The CES circus opens its largest tent yet in health tech, AI, 5G, and more

January 8, 2020 | by

CES kicked off today in Las Vegas (7 Jan), taking over the town in multiple locations, and will be making news through Friday 10 January. Like the circus, there are three health tech ‘rings’ at CES this year: Accessibility, Digital Health (Digital Health Summit), and Fitness and Wearables.

  • Digital Health Summit over the two days of its conference has shifted focus from the gadgets and wearables of their past conferences to prevention, health data, voice tech, machine learning, AI, bioelectronics (low current devices for treatment), behavioral health, and passive monitoring. There’s also a soupçon of star power with Katie Couric and Dr. Mehmet Oz, and some Grizzled Pioneer speakers and moderators such as Laurie Orlov, Chris Otto, Sean Slovenski, and Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. The Digital Health Summit is itself a Grizzled Pioneer as it goes back at CES to 2013–and my, how the players have changed. (Whatever happened to Sonny Vu?)
  • The Wearables Tech Summit is about the form and function of wearables, plus VR, AR (augmented reality), and of course Peleton.
  • Accessibility is sadly a mismatch (mish-mash?) of home networks, 5G, IoT, and a pitch competition.

What’s big? 5G, AI anything, and autonomous vehicles. What’s faded in the stretch? Robots.

Back to health tech…here’s some highlights:

  • Philips has several new or tweaked products at CES this year
    • A smart version of the Sonicare toothbrush that collects and shares real-time toothbrushing data. The BrushSmart program works with Delta Dental of California to analyze the data for insights into oral care. Users get benefits such as exclusive dental care offers, the Philips Sonicare ExpertClean toothbrush and free brush heads when they brush regularly.
    • The Avent mother and childcare app adds a new feature called Baby+ to track baby’s growth and receive ongoing advice specific to each stage of their baby’s development.
    • The SmartSleep system adds the SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband 2 to actively improve deep sleep with features such as Fall Asleep Sounds, SmartAlarm, and the SleepMapper app. Release
  • OMRON is adding to its heart monitoring services with HeartGuide, the first wearable blood pressure monitor, and Complete, the first wearable that combines a blood pressure monitor and EKG. The company is also launching this summer a heart health coaching and incentive app, OMRON Connect 2.0, that states it changes behavior, combining its two existing apps HeartAdvisor and OMRON Connect. Release
  • Withings’ newest is the ScanWatch which will be able to take an ECG and monitor for sleep apnea. The ECG has three leads on the watch on the side of the watch’s bezel and an SpO2 sensor to monitor apneic episodes and oxygen saturation. FDA and CE approval are pending, and when released later this year will cost $249 to $299 depending on size.  ZDNet
  • ZDNet and TechRepublic have a running special feature on CES’ big trends for business. The annoyance factor you’ll have to endure is the running CBS commercials for various programs.
  • Mobihealthnews rounds up interesting devices and software such as the Nanit baby sleeping bag that monitors an infant’s breathing, Reliefband’s low current anti-nausea band, Samsung’s Ballie rolling robot plus collaborations with Kaiser Permanente (cardiac rehab) and IrisVision (low vision/macular degeneration assistance), and more.
  • John Lynn, another Grizzled Pioneer, in Healthcare IT Today typically diverts from the mainstream coverage in spotlighting smaller companies in atypical areas. Examples are France’s Adok smart projector with the potential to be used collaboratively in practice offices, new connected apps for Neofect’s smart gloves for arm/hand rehab, two air filters to monitor both inside and outside air quality (as a social determinant of health!), Xenoma’s wired pajamas for fall detection, the Mateo bath mat which can measure weight and body mass, and a smart diaper from Smardii.

More to come in the next days!

Highlights of The King’s Fund Digital Health and Care Congress 2018

July 18, 2018 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/kf-digital-health-2018-300×145.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]As The King’s Fund itself pointed to these two Digital Health articles, this Editor (who did not attend) will summarize their findings on the two days. Surely more to come!

Day One: digital transformation was not just about patient and clinician tools, but also about culture and partnerships

  • The King’s Fund’s researchers presented findings from their recently released report, ‘Digital change in health and social care’ where local organizations can speed change faster than nationally (more detail here)
    • Tight collaboration is necessary to bring change, not only within organizations, but also with providers and suppliers
    • The culture gap is significant between technology and clinical and must be overcome
    • Technology may be the only way “by which the NHS would be able to face “long-term pressures” facing the healthcare system”
  • What are lessons learned from national and regional NHS digital transformation projects?
    • How do you bring data together on a large scale?
    • Primary care practice is the obvious place to engage people with technology
  • No ‘post code lottery’–All patients should have access to digital services (the standard criticism of Babylon Health)

Day Two: build the technology around the patient

  • Put the patient first–some technology does not
  • The paramount importance of safeguarding the patient
  • Patients should be involved continuously with technology–and patients inspire technology

TTA is a media partner of The King’s Fund digital health conferences and was pleased to be a supporter this year.

