…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)
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
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.
Counting the hits in a helmet with nano-enabled foam
Cushioning blows to the head, whether in football, soccer (football ex USA), hockey, cycling and in combat, is something that present helmets don’t do terribly well, if worn at all–thus the prevalence of concussions not being diagnosed properly, or the cumulative sub-concussive blows that may result in CTE. A Brigham Young University (Utah) team has developed a helmet with what they dub ‘ExoNanoFoam’ in contact with the player’s head. The foam is piezoelectric–when there is pressure on the foam, it produces an electrical voltage. (more…)
Depressed? A woman? There’s an app for that.
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/T47screen-166×300.png” thumb_width=”130″ /]A new app still under development, Thrive 4-7 (the 7 is the seven dimensions of health) is meant to be used as a supplement to traditional therapy (and presumably medication). The app ‘thrives’ on constant interaction and uses gamification (!), behavioral psychology and influential design to modify the user’s behavior, for instance by sending special messages at times of daily stress. The developers want to connect the app with wearables and peer support groups as well. However, the time of their in-market–best case scenario is a debut at the end of 2014– is dependent on FDA clearance if it’s required–yet to be determined. The business plans, depending on this, may be direct to consumer or sold through health plans, hospitals and employer groups. The therapist you sleep with (MedCityNews) does seem like encouraging an unhealthy behavior, though.
Telecare for monitoring temperature, power outage (UK/EU)
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Envirotxt-plugging-in-1-small.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]With winter very near, and the UK already having a bout of wild weather, something necessary to know but often overlooked until there’s a problem for carers is if the heat or power is on in an older or disabled person’s home. Thus a press release sent to Founder Steve got this Editor’s attention. This simple plug-in device, Envirotxt, detects whether the temperature falls below a set low or high temperature, rises suddenly (possible fire) or the power is out. It then alerts via one of three pre-set text messages sent via GSM to a mobile phone of your choice (family member, local authority). The cost is a little high (£99) but there does not appear to be any additional monthly subscription cost. South Derbyshire-based Tekview has several similar devices for both UK and EU users (Envirotxt appears to be UK only at present; they do not have US-suitable versions). For larger installations they have management software with some enhanced features. Worth looking into for your local authority or simply for your personal use. Website page. Press release. Video. If you know of or have used similar notification devices, please add them in Comments.
The train, plane and car wreck that is Healthcare.gov and Obamacare
If the ACA and Healthcare.gov were Boeing or Airbus aircraft–they would have been grounded on 3 October.
Wherever you reside in the over 150 countries TTA is read in, if you need more convincing that the US Government is unable to be successful (and Editor Donna is being restrained and charitable) at 99 percent of everything contained in this misbegotten Act, all one needs to do is read our previous coverage and this latest update in the Daily Mail along with their links to their own previous coverage. Are you sure it’s going to be fixed within weeks, Mr. President? This is Obamacare website riddled with garbled messages today
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/article-2491576-1943076800000578-829_634x378.jpg” thumb_width=”600″ /]
Except in the minds of White House and HHS planners, the obvious solution would be to STOP: halt the enrollment process, suspend the ACA implementation, restore the right to current coverage for the millions who have been blocked from renewing their current individual coverage and take the entire website down. Rethink all the elements including the coverage structure and the website, send it back to Congress for relegislating and implement a program that works sometime in 2015 IF a way can be found. But no, Americans get piecemeal fixes on a website and system that increase the vulnerability of personal information to hackers and identity theft–and coverage they cannot afford. (And this is only in the individual and small group market. Wait till it applies to large employers–other than unions which have been exempted.) (more…)
The lack of evidence in health IT and patient engagement
In health economist/consultant Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s lengthy analysis of the IMS Research report, Patient Apps for Improved Healthcare: From Novelty to Mainstream, ‘mainstream’ does not necessarily mean that apps deliver value–in health outcomes, health support or behavior change–which is why doctors have largely ignored them. For the 43,000+ ‘health apps’ so categorized in the Apple iTunes store, only 23,000 met IMS’ criteria of a ‘genuine health app.’ Few apps manage chronic disease for the highest health spenders or assist seniors, amazingly 5 apps =15 percent of all downloads with most apps having less than 500 downloads. Most apps provide information only and only 20 percent capture/track user data. Not dissimilar to the Manhattan Research smartphone study [TTA 30 Oct], the bulk of apps address behavioral health, eyes and hearing, endocrine and nutrition, heart/circulatory, musculoskeletal, and cancer. In IMS’ view, (more…)
WebMD’s Avado acquisition and meaning (US)
Early-stage company Avado’s acquisition by content Goliath WebMD has rocked the small world of New York health tech, with both companies being located (or co-located) here. First is the acquisition price estimated by TechCrunch in the $20-30 million range. Co-founded by Dave Chase (whose Forbes articles we’ve occasionally commented on here), Avado developed its patient portal PRM (Patient Relationship Management) system, including direct messaging and the highly touted Blue Button, on relatively limited funding with a $1 million raise in March plus an earlier $300,000 from New York Digital Health Accelerator in addition to angel funding. Second, for WebMD, it is their first foray into anything that bridges from the patient to their physicians for messaging, reminders, and appointment scheduling. (more…)
10 sensor-based telehealth companies
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/biostamp.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Our First 10 For Friday is what is termed a ‘sensor technology renaissance’ in telehealth, mostly tied to that sensor-equipped device called a smartphone. The ten companies profiled in Bionic.ly, including an ingestible, are:
Sano Intelligence–wearable patch sensor transmitting blood chemistry data such as glucose and potassium
Zephyr Technology–performance shirts in partnership with UnderArmour [TTA 25 Mar]
Cardiio–developed by the MIT Media Lab, it uses changes in skin tone read by an iPhone to measure resting heart rate [TTA 21 Mar]
MC10 (picture left/above)–the Biostamp elastic sensor and sensors used by combat soldiers to measure hydration, temperature, impact and other body indicators [TTA 22 Feb] (more…)
Top 10 technology hazards–what pertains to telehealth?
