Telehealth kiosk HealthSpot gains trials with Rite Aid, Mayo Clinic

November 11, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Healthspot-stationbooth.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] HealthSpot Station, which was one of the higher points of this past May’s ATA, in the past month has announced two significant pilots. The retail pilot is with Rite Aid, the US’ third largest drug store chain (4,600 stores), with telehealth/telemedicine kiosks located in select Rite Aid locations in Ohio–Akron/Canton, Cleveland and Dayton/Springfield areas. The usage of the kiosks will be limited to common health conditions, such as cold, earaches, sore throat, sinus infections, upper respiratory infections, rashes, skin and eye conditions. HealthSpot Station kiosks are enclosed, free-standing units which use both video consults and real-time interaction with telehealth devices for remote diagnosis. They connect to a network of board-certified medical professionals at Cleveland Clinic and other major health systems across Ohio. Start date and duration were not disclosed.

This follows the October announcement with Mayo Clinic of an in-house pilot in Austin and Albert Lea, Minnesota with approximately 2,000 Mayo Clinic Health System employees (more…)

Wearables and mHealth: a few observations

July 13, 2014 | by

The Telegraph reports on the creation of Amazon UK’s wearables store, following on from their US launch that we covered on April 30th. Unlike in the original US launch, locating the store is not that challenging, however it is very much a jumble of products: if you know what you want then you probably don’t need a store to find it; if you don’t, there’s precious little to guide you to find the right product.

One of the wearables they’ll doubtless think carefully before stocking is (more…)

ATA 2014: TTA is now a media sponsor

March 31, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ata-2014-square.jpg” thumb_width=”180″ /]This publication is rarely a media sponsor of conferences, by choice. When we are, it’s because the conference and the organization is significant to the progress of healthcare technology in remote monitoring and related areas. The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) is one of those special organizations in their long-standing advocacy of global telemedicine and telehealth. We are pleased to announce we are joining their distinguished roster of 2014 media partners.

The 2014 conference is being held in Baltimore, just north of Washington DC, from Saturday 17 May (pm) through Tuesday 20 May. There is a very full schedule of pre-meetings, local chapter/co-located meetings, multiple education tracks,and several keynote speakers. Highlights:

  • Industry executive sessions with major companies in telemedicine on Monday and Tuesday
  • Sunday, the ATA Telemedicine Venture Summit with law firm Jones Day has leading industry stakeholders and policy makers speaking, in addition to structured networking and matchmaking opportunities (more details, release)
  • The new Innovation Spotlight: Monday highlights interviews with telemedicine startups (release); Tuesday, ATA’s partnership with the XPrize Foundation (release).
  • For those who cannot attend onsite, there are virtual assets including ePosters and ATA TV.

More information and registration here. Twitter: @ ATA2014. ATA 2014 on Facebook here.

Editor’s Note: This Editor hopes to be able to attend the Monday sessions. Prior commitments prevent her from attending the other days. If you are interested in contributing coverage from one item to a day, please contact Editor Donna about arrangements. Our gentle requirements are that you send a timely report (within 72 hours) from this event. Our standard is that you can be selective and interesting rather than comprehensive. Of course you will receive writing credit, but other expenses will not be covered.  

ATA seeks comment on draft ‘telemedicine’ guidelines

January 16, 2014 | by

Most readers will be aware of the TSA Telecare & Telehealth Integrated Code of Practice which has developed over time from the TSA’s original telecare code, and many will be aware of the recent arrival of the Telehealth Services Code of  Practice for Europe (TeleSCoPE).  Now the ATA in the US has produced revised draft telemedicine core guidelines for comment that provides an interesting comparison with these two.

Before I go further, a word on definitions. The definition of ‘telehealth’ in TeleSCoPE includes telecare so it covers the same areas as the TSA code. This ATA draft does not cover telecare, and includes telehealth into the definition of ‘telemedicine’. However by also explicitly covering clinician to patient communications where the patient is attending a location away from their home and where care is provided professionally, it also covers a wider range of services than the normal UK understanding that telehealth is primarily aimed at the patient in their own home, or, via their mobile device, their own private setting. The comparison across the codes is not therefore exact.

