Thursday news roundup: dimming SPACs, hospital-at-home pilots in DFW, Connected Health debuts bespoke home care services configurator in NIR

June 9, 2022 | by

The prognosis for SPACs? Like Lucas electrics, dim. Too many went public on last year’s overdose of moonbeams and celery stalks at midnight, to this year’s plummeting share prices and red ink. Not only are SPACs now targets of Federal, including SEC, scrutiny, but they have Elizabeth Warren, the Senatorial Scourge of Finance, after them promising legislation with even tighter regulations than the SEC. But let’s face it, most SPAC’d companies have yet to stumble their way into profitability. From financing Hero to Zero in two years. This short article in PrivCo’s Daily Stack will confirm all of this.  

Hospital-at-home pilots in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area. Biofourmis is piloting an initiative with Wise Health System for its Hospital@Home end-to-end solution that combines artificial intelligence (AI)-based remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology and clinical support services. This is to qualify for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Acute Hospital Care at Home program. Select patients can choose to be admitted to home versus the hospital, then monitored by the Biofourmis Virtual Bed Kit based on a wearable biosensor feeding into a digital tablet pre-loaded with the patient-facing Biovitals Hospital@Home app. Wise’s staff will visit the patient at least twice daily to conduct in-person examinations, assessments, and additional testing as needed. Wise Health is a four-hospital, integrated care network. Biofourmis release

What you pick is what you get. Domiciliary care provider Connected Health is debuting Connected Health 2.0, a ‘home care configurator’ which will enable clients and families to build a package of services for home care. Launched during Carer’s Week in Northern Ireland, it custom-packages physical care, wearables, medication devices and virtual care services. Once the client or family member configures the care package, Connected Health calls them to review suitability then follows up with an on-site risk assessment in the home before service begins. The Irish News article is light on details like when it begins in Northern Ireland, but Connected Health’s timetable is to roll it out in the UK and Ireland over the next two years.

After the COVID Deluge: a Topol-esque view of what (tele)medicine will look like

April 10, 2020 | by

A typically cheery view by Eric Topol, MD of what medical practice will look like after COVID is over. With the full court press to go remote in hospitals and practices worldwide, telehealth and telemedicine has gone fast forward in a matter of under two months. But what will it look like after it’s over? Most of what the good doctor is prognosticating will be familiar to our Readers who’ve followed him for years–certainly he was right on mobile health overall and especially AliveCor/Kardia Mobile— but not so on point with mobile body scanners (anyone remember VScan?)

When the high tide recedes, what will the beach look like?

  • “Telemedicine will play the role of the first consultation, akin to the house-call of yore.” (Terminology note–interesting that Dr. T still uses ‘telemedicine’ versus ‘telehealth’–Ed.)
  • Chatbots will serve as screeners–once they are proven to be effective (a ways to go here, as the Babylon debate rages on)
  • Smartphones will be the hub, connecting with all sorts of monitoring devices (the ‘connected health’ Tyto Care and Vivify Health model–which makes the Editor’s former company, the late Viterion Digital Health, even more of a pioneer that died crossing the Donner Pass of 2016)
  • Smartwatches are also part of this hub (this Editor remains a skeptic) 
  • Now is the time to harness technology by both health systems and individual practices, but multiple barriers remain. (This Editor can speak to the difficulties for both primary care and specialty practices in not only practice but also reimbursement–and acceptance by patients.) Device expense is also a problem for the non-affluent.

