Philips and Accenture announced their test of a proof of concept which seamlessly transfers Philips’ IntelliVue patient monitoring data into a Google Glass display. The test is on how a surgeon could simultaneously view vital signs data while performing surgery and not having to turn away. In addition, the surgeon could consult with doctors in other locations in real time. Ready of course is a glossy YouTube video simulation (02:57). For the trend-spotters, (more…)
KeepUs–smartphone-based senior activity monitoring and telecare
KeepUs is a new, free app developed in the UK that when installed on an older person’s or a child’s Android smartphone, allows a family member to monitor that person’s both indoor and outdoor activity. Using geolocation, the family member can see that person’s visits (locations can be labeled), level of activity on any given day, alerts (being idle for too long), how much time was spent at each named location over the past two weeks (if Uncle Ted is spending three hours every day at the pub), and trends over two months. It requires no action from the person being tracked other than to carry the smartphone (certainly less obtrusive than a bulky non-removable watch). The family member/carer installs the app on both phones and controls permissions to view the other person’s activity. The app is in beta, free for individual use in the UK. (more…)
Designing housing for the cognitively impaired–where’s the telecare?
Steve Moran’s Senior Housing Forum is hosting a lively discussion on designing communities for what this Editor would term the cognitively impaired, euphemistically called ‘memory care’ here in the States, then often bluntly categorized as dementia care. This concentrates on one CEO’s journey in designing a new memory care community, The Cottages at Cedar Run (Wisconsin) and how he utilized ideas developed in the US (Eden Alternative, Green Houses — Bill Thomas’ work, TTA 30 July) as well as the Dutch Dementia Village [TA 22 Dec 12] The architect’s video still strikes this Editor as full of nice touches (the courtyard a la the Dutch, but not as spacious or a center of activity; the padded window seats) but still institutional feeling (the cottages have a nice look but need more individualization to aid resident identification; how a resident/family can personalize the cottage); all in the right direction. The comments expand upon many points, but what is really missing here is the integration of technology— (more…)
ABI Research surveys…telecare
It is refreshing to note a commercial research study that concentrates on straightforward home monitoring for the senior care market, a segment that doesn’t get the cocktail party chatter or anything resembling buzz. ABI Research looks at eight home monitoring companies–BeClose, Care Innovations, GrandCare Systems, Healthsense, independa, Philips, pomDevices (Sonamba) and Tunstall Healthcare–and judges them on several analyses. On the Competitive Assessment, measuring product innovation as well as implementation, the three leaders were (in rank order) Healthsense, pomdevices (Sonamba), and GrandCare Systems. Both Healthsense and GrandCare are prominent ‘grizzled pioneers’ evolving their model considerably over the years; Sonamba is a tablet-based relative newcomer so low profile that we haven’t heard about them since their 2011 debut at CES. Whither Philips and Tunstall? (more…)
Two health app directories/curation sites debut, contrastingly
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CignaGOYOU_Judging_720x426.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Health app curation and directory listing is becoming a popular space with Cigna’s GoYou Marketplace, launched at Health 2.0 this week, and start-up MobileHealthMarketplace.com. Cigna’s move is clearly designed to counter Aetna’s CarePass, which is a more broadly centered consumer platform [TTA 12 July]. GoYou will include not only health monitoring/wellness apps but also lifestyle/money management with a strong social (rating/sharing) overlay. Developed with SocialWellth, the latter’s Las Vegas location must account for the blindingly bright, about-as-far-as-you-can-get-from-insurance graphics (despite the Cigna logo), to the point where the approach becomes New Age kitschy: “We want to inspire you to be (more…)
Box-ing up interoperability and file sharing
File storage and sharing platform Box.com announced thirteen additional partners for its healthcare platform, joining the group of ten announced in the spring. If you use Box.com for document storage and sharing (this Editor uses it for portfolio and collaborative space), their foray into healthcare may come as a surprise. What the partners are on board for is to facilitate storage/sharing in four major areas: clinical documentation, care coordination, interoperability and access to care. The latest on board include NYC-based Medikly (pharma digital marketing to physicians), Grand Rounds (second opinion/referral) and CareCloud EHR. Box releases 2 October, 25 April.