The TSA code is of course accessible to members and those seeking accreditation only. Those who have read the many sections of it will be aware that (more…)

Mainly mHealth: a few predictions for 2014, and some speculation

December 31, 2013 | by

Editor Charles on what to watch for in 2014

As we have covered previously (and here), there’s no shortage of forecasts that the mHealth market will continue to grow faster, or of penetrating comments like that that won Research2guidance a What in the Blue Blazes award that smartphone user penetration will be the main driver for the mobile health (mHealth) uptake. mHealth apps continue to proliferate – there’s even shortly to be a Pebble apps store. There are a few straws in the wind that not is all well though – for example, as we covered recently, Happtique ceased, at least temporarily, its apps approval process, citing security concerns.  Elsewhere Fierce Mobile described serious data privacy issues with the iPharmacy app, and the ICO recently produced security guidelines for app developers in the UK.  The EU is also strengthening data privacy, moving from individual country directives to a pan-EU regulation. This leads us to our first prediction (more…)

Another House bill supporting telehealth and telemedicine (US)

November 22, 2013 | by

One of the two US House representatives behind the expansion of telehealth services for active duty and veteran military members [TTA 19 Nov], California Rep. Scott Peters (San Diego area), has just introduced a bill, HR 3577, the ‘Health Savings Through Technology Act,’ to “create a commission to inventory existing data, examine the cost-savings that can be achieved by increasing the use of wireless health technologies, and develop a comprehensive strategy for integrating these technologies into federal health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, which often serve the mobility-impaired and elderly.”  What is notable is the backing that the bill has from health tech ‘heavy hitters’ such as Qualcomm, American Telemedicine Association (ATA), CONNECT (a San Diego-based innovation catalyst and accelerator) and CHI-California Healthcare Institute, as well as life sciences industry groups BIOCOM (San Diego area) and BayBio (its Northern California counterpart). However, this commission will be studying a rapidly moving target and best get its skates on, fast. Not helping matters is that there is a long, long road between the introduction of a House bill and its joint passage by both House and Senate–if it ever passes. Release (Rep. Peters’ website) Hat tip to ATA (@AmericanTelemed) via Twitter.

A highlight from ATA 2013 Fall Meeting: Psychiatric appointments as a ‘data-file’

October 29, 2013 | by

In a conversation at a recent Health 2.0 NYC event, this Editor asked Doug Naegele what was the most surprising topic at the recent American Telemedicine Association conference in Toronto. Doug has graciously contributed this short article. He is the founder of Infield Health, a firm dedicated to increasing health outcomes and reducing total cost of care by putting discharge instructions on mobile phones. 

At the ATA Fall Meeting in Toronto last month, Dr. Peter Yellowlees gave a presentation on his work at University of California-Davis around telepsychiatry. I was struck by a few of his discussion points:

1. It may be helpful to see psychiatric consults as ‘data files’ and not events that require mandatory real-time evaluation.
2. If we accept that these consults can be described as data files, then they can be forwarded to remote psychiatrists for viewing, evaluation, and treatment recommendations much in the same way radiological scans are remotely evaluated. (more…)

Engaging patients from the top down

September 10, 2013 | by

Neil Versel’s first major national magazine story just appeared in US News & World Report on the always engaging topic of…patient engagement. He explains to a general audience how healthcare reform might not change individuals’ behavior right away, but surely it is changing providers’ behaviors in relating to and engaging their patients. It covers EHRs, PHRs, online communications, aging in place, social networking and even doctors speaking with patients in understandable language. Well, Neil certainly does get it….it’s a clear article which we hope will be one of many written by Neil for a general audience. He is also speaking Tuesday at ATA’s Fall Forum in Toronto. Helping Patients Stay Engaged in their Own Care

Engaging patients (sideways?) is a new partnership announced by Bosch Healthcare and New York-based Remedy Health Media to add web-based solutions to its current health management programs delivered through their Health Buddy and T400 devices. The release and coverage (Mass Device, mHealth News)  implies that monitoring will part of the patient engagement with “a suite of innovative web-based products for remote patient monitoring” available later this year. Does it mean that the hubs are on their way to the scrapheap? Hat tip to reader Bob Pyke.

