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CES: Consumer health breaks out
By Brian Dolan
 For many years I avoided the Consumer Electronics Show. Too big, I was told. Too much noise — not enough news. With my focus on the wireless industry at the time, this advice was mostly true — for many years CES was not an event where companies made wireless-related news. Then — seemingly suddenly — CES became one of the most popular places to launch mobile phones, announce new mobile entertainment services, and introduce mobile tablets. For those not in attendance, this seemed like a creeping trend.
Over the last few years CES attendees actually witnessed two macro trends related to wireless: Consumer device makers began embedding wireless radios and mobile phones increasingly became more like consumer electronics devices (i.e. mobile music, TV, games).
Just as wireless began to make its mark on CES five or six years ago, in 2010 consumer health began to make its mark.
If the organizers of the first annual Digital Health Summit hadn’t invited me to moderate a discussion on the wireless health industry this year, chances are — travel budgets being what they are — I wouldn’t have made it CES 2010. I’m glad I had the extra incentive to attend. In many ways, the Digital Health Summit, the first dedicated consumer health event at CES, marked an important milestone for consumer health companies, which were no longer just scattered on the exhibit floor (if they were there at all). For the consumer electronics industry in 2010, health now has a position at the podium.
Wireless-enabled pill boxes that glow when it’s time for a medication; Alarm clocks that interact with wireless-enabled head bands that track EEG’s and analyze sleep activity; Easy-to-use mobile phones with one button connectivity to real live nurses — each of these and many more like them were on display at CES. They are also commercially available today and they’re called GlowCaps, Zeo and Jitterbug, respectively.
Despite being a first-time event, the Digital Health Summit also offered up about a half dozen news announcements, demos and or related product launches: Jitterbug is now offering a heart-healthy health tips service with the AHA; WellCore, a start-up with a wireless-enabled fall protection service, launched; Swedish start-up Great Connection announced plans to bring its service, Mobile Baby, to the US; CloseBy Network launched a senior care remote monitoring service with sensors, software, email and text alerts.
By many accounts, the highlight of Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs’ keynote address to the wider CES audience was co-presenter Dr. Eric Topol’s demonstrations of various wireless health products. His talk included the first ever live demo of GE’s portable ultrasound device, Vscan — Topol used the device to point out the unique structures of his own heart live on-stage. Jacobs said the Vscan would make the 200-year-old stethoscope a thing of the past. “Buggywhips,” he quipped.
Perhaps in a few years we might be able to declare CES an event dominated by consumer health news — and those on the sidelines may find this to be a sudden event. The road to mass consumerization of wireless health devices, however, is much more complicated than those for other CE categories. It might just take a blockbuster 3D movie to convince consumers they need 3D televisions. Not so for health. With yet-to-be proven efficacies, regulatory unknowns and little reimbursement, there’s no magic bullet. Just a lot of work ahead.
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Epic Systems launches Haiku: iPhone EHR app
By Brian Dolan
After three months of rumors, details surrounding Epic Systems’ partnership with Apple for a mobile phone-based electronic health record (EHR) application have come tust a feo light: Jw days ago, Epic System’s iPhone application, called Haiku, became available on Apple’s AppStore.
“Haiku provides authorized clinical users of Epic’s Electronic Health Record with secure access to clinic schedules, hospital patient lists, health summaries, test results and notes. Haiku also supports dictation and In Basket access. Haiku works on both the iPhone and iPod touch,” according to the app’s description on the AppStore.
“Your organization needs to license Haiku and be on Epic’s Summer 2009 version and will determine the exact feature set and any applicable charges for your use of Haiku. If you are unsure whether you can use Haiku, please contact your administrative staff,” the app description advises. Continue >>
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Blue Cross of CA pilots wireless scales for CHF
By Brian Dolan
Anthem Blue Cross, the trade name for Blue Cross of California, announced plans last week to work with wireless health company Ideal Life on a pilot program for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients called CARE (Congestive Heart Failure Ambulatory Remote monitoring and Engagement). Ideal Life is providing its wireless body weight scales for in-home use in an effort to leverage remote monitoring devices to more efficiently triage members with chronic heart conditions, while identifying patients at risk for a possible acute health crisis. The program also aims to prevent costly and unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Anthem Blue Cross plans to deploy the remote monitoring devices through participating HMO medical groups and independent practice associations.
