Not quite what you might think from the FierceHealthIT article, but worth considering. The study of ‘telehealth’ is from a research team from the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil (UFPE) who developed a continuing education program for clinical staff in the Family Health Teams in Pernambuco, and does not involve telehealth monitoring of patients. (Some background: the FHTs were established in 1994 to promote primary care in Brazil. Conventional on-site clinical education is difficult due to the dispersed nature of the care teams–and web connectivity is still an issue.) The CE was delivered to 21 professionals in 11 web conferences followed up with electronic patient evaluation forms. In the monitored patient group (N~500) with hypertension, compliance with antihypertensive drugs, low salt diet, and physical activity was increased moderately. A novel study on the effects of influencing professionals by education delivered online, in developing countries where this is not commonplace. Fortunately available online in full text: A Telehealth Strategy for Increasing Adherence in the Treatment of Hypertension in Primary Care (Telemedicine and e-Health, Mary Ann Liebert Publishing, April 2013)
Tablets for mental stimulation, concussion detection
Clevermind for dementia, cognitively disabled
The new Clevermind app/user interface for iPad is designed to simplify the internet for active use by those with Alzheimer’s disease, dementias or others who are cognitively impaired for a variety of reasons. According to founder Glenn Palumbo in an interview with Neil Versel, “The initial release, set for June will have limited functionality, serving as the front end for communication and social hubs like Skype, Facebook and Twitter, with a simplified display including a basic Web browser.” Depending on the stage that the dementia is in, it can be a boon in mental stimulation or as their website terms ‘neuroplasticity’, if presented appropriately–or, based on your Editor’s knowledge of working with dementia sufferers, potentially quite upsetting. The secondary markets that Mr. Palumbo mentioned, stroke patients and children with disabilities, may be more favorable. Clevermind is on Kickstarter with an initial goal of $10,000 but has raised a low $1,717 with 23 days to go. (Hint: try a healthcare- oriented crowdfunding site like Medstartr or Health Tech Hatch for your next round.)
GeriJoy’s ‘virtual pet’ to engage older adults
Another iPad and Android tablet app, GeriJoy, uses the interface of a virtual pet to respond to the user both by voice and touch to lessen isolation, loneliness and increase connectivity to loved ones and friends. Another asset of these tablets is that they have two-way capability, and that active monitoring can help an older person in a bad situation. From the release: (Co-founder Victor) “Wang describes how a customer adopted a GeriJoy Companion for her elderly father, who lives alone. One day, the companion woke up to a loud sound, and heard a paid caregiver screaming at the elder. GeriJoy reported the abuse to the customer, who was very grateful and replaced the caregiver that week.”
Sideline and ringside voice testing for concussion
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have developed a tablet-based test that can detect injury through before-and-after voice analysis. For instance, an athlete recites a series of words before a game, recorded on a tablet. If there’s a suspected concussion or brain injury, the same words are used and software compares differences. Injury indicators can be pitch, hyper nasality, distorted vowels and imprecise consonants–and the tests are far more difficult to fake. In action in this video, the tests also appear to include spatial and balance. Associate Professor Christian Poellabauer describes the research below using Notre Dame’s boxing teams.
[This video is no longer available on this site but may be findable via an internet search]
Wearable alert: DARPA’s tinier-than-a-penny nav device
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/timu.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Misfit, UnderArmour, Fraunhofer Institute, Samsung, Apple, GuideMeHome and even Avery Dennison, listen up: the US Department of Defense via DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a/k/a the Internet’s real dad) researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a timing and inertial measurement unit (TIMU) that monitors motion, acceleration, time and positioning–without GPS. This navigation chip packs internal clocks, gyroscopes and accelerometers into 10 cubic millimeters fitting quite comfortably in the center of a US penny. Defense usage is backup for military devices in case of malfunctioning/unavailable GPS. In the civilian market, the easy one is wearables particularly for safety (e.g. gait detection, falling)–but the other is backup to in-car and cell phone systems dependent on GPS which, if knocked out, can present inconvenience to hazard. Extreme Miniaturization…. (DARPA.mil) PopSci’s once-over-lightly.
Google Glass and healthcare: VCs agree
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Much to The Gimlet Eye’s consternation, Google Glass is getting the healthcare rush: big-time tech VCs Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Ventures (of course). The group dubbed ‘Glass Collective’ (hmm) promote surgical use, assistance for the disabled and (of course) self-tracking. MobileWorldLive
TechCrunch reports that the first prototypes are starting to ship and are first going to 2,000 “Glass Explorers” who signed up at a major developer conference last year. The Eye observes that Google needs them badly–to start writing apps and debugging the prototypes. But were you one of those who signed up to pay $1,500 so you could Ultimate One-Up your friends? There will be a yet-to-be-determined delay. The Eye believes it cannot be long enough…because this next article contains one Big Blinking Concern After Another, including but not limited to the illicit acquisition of data and all sorts of things the appsters can do to really make Google Glass A Bad Thing in Google Glass and Surveillance Culture (Slashdot). Update 16 April pm: Gizmag reveals Google Glass specs, so to speak.
