mobihealthnews

This week in mobile health news comes a punchy one-liner from an industry thoughtleader: mHealth, think of it as “personal health reform.” That’s the MobiHealthNews quote of the week from health economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn.

72 percent: Manhattan Research also disclosed a new industry metric that’s sure to be kicked around for the next year: 72 percent of US physicians currently use smartphones. That’s up from 64 percent last year and 50 percent three years ago. Manhattan said the adoption rate is still set to hit 81 percent come 2012. More here.

Getting goofy: Back to memorable quotes of the week: BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion’s Director of Healthcare Sheldon Hebert said that BlackBerry wasn’t interested in “goofy” health apps. More thoughts from Hebert on BlackBerry’s mobile health proclivities, including an interesting pitch for a new SIM-optional BlackBerry device. Might compete with the market for Apple iTouch devices in hospitals? More here.

100 Most Influential People: Time Magazine’s annual list of 100 Most Influential people includes an mHealth pioneer. More.

The Oprah Factor: It works for books and some think Oprah’s move to mobile (finally) could be a game changer. Oprah has conquered most media platforms, but her production company Harpo has only just this past week released a smartphone app. Could this help catalyze Oprah’s audience to move to smartphones? More

What’s in a name? Lots of hand wringing over the FCC and Senate’s use of the term eCare to describe mobile health and other connected health services. Here’s my take.

On the road again: Starting Monday, MobiHealthNews returns to its natural environment: The Road. The Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance must-attend three-day event in La Jolla is our first stop followed by some quality time in Texas. The American Telemedicine Assocation’s annual event goes to San Antonio in two weeks. Be sure to check-in to MobiHealthNews from live coverage of the events!

Comment

Forward to Friend

A full 72 percent of US physicians now use smartphones, according to Manhattan Research’s Taking the Pulse report, which tracks physician adoption rates of various information technologies. In 2001 only about 30 percent of physicians used smartphones, while last year some 64 percent of physicians were already using smartphones. From 2005 to 2007 adoption of smartphones was flat and only about 50 percent of physicians had them. Since then, adoption has accelerated. Physician smartphone adoption outpaces the general US adult population’s adoption of smartphones, which still stands at below 20 percent.

The research firm is sticking by its prediction that 81 percent of physicians will use smartphones by 2012. While not surprising, that means the rate of smartphone adoption among physicians is likely to slow over the next two years — it will only move up 9 percent from now until 2012.

So which smartphone is still tops among physicians?

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

“We are very proud of the results of recent polls that show BlackBerry has passed Palm and [stayed ahead] of the iPhone as the number one smartphone among physicians,” said Sheldon Hebert, Director, Public Sector, Healthcare and Education at BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion during a webinar last week. Hebert said that BlackBerry is having such success in healthcare so far because of its ability to provide security and privacy management. BlackBerry is the default handheld device for healthcare, Hebert said.

While Manhattan Research has reported that BlackBerry remains in the top spot for most popular smartphone among physicians, the combined total for physician adoption of iTouch devices with iPhone devices is greater than adoption of BlackBerry devices among that group. In the past, that may not be viewed as a fair comparison, however, iTouch devices run over WiFi and on the whole function as iPhones without cellular coverage.

Hebert noted during the webinar that Research In Motion is now offering a somewhat similar offering: SIM-optional BlackBerry devices that run only on a facility’s in-house WiFi so care facilities can leverage their own wireless networking assets.

With SIM-optional devices, you don’t need to pay an ongoing service charge each month, Hebert explained. You can deploy these devices at capital cost. One of the arguments we have heard is that overall monthly costs are one key obstacle for getting devices into people’s hands, he explained. Also, I know not all wireless carriers are going to have 100 percent penetatrion inside every hospital system, but being able to use a WiFi network will improve coverage, Hebert said.

“This is huge,” Hebert said.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

The recent health reform legislation has not provided any short term cost relievers for employers, according to a BusinessWeek report that highlights the growing importance of employee wellness programs to bend the so-called cost curve for healthcare. Unfortunately, the report fails to live up to its subtitle: “Companies are targeting employee fitness to contain health-care costs, creating individualized plans using wearable technology and Web sites.”