Our Second 10 For Friday comes from ECRI Institute, a non-profit which applies evidence-based research to improve patient care, has issued its annual Top 10 Healthcare Technology Hazards. Compiled from hospital reports, the FDA device experience database and ECRI’s proprietary database of incidents and testing, the most pertinent to telehealth out of the 10 are:
1. Alarm hazards–real alerts go unattended due to caregivers being overwhelmed, distracted or desensitized.
4. Data integrity failures in EHRs and other health IT systems–patient/data association errors, missing data or delayed data delivery, clock synchronization errors and more
7. Neglecting change management for network devices and systems–the “underappreciated consequence of updates, upgrades or modifications made to one device or system have on other connected devices or systems”
8. Risks to pediatric patients from “adult” technologies–mixups within EHRs, conversions from kilograms to pounds, even height and weight being recorded on different EHR screens.
‘Personalized medicine’ targets psychiatric drugs
A genetic test to help determine the efficacy of psychiatric medications for several diagnoses is under development by Cincinnati Ohio-based Assurex Health. Using a DNA analysis on a cheek swab sample, Assurex’s tests analyze a panel of genes in the cytochrome P450 family that are involved in drug metabolism. This information is then used to create a report that optimizes drugs for that diagnosis using a red/yellow/green code. Under development for seven years, the pharmacogenetic testing analyzes drugs for depression, anxiety, ADHD, chronic pain, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Assurex has also published a series of clinical trials conducted with the Mayo Clinic. It seems obvious that assessment beats the usual patient trial-and-error, but like most startups in the healthcare field, they are still trying to figure out the major reimbursement questions–who pays and how much. And somewhere there’s a digital health spin to this….MedCityNews
EU Accessibility Legislation: boring but very important
According to the EC Workplan for 2014, item 21 is the European Accessibility Act.
“The initiative will improve the market of goods and services that are accessible for persons with disabilities and elderly persons, based on a “design for all” approach. This business friendly initiative will include binding measures to promote procurement and harmonisation of accessibility standards. The initiative is currently in a consultation process with industry and stakeholders.”
One such consultation covers electronic equipment. It is being managed by the organisation with the acronym BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications). A workshop was led on 15/10/13 – details are here. There has been word of a further more significant meeting involving the EC in early December. (Note that leading the consultation are DG Enterprise and DG Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship (not DG Connect)).
Why are we flagging this up? Well there seems little evidence to date of much engagement from the eHealth and telemedicine-related activities in the UK, so this is a call to appropriate readers to get engaged with BEREC, before decisions are taken that without appropriate UK involvement.
TSA Crystal Awards shortlist announced
The Telecare Services Association announced its Crystal Awards nominees which recognize excellence across technology enabled services and creative technology development.
Most creative application of technology including telecare, telehealth, telecoaching
STAY (Sandwell Telecare Assisting You) and Red Embedded Systems Ltd
Contour Homes
The Medvivo Group
Enhancing lives through technology enabled services
The Medvivo Group
Peninsula Community Health
Stafford and Rural Homes
Professional of the Year
Bristol Careline
Stafford and Rural Homes
Contour Homes
This Editor notes that Medvivo, Contour Homes and Stafford and Rural Homes are nominated in two out of three categories, which if we were betting on the Academy Awards® would perhaps cancel each other out. Winners to be announced at the International Telecare and Telehealth Conference’s Gala Dinner on 12 November 2013. Release.
IET Annual Healthcare Awards and Lecture
The IET is kindly offering places at the above to all TTA readers. The event is happening in London on the 21st November 2013. Mr Douglas Anderson OBE FRSE FRSA, Founder and VP of Global Advocacy, Optos Plc is the keynote speaker for the event, and his talk will focus on that company. Optos’s ultra-widefield retinal imaging system products are apparently the world’s first capable of detecting a large range of sight and life threatening diseases. The talk will also discuss wider issues of technology development and the need to keep focused on the inherent value proposition.
Book here.
Rural Health Conference – more good news
The Dispensing Doctors’ Association (DDA) has kindly just drawn our attention to the Rural Health conference which took place last month. The presentations include three extremely positive ones extolling the benefits of health technology implementations.
Perhaps just the most impressive on paper (it’s a very difficult choice) is (more…)
Most Recent Comments