The magic quadrant matrix strikes again for health tech and investment potential

May 24, 2018 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Medical-social-quadrant-box.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Deceptively simple, the quadrant matrix can make sense out of actions and decisions. As a management tool, it can help you prioritize what is most urgent and important, or how to vary your supervisory/coaching style based on the person’s skill and will levels.

Here we see the magic box used by Krishna Yeshwant, MD, a doctor and investor with GV, Alphabet’s venture firm, to sort out all those Next Revolutions in Health Care. The factors that Dr. Yeshwant uses pertain to the end user’s medical and social needs, often called social determinants of health (SDH). Both are meshed, whether in an active older veteran who lives alone in a rural area but manages his diabetes well, or in a homeless substance user in a city with multiple medical conditions.

Most non-medical entrepreneurs prefer to develop tech and services for people like them with low medical/low social needs, such as virtual doctor apps, concierge primary care, and wellness apps. It’s a crowded quadrant and perhaps is over-served. Those with a medical background appear to gravitate to the diagonal quadrant–high medical/high social needs, such as those targeted to the ‘underserved’ with diabetes or high-need care model management, such as Aledade and Iora Health. Where does the investment money go? Their money goes to companies which have developed high medical need therapeutics such as expensive treatments for cancer, neatly avoiding those complex social factors.

What is missing: innovation in low medical/high social needs. This group is at high risk to move into high medical needs due to their lack of organization and access to/willingness for primary care. This Editor agrees, but if another factor is observed–profitability–this is likely the least potential of the four. So if you want to get Dr. Y’s attention and maybe some moolah from Alphabet…. From his presentation at the HLTH meeting last week in Las Vegas. CNBC.

Hungary’s burgeoning med and health tech scene comes to NYC

May 17, 2018 | by

The NYC MedTech Medical Technology Forum has, for some years, presented programs which bring together the life science, biotech, medical device, and pharma industries. Attendees are always an eclectic mix of executives, reporters, scientists, academics, attorneys, and developers as well as representatives of trade organizations and international partners.

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/V4-tour-crop.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Last week’s presentation at the Consulate General of Hungary provided a view of global health tech rarely seen in the US–the view from Central Europe. It focused on Central European and in particular Hungarian health tech companies, ranging from Big Pharma (Janssen Pharmaceutical/J&J) and law firm Goodwin to six early-stage companies participating in the V4 Connects Global Tour business showcase. The Visegrad Group (the V4) are four Central European countries within the EU–Hungary (this year’s president), Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic–that have worked together since 1991 to promote their regional interests. 

The evening led off with a discussion panel led by Goodwin’s Frederick Rein, a partner in their IP Litigation Group, with Scott Lassman from their Technology & Life Sciences Group and Peter Takacs, Director Real World Evidence Partnership in the Global Market Access Organization of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Most of the discussion was on the differences in drug regulation between the EU and the US, and the swing back in the latter to getting more innovative medical products to US consumers quickly. A hot area is biosimilars, branded drugs that are highly similar but not identical to other drugs, which are gaining FDA approval through the 351(k) pathway. Other topics: the US increasing pressure on pricing and the UK’s Brexit, which will present challenges to drug and device developers from staffing to markets.

Over Hungarian food, drink (excellent Hungarian red and white wines), and networking in adjacent rooms, the five tech-based early stage-companies had café table displays of their products. :

  • Insimu – Interactive medical case study education app with simulated patients for students to test their diagnostic and clinical skills on virtual patients. The founder, Gabor Toth MD, is targeting medical schools: currently in use in Hungary and 39 other countries. 
  • Vitrolink – Imaged-based tumor detection tool for pathology decision support. While the number of diagnostic tests is increasing, the number of pathologists worldwide is actually decreasing. Vitrolink is a free connecting platform for pathologists to share information which will eventually move to researchers and patients. Contact Dr. István Szarka.
  • Now Tech – The Gyroset is a smart wheelchair controller and proportional head controller, an unobtrusive band that contains an eye level camera.
  • [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/0510181931_HDR.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Notch – Movements reconstructed in 3D for smartphones. The main use is in physical therapy. It captures position, motion, and acceleration through multiple sensors, calculating and graphically representing degrees of motion. Contact Stepan Boltalin, founder/CEO.

(The sixth, Promobox, is a gift box for maternity/baby products available in Hungary’s hospitals.)

Many thanks to founder/organizer John Lieberman CPA/PFS, the Managing Director of Perelson Weiner LLP and Gábor Takács, Hungarian 1st Secretary for Science and Technology, who will shortly be moving to London.

