Telemedicine Archive

Monday, November 9, 2009

Toumaz Sensium Digital Plaster Goes on Trial

Toumaz Technology out of Abingdon, UK has announced it partnered with the Imperial College London to perform a clinical trial on the company's "Digital Plaster" vital signs monitor. The technology, which we covered in the past (see flashbacks below), allows for continuous monitoring and wireless transmission of temperature, heart and respiratory rates to help speed up workflow and get rid of some of the cables.

The focus of the trial will be to verify that the physiological data acquired by the digital plaster system within a clinical setting is equivalent to that acquired using current gold-standard monitors in use in hospitals – equipment that is often bulky, expensive and fixed, such that patient mobility is impaired. The Sensium digital plaster is wireless and unobtrusive, meaning that patients can remain ambulatory in hospital while still being monitored. This flexibility allows continuous vital sign monitoring to be extended to patients who would not normally be monitored, thereby offering the potential to increase patient safety. The Sensium digital plaster is a disposable device with a working lifetime of several days, after which the plaster is disposed of in the appropriate waste receptacle.

The trial is being conducted in three phases, an initial phase with non-patient volunteers followed by two patient study groups: patients recovering from surgery, and patients with specific medical conditions in the general wards.

The Sensium digital plaster is targeted for use in clinical monitoring applications such as acute care, general ward environments, tele-care, chronic disease monitoring, and in care home settings. For all these applications, disposability provides convenience, simplicity and patient comfort while ensuring infection control is maintained to the highest standards. Powered by thin batteries, body-worn Sensium-enabled monitors deliver clinical-quality data and intelligently integrate it into an electronic medical record via a network built on Toumaz’s power-optimised wireless operating and networking system, Nano Sensor Protocol (NSP).

Press release: Toumaz Technology and Imperial College London In Landmark Clinical Trial Of Sensium

Product page: Toumaz Sensium ...

Flashbacks: Sensium Life Pebble Wireless Vitals Monitor for Sport Training, Cardiac Health Auditing ; EU Aims to Develop Blood Glucose Prediction Device ; Sensium Chip: An Ultra Low Power Sensor Interface

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Sensium Life Pebble Wireless Vitals Monitor for Sport Training, Cardiac Health Auditing

Toumaz Technology out of Abingdon, UK has released the Sensium™ Life Pebble vital sign monitoring device. Featuring a single lead ECG, a skin thermometer, and an accelerometer to monitor physical activity, the unit can track one's performance for later analysis by a clinician.

Device features:

Wireless monitoring of heart rate and activity optimised for ambulatory conditions

Accurate electrically-derived heart rate from R to R peak measurements

3-axis accelerometer to detect and measure physical activity

Skin temperature sensor

Robust data communication, even in noisy channels

Up to 5 days' operational use on a single hearing aid battery

Light weight and ultra-small size (20gm with LR44 battery, excluding EKG leads)

Press release: Toumaz Technology Announces Availability of Sensium Life Pebble Wireless Vital Signs Monitor...

Product page: The Sensium Life Pebble...

Flashback: Sensium™ Chip: An Ultra Low Power Sensor Interface

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Project ECHO Brings Specialists Virtually Out to The Farm

Video teleconferencing has been making inroads in helping doctors remotely interview patients when a visit to the clinic is unnecessary or is simply too much trouble. A companion problem for patients living in remote areas is that their physicians are also usually miles away from large medical facilities with an array of specialists. Because specialty advice is far away, rural patients may not receive sufficient attention without driving to a distant hospital. Now a project called ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) at the University of New Mexico is bringing together rural clinicians with university specialists to discuss individual patient cases.

Project page: Project ECHO...

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

MyGlucoHealth Adds SMS, Email Messaging Capabilities

Entra Health Systems out of San Diego, CA has been rolling out its Bluetooth powered glucose meter which can synchronize data with a computer or other devices. The firm has just announced that the MyGlucoHealth system, with which the company's meter interacts, can now send updates of patient's historical glucose trends, as well as reminders to check glucose or stock up on more strips.