Ideal Life’s remote monitoring system transmits a patient’s biometric data via Bluetooth their home hub gateway, the Ideal Life Pod, and then through a standard telephone line to a secure online data repository. Ideal Life’s Bluetooth-enabled body weight scale will enable care workers to intervene when patients experience a sudden increase in body weight, which often leads to hospitalization for heart failure.
Last May, Ideal Life announced findings from a study they conducted using their weight scale to help prevent CHF: Continue >>
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Mayo Clinic readies Symptom Checker app
By Brian Dolan
Last week we reported on Mayo Clinic’s new mobile-focused startup: mRemedy, which is creating smartphone applications based on Mayo’s medical research. mRemedy is a joint collaboration with application developer DoApps. The venture’s first application was a meditation application that teaches users breathing exercises and other methods for reducing stress. According to a report from SmarterTechnology, Mayo Clinic will be creating its own medical smartphone apps, too and the first one should be available later this year: A free “Symptom Checker” that will try to define the user’s malady, explain its most common causes and also advise a user when to visit a physician.
UPDATE: Mayo Clinic spokesperson Kathleen Anderson wrote in to explain that “not all Mayo Clinic mobile apps developed by Mayo will be part of mRemedy. The Symptom Checker app will be a solely a Mayo Clinic app and not part of mRemedy.”
“Our second app will come from the Mayo Clinic’s global products and services area–a symptom checker app that works like the one at MayoClinic.com, but which will be made available as a free download so you can use it anywhere, anytime,” Anderson told SmarterTechnology in a recent interview.
For the full report, head over to SmarterTechnology
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Analyst’s CES Wrap-up: 10 Techs to Watch
By Laurie Orlov, Founder, Aging in Place Technology Watch
How CES is it? So by today, the press folks at the Consumer Electronics Show must have quite the headache from the racket and flashing displays. The Las Vegas onslaught of new electronics has been described in the NY TImes as a ‘Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing’, but I like Engadget’s more playful term — ‘crapgadget‘ for overpriced flash and gadgetry that so dominates the show. And how nice, we have new meaning for the phrase ‘killer’ app, in every sense of the word — like the Ford Sync technology, in-dashboard 10-inch screen tech that will enable you to surf the Internet while driving — something you used to do with your iPhone or BlackBerry, but that is so yeseterday.
“We are trying to make the driving experience one that is very engaging,” says Jim Buczkowski of Ford. That’s a nice way to describe a distraction of music selection, web surfing and restaurant reviews which may be so compelling that sirens, screaming in the back seat, or oncoming traffic will recede into background noise. But I digress. Here are ten product launches that span the CES-Silvers Summit time period. (For those who want to remember 2009’s Silvers Summit, here’s a link — I really am avoiding repeats):
Continue >>
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Meridian Health taps MedApps for CHF
By Brian Dolan
Wireless remote monitoring technology developer MedApps has announced a partnership with New Jersey-based healthcare provider Meridian Health, to monitor patients who were recently discharged from acute care settings with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). According to the two companies, the aim is to monitor the patients on a daily “near real-time” basis in an effort to improve patient outcomes and decrease re-admissions to the hospitals. (It’s worth noting that Anthem Blue Cross (California) just announced a pilot for CHF too with Ideal Life.)
Meridian Health plans to equip its CHF patients with MedApps’ HealthPAL and HealthCOM devices to track their biometric data, which nurses and physicians will then review remotely. According to the two groups: Continue>>
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CES: Topol demos GE’s ultrasound device, Vscan
By Brian Dolan
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Friday, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs invited onstage Dr. Eric J. Topol, chief academic officer of Scripps Health and chief medical officer of the West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI), to discuss the wireless health trend. (Qualcomm is a key supporter of the WWHI.)
Topol’s talk included mentions of a half dozen different wireless health devices including FitBit, Zeo, DirectLife, Corventis’ PiiX sensor and AirStripOB’s smartphone application, but it also included a live demo of a wireless health device that we haven’t seen make the trade show circuit yet: GE’s portable ultrasound device, Vscan.
This is the digital healthcare decade that we are heading into, Topol predicted while onstage at CES. Wireless health tools will empower consumers to take charge of their health like nothing before, he said, and it will lead to a decade of consumer-driven healthcare.