As to the rest, it is pretty much what we’ve heard from Dr. T before.  The Economist

Your Editor will add:

  • Easy to use, secure platforms that don’t put users through multiple security steps remain a concern for users. This Editor’s concern is that easy to use = insecure. Skype and Zoom are inherently insecure–Skype’s user unfriendliness and insecurity outside enterprise platforms and Zoom’s major security problems on its platform and user flaws are well-known (ZDNet).
  • Reimbursement, again! CMS has done a creditable job in broadening reimbursement for telehealth a/v and telephonic services, but coding remains a nightmare for practices struggling to remain open and with some lights on. After COVID, will CMS and HHS get religion, or put it right back in its rural bottle? Covered in the CARES Act passed at the close of March, $200 million sounds like a lot from the FCC to bankroll telecom equipment for providers, but these funds will go quickly. At least they are not delayed in endless rule making, as the Connected Care Pilot Program has been for two years. Mobihealthnews 

The health tech events of summer: The King’s Fund (London) and Parks Associates (San Diego) (Updated)

April 24, 2018 | by

Summer is coming, even if it’s difficult to believe that April Showers (or Snow) bring May Flowers. Here’s a preview of two health tech events to put on your calendar later on this year in mid and late summer.

The King’s Fund Digital Health and Care Congress 10-11 July, at their location in London. Content and case studies include creating the right culture for large-scale digital change, using digital technology to improve quality of care, prevention and changing behaviors, population health informatics, tools for self-management, and much more. Speakers include Matthew Swindell of NHS England and the Rt. Hon. Paul Burstow of the TSA. Information and registration are now available here. (Updated this week!) Follow The King’s Fund on Twitter here: #KFdigital18. TTA is a media partner of the Digital Health Congress.

Parks Associates’ 2018 Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers will be held 28-30 August at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California. This year will analyze the role of innovative connected health solutions in driving changes in consumer behaviors as well as how healthcare systems, insurers, and hospital networks interact with consumers. Updated: Confirmed keynotes are Deborah DiSanzo, General Manager, IBM Watson Health and–just added–Christopher Weber, General Manager of Uber Health [see this Editor’s thoughts on Uber from last month]. Speaker submissions are open until 1 June–more information is here. Early registration is now open. TTA is a media partner of the Connected Health Summit.

Counting down to the Connected Health Conference–readers save $100!

October 18, 2017 | by

Connected Health Conference
25-27 October, Seaport World Trade Center, 200 Seaport Boulevard, Boston

The eighth annual Connected Health Conference, presented by the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance) in partnership with Partners Connected Health, is coming up in just a few days.

Wednesday is packed with special sessions that cover the state of the market in wearables, artificial intelligence (AI), voice-activated technologies, the smart home (hosted by Parks Associates) and the innovation economy.

  • The Life Sciences and MedTech Roundtable will explore the emerging category of digital therapeutics, the evolution of traditional pharma and med tech business models and the impact on relationships with patients, providers and other stakeholders in healthcare.
  • Europe Meets North America will exchange views and strategies on issues like interoperability and the free flow of data across borders in an all-day workshop hosted by the ECHAlliance. (For more on the PCHAlliance’s EU efforts to ensure consistent regulations governing digital health with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), see this release.)

Recent additions to the main conference on Thursday and Friday:

  • A new fifth track focusing on health system innovation projects, outcomes and processes with the leading partnerships that are disrupting and redesigning healthcare delivery, including Healthbox and Intermountain Healthcare, Brigham Digital Innovation Hub, Johns Hopkins Medicine Technology Innovation Center and MITRE sharing their work with Dana-Farber.
  • The new Innovation Lounge will showcase provider, industry and institutional innovation centers and novel collaborations. The Innovation Lounge stage will present groundbreaking initiatives from Intel, IBM, MDRevolution and Becton Dickinson, HHS Idea Lab, data from the IPSOS Digital Doctor Survey, and results of a recent connected health survey. Dr. Joseph Kvedar will share a preview of his new book, The New Mobile Age, How Technology Will Extend the Healthspan and Optimize the Lifespan. (more…)

Connected Health Conference 25-27 October, Boston–save $100! (updated)

September 27, 2017 | by

Connected Health Conference, 25-27 October, Seaport World Trade Center, Boston Massachusetts

The eighth annual Connected Health Conference, is now presented by the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance) in partnership with Partners Connected Health, with a combined and rebooted annual meeting in Boston. The largest global conference in connected health has surfed many changes from the time it was started as the mHealth Summit (and Telecare Aware was one of the first media sponsors) in Washington, DC. This year’s theme, The Connected Life Journey: Shaping Health and Wellness for Every Generation, is centered around the future of technology-enabled health, wellness and what innovation means for over 2,000 providers, researchers, healthcare executives, and developers. CHC17’s location is now in Boston’s Innovation District versus a fairly remote part of Foggy Bottom–and early fall! (For more on CHC’s evolution, see here.)