The long-term care revolution: two papers
Written for the Technology Strategy Board and published by the Housing Learning & Improvement Network, the purpose of the main study is to “outline the case for a revolution in long term care all to be set in a time scale of 2012, 2020 and 2050. This includes evidence about the views of older people and their carers in the UK, lessons from abroad and the implications for industry/providers.” It is written as a ‘study of studies’ on a broadly-scoped problem; it focuses considerably on issues such as care provision, housing (including co-housing and communities) and putting the older person in more control of decisions, housing and tech design. Telehealth and telecare, while not the focus, have a hefty section (pages 32-41) but their conclusions will not be a huge surprise to our readers such as expanding inexpensive, simple assistive technologies, the need for more research and better design. The fact it is comparative is extremely helpful for those who want to see beyond borders, and there is a large section on ethical issues which is certainly unusual in studies of this type. We thank the lead author, Professor Anthea Tinker, Institute of Gerontology, Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London, for providing information on and the PDFs of the studies. Assisted Living Platform – The Long Term Care Revolution and A study of innovatory models to support older people with disabilities in the Netherlands
Bosch Update (UK)
Further to our previous post on the topic, we have now heard from Bill Broderick, Acting Divisional Head of Bosch Healthcare in the UK, clarifying Bosch’s position re the UK market:
1. Bosch Healthcare is not exiting the UK market. Telecare is business as usual and we will continue to sell our entire line of telecare products in the foreseeable future. We have placed all new telehealth activities on hold for now as we spend the next few months re-evaluating the business strategy based on current market dynamics in the UK.
2. We are not exiting the Health Buddy device business. We will continue to offer Health Buddys to patients who need them. The Remedy partnership press release announced an expansion of our patient interface portfolio to more mobile and internet-based solutions, not a replacement of existing Health Buddy devices.
Telehealth & IP Soapbox: Hacking through Patent Thickets
Not only do company founders have to deal with patent trolls, but find their way through patent thickets. Patent thickets are overlapping patent rights through which developers must find a safe, defensible space for their technology. This article introduces this concept to our readers and outlines a strategy to deal with it–in early days, and not sticking one’s head in the sand as this Editor has encountered. What may surprise you in reading this excellent article is that the author, Dolly J. Krishnaswamy, is not an experienced litigator, but a law student at NYU while working as a Project Manager/Law Clerk, Goldstein Patent Law. She blends law, science, tech and journalism with her prior experience as a journalist for Science magazine, technology work in New York City and in the study of genetics while at Emory University. Enjoy the article.
Many of you are privy to the problem of excessive patents. You have all seen the articles about yet another cellphone company infringing on yet another patent, but what you’re left with are questions of what all this activity means and how to use that information to act in your best interest– whether you are the CEO of a company or the general counsel for one. At the 2013 ABA Annual Meeting held in San Francisco, legal experts tackled this problem, discussing the trends in patent litigation and some potential strategies for companies preparing to introduce products into heavily-patented market segments.