Robots, robots at CES: ElliQ, Sophia the ‘humanoid’, companions, pets, butlers, maids…and at a supermarket near you?

January 23, 2018 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Overrun-by-Robots1-183×108.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]CES as usual was a Robot Showcase, though without the presence of our recent Spotlight Robot Kompaï.  One of our other Spotlighters, Intuition Robotics‘ ElliQ companion robot, won the CES Best of Innovation Award in the Smart Home category (release).

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/sophia-header.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]Much press went to Hanson Robotics’ Sophia, a Frubber-skinned humanoid robot from Hong Kong. It (She?) sees through cameras and sensors, through them recognizes speech and facial expressions, responds through natural language processing, and has a motion control system. It started walking on its own at CES courtesy of DRC-HUBO-developed legs. Its creator David Hanson, backed by Disney (Animatronics!) looks forward to an adult-level of general intelligence via AI development for future uses such as customer service, caring for children or older adults, or therapy. It has the ‘uncanny valley’ problem of verging on lifelike. The BBC interviewed Sophia at CES. (No, they didn’t sign her to be a presenter.) SFGate. The AI crowd in Silicon Valley and Facebook’s AI head with the interesting name of Yann LeCun performed a Two-Minute Hate about her to a rather partisan writer in The Verge. (Not Invented Here Syndrome? Perhaps they’re just envious.)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/aibo.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]Most of CES’ robots were a Parade of Cute and When Not Cute, Wistful. Or Not Working. Sony’s brought back the Aibo robot dog out of its 2006 retirement with the ERS 1000, which lacks only a non-shed coat to be puppy-like. According to the WSJ, $1,700 will make Aibo your companion–and it doesn’t need food or walking. Blue Frog Robotics’ Buddy is a family companion, control point for connected homes, and security monitor. You might trip over it and the $1,500 cost. More in the utility line is Ubtech Robotics’ Walker which, unlike the Walker of ‘Point Blank’, isn’t looking for his $93,000 but will walk point around your house for security, connect you to your home controls, and ‘butler’ your appointments, emails, and video calls. The maid’s duties will be done by the Aeolus Robot, which will sweep, pick up and put away your things, and also do some assistant work. Honda’s 3E robots are Transformer-like for more commercial duties like assistants, smart scooters, and carriers. A more here-and-now robot addressing a major need is another robotic glove for those with hand or mobility restrictions, the leather glove-like NeoMano.

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Pepper-faints.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]Not every robot was on their best behavior. Going on the fritz were LG’s CLOi smart home controller–on stage, no less. YYD’s latest robot, not only a home assistant but also a health status/chronic disease monitor, died into screen code in front of a BBC reporter. One of Softbank’s Pepper robots (left) was so overwhelmed by the excitement of CES that it fainted. Perhaps time to return to the calm of the Ostend, Belgium hospital? [TTA 21 June 16] Wired UK, South China Morning Post, CNet

Back in the Real World. Welcomed into Scottish supermarket chain Margiotta was ‘ShopBot’, dubbed Fabio. In an experiment run by Heriot-Watt University for the BBC’s Six Robots & Us (UK viewers only), Fabio was programmed with directions to hundreds of items in the store. It had an abundance of cute. Customers initially liked Fabio. Unfortunately, its conversational quality and conveyance of information were sorely lacking. For instance, Fabio told customers to go to the ‘alcohol section’ when they wanted beer. (Now if they wanted Scotch….) On top of it, its mobility was limited, and the disability laws don’t apply. So the Margiottas sacked Fabio, with regrets but no severance, after one week on the job. Oh. Telegraph (paywalled), Yahoo News UK

#MedMo17: the conference, winning startups, Bayer, blockchain, and more

December 6, 2017 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MedMo-header-crop.png” thumb_width=”150″ /]MedStartr Momentum‘s conference last week was extremely well attended, with 260 registrations over the two days at PricewaterhouseCooper’s NYC HQ. It jumped! (Disclaimers: your Editor is one of the hosts and co-organizers; TTA is a media partner) #MedMo17 had about 50-60 total speakers, presenters, and panelists in fast-moving sessions, most 10-15 minutes, with panels clocking under one hour.

What’s always unusual about MedStartr conferences is the mix of topics and people, and not just from NY. There were startups just getting going, successful startups sharing their stories, patient advocates, providers, and investors sharing what they want to see (and not see) before they fund. There was Deborah Estrin from Cornell Tech describing how they nurture graduate student tech entrepreneurs and Maria Gotsch from the Partnership Fund for NYC discussing how they accelerate, partner, pilot, and fund companies coming to market. One sponsor was nearby Newark NJIT’s NJ Innovation Institute–and one of the presenting companies was Uniphy Health (formerly PracticeUnite) that they’ve worked with and helped make successful over five years. Who would have expected a wild discussion about blockchain? Well, here, hosted by media personality/entrepreneur Ben Chodor (HealthTechTalk Live) with panelists ranging from a digital asset hedge fund founder to a patient advocate. For two panels, questions came from ‘the field’ via a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’.