By managing their individual online profile, each patient can establish high and low thresholds based on personal goals and health condition. The menu allows the patient to designate phone numbers for mobile phone text messages, as well as email addresses for recipients of alerts. In addition, there is a 'reminders' messaging feature on the MyGlucoHealth portal that allows the patient to set up a series of notifications to help them maintain a consistent level of testing, posting or a supply of strips. Reminders can be set up at 15-minute intervals throughout the day to alert the patient to test, upload their stored testing results or to order additional test strips when their supply is low. The website keeps count of strip usage and integrates with MyGlucoStore.com to notify the patient when it's time to order additional strips.

MyGlucoHealth is the first FDA cleared and CE certified Bluetooth blood glucose meter. The meter, along with the MyGlucoHealth Network, form an integrated telehealth platform supporting patients and healthcare professionals in the control and treatment of diabetes. MyGlucoHealth gives patients more direct control over their care and provides clear lines of communication with clinicians and caregivers.

The MyGlucoHealth meter works in combination with a real-time online data collection network to upload and manage blood glucose readings using a mobile phone or PC. This eliminates the need for patients to maintain personal logbooks, improving data accuracy and removing the opportunity for incomplete or 'manufactured' readings. Using the MyGlucoHealth Portal at www.myglucohealth.net, or regional sites throughout the world, patients securely transmit and evaluate their daily readings while communicating those same results to their families, caregiver or diabetic care specialist.

Press release: MyGlucoHealth Adds Patient Messaging and Alerts System to Integrated Diabetes Monitoring Platform...

Product pages: MyGlucoHealth; MyGlucoMeter...

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

CellScope, a "Mobile Phone Based Clinical Microscopy for Global Health Applications"

Investigators from UCSF and UC Berkeley have just published an article at PloS ONE that discusses applicability data and design of a newly developed microscope-enabled mobile phone system, dubbed CellScope. We have covered CellScope on our pages before. The goal of this research is to equip clinicians with a small and cheap technology to image microorganisms and pathology specimens in remote places, for an instant diagnosis or for transmission of images to a central location, such as a regional medical center.

The engineers attached compact microscope lenses to a holder fitted to a cell phone. Using samples of infected blood and sputum, the researchers were able to use the camera phone to capture bright field images of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans, and sickle-shaped red blood cells. They were also able to take fluorescent images of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterial culprit that causes TB in humans. Moreover, the researchers showed that the TB bacteria could be automatically counted using image analysis software.

The engineers had previously shown that a portable microscope mounted on a mobile phone could be used for bright field microscopy, which uses simple white light — such as from a bulb or sunlight — to illuminate samples. The latest development adds to the repertoire fluorescent microscopy, in which a special dye emits a specific fluorescent wavelength to tag a target - such as a parasite, bacteria or cell - in the sample.

The researchers used filters to block out background light and to restrict the light source, a simple light-emitting diode (LED), to the 460 nanometer wavelength necessary to excite the green fluorescent dye in the TB-infected blood. Using an off-the-shelf phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, they were able to achieve a spatial resolution of 1.2 micrometers. In comparison, a human red blood cell is about 7 micrometers in diameter.

The researchers pointed out that while fluorescent microscopes include additional parts, less training is needed to interpret fluorescent images. Instead of sorting out pathogens from normal cells in the images from standard light microscopes, health workers simply need to look for something the right size and shape to light up on the screen.

Article in PLoS ONE: Mobile Phone Based Clinical Microscopy for Global Health Applications...

Press release with video of the microscope in action: UC Berkeley researchers bring fluorescent imaging to mobile phones for low-cost screening in the field...

Side image: Fluorescent image of TB bacteria taken by the CellScope.

Flashback: CellScope for Rural Microscopy On The Go

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Monday, July 20, 2009

EKG On Your Mobile Wherever You Are

The Department of Veterans Affairs is trialing a new communication system that can get critical medical info to a physician on his way to the patient's bedside. Developed by mVisum of Cedar Brook, NJ, the technology allows fast transfer of clinical data to a smartphone for immediate review.

OhMyGov blog reports:

Prior to the pilot phase, the VA tested the technology internally. Of 600 EKGs read on a Blackberry mobile device, 599 were correct diagnoses. The correct diagnosis rate signals an exciting new reality for telehealth. Clear digital imaging offers new modes of diagnosis and treatment for remote patient populations that may lack access to specialists, as well as more timely care in metropolitan and congested areas. The smartphone EKG project exemplifies the potential for telehealth technologies.
In order to take advantage of the technology, the VA uses a GE Muse server and digital EKG. The mVisum software knows when an EKG is taken and grabs a copy (as does its internal EHR). If a call is placed regarding a patient, the cardiologist can scroll through the EKGs, locating the patient of interest and view the image off-site. Everything is server-based, so the EKG does not reside on the phone-when the physician logs out, there is no accessible data left on the phone.

