Dr. Eric Topol joining Dallas, Texas-based AT&T ForHealth as Chief Medical Advisor. Well-known for his personality and evangelism of all things mHealthy, certainly Dr. Topol lends a certain star power to Big Blue’s efforts in this area–a shine that went completely dark in 2013 after a promising start in 2011 and strong partnering moves in 2012 (Alere and WellDoc diabetes management TTA 10 Aug 12; VRI monitoring in May). The quietude of 2013 deserves a closer look. Dr. Geeta Nayyar joined with fanfare in September 2011 as Chief Medical Information Officer and departed exactly two years later to join engagement company PatientPoint with the same title. ForHealth made no waves at International CES save for being an example in the controversial ‘sponsored data’ plan announcement (GeekWire). Even finding ForHealth on the AT&T website is not easy. It is buried under ‘Business>>Enterprise Business‘ and then in a dogpile of footer links as ‘Healthcare Solutions‘–not ForHealth. In marketing, this is a state usually termed ‘dead in the water.’ The fact that Dr. Topol is remaining as Chief Academic Officer at Scripps Health also indicates that he is no direct replacement for Dr. Nayyar, despite being cited by AT&T SVP Chris Hill as a “change agent” who will help “drive our competitive strategy”. We’ll see if HIMSS14 on 23-27 February where AT&T will be exhibiting and their subsequent activity marks a genuine reboot for ForHealth, putting Dr. Topol’s impressive abilities to work beyond a twinkle. AT&T press release, MedCityNews article

Telehealth is independent of broadband rollout – Australian DoH

February 5, 2014 | by

We reported in September last year (Telehealth and Broadband in Australia) that the cost of the National Broadband Network in Australia was being debated with telehealth being proposed as a potential[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Parliament-of-australia-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] justification. The Australian broadband rollout was very ambitious with fibre to the premises (FTTP), one of the costliest solutions, as the target. The Government has now lowered its sights and does not expect to connect all premises with FTTP.

Recently a series of questions were raised in the Australian Parliament on both the status of telehealth in Australia and the broadband programme and what impact, if any, the latter has on the first.  The written reply from the Australian Department of Health is not unexpected and enlightening. (more…)

“mHealth: smartphones as saviours?” webcast Thurs 6 Feb

February 5, 2014 | by

Taking place at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, this seminar will be livestreamed starting tomorrow at 3:30pm UK time (10:30am Eastern Time US). Watch it below or at this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVxgkE02V0  A recorded version will be available on Friday morning. (90 minutes)

This seminar is part of the Oxford Martin School Hilary Term seminar series: Blurring the lines: the changing dynamics between man and machine

Cheap, accessible and easy to use, mobile phones are everywhere. With the advent of the smartphone has come a new kind of healthcare – mHealth – in which mobiles are playing a key role in monitoring and improving the health of communities around the globe. Linking remote communities in developing countries with professional healthcare, mobile phones are helping break down long-standing barriers to accessing treatment. mHealth is also growing in developed countries, helping patients to monitor and manage their own health, and thereby reducing pressure on health services. According to the World Health Organisation the burden of deaths from non-communicable diseases will climb from 28 per cent in 2008 to 46 per cent by 2030. The George Institute for Global Health is investing in research into innovative new strategies for tackling the burden of chronic disease.

Speakers: Dr Fred Hersch, James Martin Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health, Oxford Martin School: Dr Gari Clifford, James Martin Fellow, The George Institute for Global Health, Oxford Martin School

Join in on twitter with #humantech

Hat tip to Sally Stewart, Communications and Media Officer of the Oxford Martin School.

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

Australia’s telehealth incentive programme nears end

February 4, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

A multi-million dollar financial incentive programme to encourage Australian clinicians to start telehealth [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GovAustelehealth.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]schemes is due to end in June. Launched as a four-year programme in July 2011, the Telehealth On-Board Incentive Programme was funded from a wider AU$620 million telehealth initiative, but the end of the programme was brought forward to June 2014.

The Medicare rebates and financial incentives for specialist video consultations were introduced to address some of the barriers to accessing medical services, particularly specialist services, for Australians in remote, regional and outer metropolitan areas. The Telehealth On-Board incentive was one of five financial incentives in the wider initiative and encouraged and supported the initial and ongoing provision of telehealth services to eligible patients by practitioners. (more…)

DARPA’s $45million program to mine health data

February 4, 2014 | by

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has just announced they are soliciting research proposals for a data mining/bioinformatics program to research the biology of cancer and signal pathways for cancer cells.

The anticipated budget for the “Big Mechanism” program is $45M over 42 months. The idea is to mine through worldwide scientific research on cancer, in order to find patterns within that mass of information which can be meaningfully interpreted. By the final 12 months of the project, mechanism developers should be able to identify targets for therapy based on their findings from the data.