Wednesday the 25th has a full day of pre-conference specialized sessions here, such as the Society for Participatory Medicine and Parks Associates‘ workshop, with the full conference and open exhibit hall on Thursday and Friday. Continua has a running Plugfest for those involved with Continua standards on Thursday and Friday. Also on those days is CHC’s own Health Tech StandOut! Competition featuring a group of ten finalists, free for conference registrants and the Connected Health Innovation Challenge (CHIC) (information here).

For the main website and for registration, click on the ad in the sidebar. TTA Readers save $100 on registration–use code CHC17TELE100. TTA is a media sponsor of CHC17. For updates, see on Twitter #Connect2Health and @PCHAlliance

Update: The PCHAlliance published today a research paper, Personal Connected Health: The State of the Evidence and a Call to Action. This is a meta-study of 53 studies and trials for setting an initial baseline for evidence in personal connected health. The key findings on the current state will come as no surprise–that better studies are needed that show evidence in clinical trials and real-world use. Release, study (download links)

Events: MEDICA App Competition 15 November (DE)–not too late to enter!

September 9, 2017 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/MAC_logo_474x133.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Wednesday 15 November, Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre, Hall 15, 3-5pm

MEDICA 2017 (13-16 Nov) will be hosting the sixth annual MEDICA App Competition on the stage of the Connected Healthcare Forum. This is featured as the “the world’s largest live competition for the best App-based Medical Mobile Solution for use in the daily routine of a patient, a doctor or in the hospital.” 15 contestants will pitch on stage for three minutes each with an additional two minutes for the jury to submit questions. First place solution will be awarded €2,000, second €1,000 and third €500, along with the winner going to SXSW and the top three receiving Startupbootcamp (SBC) Digital Health awards.

Featured on the jury are Ashish Atreja from Mount Sinai in NYC and Ralf-Gordon Jahns of research2guidance.

Application submissions are being accepted through 30 September with notification early in October–scroll down the page for the link.

‘Serving with heart’: two glimpses of innovation in Singapore and Thailand

August 30, 2017 | by

Probably a first for this Editor is news from Singapore on the healthcare technology and innovation front. The first report comes from Today where Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean advocates for the interesting combination of embracing innovation and ‘serving patients with heart.’ Speaking at the opening of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine’s Clinical Sciences Building in Novena, Mr. Teo talked not only about pathogens and biomedical research but also about remote patient monitoring, tele-consulting, and home-care robots.

From Thailand but addressing the Asia-Pacific market is Caroline Clarke, CEO for Philips Asean Pacific, on the region’s aging population and the outlook to 2050. Asia is home to 60 percent of the world’s over-60 population which is expected to grow from 547 million in 2016 to nearly 1.3 billion by 2050. She noted that the Future Health Index noted that while the benefits of connected care technologies were known in Asia, there was a lack of understanding on how and why to use them to take better care of their health. Philips has opened a regional headquarters in Singapore with advanced innovation facilities, announcing a partnership with EDBI to co-invest in regional digital health companies. The Nation

Philips publishes second annual Future Health Index on access, integration and tech adoption

August 19, 2017 | by

The Future Health Index–a blockbuster 100-page annual study from Philips with research conducted by IPSOS, Schlesinger, and Braun–reflects findings of over 29,000 consumers and 3,300 healthcare professionals in 19 countries. The survey includes analysis by country and aggregate of perception versus reality (both difficult measures) in access to healthcare, integration between healthcare systems, and adoption of healthcare technology. It is, needless to say, complex and hard to parse into a headline and finding or two or four. The UK press release helpfully discusses particulars of the UK findings which are hard to find in the main report. Overall, it’s positive, but nowhere near a tipping point where connected care is expected and routine.  