Topol then turned on his iPhone, which began streaming the heart rhythm, blood pressure, body temperature and the real-time beat-by-beat of a patient that had on one of Corventis’s PiiX peel-and-stick sensor in a hospital in Texas. The audience quieted down as the heart beat sounded out over the keynote speakers.
After the quick Corventis demo, Topol demo’d one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 Inventions of 2009: GE’s handheld ultrasound device Vscan.
Continue >>
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CES: Sweden’s Mobile Baby coming to US
By Brian Dolan
During Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacob’s keynote at CES Friday, co-presenter Dr. Eric Topol, CMO of the West Wireless Health Institute, introduced a Swedish startup’s mobile health maternity service, Mobile Baby.
Because of portable ultrasound devices like GE’s Vscan, “people are going to be doing their own ECHOs and sending them to their doctors in the not too distant future, but that’s going to require moving images,” Topol said. “The company Great Connection in Sweden has figured out how to move these images to smartphones. They have started with Mobile [Baby] … this is [a photo of] a woman who is 28 weeks pregnant at the Mama Mia clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. This is transferring her fetal image, which is being done right at the time of the ultrasound. Distributed to the doctor, family whoever is interested,” Topol explained. “[Or] Facebook, Twitter, the whole social network scene,” he joked.
MobiHealthNews met up with Great Connection’s Co-Founder and CMO Åsa Nordgren at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week to discuss Great Connection’s Mobile Baby offering. Nordgren said the service was first introduced in May 2009 at Mama Mia, Scandinavia’s largest private women’s and child health service provider. The clinic offered Mobile Baby as a service for expecting parents who typically want to share their ultrasound images with friends and family. Currently this is typically done via a print out or a DVD of the video, but with Mobile Baby, Nordgren says clinicians can save time by just transmitting the video directly to the parents’ smartphones or email. Nordgren said it costs about $20 for the transmission. Continue >>
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CES: Jitterbug adds Wellness Calls, Health Tips
By Brian Dolan
New from CES: Jitterbug, the mobile phone service for people who want very simple and easy-to-use phones and services, has added a new offering to its Services Store: the Jitterbug Wellness Call. The service aims to “help people feel better by providing them with proven techniques for relaxing, motivating and their overall well-being,” according to the company.
Jitterbug also announced a partnership with the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement, which aims to increase awareness about heart disease. Jitterbug has donated $500,000 to the cause and is also offering a special red phone called the Jitterbug J by Samsung in Red: “Customers who purchase the phone will receive official American Heart Association Heart Healthy Tips on the Jitterbug that they can implement in their own lives and share with loved ones,” the company stated in a press release.
Here’s how the new Wellness Calls service works: Users can schedule the four to five minute calls for certain days and times to fit their schedule. Each call is guided by messages from world renowned wellness expert Dr. Brian Alman, Ph.D., whose company Trusage co-created the service with Jitterbug. After a series of questions from the calls, users will receive tips to help them maintain or achieve a healthy lifestyle. The service might even be free for many Jitterbug users: Continue >>
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Adidas adds coaching to wireless fitness device
By Brian Dolan
Adidas announced new features for its miCoach offering at a press event here at the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in Las Vegas. miCoach, a connected fitness device and platform, competes with Nike+iPod/iPhone, Fitbit and a number of other simpler fitness devices like Philips’ DirectLife. Adidas added miCoach Pacer and miCoach Zone to its connected fitness line. Here’s how the company describes each new product:
“The miCoach Pacer – a small, lightweight device that delivers real-time audible coaching as a user exercises via headphones or combined with their own MP3 player. During a run, the miCoach Pacer verbally coaches the runner (i.e. speed up to green zone, slow down to blue zone, etc.) to ensure that they are staying within their targeted heart rate zone and keeps them running at the right personal level. Continue >>
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Novartis invests $24M in Proteus Biomedical
By Brian Dolan
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced that would invest $24M in upfront cash and equity as part of an exclusive worldwide agreement for the pharma company to license Proteus Biomedical’s sensing technology for organ transplantation. (That must be the kind of exclusive deal Novartis had in mind when the two companies announced their collaboration on a pilot last year.)