Company page: mVisum...

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cisco and UnitedHealth Join in Telemedicine Effort

At a DC press conference, Cisco and UnitedHealth announced Connected Care, a joint effort to create a national telemedicine network aimed, at least at first, at serving rural, difficult to access, and underserved patient populations. The technology, consisting mostly of a secure and high quality video/audio link between a telemedicine center and a doctor's office, would likely be supplemented by on-site nurses and equipment that would provide doctors visual and auditory information about basic vital signs, allowing them to listen to heartbeats, lung sounds, etc., all miles away from the patient. The network itself will be open, and Cisco is hoping to create an environment where third party technologies can integrate into the remote clinic and provide doctors and patients with a better experience. The companies just finished a pilot with a bunch of Cisco employees, who reportedly had a positive experience. Six Connected Care programs are currently in development to beta test the concept.

All you men out there better get ready to turn your head, cough, and hold a video camera to your groin.

From the Cisco press release:

Cisco HealthPresence will be one of the principal technologies enabling Connected Care, using video, audio and medical information to create an experience remarkably similar to an in-person visit with a doctor.
To mark the announcement, the companies unveiled today on Capitol Hill the UnitedHealth Group Connected Care mobile clinic – an 18-wheel clinic showcasing the technology and connectivity available through the network.

"In developing advanced telemedicine technologies, we're unlocking new possibilities for how patients can interact with doctors and medical staff. The in-person visit with a doctor is no longer the sole 'gold standard' method for delivering high-quality health care services," said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, vice president Global Healthcare Practice, Cisco Systems, Inc. "Instead, we've now introduced a new care at-a-distance health care delivery model that better connects people, information and processes into one continuum of care. This new technology-enabled delivery model will improve productivity and efficiency in health care while at the same time minimizing costs for access to quality care services."

Press Release: UnitedHealthGroup, Cisco Launch Connected Care, First National Telehealth Network to Expand Health Care Access...

Link: Connected Care...

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Monday, June 29, 2009

ecg@home Personal ECG Monitoring Helps Clinicians Stay On Top of Patient Status

HealthFrontier out of Branchburg, New Jersey teamed up with et medical devices SpA, a Vignate, Italy firm, to create a simple remote wireless ECG monitoring device. The ecg@home features two thumb electrodes (i.e. the standard I lead), and a wireless transmission of the data out to a central server via Bluetooth, USB, or a cell phone network. In order for the device to work, the company says the patient needs to rub his fingers with the K2 solution for better contact

Features from the product page:

* Monitor the patient over the long-term with a substantially decreased impact on quality of life.
* Catch events that only appear irregularly, with the secondary benefit that patients can now feel at ease that they will be able to capture their worrisome cardiac events
* Keep care of the patient in-house, and it allow them perform their own interpretation and analysis of the ECG strips if they so desire, or use an in-house technician if one is available.
* If the physician does not desire to interpret the readings, a third-party service can send the analyzed scans minutes after the reading is taken.
* Monitor the effects of changes in medication
* Access all the patient’s historical ECG readings with the click of a mouse through the RHMS, eliminating the need to search through a library of paper-chart printouts.

* Take ECG readings with far more speed than the 12-lead option
* Through the RHSM, readings can be quickly interpreted either on-site or by a third party scanning service, and returned to the originating facility in minutes.
* Determine the impact and effectiveness of the existing therapy regimen, and adjust regimen.
* Use the analyzed reading in deciding whether the patient requires emergency care.
* This solution offers tremendous saving potential by enabling the decision-maker keep patients out of the hospital when their conditions are non-critical, and to provide prompt medical attention when serious medical conditions are present.

Product page: ecg@home

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Piix Wireless Home Cardiac Monitoring to Undergo Randomized Trial

Corventis, a maker of wireless CHF monitoring devices that measure heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, fluid status and activity, and West Wireless Health Institute, a research organization promoting wireless technology use in medicine, have teamed up to conduct multi center clinical trials of the Piix device, a monitoring gadget we have profiled before.