Notably, Bayer G4A Generator, coordinated in the US by Aline Noizet, came on board as a sponsor. They came to the right place as they are seeking early-stage companies for Bayer Grants4Apps. In the US, they are seeking new companies developing self-care products: nutritionals/wellness, therapeutics (pain management, seasonal health), personal care (skin, sun, footcare), and self-care in general. Bayer also runs similar programs in Berlin (Accelerator and Dealmaker), Barcelona, Tokyo, Moscow, Singapore, Shanghai, and Italy.

Of the 18 Grand Challenge finalists competing for financing and guidance, the winners were: Population Health–Valisure (online pharmacy pre-screening meds); Wearables/Medical Devices–Alertgy (non-intrusive continuous blood glucose monitoring); Clinical Innovations–eCaring (at-home senior care monitoring), and in Killer Apps, a product that actually kills bad bacteria on the skin–Xycrobe (good recombinant bacteria for dermatological use). Special awards were given to Check with Ellie (breastfeeding questions answered, Momentum Award for growth) and MedAux (patient ed and HIPAA compliant messaging–Crowd Choice Award).

The full conference (Thursday and Friday) is up on video at Medstartr.tv. And in 2018, it will be 29-30 November, so put it in your calendar. Kudos to the MedStartr team, especially Alex Fair. Hat tip also to the NOLA (New Orleans) Health Innovation Challenge 

CES Unveiled’s preview of health tech at CES 2018

November 11, 2017 | by

CES Unveiled, Metropolitan Pavilion, NYC, Thursday 9 November

The Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) press preview of the gargantuan CES 9-12 January 2018 Las Vegas event was the first of several international preview ‘road shows’. It’s a benchmark of the ebb and flow of health tech and related trends on the grand scale. Gone are the flashy wearables which would change colors based on our sweat patterns and heart rate, or track the health and movement of pets. Now it’s the Big Issues of 5G, AI, machine learning, AR/VR, and smart cities. Entertainment, especially sports, are now being reinvented by all of these.

The developments this Editor gleaned from the mountain of information CEA plies us keyboard tappers that are most relevant to healthcare are:

  • Wireless 5G. As this Editor has written previously from Ericsson and Qualcomm, 5G and 5G New Radio will enable amazingly fast mobile speeds and hard-to-believe fast connectivity by 2019. It will enable IoT, self-driving cars, cars that communicate with each other, reconstruction of industrial plants, electric distribution, multimodal transport, and perhaps the largest of all, smart cities. The automation of everything is the new mantra. Accenture estimates the impact will be 3 million new jobs (nothing about loss), annual GDP increased by $500bn, and drive a $275bn investment from telecom operators.
  • AI.  Society will be impacted by machine learning, neural networks and narrow (e.g. calorie counting, diagnostics) versus general AI (simulation of human intelligence). This affects voice-activated assistants like Echo, Alexa, and Google Home (now owned by 12 percent of the population, CES survey) as well as robotics to ‘read’ us better. These conversations with context may move to relationships with not only these assistants but home robots such as from Mayfield Robotics’ Kuri (which this Editor attempted to interact with on the show floor, to little effect and disappointment). Oddly not mentioned were uses of AI in ADL and vital signs tracking interpreted for predictive health.
  • Biometrics. This will affect security first in items like padlocks (the new Bio-Key Touchlock) using fingerprint recognition and smart wallets, then facial recognition usable in a wide variety of situations such as workplaces, buildings, and smartphones. Imagine their use in items like key safes, phones, home locks, and waypoints inside the home for activity monitoring.
  • AR and VR. Power presence now puts viewers in the middle of a story that is hard to distinguish from reality. The pricing for viewers is dropping to the $200-400 range with Oculus Go and Rift. At the Connected Health Conference, this Editor saw how VR experiences could ease anxiety and disconnectedness in older people with mobility difficulties or dementia (OneCaringTeam‘s Aloha VR) or pain reduction (Cedars-Sinai tests). The other is Glass for those hands-on workers [TTA 24 July] and heads-up displays in retail.

CES is also hosting the fourth Extreme Tech Challenge. Of the ten semi-finalists showing down on 11 January, three are in healthcare: Neurotrack to assess and improve memory; Tissue Analytics that uses smartphone cameras to assess wounds and healing; and (drum roll) the winner of TTA’s Insanely Cute Factor competition, the Owlet smart sock for baby monitoring [TTA’s backfile here]. One of the judges is Sir Richard Branson, who will host the finalists on 28 February on Necker Island (which hopefully will be rebuilt by that time).