  • About half (48%) of (UK) HCPs have seen an increase in the use of connected care technologies by primary care doctors in last 12 months
  • About a third of the (UK) general population (31%) have used connected care technologies to monitor a health indicator in the last 12 months
  • Over half of the (UK) general population (57%) who have used connected care technology to track health indicators have shared their data with an HCP in the last 12 months
  • Six-in-ten (62%) of the (UK) general population think that integration of the health system would make the quality of healthcare better

The appendix with the UK summary results is available online here and the US here. The full study is available for download here. (All countries are in the appendix)

Out of the global results, there’s a disconnect between having the data and making it useful: “Only 23% of the general population surveyed who used connected care technology within the last 12 months claim to completely understand when to share data from connected care technology with a healthcare professional, or the easiest way to do so.” 

A not surprising finding was that quick wins would be found in the home care area and in preventing avoidable readmissions:

  • Connected care was important to healthcare professionals in improving home care and for geriatric care–81 percent and 82 percent respectively  
  • 55 percent of professionals chose home care and related aspects in improving long-term management and tracking of medical issues

Looking forward into the future, the general population group was asked to speculate on artificial intelligence and on what AI technology would have the most impact on improving healthcare if available today. The two leaders were health tracking wearables/apps on smartphones and AI-assisted tools for guidance. Hologram doctors and robots cruised around 10 percent (!)

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AI-from-Philips-1.jpg” thumb_width=”250″ /]

Editor’s note: While incredibly comprehensive, this Editor will express a certain disappointment in the researchers’ selection of US and UK experts. This Editor could name five to ten experts and patient advocates in US and UK from personal contacts (including our UK-based Editors) without thinking particularly hard–and with a little homework UAE and Africa–who could have informed their study.

This Editor also had the pleasure to meet two of Philips’ connected health executives at this month’s Health 2.0 NYC/MedStartr meeting on population health and value-based care: Nick Padula, VP of Home Healthcare Monitoring, and Eduardo Da Silva, Strategic Sales Director of Philips Wellcentive. Mr. Padula was a panelist for the evening.

TSA’s 2016 International Technology Enabled Care Conference (UK)

September 30, 2016 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/TSA-logo-400×400.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]18-19 October, the ICC Birmingham

A reminder than in a few short weeks the annual International Technology Enabled Care Conference will take place at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, hosting UK organizations across health, housing, home care, social care, industry and more.

The event will focus on TEC with the theme ‘Connected Care, Connected Homes and Connected Communities’, and feature a packed programme with, as they put it, “challenging debates, thought-provoking presentations, interactive workshops and brand new interactive zones to inspire, inform and drive forward sector collaboration.” The draft programme is here. Find out more at the conference’s home page and register at the full website here.  There are also a few exhibition booth stands and sponsorships left, looking at the interactive floor map, so your company may want to check here as well.

If you are a Reader and attending, please feel free to send Editor Donna your thoughts for publication on where the industry is going and what is it doing. (Please indicate if it is for attribution under your name or a nom de plume)

IoT and the inevitable, looming Big Data Breach

July 6, 2016 | by

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The Gimlet Eye returns to once again cast a baleful gaze on All Those Connected Things, or the Plastic Fantastic Inevitable. Those 6.4 million Wi-Fi-connected tea kettles, smart fridge, remotely adjusted pacemakers (and other medical devices) plus home security two way video systems that accost the dodgy door ringer sound just peachy–but how good is their security? Not very, according to the experts quoted in this ZDNet article. It’s those nasty security flaws in IoT which were patched out 10 years ago on PCs that make them incredibly risky to have, as they can vector all sorts of Bad Things into both personal and enterprise networks. Their prediction is that a Connected Device with a big flaw will become molto popular and provide a Target a Hacker Can’t Refuse within two years. Or that some really clever hacker will write ransomware that will shut down millions of Connected Cars’ CPUs or disable the steering and brakes if 40 bitcoins aren’t placed in a brown paper bag and left on the third stool of the pizzeria at 83rd and Third.