As part of the deal, Novartis also has “certain” options rights related to oncology, cardiovascular, and clinical development. To date, Proteus has focused on cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis and psychiatric disorders applications for its technology, which is currently undergoing clinical investigation.
Last September Novartis tapped Proteus for a small 20 patient study to track patients’ compliance with their blood pressure drug regimen. The patients took blood pressure drug Diovan and the study organizers tracked their compliance via Proteus’ “chip in the pill” technology, which reports to a receiver sensor on the patient’s shoulder when the medication has been ingested. The study improved compliance from 30 percent to 80 percent after six months, according to Novartis. Continue>>
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MicroCHIPS secures $16.5M in venture capital
By Brian Dolan
Bedford, Massachusetts-based MicroCHIPS recently announced another $16.5 million in venture capital. The company is developing an implantable medical device that will deliver drugs inside the body. This third round of funding brings the company’s total funding to just north of $70 million, according to the company. InterWest Partners joined previous investors Polaris Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, Novartis and Medtronic.
MicroCHIPS spun of out MIT more than ten years ago. The company aims to enable patients and clinicians to monitor and control implanted drug dispensing chips via wireless technology. MicroCHIPs said the funding will go toward its first human trials of the devices. These trials will focus on patients with diabetes and osteoporosis.
According to a report over at Technology Review, some of the funding will also support a new joint venture that MicroCHIPS created with InterWest called On Demand Therapeutics, which is based in San Francisco. Continue >>
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FDA greenlights MediSens body area monitoring
By Brian Dolan
The FDA recently approved MediSens Wireless’ wireless body monitoring system, which assesses muscle and neuromotor functions in the upper extremities, for its first phase of clinical trials. MediSens’ Clinical Movement Assessment System (CMAS) could be used by health care professionals working in physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, orthopedics and physical and occupational therapy.
One of MediSens’ technology’s key applications is to use the real-time wireless monitoring technology to help diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy, which causes a loss of sensation in the foot, and other patients with health issues that affect their balance.
According to CMAS co-investor Reggie Edgerton, Ph.D., the technology could also potentially be used to help diagnose diseases states, including Parkinson’s disease. Continue >>
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Shorts: Verizon Health; H1N1; Philips
By Brian Dolan
Wireless continues wireline cannibalization: According to report from the CDC, preliminary results from the January-June 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes that only use mobile phones (no landlines) continues to increase. Some 22.7 percent of U.S. homes only used mobile phones during the first six months of 2009. That marks an increase of 2.5 percent over the same period in 2008. What’s more, some 14.7 percent of homes with landlines receive all or nearly all calls on their mobiles. What does that mean for wireless health and remote monitoring? Maybe plain old telephony services aren’t the best way to reach people for health-related surveys (chronic disease management check-up calls, included). More
Verizon getting healthy: Telephony Online put together a rather thorough report on the state of Verizon’s healthcare businesses. More
Is Denmark leading the connected health trend? NYTimes investigates: “Now, however, he can go to the doctor without leaving home, using some simple medical devices and a notebook computer with a Web camera. He takes his own weekly medical readings, which are sent to his doctor via a Bluetooth connection and automatically logged into an electronic record.” More
California turns to text messaging for H1N1 reminders: “With the H1N1 flu virus disproportionately striking younger people, the state Department of Public Health is looking to harness the popularity of cell phones and text messaging to make it easier for people to get vaccinated.” More
Philips is spearheading a connected health program for the UK’s NHS: “Patients in Newham, a deprived East London borough, are being monitored at home using diagnostic equipment linked via broadband internet connections to local hospitals and clinics. The Newham patients are able to test their own blood pressure or blood oxygen level and send the data in an electronic message to staff at the Primary Health Trust.” More
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OneMedForum 2010 Emerging Company Finance Conference
Jan. 12 – 13, San Francisco, CA
Held annually in San Francisco, the OneMedPlace Finance Forum was created to connect emerging healthcare and life science companies with investors and strategic partners. Over 100 company presentations will occur by some of the most promising – and typically least recognized – companies in the world. Recognizing the impacts and opportunities connected to healthcare reform and the stimulus package, we have added a third day dedicated to Health Information. Join us at The Sir Francis Drake Hotel, as it will be the destination for those who are interested in emerging healthcare and life sciences companies.
