Wearables are developing into the next big thing in the health tech/monitoring area, and developing beyond the bracelet form factor represented by Jawbone UP, Fitbit and Nike Fuelband. Misfit Shine of course has been touted as the major future player, but has experienced a few bumps on the road to Damascus, taking a technically-caused delay to their bracelet/pendant sensor debut now mid-July and not being compatible with Android [TTA 30 May]. But they have also entered the clothing fray with a trademark filing, according to Mobihealthnews. This article also spotlights wearables makers Zephyr, OMsignal (compression shirts); Heapsylon Sensoria socks. This Editor will be seeing and reviewing wearables such as Basis at CEWeek’s FashionWare, sponsored by Living in Digital Times, next week. Disclosure: TTA is a media partner of the Digital Health Summit, also produced by Living in Digital Times.
Button TrackR: Object and people finding with an added extra
There are a number of small phone app-based tracking devices in development but stick-on Button TrackR has an extra something. The phones of other people running the app can pick up the signal and flag the location to a server if the object (or person) is out of range of the owner’s device. The developers’ modest crowdfunding target of $15,000 has been wildly exceeded. It’s publicity that money can’t buy. Button TrackR adds crowd sourced tracking to search for lost objects (Gizmag)
Health 2.0 MatchPoint|East
New York City, NY Times Building, Tuesday 25 June
Also for the NY metro area on the day before the main CEWeek activities is Health 2.0’s MatchPoint|East, a half-day conference with speakers and workshops led by health tech innovators. Topics range from funding (angel, accelerator, crowdfunding), building your IP portfolio and partnerships/collaborations. Agenda here and registration here (a very reasonable $49.00 including closing reception.) This Editor will be attending and reporting. Follow Twitter on @health2con.
mHealth reality: Complicated (Uganda)
Do we detect a slight air of surprise in the comment of Pia Rafller, one of the authors of a report by Yale University’s department of Political Science that “The findings do show that the reality is more complicated than at times we like to think, that information can have a different impact on different types of people”? The report was on an mHealth project designed by Google and the Grameen Foundation’s AppLab which allowed users in 60 central Ugandan villages to text questions on sexual and reproductive health to a server and receive pre-prepared responses from a database. The expectation was that the information would lead to a reduction of risky behaviour but it had some unintended consequences… Ugandan mHealth initiative increases ‘promiscuity’ IRIN Africa.
Semi-related item: Let’s hope that Orange Botswana takes note of the Ugandan experience: Orange Roll Out Telemedicine
Digital Health Summit @ CEWeek adds speakers
If you are in the New York area or can get there on 26 June, you should be attending the Digital Health Summit at CEWeek. There is a definite ‘made in NY’ focus with local healthcare technology companies increasingly being backed by investors [TTA 14 May MIT Forum conference report]. Topics include ‘five technologies we’re betting your health on’, sports and fitness devices and apps, sensors in a wide variety of clothing and other applications, and pharma in the age of digital. Companies include Aetna/Healthagen, Etymotic (quiet sound amplification), Medivizor (personalized e-patient content), SecuraTrac (mPERS), GreatCall and Qardio (vital signs sensors). This Editor will be attending CEWeek exhibits and events, including the DHS, next week; watch this space for a report. For more information, click the sidebar advert.
Disclosure: TTA is a media partner of the Digital Health Summit.
Supra goes Wonka – update (UK)
UPDATE 20 June 2013: SupraUK has announced that Surrey Heath Borough Council has found the first of the eight Golden Keys in the 18th Birthday Competition (details below). Now they have to start planning a community project to fund.
ORIGINAL posted 12 June: To celebrate its 18th birthday, UK key safe supplier SupraUK is running a Willy Wonka theme-based competition. Eight of its customers will find a golden key in a delivery. Those eight can propose £18,000 projects to improve their community. Once all eight proposals are in, the public will vote for the project that they think deserves the £18,000. The winner will be the project with the most public votes and will be announced at a Willy Wonka themed birthday celebration in November. Sounds like a ‘win, win, win’ to us! Competition website, main SupraUK site.