After the nearly two-hour briefing, CEA hosted a mini-show on the ground floor of the Metropolitan. (more…)

NYeC sets SHIN-NY 2020 HIE roadmap, awards five leaders at gala

November 3, 2017 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NYeC-Gala-2017.jpg” thumb_width=”200″ /]The New York eHealth Collaborative’s biennial Gala last Wednesday marked the formal debut of the Statewide Health Information Network for NY (SHIN-NY or ‘shiny’) 2020 Roadmap for development of the state’s Health Information Exchange (HIE). Before an audience of most of NY state’s healthcare organization leaders and key staff, new Executive Director Valerie Grey opened the evening with a topline of the SHIN-NY’s major goals in ensuring a robust HIE supporting value-based care, interoperability including innovations such as blockchain and natural language processing (NLP), public health advocacy, efficiency, and increased affordability. It extends NYeC’s founding goals of connecting providers and achieving the Triple Aim (improved patient experience, population health, at a lower per capita cost–which we don’t hear much about anymore). The full text of the Roadmap is available for download here.

NYeC recognized five healthcare leaders:

Transformative Leader: David Blumenthal, MD, President of The Commonwealth Fund, who is past Information and Innovation Officer at Partners Healthcare in Boston. The Commonwealth Fund is an independent research entity on health and social issues. Most recently, this Editor reviewed their paper on Spanish-language telemedicine assistance services [16 Aug]. Dr. Blumenthal noted the transformative spread of health records, to where a younger generation cannot conceive of dependency on written charts, and access of patients to their personal health records. He also noted the lack of system interoperability and usability. Will there be a disruptive entrant as he predicts in the future?

Honorees:

James (Jim) R. Tallon, Jr., former president of the United Hospital Fund of NY and former chairman of The Commonwealth Fund. He recounted the early years of NYeC (as a board member). In looking at the future, he hopes we can find our way to a more effective public policy. Overall, he believes that healthcare will be better organized and benefit more people. 

Paul Macielak, Esq., president and CEO of the NY State Health Plan Association which represents 29 NYS health plans, discussed the benefits of building out ‘the next mile’ — the HIE for the Capital (Albany) region for the consumer and the provider communities.

Patrick Roohan, VP Data Management and Analytic Solutions, MVP Health Care, was formerly the state Deputy Commissioner/Director of the Office of Quality and Patient Safety. He noted healthcare’s growth through technology and the effect it will have on quality and safety.

The night’s final honoree was Eugene (Gene) Heslin, MD, First Deputy Commissioner of the NY State Department of Health (DOH) and a family practice physician from Saugerties. (more…)

CHC breaking news: Qualcomm on 5G’s $1T impact, Think Fast stroke VR

October 26, 2017 | by

From the Connected Health Conference in Boston

Qualcomm announced today two releases: an analysis on the effects of 5G mobile on the healthcare sector and the Think Fast virtual reality (VR) simulation program for stroke diagnosis.

5G Mobile: Qualcomm’s study, “5G Mobile: Impact on the Health Care Sector”, found that 5G’s increased data speed, reliability, and security will have a substantial and positive impact on healthcare both in quality and financially. 

  • It will enable the ‘personalization of healthcare’ through permitting the continuous real-time gathering of healthcare data through sensors and on the back end, to process that data usefully. Qualcomm calls this the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) which works for this Editor as long as the devices and apps are secure. (Having worked in telehealth where network drops and latency in many areas, particularly rural, often made check-in via tablet connectivity a matter of the stars aligning right, this is good news–Ed. Donna)
  • It will better support remote diagnosis and imaging, including the application of VR
  • It will facilitate distributed computing, which is data processing closer to the patient, for the greater use of predictive analytics 
  • Faster and more data will help in the transition from volume-based to value-based/outcome-based care
  • Financial impact is estimated by IHS Markit at more than $1.1 trillion in global sales in healthcare by 2035. broken down as follows:
    • $453bn in the healthcare vertical: hospitals, doctors, medical equipment, pharma
    • $409bn in supply chain and related
    • $253bn in added value sectors: payers, data analytics providers, cloud data services

The study was authored by Prof. David J. Teece, Tusher Center for Intellectual Capital, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and supported by Qualcomm. Study PDF.  Previously in TTA: Ericsson’s less rosy 5G international healthcare survey [TTA 13 June].