Companies including Intel, Papa John’s International, Timberland, Scotts Miracle-Gro, and International Paper offer employees memberships to online health services that provide nutrition and fitness information, according to BusinessWeek. Some conduct health screenings or track employees’ workouts. The report also notes that some companies are even equipping employees with pedometers but does not dig any deeper on devices used.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

Every year Time Magazine publishes its list of the 100 most influential people. This year the list feature four categories: Leaders, heroes, artists and thinkers. Among the “thinkers” for the 2010 Time 100 is Matt Berg, a 32-year-old mHealth pioneer. Berg is technology director for ChildCount+, which equips community health workers in Africa with a text message powered healthcare service. Community health workers who regularly examine and treat children use ChildCount+ to text back the status of each sick child they find. The system enables improved health monitoring, faster interventions and better immunization and treatment campaigns.

After a mere 9 months, ChildCount+ has already reported more than 20,000 nutrition screenings, 500 cases of malnutrition and 2,000 cases of malaria. Berg and his team are currently scaling ChildCount+ to monitor more than 100,000 children under 5 years old.

Berg posted a thoughtful response to his nomination to Time’s 100 and it includes a number of acknowledgments. Here’s an excerpt:

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

Following the publication of the FCC National Broadband Plan a new term entered the mobile health and connected health industries’ lexicon: “eCare.” The FCC adopted this term to serve as an umbrella concept for “the electronic exchange of information — data, images and video — to aid in the practice of medicine and advanced analytics. Encompasses technologies that enable video consultation, remote monitoring and image transmission (’store-and-forward’) over fixed or mobile networks.”

Of course, the FCC’s use of “eCare” was not an isolated incident. Last week, the Senate held a hearing on aging independently services and technologies and described these devices and services as “eCare” technologies:

“I am of the view that eCare could be a huge step forward in improving the care for older people and lowering costs to Medicare as a government program,” Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore) said. “At the same time… I want to make clear that I am not of the view that everyone ought to be able to run up with a gadget and say, OK, let’s now make this eligible for Medicare reimbursement.”

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

A recent report in Modern Healthcare features a sprawling overview of the various ways that wireless technologies are changing healthcare and wellness. While most of the examples were old hat, a few were new to us:

NYC HHC’s Wireless modem with detachable glucose monitor

In 2006, New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., which runs 11 acute-care public hospitals and 90 clinics, introduced a remote monitoring program for patients with diabetes: House Calls, equips 500 participants with “flip-phone-sized modems” that feature detachable glucometers, according to a recent report in Modern Healthcare.

Several times each day the House Calls program participants test their blood and the readings are sent via the modem to a nurse. When the blood tests outside of the target range, the nurse would receive an alert on their BlackBerry and give the patient a call to determine the potential cause of the rogue value. Some 85 percent of participants experienced a significant improvement in their diabetes management. Last year the provider introduced a wireless version of the device so that patients who did not have landlines at home could enter the program.

House Calls costs about $3,600 per patient each year, which is less than the cost of a hospital stay or emergency room visit, according to the Modern Healthcare report. House Calls patients also reported reduced their unplanned doctors’ visits, hospitalizations, and ER visits by about 50 percent.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

InMedica: By 2013, the global combined unit shipments of home-use digital blood-glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, weight scales, pulse oximeters and peak flow meters used in telehealth applications will grow to more than 1.6 million. Shipment of health hubs will also hit 400,000, bringing the total shipments of telehealth devices to about 2 million by 2013.

InMedica notes that the current use of telehealth at home has been for chronic disease management, particularly, COPD, CHF, hypertension and diabetes. Telehealth has not yet evolved into a mainstream application, according to the research firm. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs still has the single largest deployment of telehealth services with some 30,000 subscribers, InMedica reported. In Europe, however, the most telehealth activity comes from projects in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

In 2009, nearly 50,000 blood-pressure monitors were used in telehealth applications, but shipments of these devices will hit 500,000 by 2013.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

prah Winfrey announced the launch of Oprah Mobile this week, a smartphone app that includes content from the talkshow host’s TV and radio shows, O Magazine and affiliated websites. Oprah Mobile is a $1.99 app that offers “helpful advice” on a variety of topics including “spirit, health, beauty, cooking” and more.

As Jason Ankeny writes over at FierceMobileContent, the importance of Oprah Mobile could be tremendous:

“Oprah is unique–more a spiritual leader than a media magnate, her influence on her fanbase is incalculable, and if she tells her audience to download her app, they will listen. For viewers who’ve previously relied on their handsets exclusively to make calls and send text messages, Oprah Mobile could be the application that redefines their user experience.”