The full text of the announcement tells us that although the domain of the Big Mechanisms program is cancer biology and systems biology, the goal of the program is to develop the capacity to integrate data/research more generally – more or less immediately – automatically or semi-automatically – into causal, explanatory models.

Read more: Military Times

BT’s plans for Cornwall and the UK: old news warmed up

February 3, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/blue-blazes.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Qualifying for TTA’s occasional What the Blue Blazes! spot: one has to wonder why last Friday, 31st January, Nick Renaud-Komiya in the paywalled Health Services Journal resurrected the ‘BT going to make Cornwall its UK telehealth base’ story. Although, actually, the item is all about Cornwall. Some of it is culled from an October 2013 BT press release which we did not bother our readers with. Why did we not? We thought it was old news even then, as putting ‘Cornwall’ into TTA’s search box on the right will reveal. However, anything posted in the HSJ will generate some interest and that’s just what it did with an approving mention in the sidebar of Roy Lilley’s influential newsletter today. It’s just a pity that HSJ’s readers will not see the whole context or be able to make any sensible assessment of the numbers quoted. They would fare better with this 2 October eHealthInsider article.

For TTA readers who want to read the HSJ item but who do not want to get their digital wallets out,it can be read unpaywalled on the Local Government Chronicle site: BT plans to make Cornwall its ‘telehealth hub’

Are you the SME that has developed the best eHealth solution in the past year? (EU)

February 3, 2014 | by

If so, be sure to register for this great competition quick, as the closing date for registration is February 6th.

The competition’s objective is to support business success of EU SMEs by giving them visibility together with marketing opportunities to attract customers, partners and external capital. There are two separate categories, each with their own three prizes: those will turnover of under €500k and those with turnover over €500k.

Good luck!

Three takes on adopting new technology

February 2, 2014 | by

Last week saw three very contrasting reports on technology adoption by care workers.  The first, by NESTA, was a fascinating read entitled Which doctors take up promising new ideas? New insights from open data. Unsurprisingly for those of us who have attempted to peddle new technology to GP practices, the key findings are that larger practices are more likely to be early adopters, and that early adopting practices tend to influence those close to them, resulting in islands of early adoption. (The first is not an inviolate rule I found – sure larger practices can specialise so can focus more on innovation, however a larger workforce can also mean a greater probability of a technophobe with a bee in their bonnet about a pet project that the technology is drawing funds from.)

The report is a great example of big data in action (more…)

Ohio Telehealth bill passed by Senate – goes to Governor

February 1, 2014 | by

HB 123, the Ohio health bill supporting telehealth, was passed unanimously by the Ohio state Senate on the 30th of January. [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ohio-State-Senate.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The bill has now made its way to  Governor John Kasich for signature and to become law.

This bill requires the Department of Medicaid to establish Medicaid payment standards for the provision of telehealth services offered by medical facilities.  The rules governing what telehealth services would be covered will be decided by the Medical Director following existing regulations. With the 30-0 vote in the Senate, Ohio now joins 45 other states in modernizing thier healthcare practices.

This bill and the three others in the US House of Representative which were reported earlier (Yet another House Bil on Telehealth, TTA Dec 20, 2013) shows a welcome growing awareness of telehealth by US legislators.

Coffee break articles

January 30, 2014 | by

Here’s a selection of articles  if you have a few idle minutes this coffee break in which to soak up some interesting views.

Emerging Niche: Telehealth from the American Occupational Therapy Association tells the story of what Jana Cason did when she took over an OT caseload which involved a 4-hour round trip.

Telecare handling 100,000 calls every six months from the Times of Malta gives a brief insight into telecare growth in Malta.

Telehealth trend rings in changes to care in The Tennessean debates the pros and cons of telehealth in pediatric care in the US

Do we know enough about telehealth to know it’ll work? from Total Politics is a fascinating debate by two British MPs and a Research Fellow from Nuffield Trust

Free telehealth distance learning sessions in Georgia (US)

January 30, 2014 | by

The Georgia Partnership for Telehealth is holding a series of distance learning sessions given by[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/classroom-of-empty-chairs1.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta on the first Tuesday of every month and the next one entitiled  “Concussions: the facts and controversy” by David Popoli, M.D. will be on the 4th of February. Unfortunately you still have to attend one of the 5 centers in Georgia (more centers are promised if the demand grows) so this is really limited to Georgians!

To register visit the registration website.

The next two will be:

March 4 – Obesity Prevention/Raising Healthy Eaters, presented by Lisa Giles, M.S., R.D., L.D., C.D.E.

April 1 – Diagnosing Type 2 Diabetes and Pre-diabetes in Children: Pearls and Pitfalls, presented by Nina Ham, M.D.