Staying up at night with telemedicine (and telehealth)
Our readers have many things which keep them up at night, including that extra taco, but René Quashie of leading healthcare/life sciences law firm Epstein Becker Green adds a few more to the list. While muddling telemedicine (remote consults) with telehealth (vital signs tracking and monitoring), he outlines the legal pitfalls (and consequences) that both are facing: non-compliance with state prescribing and licensure laws (physical examination requirements); lack of highly developed protocols and guidelines (liability exposure); lack of greater coverage and reimbursement by payers (low credibility=low/no pay); HIPAA compliance in privacy and security (lack of protection against unauthorized data access). However, how many of these have already experienced accomodation by state regulators, or have started to modify to follow regulations? Awake yet? This is only Part 1. Things That Should Keep the Telehealth Community Awake at Night (Part 1) (TechHealth Perspectives/EBG blog) Hat tip to reader Ellen Fink-Samnick of Ellen’s Ethical Lens.
VA networks breached from overseas; 20 million records affected (US)
Department of Veterans Affairs IT systems have been breached since 2010 by eight ‘nation-state-sponsored organizations’, affecting records of 20 million veterans, according to recent testimony in hearings held earlier this month by the House Veterans Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. While the normal ‘hack’ is due to theft or an inside job for financial gain, these likely have a far more sinister nature. According to former VA Chief Information Security Officer Jerry Davis (now at NASA), the attacks continue from these countries, and according to Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Coffman, may include China and Russia. Testimony and evidence also revealed that those responsible for informing Secretary Shinseki may have understated the problem. The VA has certainly been taking its lumps with a Magic 8 Ball of late, with a derailed joint EHR project with the Department of Defense and wrangling on who’s leading integration [TTA 3 April; iHealthBeat]. VA Systems Hacked From Abroad, Was VA Secretary Misled About Breaches? (HealthcareInfoSecurity)
Patient non-compliance=toxic healthcare system?
Updated 20 June
A decidely contrarian view. Medication and treatment non-compliance is listed as one of the top ‘evils’ that patients inflict on the system which negatively affect outcomes and increase health costs. The doctor/hospital/insurance company laments, Why don’t they do what we tell them to do, exactly? Can’t we punish the patient for this? But what if non-compliance indicates a bigger problem to be solved in the system, comparable to a canary’s silence in the mine when toxic gases are present? Maybe it’s because clinicians don’t take the time to understand the patient’s life and how to fit the treatment. Victor Montori, MD of the Mayo Clinic, at MedCityNews’ ENGAGE conference last week pointed out that patient non-engagement can point to the following:
- The treatment isn’t right for that patient to begin with, and asking him to do more of it is only going to make matters worse.
- The medication and patient options aren’t adequately explained prior to the protocol starting or the prescription–after going home and reading the side effects of the drug, or talking to a friend, the patient opts out. Or the patient doesn’t understand or trust the drug, protocol or doctor.
- The burden of treatment or change is too much (temporarily or permanently) to handle for the sick patient (e.g. additional monitoring, diet)
To Dr. Montori, the best health system is not a ubiquitous, authoritarian one permeating every facet of life, but one that actually shrinks in size, makes it easier for the patient to follow treatment, focuses on treatments that reasonably match a patient’s lifestyle so that the person is ‘able to fully play the role he plays in his life’–in other words, meets the patient ‘job to be done.’ Mayo doc: Stop blaming patients. Healthcare industry’s take on non-compliance is all wrong (MedCityNews) Video excerpt 01:50.
Update 20 June: Full video of Dr. Montori’s talk via YouTube, Patient Centered Care–The Right Thing to Do Right (29:03)
Previously in TTA: Type 1 diabetes self-monitoring as a perpetual Battle of Stalingrad in The diabetic experience: the fly in the Quantified Selfing ointment.
The ultimate in Quantified Selfing?