What’s more, Oprah Mobile is in part an application that delivers advice for healthy living. The app’s description begins: “Live your best life wherever you go!” That certainly captures the spirit of the opportunity for mHealth services.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

GE announced a $3 million investment into Ireland’s Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) center, which Intel co-founded in 2007 with Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency. Academic research partners for the center include University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway. GE’s participation and cash infusion will enable TRIL to expand the number of participants is has in its pilot programs.

From the release: “A key goal of TRIL’s research, which brings together world-class industry and academic experts from multiple disciplines, is to enable older people to live independently in the homes of their choice for as long as possible, with the help of technology–and in the process, to help ease the strain on global healthcare systems as the world’s population ages. This objective aligns with GE Healthcare’s goal of continuously developing innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency.”

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

Diversinet announced its first quarter revenues for 2010 were $576,000, down from $2 million during the same period last year. According to the company, the decrease is largely attributable to AllOne Mobile’s failure to pay its quarterly minimum commitment of $1.75 million per the two companies’ licensing and revenue share agreement inked in late 2008. The two companies are currently moving toward a settlement that would likely terminate the original agreement and see AllOne Mobile paying at least some of the money it owes Diversinet.

Diversinet’s agreement with AllOne Mobile may come to an end as early as next month. Once free from that agreement and with a new product line, Diversinet is poised to capitalize on growing momentum in the mobile health space:

“During the quarter… [Diversinet] introduced a major new release that makes implementing mobile health faster and easier to deploy, along with secure SMS capability that offers broader accessibility,” Diversinet Chairman and CEO Albert Wahbe stated in a company release. ”With our new emphasis on mobile health, we expect to benefit from the strengthening and widespread market demand for the secure mobilisation of health information, driven by both clear economics for healthcare organizations and new U.S. federal legislation providing healthcare IT funding and incentives.”

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

Wireless health luminary joins LiveStrong: LiveStrong.com, Lance Armstrong’s site, a destination for health, fitness and lifestyle-related information, has tapped Dr. Leslie Anne Saxon, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Clinical Scholar, and Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, as its new chief medical advisor. Dr. Saxon will also host and produce a new series for LiveStrong called “Health Matters.” The five minute program will run twice a month and include interviews with health thoughtleaders and suggest action plans, guidelines and health tools that promote healthy living.

Dr. Saxon has long been a proponent of wireless health as she heads up the Body Computing conference each year. Last year her team created and demonstrated two prototype iPhone apps at the event: One was for Boston Scientific’s Latitude application and enabled the remote monitoring of implantable devices. The other app was a game designed to work with Corventis‘ wireless, adhesive heart monitoring patch. More on Dr. Saxon’s role at LiveStrong here.

Continue >>

Comment

Forward to Friend

Some Beacon grant money goes to SMS alerts: At least a part of the $220 million in grant monies that make up the Beacon Community program will fund mobile technologies in healthcare. A consortium in California headed up by UCSD Medical Center received some $15.3 million in grant monies to improve its EMR systems so doctors could more easily share information. According to a report from Sign On San Diego, some of the funds will enable patients to have greater access to their medical records online and enable care providers to send patients text messages about laboratory results, medication reminders and alerts regarding checkups that are due. The consortium also includes Scripps Health, Sharp HealthCare, the San Diego VA Healthcare System, San Diego Naval Medical Center, Rady Children’s Hospital, the San Diego Council of Community Clinics, the county office of Emergency Medical Services and the San Diego County Medical Society. More

Hospital websites go mobile: Geonetric announced that it has created mobile phone optimized websites for three care provider groups: Southern Regional Health System, Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, and Genesis Health System. More

Wireless biometric sensor platform concept: LynuxWorks is partnering with Portwell on a proof of concept wireless health sensor platform based on Intel chips: “The PoC platform can connect to more than 25 Bluetooth wireless biometric sensors and has the ability to graphically portray patient sensor data for visual monitoring in a familiar Windows environment.” More

WLSA event next week! Xconomy has a nice preview piece on the WLSA event coming up next week in La Jolla, California. (We’ll be there!) More

What nurses want from HIT: A report out of the UK about health information technologies for nurses found that the top technologies wanted by nurses included real time view of stock levels, electronic records, systems to track equipment, and bar-coded wristbands to accurately identify patients. More

Comment

Forward to Friend