Not much has changed since Eye wrote about those darn Internet Thingys last year [TTA 22 Sept 15]. The mystery is of course why these antique flaws are even part of the design. Designers being cheapskates? No consideration of security? (more…)

The difficulty in differentiating telemedicine and telehealth

June 15, 2016 | by

Our Editors have always tried to cleanly define the differences between telemedicine, telehealth and telecare, even as they blur in industry use. (See our Definitions sidebar for the latter two.) But telemedicine, at least on this side of the Atlantic, has lost linguistic ground to telehealth, which has become the umbrella term that eHealth wanted to be only two or three years ago. Similarly, digital health, connected health and mHealth have lost ground to health tech, since most devices now connect and incorporate mobility. And there are sub-genres, such as wearables, fitness trackers and aging tech.

Poor telehealth grows ever fuzzier emanations and penumbra! Now bearing the burden of virtual visits between doctor and patient, doctor-to-doctor professional consults, video conferencing (synchronous and asynchronous), remote patient monitoring of vital signs and qualitative information (ditto), and distance health monitoring to treat patients, it also begins to embrace its data: outcome-based analytics, population health and care modeling. Eric Wicklund accumulates a pile of studies from initial-heavy organizations: WHO, HIMSS, HHS, Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP), ATA, TRC Network. All of which shows, perhaps contrary to Mr Wicklund’s intentions, how confusing simple concepts have become. mHealth Intelligence

Philips publishes new report on connected tech

June 8, 2016 | by | 1 Comment
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Future-health-index-e1465426741815.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]A report published by Philips today claims that 78% of healthcare professionals believe their patients need to take a more active role in managing their health while 20% of UK patients admit to not managing their health, according to a press release. The report suggests that the result of people not paying attention to their health is increased illnesses (or “lifestyle related conditions” as the report calls them) such as heart failure and type 2 diabetes. The report then goes on to suggest that the use of “connected technology” to help manage their health should be made mandatory for some patients. Connected technology is defined as technology that enables sharing of information throughout all parts of the health system (e.g. doctors, nurses, community nurses, patients, hospitals, specialists, insurers and government) that can range from computer software that allows secure communication between doctors and hospitals, to a watch that tracks a person’s heartbeat. However, the connected technology in a case study highlighted in the press release is home based monitoring systems supplied by Philips for a classic UK telehealth trial for COPD, diabetes and heart failure.

Philips say they commissioned the Future Health Index (FHI) report to globally gauge (more…)

HealthIMPACT Southeast 22 January

December 16, 2015 | by

Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables (Miami), Florida, 7am-6pm

Daydreaming of a post-holiday warm weather break? The HealthIMPACT events are relatively small conferences that typically cover a lot of connected health ground in a few hours. The fast paced format combines single presenters and panels into primarily 30 minute sessions (some as short as 15 minutes). Presenters are from a mix of backgrounds and come from health systems, HIT, academia and community health. This Editor has attended two events in NYC and has been impressed (and that’s not easy) with the presentations, the breaks, the attendees and the venues. Information and registration.

Other upcoming HealthIMPACT events: Southwest 24 March (Marriott Medical Center, Houston), East 17 May (Westin Times Square, NYC), West 9 June (Anaheim)

Powerhouse DC lobbying for telehealth, telemedicine

February 13, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gimlet-eye.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]The Gimlet Eye observes from a houseboat anchored at a remote Pacific island, with coconuts and occasional internet to Editor Donna.