Think Fast VR: FAST–Facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulties and time to call emergency services–is the acronym for what to watch for when someone is having a stroke. But if you could observe it in reality, it would be far less ambiguous and more memorable. Think Fast is a VR simulation program that lets the user (a med student, nurse, healthcare educator, or average person) observe a stroke’s effects as if it was happening to them. By stepping inside a stroke victim’s world, it educates on warning signs and critical steps for care. It was designed by ForwardXP using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon VR SDK and Unity 5.6 plugin. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in America and a leading cause of adult disability–which can be minimized or prevented with quick response within three hours. Video below. Hat tip to Ashley Settle of Weber Shandwick

The King’s Fund 2017 Digital Health Congress: videos, presentations now posted

July 25, 2017 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Digital-Health-email-banner.png” thumb_width=”175″ /]The King’s Fund’s annual two-day Digital Health and Care Congress now has videos and presentation decks posted on the event page.  If you missed it, or want to see the sessions you could not attend, here’s your opportunity to review and share with staff. All the plenaries and keynotes have both video and presentations. Selected workshops/breakouts have video along with PowerPoints on nearly all, including posters. Attendance this year was between 400 and 500. On Twitter: #kfdigital17, @TheKingsFund TTA was pleased to be a marketing supporter of the 2017 conference as we have for several years. Many thanks to events coordinator Claire Taylor.

For planning ahead, The King’s Fund Annual Conference will be two days this year, 29-30 November. Early bird registration is available until 1 September and sponsorships/exhibit opportunities are open.

Weekend reading: the life and spread of microbes in the average hospital room

July 6, 2017 | by

We in healthcare and health tech know how deadly nosocomial or hospital-acquired infections are. Current CDC estimates are that in US hospitals, there are 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year (up from a previous estimate of 75,000) PatientCareLink. Most of us know that visiting a patient in a hospital room means also making sure hands are washed, clothes and shoes are clean, and that we bring a container of industrial strength bleach wipes for cleaning surfaces versus flowers.

However, it was news to this Editor that few studies have been done on the actual hospital room environment–the microbiome–and how the microbes in the room interact with the patient and the staff.  Sue Barnes, an RN who spent 30 years as the National Leader for Infection Prevention for Kaiser Permanente, reviews a newly published study in Science Translational Medicine (24 May, abstract available only). The study collected bacterial cultures from the ‘patient zone’ around the bed, every surface in the hospital room, and swabbed the hands and noses of patients and staff, along with the shoes, shirts, and cell phones of staff members. The problem is much more complex than simple cleaning.

  • Patient skin and the microbial makeup of room surfaces became more similar over time. Non-ambulatory patients were less so, as they had less contact with external surfaces.
  • The longer patients were in the room, the more genetic resistance to antibiotics the organisms acquired. This is despite the lack of association with antibiotics save topicals. The author suggests that regular cleaning may be the reason–only the strongest survive.
  • The hospital room is most threating to the most vulnerable, such as babies in a neonatal ICU
  • “In the Lax study, several bacterial samples taken more than 71 days apart were identical,  (more…)

Successful Aging 2030: how far we haven’t come, how far we have to go

May 17, 2017 | by | 4 Comments
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/dhealth2017_300x75_2.png” thumb_width=”200″ /]This Editor attended last Wednesday’s (10 May) d.Health Summit 2017–Successful Aging 2030, sponsored by the University of Rochester and West Health. It was an expansive, well-organized and attended seminar at the New York Academy of Sciences at the impressive new 7 World Trade Center. Panels covered economic, housing, health outcomes, government policy, technology innovation, and investing factors key to one central fact: that in the US, nearly 20 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2030. Worldwide, the numbers are already much higher as of 2015: Japan (26 percent), Italy (22), Greece, Germany, Portugal (21) with nearly all of Europe already near that magic number (World Bank).

What was dispiriting to this Editor was that in her now 11 years in related health tech (telehealth and telecare), the status of many issues were the same as in 2006. The inadequacy of ‘aging in place’ supports and “assisted living”; a culture that brutally devalues people as they get older starting after 50; a belief that whiz-bang technology will fix it, but it doesn’t; the non-recognition of ‘aging-consumer-driven healthcare’; the lack of attention from investors because aging is not glamorous–are still there. What was hopeful? The candid recognition of these factors and the open discussion around them. There was a blunt admission expressed somewhat differently by two speakers, June Fisher MD of UC Berkeley and Charlotte Yeh of AARP, that without co-designing solutions with older people, we will get nowhere, and that imposing ‘fixes’ from the outside hasn’t and isn’t going to work. We also have a new middle age of 55-75, but the work market and employers have not adapted to that lengthening of productiveness, with the ‘pasture’ of retirement still pegged theoretically at 65.