From the press release:

Corventis' remote monitoring wireless system was approved by the FDA in February 2009, which sets up the potential for a multicenter, randomized clinical trial. The trial will be spearheaded by the West Wireless Health Institute and led by Dr. Eric J. Topol, the Institute's chief medical officer. Dr. Topol is also chief academic officer at Scripps Health and holder of the Gary and Mary West Chair of Innovative Medicine.
Participation in the pivotal randomized trial with WWHI and Corventis will be offered to the sites supported by the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) National Consortium, which consists of 38 of the most prestigious academic medical centers in the United States. The trial is designed to clinically validate remote wireless monitoring technology in proactively managing heart failure patients and reducing hospital readmissions.

Press release: West Wireless Health Institute Teams with Corventis for its First Multicenter, Randomized Clinical Trial...

Links: West Wireless Health Institute; Corventis technology...

Flashback: PiiX Monitors for Signs of Decompensated Heart Failure...

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Telemedicine Helps Monitor Parkinson's Symptoms in Patients

This technology might come in handy to those who don't want to haul their sick relatives with Parkinson's all the way to a clinician for visual observation of the progress of disease. To test whether telemedicine is an appropriate option for getting patients and physicians together, and whether the technology is good enough to observe resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, postural instability, and other symptoms of Parkinson's, doctors Kevin Biglan and Ray Dorsey from University of Rochester Medical Center enrolled a group of elderly Parkinson's patients from the Presbyterian Home for Central New York into a pilot study that has yielded promising results.

The University of Rochester explains:

Patients are brought to a room in the nursing home with a flat screen television so they can see the physicians.All the doctors in Rochester require on their end is a computer equipped with a web camera.Telemedicine “visits” are just like regular office visits and consist of an update on the patient’s health, a review of medications, any potential complications, and a standardized motor skills evaluation (balance, gait, coordination, and stiffness) conducted by the physician with the assistance of a trained nurse at the Presbyterian Home.At the end of the visit, recommendations are discussed with the patient and faxed to the nursing home.
An initial pilot project, funded by the Presbyterian Home, followed 14 patients for 6 months and then evaluated the outcomes of those who received telemedicine care with those who did not.The study found that telemedicine patients had significant improvements in quality of life and motor function.In addition, those receiving telemedicine had trends toward higher satisfaction with their care.

The project with the Presbyterian Home was so successful that Joseph decided to continue funding the effort for another year with the help of a grant from New York State. Dorsey and Biglan also hope to expand the project to other nursing homes in upstate New York.One of the key obstacles to the wider adaption of telemedicine for Parkinson’s and other diseases is payment for services.While studies of other projects have shown that telemedicine can reduce the overall cost of care, current reimbursement is limited to specific regions (for example, it excludes New Hartford as not sufficiently rural) and generally does not cover the cost of care provided.

Press release: Telemedicine Expands Reach of Care for Parkinson's Patients...

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

HealthPAL Gets FDA's OK; Wirelessly Connects Providers With At-Home Devices

The FDA has given MedApps, a Scottsdale, Arizona firm, 510(k) market clearance for the firm's HealthPAL wireless medical device monitor. Featuring built-in mobile phone technology and the ability to connect to common at-home medical devices via a cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth, the system is designed to provide continuous uploading of patient data to a central server for analysis by clinicians.

From the product page:

HealthPAL automatically collects data from compatible, off-the-shelf, medical monitors using a smart cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth. The data is then transmitted using embedded M2M (GSM) cellular chip (and soon CDMA) technology to be received by HealthCOM, MedApps' full-featured, web-based portal for health care providers.
About the size of a cell-phone, the HealthPAL is ultra-portable for maximum mobility and its low cost enables remote monitoring to be available to large patient populations. It is considered to be the ultimate in simplicty. While it has buttons for special features and set-up, during daily operation the reading and data transmissions are COMPLETELY automated. The patient does not push any buttons, navigate any screen commands or touch the HealthPAL in any fashion.

HealthPAL is currently approved for use in conjunction with glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, weight scales, pulse oximeters and pedometers. As additional approvals are received, MedApps looks forward to expanding its capabilities to include the recording and transmitting of data from INR monitors, ECG, Peak Flow, CPAP, spirometers, O2 concentrators and more.