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Personalized Medicine World Conference
Jan. 19 – 20, Mountain View, CA
Personalized medicine is paving the way for a superior health care system by custom-fitting treatment to a patient’s unique genetic blueprint. PMWC 2010 (Personalized Medicine World Conference) will examine this emerging field that is already providing benefits for the health care industry, while simultaneously creating business opportunities within the Lifesciences marketplace.
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Corporate Health & Wellness Summit
Jan. 25 – 27, San Francisco, CA
In today’s economic decline companies are being prompted to take more decisive action in creating more formalized wellness programs. With healthcare costs increasing faster than inflation or wages, wellness programs have become viewed as a critical lever to control financial impact of healthcare costs on the bottom line and to counteract the effects of employee illness, injury and absenteeism on the workplace productivity.
Attend this event to hear best practices on how to protect the business from today’s rising healthcare costs
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FDA Workshop on Medical Device Interoperability
Jan. 25 – 27, Washington, DC
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in co-sponsorship with Continua Health Alliance and the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology (CIMIT) will hold a public workshop entitled ‘‘Medical Device Interoperability: achieving safety and effectiveness.’’ The purpose of the workshop is to facilitate discussion among FDA, industry, academia, professional societies, clinical investigators and other interested parties on issues related to safe and effective interoperable medical devices.
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mHI’s International mHealth Networking and Web Conference
Feb. 3 – 4, Washington, DC
The conference will be a resource for clinicians, C-level executives, HIT professionals, health information management professionals, biomedical engineers, health information systems professionals, mobile health and telecommunication professionals, payers, government agencies, developers, vendors, and other healthcare stakeholders to learn strategies for new communication patterns and for improving healthcare through these new technologies. The objective of the conference is to provide a comprehensive overview of the twelve mHealth healthcare application clusters that mHealth Initiative has identified.
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Institute for Health Technology Transformation’s Winter Health IT Summit
Feb. 9 – 10, Phoenix, AZ
This hosted event brings together C-level, physician, practice management and IT decision-makers from North America’s leading provider organizations and physician practices. For two full days, executives interact with a national audience of peers, national leaders and solution providers featuring the latest solutions for practice management, mobility, telemedicine, outsourcing, IT infrastructure, next-generation electronic medical records, disease management, and more.
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WLSA and Continua Health Alliance Mobile Healthcare Symposium 2010
Feb. 9, San Diego, CA
Continua Health Alliance and the Wireless-Life Sciences Association (WLSA) have joined together to bring the industry a valuable and compelling Symposium! Join speakers and industry experts from both groups for a day of insightful Mobile Health Solutions keynotes, panel discussions on the state of the environment, product demonstrations and networking opportunities with venture capital and development organizations.
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Continua Winter Summit 2010 Public Sessions
Feb. 10, San Diego, CA
Preliminary agenda
Mobile and Wireless Healthcare 2010
Feb. 24, Birmingham, UK
Mobile and wireless technologies offer the opportunity to secure the delivery of more patient-centred care. Better access to knowledge at the point of care also increases overall efficiency and reduces costs.
This one-day conference will bring together healthcare IT professionals and clinicians alike to explore how to realise the benefits of mobile and wireless technologies both on the ward and in the community.
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HIMSS
March 1-4, Atlanta, GA
HIMSS tracks new and growing areas in health IT that could bring the greatest value to the greater healthcare community. At HIMSS10, we have developed learning and networking opportunities in the most high-growth or high-demand sectors. In addition, the exhibit floor will be showcasing the most innovative product and service solutions in the industry.
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WOHIT Conference and Expo
March 15-18, Barcelona, Spain
WoHIT 2010 will for the first time be held in conjunction with the European Union’s annual High Level eHealth Conference on 15-18 March 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. The objective is to create the largest European high level platform for stakeholders sharing the common goal of advancing eHealth in Europe.
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International CTIA Wireless 2010
March 23-25, Las Vegas, NV
The International CTIA WIRELESS® show represents a $1 trillion global marketplace that brings together wireless and converged communications, wireless broadband, applications, mobile web and data.
For 25 years, International CTIA WIRELESS® has been THE premier marketplace for all things wireless. Don’t miss 2010—guaranteed to be another crucial and groundbreaking event for the industry. Join us for the next era of Mobile Life!
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