Telemedicine advances in Latin America

May 7, 2013 | by

Some welcome news out of the ATA 2013 meeting are the advances that telemedicine is making in Latin America and the Caribbean. Honored at ATA’s Sunday session were Jennifer Lopez and her eponymous family foundation for funding telemedicine outreach in Puerto Rico and Panama via the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA). In Puerto Rico, the work is concentrating on pediatrics genetics, and a monthly clinic that counsels four families per session. In Panama, the emphasis is on extending pediatric care beyond Panama City to the low-serve country areas through Panama City’s three major hospitals. The point is that the Lopez Family Foundation is only the start in the region, and that other healthcare providers and funding entities should be joining in kicking off development (Telefónica should be noting) HealthcareITNews

HealthSpot, Netsmart ally for telemedicine kiosks

May 7, 2013 | by

HealthSpot, which debuted its staffed telemedicine/telehealth Stations at CES 2013 (and this Editor previewed at CES New York in November), is partnering with behavioral health EHR/practice/clinical case management software provider Netsmart to add that capability to its kiosk consults. Announced at ATA yesterday, the MedCityNews article is sketchy on exactly how this will be integrated–will it be an option or will select kiosks be dedicated to behavioral health only–but this is likely a first for telementalhealth (another term in our lexicon!) Kiosk placements can be especially useful in rural areas which have a paucity of mental health/psychiatric providers (see TTA on Forefront TeleCare’s ATA announcement). It also follows this year’s ATA theme of telemedicine to more effectively serve rural US areas. HealthSpot also announced a pilot with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in its hometown of Columbus, Ohio; their CEO claims it has orders for 150 units in hand for its now three health system partners. Surprisingly, as of April they are already at Series C funding with a $10.4 million financing (of a $20 million offering) from giant Cardinal Health and other private investors.

Qualcomm Life ‘circles’ to care coordination

May 7, 2013 | by

Qualcomm Life, which to date has been more involved in device connectivity, interoperability and data management through its 2net Platform, has acquired care coordination platform HealthyCircles. Announced at ATA2013, the HealthyCircles service-as-a-software adds a front end to 2net’s biometric data that will aid in post-discharge and chronic care management from the hospital to home care providers to family caregivers. Qualcomm is clearly going after  the hospital ACO (accountable care organization) market in areas such as reductions in 30-day same cause readmissions; the fit with WebMD in integrating 2net biometric data with the former’s reference information, as announced at mHIMSS, is a little less apparent [TTA 5 March]. MedCityNews, HealthcareITNews, Qualcomm’s (jargon-laden, nearly unreadable) release.

Where the real remote care innovations are

May 6, 2013 | by

Another report by James Barlow from the ATA Conference.

More evidence that the really innovative thinking in the remote care world is coming from lower income countries. Dr Sikder Zakir from the Telemedicine Reference Centre (TRC – www.trclcare.com) in Bangladesh reported on the use of mHealth to improve access to underserved populations. Usually this would involve telemedicine – in its m- or non-mHealth guises – bringing healthcare to remotely located rural populations. Bangladesh is no exception, with 40,000 doctors and 25,000 nurses for 160 million people. But as is only too obvious to anyone who has been to countries in the Gulf there is a huge population of migrant workers living there. The 5 million expats from Bangladesh have 20 million dependents back home dependent on remittances, but neither side is well served for healthcare. The TRC is using mHealth to provide expats with access to doctors in Bangladesh via SMS messaging and voice calls, and extends the service – free – to up to five of their family members. Funding is via a $3 a month subscription paid via the migrant worker’s mobile phone network. The scheme is being tried out with 80,000 migrant workers in Singapore, before moving to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

We also heard from Dr Zakir about AMCARE (www.amcare24.com), an example of mHealth being used to extend diabetes care from hospitals to villages. This uses microinsurance payments (50 US cents / month) to cover the costs, a business model that is now gathering momentum in developing countries’ health systems.

Other reports by James Barlow.

Surgical telemonitoring – the next milestone for telemedicine?

May 6, 2013 | by

The first in a series of real-time reports from American Telemedicine Association annual conference in Austin, Texas, by James Barlow, Imperial College London.