Press release: MedApps Receives FDA Clearance on a New Way to Bring Cost-Effective Remote Health Monitoring to More People...

Product page: HealthPAL...

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Monday, May 18, 2009

ECG Interfaces With Wireless Devices Over Body Area Network

Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has developed a wearable ECG with a combined temperature and posture meter. The data is wirelessly sent to an external device, like a smart phone, for analysis, which then can be passed on to a clinician when certain events are detected. Interestingly enough, the system uses cardiac data and posture to generate cryptographic keys that are used for sending the data out.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Mobile Clinical Imaging On a Smart Phone

Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis adapted a small ultrasound prove to interface with a Microsoft Windows mobile smartphone. Although the screen may be too small to diagnose anything properly, it is thought the concept will be used to scan a patient away from the clinic, with the data wirelessly sent to physicians with large screen computers for evaluation.

In order to make commercial USB ultrasound probes work with smartphones, the researchers had to optimize every aspect of probe design and operation, from power consumption and data transfer rate to image formation algorithms. As a result, it is now possible to build smartphone-compatible USB ultrasound probes for imaging the kidney, liver, bladder and eyes, endocavity probes for prostate and uterine screenings and biopsies, and vascular probes for imaging veins and arteries for starting IVs and central lines.

"You can carry around a probe and cell phone and image on the fly now," said Richard [William D. Richard, Ph.D., WUSTL associate professor of computer science and engineering]. "Imagine having these smartphones in ambulances and emergency rooms. On a larger scale, this kind of cell phone is a complete computer that runs Windows. It could become the essential computer of the Developing World, where trained medical personnel are scarce, but most of the population, as much as 90 percent, have access to a cell phone tower."

Zar [David Zar, research associate in computer science and engineering] said the vision of the new system is to train people in remote areas of the developing world on the basics of gathering data with the phones and sending it to a centralized unit many miles, or half a world away where specialists can analyze the image and make a diagnosis. Zar wrote the phone software and firmware for the probes; Richard came up with the low-power probe electronics design. He began working on ultrasound system designs 25 years ago, and in that span he has shrunk the electronics from cabinet-sized to a tiny circuit board one inch by three inches. A typical, portable ultrasound device may cost as much as $30,000. Some of these USB-based probes sell for less than $2,000 with the goal of a price tag as low as $500.

Another promising application is for caregivers of patients with Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy. A degenerative disease that often strikes young boys and robs them of their lives by their late 20s, DMD is a degenerative disease for which there is no cure. The leading treatment to slow its progression is a daily dose of steroids. Patients often experience some side effects from steroids, which are dose related. These side effects include behavioral problems and weight gain. Researchers now know that physical changes in muscle tissue can indicate the efficacy of the steroids. Measuring these changes in muscle can be accomplished with ultrasound and may allow researchers to optimize steroid dosing to maximize efficacy while minimizing side effects.

"The idea is that caregivers, who otherwise have to transport a young person, often wheelchair bound, to a hospital or clinic on a regular basis for examination, can be trained to do ultrasound to track muscle condition," Zar said. "This could lower the dosage to the least effective amount to further increase quality of life of the patient and the caregiver and hopefully extend life. We're really excited about this application. The caregiver would only have to do a one-minute scan, transfer the data captured to the clinic, and the results would come back to the caregiver. A group at the WUSTL Medical School studying Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy is very interested in our devices and hopes they can incorporate them into their research plans."

Full story: Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone ...

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Friday, February 13, 2009

Sleuth AT Transoma's New Implantable Wireless ECG Monitor Gets US OK

Transoma Medical, out of St. Paul, Minnesota, has received FDA approval for the company's new wireless implantable cardiac monitor. The Sleuth AT™ can wirelessly communicate with a personal device carried in a pocket or purse, or with a home base station that can automatically contact patient's physician if an abnormal rhythm is detected.

Here's a more complete description of the system from Transoma:

The Sleuth AT Cardiac Monitoring System includes the Implantable Loop Recorder (ILR), the Personal Diagnostic Manager (PDM), the Base Station and a 24/7 Monitoring Center operated by Medicomp, a leader in cardiac monitoring since 1981.

The Implantable Cardiac Monitor is a small, thin device, about the size of a 50-cent piece (or the size of the smallest pacemakers), which continuously monitors the electrical activity of the heart, the ECG. The cardiac monitor is implanted under the skin during a brief, simple, outpatient procedure.