Highlights of each panel:

The Longevity Economy, or the Silver Economy, was estimated by Merrill Lynch‘s Surya Kolluri at $7 trillion, with a surprising 90 percent of package goods spending done by 65+, and not just that but also areas such as home improvement. But healthcare spending is about 200 percent over the population average, and caregiving factors into that as well. There are profit opportunities for companies in this market, including developing/future areas such as robotics. (more…)

ATA 2017 dispatch: Devices and doom

April 25, 2017 | by | 1 Comment

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Drowning-in-paper.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Bruce Judson, our guest ATA 2017/Telehealth 2.0 reporter, is a bestselling author of books on business and technology issues in the evolving digital era. This is the third and final article this week he’s written from the ATA floor. Mr. Judson writes frequently for The Huffington Post. More on about him may be found in our review of his critique of the RAND telehealth study [25 Mar].

This Editor agrees with his POV that drowning doctors in more and more data, whether previously accessible or not, isn’t a way forward to a successful business model. The current data is overwhelming–and not interoperable with EHRs. More and more data, looking for a home….

Orlando, April 26. Yesterday, I set aside several hours to walk by the booths of the 200+ exhibitors at the ATA show. As I slowly walked the Exhibit Hall, I was struck by the large number of in-home telehealth patient monitoring devices. (Names are omitted to protect the innocent.)

Colleagues had similar reactions. When I asked about exhibitors, the most common response was “I had no idea there were so many new telehealth monitoring devices that are FDA approved or in the process of obtaining approval.”

As I wandered from booth to booth, I was also struck by the failure of so many, if not most, monitoring device manufacturers to focus on the practical uses of their truly revolutionary technologies. At each monitoring device booth, I asked the same question, “How will the data be used?”  All too often, the answer was, “We provide daily patient data for physicians that have never been accessible before, and doctors receive daily graphs.”

My follow-up questions were always, “You believe busy doctors will look at data on their large patient population each day? Why don’t you provide alerts?” Again, there was a frequent answer, which was some variation of “Yes, now doctors can see daily events which will lead to extraordinary improvements in health outcomes, and we don’t want to create alert fatigue” (false positives that suggest a problem where one does not exist).

In my view, monitoring devices without suites of robust predictive analytics will fail. Doctors are already too busy, and anything that adds to their workload is immediately suspect. Moreover, we still live in a fee for service world, and now we are talking about new, uncompensated work.

As Jonathan Linkous said to me on the first day of the ATA show, “the technology is a tool to provide the service,” not the service itself. Patient monitoring device firms must realize they are offering a service. To succeed, their services must provide actionable analysis, not more and more data. If alerts are ready for prime time, then doctors will value the devices: They can rely on the associated algorithms to indicate when an intervention (also to be compensated) is needed.

Moreover, I strongly suspect doctors would prefer a few false alerts, with algorithms biased toward safety and results that can be quickly checked via the underlying data, as compared to wading through charts looking for anomalies.

A fundamental question for anyone is “what business are you really in?” To succeed, many of the ATA exhibitors need to reorient themselves from the business of providing great technology to the business of providing great service enabled by technology.

Mr. Judson’s first article, a discussion with ATA’s Jonathan Linkous on business models for telehealth is here. The second article on Mercy Health’s catalyzing telehealth innovation at the hospital level is here.

ATA2017 dispatch: Catalyzing telehealth innovation in hospitals

April 25, 2017 | by

Bruce Judson, our guest ATA 2017/Telehealth 2.0 reporter, is a bestselling author of books on business and technology issues in the evolving digital era. This is the second article this week from the ATA floor. Mr. Judson writes frequently for The Huffington Post. More on about him may be found in our review of his critique of the RAND telehealth study [25 Mar]. His discussion with ATA’s Jonathan Linkous on business models for telehealth is here.

Orlando, April 25. At the ATA show, I stopped at Mercy’s booth, and spoke with Keela Davis, who is Mercy’s Executive Director, Innovation and Product Development. In the booth, was a large, inspirational display of Mercy Virtual’s high-tech, widely-reported $54 million “hospital without beds.” The facility is the nerve center for Mercy Virtual’s telemedicine programs, which include TeleICU (remote monitoring of ICUs by Mercy specialists) as well as multiple other remote services for patients in hospitals and at home.

A great deal has been written about Mercy’s groundbreaking service and large investment in this facility. I asked Davis what led to the decision to build “the hospital without beds.” She said that first, a lot of experience in telehealth proceeded the investment decision. Undoubtedly this experience was required to simply decide what should be built in a facility designed for the technology that exists today and that will undoubtedly accommodate new technologies as they arise. Second, she also said, that it reflected “a visionary” decision on the part of Mercy’s leadership to make this commitment. Now, in her words, the facility has become “a symbol of our work.”