Proteus 2.0: more edible monitoring
From what only 2.5 years ago wags dubbed ‘creepy’ pills and now is the accepted Proteus Digital Health pill/transmitter/smartphone model, there had to be more in the same vein–or alimentary canal. Teams at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh are working on digestible devices which have flexible polymer electrodes and are powered by a sodium ion electrochemical cell, to scrutinize for biomarkers or gastric problems. According to the CMU release, “The battery also could be used to stimulate damaged tissue or help in targeted drug delivery for certain types of cancer.” Health tech monitoring mavens may want to be in touch with… Carnegie Mellon’s Christopher Bettinger Develops Edible Electronics for Medical Device Industry
Wiltshire Medical Services rebrands as Medvivo (UK)
As anticipated in our item in January, the coming together of Wiltshire Medical Services (WMS) and Telehealth Solutions (THSL) has indeed created a new brand under which both sides of the company’s activities can grow. They have sidestepped both the local name and ‘solutions’ name traps and have cleverly found an unused ‘Med-‘ combination and have arrived at ‘Medvivo’. Of course, for the moment Google thinks you may have wanted US health monitoring company Medivo, but that will soon sort itself out. Medvivo press release.
Four reasons doctors worry about social media
David Shaywitz, in Forbes, synthesises his observations of doctors’ concerns about doctors and patients’ use of the internet and social media in particular. He focuses not just on the usual worries but puts them into a broader social and professional context. “Predictably, medicine seems to be reacting to change the way it often does…by issuing well-intentioned (albeit largely unreadable) guidelines”. However, he ends on a positive note: “Rather than isolating doctors, the new technology promises to be fundamentally enabling…The result: a new sense of connection and meaning. Medicine could be fun again.” Four Reasons Doctors Worry About Social Media – #GetOverIt (Forbes has an intrusive adverts business model.) Heads-up thanks to Charles Lowe.
Isansys Lifecare ready to scale up in-hospital wireless patient monitoring (UK)
Isansys Lifecare has closed a major funding round with Isle of Man investors and has been awarded a grant from the Technology Strategy Board’s Smart awards programme. The funds will accelerate the roll-out timetable into UK hospitals of the company’s CE-marked clinical surveillance and early warning platform – the Patient Status Engine – and enable its use to be extended across the entire patient population, from children to older adults. Press release. Perhaps doctors need to become used to remote vital signs monitoring in hospitals before they see the advantages of extending it into people’s homes.
TSA confirms integrated code of practice will be open to non-members (UK)
The Telecare Services Association (TSA) has confirmed in a press release (PDF) that when it launches its Telehealth Code of Practice in May that it will be integrated with its Telecare Code of Practice and that accreditation to its standards will be opened up to non TSA members. [Excellent news – this will help service commissioners by levelling the playing field for member and non-member suppliers. Ed. Steve].
Employee wellness: Carrot? Stick? Or something else?
The actions of companies like CVS Caremark [TTA Telehealth Soapbox] have aimed a white-hot klieg light onto corporate wellness and the various methodologies companies are using to force a change in employees’ behaviors to positively affect their healthcare spend. Both positive and negative incentives have their pros and cons–positive incentives tied to completion of wellness ‘tasks’ seem not to work long term, penalties can be a blow to morale and verge on full-blown discrimination and lawsuits. Increasingly the price of being in a corporate health plan seems to be acceptance of ‘intrusion for your own good’ and privacy loss. On the other hand, why should health insurance be any different than home or auto, at least in the US? The Wall Street Journal has written several non-firewalled articles on this issue in recent days: Your Company Wants to Make You Healthy; Carrots and Sticks: Which One Works The Best (infographic); If Workers Are Out of Shape, Should Companies Make Them Pay? (At Work Blog–read over 85 comments)
In terms of effectiveness, the only study this Editor has seen was published this month in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine from wellness/disease manager Healthways’ Center for Health Research, as mentioned in a secondary article by the Integrated Benefits Institute. According to IBI’s summary:
Looking at over 19,000 employees at five employers, the authors find that employees who reduced their total health behavior risks over a 12 month period—for example, by increasing exercise or improving their diet—had a lower likelihood of absence, less presenteeism [working while sick–Ed.], and better job performance.
But some of those 19 factors included work-related risks such as “poor supervisor relationship, not utilizing strengths doing job, and organization unsupportive of well-being” (JOEM)–not health related at all. And the total reduction was a whopping 5 percent.