The Personal Diagnostic Manager (PDM) is a hand-held, multipurpose device that automatically retrieves and stores relevant ECG data from the implanted cardiac monitor, securely relays the information to the base station and then to the monitoring center. The PDM is also used by the physician to program the implanted cardiac monitor.

Data are collected in three ways:

Patients who experience symptoms, such as lightheadedness, can press a button on the PDM which tells the system to store the patient's ECG strip during the time of the symptom.

The system automatically captures and stores the ECG strip when the patient's heart rate is above or below physician-programmed limits.

The system can be programmed to capture regular ECG strips every 4 hours, 15 minutes or 7.5 minutes

At the third-party Monitoring Center, certified cardiac technicians review the patient's ECG data and provide information to the physician to aid in diagnosis and ongoing treatment. Physicians can access this information via a secure Web portal, and have the reports faxed or e-mailed to them as they prefer. If the cardiac technician observes a particularly concerning arrhythmia, the patient's physician will be contacted immediately.

Press release: Transoma Medical Receives FDA Marketing Clearance For Sleuth AT™ Implantable Cardiac Monitoring System

Flashback: Sleuth™ Wireless Electrocardiogram Monitoring System

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

IBM Links At-Home Medical Devices with Google Health

Under the guidance of the Continua Health Alliance, an industry group promoting compatibility between medical devices and online health systems, IBM has developed a set of interface tools for Google Health. Using the new package, at-home medical devices, such as glucose meters and blood pressure monitors, will be able to stream live data directly into Google Health's personal health record management system. This data can then be accessed in real time by medical professionals and family caretakers for immediate analysis.

From the press release:

IBM integrated the capabilities of Information Management, Business Intelligence and the WebSphere Premises Server sensor event platform with Google Health. The new IBM solution will be able to:
Support a wide variety of use cases, including chronic disease management, health and wellness, and elderly care, both in the United States as well as in countries and health-services enterprises around the world.

Leverage the power of Services-Oriented Architectures, so that the partners can quickly build increasing volumes of flexible solutions for healthcare consumers and services providers based on modular components.

Support the rapid growth of open standards through the power of the Continua Alliance, which is dedicated to enabling interoperable healthcare products and solutions.

Support the development of solutions using the Google Health open platform.

Press release: IBM Teams With Google and Continua Health Alliance to Move Data From Remote Personal Medical Devices Into Google Health and Other PHRs

Continua Health Alliance...

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Nintento to Introduce New Wii Check-Up Channel

Nintendo, in partnership with Hitachi, NEC, and Panasonic, is announcing the upcoming release of a new health channel for the Wii entertainment system. Though the press release is in Japanese and the automatic translators are having trouble digesting the news, it seems that the new system will allow players to meet with some sort of healthcare providers and to securely send them data from the Wii for individual analysis.

Auto translated press releases: With developing the remote healthy guidance basic system which cooperates "Wii Fit"; The specific hygienic guidance system is supported with Wii Developing "the check channel which is from Wii Fit" Electrical machinery and appliances manufacturer compared to in for health insurance union from April start of offer

Monday, November 10, 2008

Intel Health Guide Undergoing Trials

According to Planetary Gear, a blog at CNET, Intel has announced a number of pilot programs to test the company's recently approved Health Guide PHS6000 device (see our previous post: At-Home Monitoring Solution from Intel ). The unit, coupled with enterprise software, allows patients to communicate via video and voice with their health care providers, manage data from at-home diagnostic devices, and receive relevant information about their conditions. The company is partnering with Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities, and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon to enroll patients and physicians to assess the benefits and challenges of the telehealth system.

Some basics about the device from Intel:

The Intel Health Guide is a comprehensive solution, combining an in-home patient device, as well as an online interface allowing clinicians to monitor patients and remotely manage care. The solution offers interactive tools for personalized care management and integrates vital sign collection, patient reminders, multimedia educational content and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and e-mail. The Health Guide can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. The Health Guide stores and displays the collected information on a touch screen and sends to a secure host server, where health care professionals can review the information. Patients using the Health Guide can monitor their health status, communicate with care teams and learn about their medical conditions.

More about the trials from CNET's Planetary Gear...