Telehealth and telemedicine have reached a US milestone of sorts: the formation of a Washington, DC-based ‘advocacy’ (a/k/a lobbying) group constituted as a business non-profit. The Alliance for Connected Care is headed by three former Senators (two of whom were ‘amigos’) from both sides of the aisle and backed by a board including the expected (giants Verizon, WellPoint, CVS Caremark, Walgreens)–and the surprising (much smaller remote consult provider Teladoc and HealthSpot, the developer of the HealthSpot Station kiosk–hmmm, must be a fair chunk of their marketing budgets there) flanked by six well known ‘associate members’ including Cardinal Health and Care Innovations (another hmmm). There’s also a hefty ‘advisory board‘ including the American Heart Association and the NAHC (home care). The leadership team members are all members of major Washington law/lobbying firms. Tom Daschle is recognized as one of the most influential former Senators in town via DLA Piper, though himself not a registered lobbyist (OpenSecrets.org). Trent Lott and John Breaux hung out their own shingle and were recently bought by mega-lobbyist Patton Boggs. To put a fine point on it, more high-powered one does not get. The Eye sees that the time is prime for the Big Influence and…

What the Eye sees is Big Financial Stakes: Private insurers are required to cover telehealth in 20 states, as does Medicaid in most. The VA is a major user. But the great big trough of Medicare is new territory; covering 16 percent of the population, the use of telemedicine and telehealth is limited to certain geographic areas. (MedCityNews) This marks the infamous tipping point: the clarion call to ‘build significant and high-level support for Connected Care among leaders in Congress and the Administration’, ‘enable more telehealth to support new models of care’ and ‘establish a non-binding, standardized definition of Connected Care through federal level multi stakeholder-input process’ (whew!) Big companies want in, insurers want reimbursement, and they want it from somewhere as well. Toto, we’re not in the Kansas of Small anymore with ‘connected health’–we are now in the Oz of Big Money and Power Players. Alliance release (Oddly the website looks preliminary despite the big announcement and backing.)

More on this strategy: It’s called ‘soft lobbying’ and it is the latest thing in the Influence Wars. The Alliance for Connected Care is a 501(c)6 non-profit, similar to a business league like the Chamber of Commerce, and this has become a popular tactic. It’s also a less regulated, less transparent way to shape coverage, public opinion and exert influence on legislators. See this well-timed examination from the Washington Post on the corn syrup versus table sugar wars. ‘Soft lobbying’ war between sugar, corn syrup shows new tactics in Washington influence

Nursing home telemedicine reduces hospitalizations: study

February 10, 2014 | by

A controlled two-year study in a chain of eleven Massachusetts for-profit nursing homes significantly reduced readmissions through the use of telemedicine (remote consults) with patients during off-hours and weekends. Those homes which used the (unidentified) telemedicine provider the most frequently–four–had the greatest reductions in rates of hospitalization: 11.3 percent, versus 9.7 percent for the six facilities which adopted the system first. A control group of five which presumably did not use telemedicine had a reduction of 5.3 percent. Calculating the savings to Medicare, the researchers estimated $150,000 per nursing home per year. With a telemedicine cost of $30,000 per nursing home, the net savings would be roughly $120,000 for each home using the services most frequently. The researchers are David C. Grabowski of Harvard Medical School and A. James O’Malley of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine. Abstract (full text in Health Affairs paywalled), Medical News Today. Hat tip to Editor Toni Bunting.

TTA’s Editors are highlighting several of the articles in this month’s Health Affairs ‘Connected Health’ issue: Study shows telehealth increases new healthcare users, State policies, size influence hospital telehealth adoption, Health Affairs review of telehealth/telemedicine studies. Health Affairs provides a helpful overview of this month’s articles ( full text) in Connected Health: Emerging Disruptive Technologies

So 9 out of 10 people haven’t heard of ‘telehealth’…and your point is?

August 14, 2013 | by | 3 Comments

Apparently echoing the comments about health technology awareness made in our post last week about O2 (who are, by the way, to be congratulated for their parent company’s announcement today that they are preferred bidders for two of the three smart meter regions), the HSJ has reported the results of a YouGov poll that nine out of ten adults in the UK have never heard of telehealth.  Of those over 55, the age above which use of telehealth is more likely, 92% hadn’t heard of it. (Note that the HSJ article is behind a paywall, however via a Google search on “National Telehealth Forum”, the commissioner of the survey, you can currently go past it). The National Telehealth Forum press release is .  EHI also covers the story, .

So is this a matter of serious concern?  (more…)