Magic 8 Ball says: ‘picture cloudy, try again’.
So perhaps the real choice has become this: adhere to employer requirements–or not have any coverage at all. There’s been a 10 point decline in Americans covered by employer-sponsored insurance, from 69.7 percent in 1999/2000 to 59.5 percent in 2010/2011 (SHADAC/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Much of that is also the US 7.6 percent ‘official’ unemployment rate (U-3)–but the real accelerator here is the 13.8 percent U-6 rate which counts in part-timers and the ‘marginally attached/discouraged’ who are not going to have employer insurance. The Affordable Care Act and its requirements/fees have also discouraged many smaller employers who are simply dropping insurance coverage.
So what is the bottom line? And where there are the opportunities for consumer engagement and self-maintenance linked to telehealth and mobile health which can mitigate cost? Understanding the ill-defined situation companies are in, especially in the US, will help in identifying them.
Wireless health care: ‘the sky’s the limit’
Wireless/mobile health tech in and out of the hospital is profiled in this special report from iHealthBeat (California Health Care Foundation): Sotera Wireless’ ViSi Mobile Systems (a wristlet which uses chest and thumb sensors to track multiple vitals including heart rate, respiration rate and skin temperature, and sends the data to Palomar Medical Center’s EHR); startup MedSensation’s robotic Glove Tricorder with temperature sensors and ultrasound pads for diagnosing breast cancer; and the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize to push reliable health diagnostics into the home for 15 diseases. Another reason is the Deloitte estimate of all wireless health devices generating $22 billion in the US by 2015 (not cited by iHealthBeat but we do here–Neil Versel’s January roundup of inexact forecasts). When It Comes to the Future of Wireless Sensors in Health Care: The Sky’s the Limit: article/audio, transcript PDF.
Wearable tech that probably won’t wear well
Wearable tech’s own blog, FashioningTech takes the measure of four new arrivals and puts them into the ‘Fail’ bucket. Some are obvious: Hi-Call Bluetooth Talking Glove is ridiculous. Others are clonky bracelets which don’t do much (Embrace+ got kicked to the curb on Kickstarter) or are good only for bar conversation starters (LinkMe–and who wants people to see your messages?). One’s an ‘almost’–charging/smartphone storage purse Everpurse. This Editor thinks they should target energy-hogging tablets, not smartphones which have a longer life. (And $250 would not seem quite as bad for a larger case.) Wearable Tech Fails
Sproxil wins USPTO ‘Patents for Humanity’ award
Sproxil, the anti-counterfeiting mobile drug authentication system in use in India, Kenya (for East Africa), Nigeria and Ghana (West Africa), was one of ten recipients of the ‘Patents for Humanity’ award given annually by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Most of the nine other recipients were pharmaceutical (medicines and vaccines), food and nutrition, clean tech (water and solar bulbs) and information tech (Sproxil and Microsoft). Congratulations to Sproxil, which is up to 3.8 million products verified. We’ve followed them for the past three years for its fine work in developing countries, combating one particularly evil business; drug counterfeiting is a $200 billion global fraud that sickens and kills the vulnerable. USPTO, Sproxil releases.
Detecting counterfeit electronics
Not only drugs are counterfeited (see article on Sproxil) but increasingly there is a world trade in counterfeit electronics–old, substandard components are remanufactured to appear new and brand-name. For mission-critical functions–or in health tech–this can mean bad readings, hazard or failure. Initial research from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Army Research Office (ARO) on a DNA tag was developed with a private company, ChromoLogic LLC, which first developed a tag with a biomimetic barcode that can be aligned in the proper order and decoded by an optical reader–and the technology was extended to optical mapping of electronic components’ intrinsic surface or ‘fingerprinting’ by their DTEK system. The rather circuitous story is here in this strangely titled Armed With Science article, Sneaky Discovery Can Identify Counterfeits, Track Materiel
mHealth ‘could save a million African lives By 2017’
The AllAfrica website picks up on a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India report report launched at the annual Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, 25-28 February. It highlights the life-saving potential of SMS services (such as the Bangladeshi Aponjon service) but also points out that so far take up has been slow in Africa. Africa: Mhealth ‘Could Save a Million African Lives By 2017’
mHealth technology used to help expectant and new mothers in Bangladesh
“The mhealth program is being run through the Aponjon (dear one) initiative run by the Bangladesh government. It sends weekly text messages to expectant mothers, providing them with advice and reminders that they might find highly useful. Each text comes with a fee of $0.03 (Tk 2). For individuals who cannot read, recorded voicemail messages are used, instead.” Over 24,000 pregnant women have already subscribed for the service since the launch of the program in December 2012. Mhealth technology used to help mothers in Bangladesh QRCodePress item.
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