Generally speaking the use of patents can vary with some people using them for insurance and others using them strategically. From a business standpoint, how a company uses a patent depends on the industry that company is in. For example, in the medical technologies space, all the companies will have patents on their core technologies and be highly cognizant of the patents they have to deal with. With the record number of high patent filings, the continued state of high damages, and the fact that even smaller companies are beginning to see patent infringement lawsuits, it’s clear that patent strategy is a complex matter– further complicated by the presence of patent thickets. (more…)
US government takes a pause, medical device tax repeal effort does not
The partial shutdown (except essential services) of the Federal Government due to the missed budget deadline will mean some suspension of services and furloughed people (with the far more important debt limit/default deadline looming in mid-October)–but no year long postponement of the unready-for-prime time Affordable Care Act (ACA). What is surprising is the bi-partisan support, separate from the budget wrangle, for eliminating the medical device excise tax, (more…)
Breathing monitoring, Google Glassing, AngelListing at Rock Health’s Demo Day
The Rock Health accelerator premiered its fifth class of startup/early stage companies last week. The most interesting are the assistive technologies developed by Lift Labs in devices for everyday use–a spoon that counteracts the effect of active tremors; the Spire clip-on breathing monitoring device that takes an additional step into biofeedback and stress management (the similar BreathResearch was in TTA 24 Sept); the Google Glass-powered Augmedix service for doctors that serves up patient information during exams; ThriveOn which creates an on-demand 8-12 week custom-built programs for mental health issues. Rock Health also announced its alliance with AngelList (more…)
Health IT serving population health
From the iHT2 Health IT Summit this Editor attended two weeks ago is this presentation by Jonathan Weiner, DrPH, Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Director of the Center for Population Health IT (CPHIT), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland. Telehealth is (or should be) implicit in the data feedback loop outlined in slide 3; in the population health assessment and performance loop on slide 5; the ‘digital health milieu’ on slide 9.
Harnessing EHRs and Health IT to Achieve Population Health Interview with Dr. Weiner
Another diagnostic for Alzheimers with impact on telehealth gains $2MM funding
Will a market of hundreds of millions be able to access these needed technologies?
Neurotrack, a computer-based cognitive program designed to pick up changes three to six years in advance of an official diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia, gained Series A funding led by Founders’ Fund (Peter Thiel) and joined by Social+Capital Partnership plus several angel investors. Developed initially at Emory University with the technology part of a five year National Institutes of Health (NIH) study, it tests subjects on preference for repeat images versus novel images; a preference for repeat images may indicate a disturbance in the hippocampus area of the brain in completely asymptomatic subjects. However, you will not find it at a doctor’s office or a pharmacy kiosk near you soon. Its initial use will be in clinical trials for pharma companies developing drugs targeting early-stage dementias. The meaning for telehealth and telecare (more…)
ITS 2013/UIST 2013
University of St Andrews, St Andrews UK 6-11 October 2013
Both ITS 2013 (The ACM Symposium on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces 2013, 6-9 October) and UIST 2013 (the 26th ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, 8-11 October) will be co-locating at the University of St Andrews. Worked into the presentations–demos and papers– of new and emerging tabletop and interactive surface technologies is healthcare content; demos at ITS such as The SimMed Experience: Medical Education on Interactive Tabletops and The fun.tast.tisch. Project – Interactive Tabletops in Neuro-Rehabilitation. (more…)
Telecare Soapbox: Predicting the telequake
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/earthquake.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Predicting earthquakes is notoriously unreliable but TTA’s ex-Editor in Chief Steve Hards says that one is on its way for the telecare and telehealth industry.
Earthquakes are hard to predict because, depending on the local geology and where you are in relation to the future epicentre, they vary in speed, intensity and effect. However, there are four generally recognised stages:
- a long period of between quakes when straining deep beneath the surface that goes unnoticed
- a build up of intense pressure along the fault which may be noticed as slippage
- the release of the pressure which causes the well-known effects of tremors, liquefaction and damage as the two sides of the fault realign
- the new resting position of the land each side of the fault
O2 and Bosch realising that systems which do not use smartphone-based technology are now dead in the water and therefore exiting from the UK telecare market was not the quake; they are just signs of stage two slippage. We will see more strains and cracks appear (more…)
Some ‘Lively’ness in telecare with $4.8 million in funding
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lively.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Our April profile of Lively (or Live!y)’s telecare system for monitoring ADLs in private homes ended with their (imminent, then actual) failure to acquire $100,000 in Kickstarter funding. Last week, they announced a reversal of fortune, with $4.8 million in Series A VC financing from Cambia Health Solutions including a contribution from their seed investor Maveron. Our earlier article discussed their setup, pricing, (more…)
Most Recent Comments