Report from Wall Street Journal: Intel Takes Step Into Home Health Care...

Intel Health Guide PHS6000 product brochure (.pdf)...

Intel Personal Telehealth Overview ...

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Monday, October 20, 2008

Dyna-Vision Monitoring from RS TechMedic

Ivor Kovic, our former editor, has interviewed CEO of RS TechMedic, a Dutch medical technology company currently specializing in remote monitoring of patients. He posted the interview over at his new blog. The company recently introduced the Dyna-Vision device that performs cardiac monitoring and transmits the data via the cell phone network to a doctor's office. Moreover, the firm just announced during the interview that they are releasing an application that can receive mobile transmissions and display the data on an iPhone.

From the interview:

Currently one of your major products is Dyna-Vision. Tell me a little bit more about it and the ways it differs from similar products on the market?
Dyna-Vision is developed with the latest available technologies. What we often see is that other companies are “upgrading’ existing products to be used for telemedicine. We are convinced that this is not the best solution. We created a wish list of physicians and their patients and developed a new technology based on these requirements. This is a different strategy and makes that we can offer the most recent technology.

We are a bit careful with making comparisons as Dyna-Vision as we really see Dyna-Vision as a new “type” of products and not as one of the existing ones. Our device gives you 3, 5 or 12 lead ECG, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, RR-time, Plethysmogram, Oxygen Saturation and Pulse Transit Time.

Basically, the device creates a data file to be used in different software for analyses. Currently we certified 4 packages: Cardio, Monitoring, Health and Fitness and Research. This makes Dyna-Vision a multi-purpose device. Physicians can use Dyna-Vision for different indications optimizing there return-on-investment.

Dyna-Vision is the first and only device in the world with an integrated mobile phone. With this connection the recordings are transmitted to a remote server for analysis by a physician. This process is fully automated so there is no action required by the patient to transfer the data. A physician can download the recordings for analysis from anywhere at any time. Also, we offer the unique feature of real-time remote monitoring. For example, a patient has symptoms and contacts the physician who can simply login to the server to monitor the actual streaming parameters on a computer !

The rest of the interview at Ivor Kovic's blog.

A somewhat long winded video demonstrating the device:

Press release (PDF)

Dyna-Vision product page...

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Telerays: Auctioning Medical Care

Radiology has long been at the forefront of telemedicine, and now it is paving the way into another area of medicine...auctions! Enter Telerays radiology auction service, where batches of studies are auctioned off to the radiologist with the lowest bid. That doesn't sound very reassuring until you read through the company's reassuring credentialing process.

The radiologists are recruited from across the US in what appears to be a win-win proposition. For physicians, the Telerays system allows for as much or as little work, when and where they want, while simplifying billing arrangements. For hospitals, it adds access to radiologists, including sub-specialists (that may not be available in a smaller center) while potentially allowing for cost savings as well.

From the press announcement by Telerays:

Houston-based Radiologist Daniel Roubein, M.D., founder of Telerays says “Teleradiology was a radical step for the industry, but now serves requests on a routine basis. It provides a safe, easy way to find quality talent at fair prices. And it gives control back to the radiologists to set the fees and accept the cases they want."
His first step was to credential radiologists nationwide and he has had great response…500 inquiries after one week. Telerays’ processes are HIPAA compliant and protect all private health information. Credentialing can take from seven to 30 days and there is no membership fee for doctors or clients. Only radiologists pre-approved by the hospital and imaging centers and fully credentialed with Telerays can bid on the contracts.

To start the bidding process, clients post their requests and all radiologists pre-qualified by them receive an email invitation to bid. The lowest bidder wins the contract, downloads the cases and uploads the final radiology reports. There are no possible delays in diagnosis because the bidding process is settled months in advance “The system has advantages for all parties,” said Dr. Roubein. “Hospitals and imaging centers benefit from market competition that gives them the best price for radiology interpretation services at any given time. By having access to a larger qualified network of radiologists, hospitals and imaging centers can negotiate a better price. There are cost-savings before the bidding even starts as we eliminate the preliminary report,” he added. Telerays provides only final reports.

For radiologists, Telerays reduces the middleman cost and gives a larger portion of the interpretation fee back to the doctor. Most services take up to 50%; Telerays takes 15% and also handles billing.

Telerays' News Release (.pdf) ...

Telerays' website...

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