The Quantified Brain may be the ne plus ultra of QSing. Only a neuroscientist on a Mission from God (and a really good insurance plan) would be getting twice-weekly MRIs and weekly blood tests for hormonal and gene activity levels. Russell Poldrack’s year-long self-study is to correlate his diet and moods, mental state and outdoor time with the scans and blood testing to capture the fluctuations in brain activity and networking–and his physical state. Example: his psoriasis flareups with increases in stress and changes in gene activity. Finally a bit of QSing that doesn’t have a hint of the faddish about it. The Quantified Brain of a Self-Tracking Neuroscientist (MIT Technology Review)
Health tech used more by urban affluent (US)
A report by the US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration confirms what most of us already have assumed–that telemedicine and telehealth’s early adopters are both urban (8 percent versus 4 percent rural) and with household income above $100,000 (11 percent versus 4 percent with $25,000 or less income). The usage sampled in the study of 53,000 households in July 2011 looked at the 7 percent who go online (via PC or increasingly smartphone) to access medical records, engage in video conferencing with a health care provider (telemedicine) or participate in remote procedures, such as heart rate monitoring (telehealth). Ethnic differences are not great but notable: “Asian-American internet users were significantly more likely to use telemedicine than other ethnics groups, but the differences between whites, blacks and Hispanics is minimal, with white utilization at 7 percent and black and Hispanic participation at 6 percent.” iHealthBeat, Clinical Innovation + Technology overviews; USDOC study (PDF)
MyHomeHelper up for an award (UK)
MyHomeHelper, a product for dementia clients to stay independent in their own homes, beat off competition from over 200 nominations to become one of three products selected as a finalist at this year’s Technology4Good awards. They are up against some big companies such as Barclays Bank and would appreciate votes for them on that page and, as tweets count in addition, they are also hoping for tweets about them using hashtag: #T4GMyHomeHelper.
New book: Technologies for Active Aging
“Technologies for Active Aging offers novel answers to a range of aging issues, from safety and mobility to cognition and continence. Written for the non-technical reader, the book examines the potential of information and communicative technologies such as pervasive computing, smart environments, and robotics to enhance seniors’ quality of life and encourage independent living, better care and self-care, and social participation.” We can’t give a recommendation as we have not read it, but it is edited by two respected people in the field: Andrew Sixsmith of Simon Fraser University, and Gloria Gutman of the Gerontology Research Centre, both based in Vancouver. Technologies for Active Aging (PDF flyer). US Amazon link. UK Amazon link.
UK Community Led Care Conference – TTA reader discount
24 September 2013, Manchester, UK
We were just about to give you, Dear Reader, a heads-up on the Community Led Care – Meeting Needs Closer to Home conference when the organisers came through with a £45 public sector members discount, especially for you. The conference will cover:
- Changing the ‘default setting’ for Healthcare Delivery
- The Challenges of Providing a Truly Integrated Community Health Service
- The Role Technology can play in Supporting Care in the Community
Click here for full details. To receive the Telehealth and Telecare Aware discount, enter TELEPUB in the appropriate box when registering online or mention it if booking by phone: +44 (0)161 831 7111 (Ask for Christopher Sheridan on ext 282)
Piezo-resistive fibers for continuous BP monitoring?
Switzerland-based company STBL Medical Research AG has developed a new ‘blood pressure watch’ that relies on a wristband made from piezo-resistive fibres. These fibres measure the contact pressure of the device on the skin to overcome the problem of the device slipping on the wrist or muscle tension that can affect the measurements. The device is currently undergoing clinical trials. Piezo-resistive fibers enable “blood pressure watch” with continuous monitoring Gizmag – note the comments too.
Stimulating whole system redesign: Organizational lessons from the WSD (UK)
The seventh of 15 expected academic papers arising from the study of the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) programme has just been published in the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy. The big takeaway is that local ‘ownership’ of new services DID lead to more collaborative practices across the care system BUT that the concept of whole system redesign around remote care is currently unrealistic. With headings such as ‘Misalignment between vision and enactment’, ‘Wider barriers’ and ‘Whole system working: Ambiguity and diversity’ one can see that the underlying analysis is more nuanced than the main conclusion might suggest. Stimulating whole system redesign: Lessons from an organizational analysis of the Whole System Demonstrator programme by Theopisti Chrysanthaki1, Jane Hendy and James Barlow, all of Imperial College, London is also available as a free 10-page PDF download.
A complete list of the WSD papers, updated as they are published, is being maintained here by Mike Clark, to whom thanks for the heads-up on this publication.
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