The ATA conference has just included an interesting session on surgery as the next milestone for telemedicine. While telesurgey has long been an area of interest in remote care, pressures in the health system and developments in technology are combining to create new opportunities for supporting surgeons in their work. But many of the familiar implementation challenges are also looming large. So what were the reflections from the panel and discussion?

The consensus was that we need to shift the state of the art in operating room practices from considering volume and quality to broader notions of ‘value’ embracing cost, quality and access. Hospitals will be increasingly rewarded on outcomes and patient satisfaction, and telesurgery potentially helps improve both.

Two kinds of broad telesurgery model are envisaged – the expert surgeon ‘broadcast’ their operations to a wide audience and a more 1:1 relationship where the expert is remotely located and provides support for a specific operation. The ‘new telesurgery’ will involve three things.

  1. Just phoning another surgeon for advice in the middle of an operation is no longer good enough. There will be much more collaboration between surgeons, using new collaborative tools for bringing people together at a distance. The possibility of virtual environments around the operating room is already here and should be widely embraced.
  2. Large peer-supported integrated surgery networks will emerge with surgeons paid for the time they spend providing advice or moderating discussions. Spending 10% of your time mentoring other surgeons – perhaps around the world – will become part of the norm.
  3. A pool of recognised expert mentors will develop. Mentors can be ‘in the room’ virtually during the procedure. Or they can be invited to participate in situations where there is an ‘index case’ – a rarely encountered procedure – where the pool of knowledge is spread thinly.

All this is going to clash with the inherent conservatism of surgeons and their unwillingness to change tried and trusted approaches and technologies. The big challenges for moving forward in telesurgery are:

  1. ‘Network effects’ need to kick in – there has to be a critical mass of users and installed technology to generate the biggest benefits.
  2. Inevitably there are incompatibilities in technical standards for data transfer.
  3. The focus so far has been on audio and video, but integrating patient data into telesurgery and back into patient record systems is also essential.
  4. Tools for virtual collaboration are rapidly developing, allowing crystal clear video, remote access to laparoscopic images, virtual laser pointers, and doing all this on tablets. These need to be made widely available.
  5. Reimbursement and business models – who pays for what? Can we find ways of reimbursing hospitals / surgeons providing experts? How do we schedule expert mentor time and build this into their contracts?
  6. Medico-legal. There are cross border (or cross state issues here in the US) licensing issues and big problems of responsibilities in the event of problems arising in a telesurgery procedure.

Other reports by James Barlow.

Telemedicine breaking through with payers? (US)

April 26, 2013 | by

Cigna, the tenth largest insurer in the US, jumped this week on the virtual consult wagon train with earlier pioneers UnitedHealthcare (#1), WellPoint (#2) and Aetna (#5).  Cigna is partnering with MDLive to offer online video, telephone or e-mail consultations with doctors for non-urgent care as an option for self-insured employers nationwide starting 1 July for plans effective 1 January 2014. MDLive will send, via Cigna, summaries of telehealth visits to patients’ physicians. Cigna’s present telemedicine partner, McKesson’s RelayHealth, will remain for virtual consults with the patient’s own physician. Among payers, the widest coverage appears to be UnitedHealthcare with NowClinic in 22 states; WellPoint offers American Well only in California and Ohio while Aetna is piloting with Teladoc in Texas and Florida. (Just in time to buzz through ATA 2013!) InformationWeek Healthcare

ATA 2013 announces three ‘practical’ keynotes

April 23, 2013 | by

The American Telemedicine Association’s 2013 meeting, 5-7 May in Austin, Texas has three keynote speakers, and not a buzzy one among them. The large provider:  Lynn Britton, President & CEO, Mercy, a 31 hospital healthcare system in the Midwest and named 2012 “Most Wired” healthcare organization by the American Hospital Organization. The tech innovator: Jeffrey Henley, Chairman, Oracle Corporation. The payer side: Reed Tuckson, MD, the immediate past Chief of Medical Affairs for UnitedHealth, the largest US private insurer. Release. More information on ATA 2013. If you are attending ATA, and would like to contribute a summary of what you find interesting or your general observations (including video and photos), please email Editor Donna or comment below.