As a student of innovation, our discussion was notable on several fronts:

First, Davis noted that now that the facility exists it serves as a catalyst for innovation. Mercy is actively considering, as might be expected, a range of new telehealth services. While Davis was quick to point out that the facility was not the only source of telehealth innovation at Mercy, she did indicate it’s the hub for innovative ideas and discussions. Organizations build on their experience, their successes, and the demonstrated commitment of management to move forward with good ideas. Mercy’s facility now provides the tangible place that facilitates ongoing growth. In short, after conquering the first level of innovation, Mercy is poised to march forward with new, groundbreaking services.

Mercy’s facility is also a warning to organizations that see the telehealth future, but hesitate to act. As Mercy gains experience, it will have a team that understands the many, complex aspects of assessing and bringing new services to market. Plus, many of the underlying capital and investment requirements associated with creating these services have already happened. In short, it will soon be difficult for other healthcare entities eyeing services in the same arenas to match Mercy’s innovation machine.

ATA 2017 dispatch: The future is about business models and the consumer

April 24, 2017 | by

Bruce Judson, our guest ATA 2017/Telehealth 2.0 reporter, is a bestselling author of books on business and technology issues in the evolving digital era. This is the first of several articles this week. Mr. Judson writes frequently for The Huffington Post. More on about him may be found in our review of his critique of the RAND telehealth study [25 Mar].

Orlando, April 24. Yesterday, the annual convention of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) moved into full swing. At noon, Jonathan Linkous, ATA’s CEO, took a few minutes to talk with me. During our wide-ranging discussion, three notable themes emerged:

First and perhaps most important, Mr. Linkous believes that the future development of telehealth now stands with establishing viable business models. In his view, the speed of growth of the industry now depends on how the many participants in the healthcare system develop business models that lead to appropriate investments. He noted that this contrasts with the general focus on the evolving technology. Of course, the technology will continue to evolve and major advancements will occur for the foreseeable future. But, Mr. Linkous strongly believes that “the technology is here today.” In short, it’s now about how the technology is used and deployed. New advances will be incorporated into services and infrastructure as they occur. But, the past, telehealth is now moving into mainstream investment discussions. In his view, the leaders of every health organization are now assessing the role telehealth will play in the services they offer, and the investments they need to make now.  Now, it’s about making it work. We are no longer waiting for the technology to be viable.

Second, Mr. Linkous commented on the hype surrounding the industry. He was frank in recognizing that, as with all exciting, transformative industries, the hype cycle is in full swing. One telling comment: “Unlike the past, the industry now has real revenues,” with rapidly growing businesses. In short, we may not be past the hype, but the industry is quickly moving to fulfill realistic expectations.

Finally, Mr. Linkous concluded that the future growth of the telehealth industry would largely depend on the consumer. He cited a variety of factors: the growth of value-based care, the emerging influence of millennials who are comfortable with technology, and the overall consumerization of medicine.

Many industry participants have described themselves to me as B2B businesses. Undoubtedly, they are. It’s hard to refute Linkous’s conclusion: Ultimately, the growth of the industry, like the evolution of healthcare itself, will depend on consumer choices.

Upcoming MedStartr healthcare events in NYC; #RISE2017 videos online

March 15, 2017 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/MedStartr_red_grey_sm.jpg” thumb_width=”125″ /]MedStartr is sponsoring two upcoming evening events which will be of interest to our New York metro Readers. Next week’s roundtable includes participants from the Melbourne (Australia) Health Accelerator/Startup61.

The first is next week, Wednesday 22 March, starting at 6pm. The Hospitals 2.0: Hospital Innovation Program Roundtable is a discussion on how hospitals are leading innovation programs of their own and to review their progress. This will feature leaders from Mount Sinai, Northwell Health, NY-Presbyterian, Christopher Kommatas of Melbourne Health Accelerator/Startup61, and others. Location: CityMD, 1345 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue to the rest of us), between 54th-55th Streets, 8th Floor, NYC. Event link on Meetup here.

On Wednesday 5 April, also at CityMD and at 6pm will be Doctors 2.0: ¡Viva La Evolución! Three doctors–Jay Parkinson (Hello Health, Sherpaa), Rich Park (CityMD), and Greg Downing (HHS)–will discuss rewriting the story of care delivery and what is coming next in the evolution of care. Event link on Meetup here.

Tickets are $25 for either three-hour event. Advance reservations are required due to building security. Ticketing is being done through the Meetup Group Health 2.0 NYC at the links above. If you are not a member, please email MedStartr directly at members@Medstartr.com.

Videos are now online for 1 March’s Rise of the Healthy Machines (#RISE2017). These include keynotes, panels, and the six pitches for the Challenge.

TTA is a MedStartr and Health 2.0 NYC supporter/media sponsor; Editor Donna is a host for this event and a MedStartr Mentor. Also check the MedStartr page to find and fund some of the most interesting startup ideas in healthcare.