The quantification of wireless wellness
 Prevention is at the heart of much of the national health reform discussion, but it all starts with fitness and wellness — that’s true for the emerging wireless health industry, too.
“Many believe that one of the earliest areas of wireless health that will really pop is the fitness and wellness side of it,” Rob Mesirow, Vice President of the wireless association CTIA told MobiHealthNews in an interview this week. “That’s mainly because there is less regulation on the fitness and wellness side of wireless health.”
A dedicated, wireless-enabled fitness device also just commercially launched this week: Fitbit is an activity and calorie tracking device small enough to clip on to the user’s clothing. Fitbit uses an internal motion detector to track the wearer’s movement, sleep time and calorie burn during both the day and night. The device costs $99.
For those looking to live the quantified life, Fitbit can tell you the amount of steps you took today, miles traveled, calories burned, calories consumed, time you went to bed, time it took you to actually fall asleep, number of times you woke up during the night, total time in bed, and actual time sleeping.
Fitbit is just the latest piece of evidence that supports Mesirow’s point. Here’s a run down of the fitness and wellness solutions and studies that signal a building momentum for wireless wellness:
- Just a few weeks ago, Verizon Wireless began promoting its mobile fitness applications — that’s right, apps aren’t just for smartphones: “Summer is ending and there is no better time to begin healthy habits,” the carrier’s press release stated. “Verizon Wireless customers can access multiple applications that help them stay healthy and in shape using their wireless phones.” Here’s a brief on the apps Verizon Wireless promoted.
- According to a survey of K-12 teachers conducted by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and Polar, 51 percent of teachers said technology increases student motivation during physical education classes. About 60 percent of teachers used the data from health technology like pedometers, heart rate monitors or other devices for their assessment and grading. The PE class looks ripe for the quantified wellness movement.
- While reporting its second quarter results, the location-based (GPS) technology company Garmin’s Chairman and CEO Dr. Min Kao, noted that the outdoor/fitness segment of its product portfolio has been the ”most resilient business in this down economy.” Of all the location-based services on the market — it was fitness that had been least affected by the down economy.
- Another big name brand has recognized the value of a wellness mobile application: Weight Watchers. David Kirchhoff, Weight Watchers’ president and CEO announced recently that Weight Watchers will soon submit an iPhone application to Apple in an effort to provide “convenience and information on demand to further [members'] weight-loss success and to further modernize the Weight Watchers’ brand.” We hope the company pursues a multi-platform approach, but the iPhone is a good start, nonetheless. More
- Finally, the market opportunity: A recent ABI Research report estimated that wearable wireless sensors are set to grow to more than 400 million devices by 2014 largely thanks to wellness and fitness solutions. “These are very early days for wearable wireless sensors in the healthcare market, but a number of factors are coming together to support strong growth over the next five years,” ABI Research principle analyst Jonathan Collins said in a statement. “Technology and product development, wireless protocol standardization, and the potential already seen in sports and fitness monitoring will help drive investment in the healthcare market.”
It’s early days for wireless health, but fitness is — as expected — sprinting out in front.
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| Interview: mHealth Alliance’s new exec director
This week the United Nations Foundation appointed David Aylward as the first executive director of the mHealth Alliance, which is a partnership recently formed by the UN Foundation, The Vodafone Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation to support and advance mobile health initiatives in the developing world. In anticipation of the announcement, Mobihealthnews interviewed Aylward about his previous experience, plans for the mHealth Alliance, differences between mHealth solutions in developed and developing markets and whether mHealth could be used as a starting point to build a larger eHealth system from the “outside-in.”
Mobihealthnews: During conversations with the founders of the mHealth Alliance back when it was first formed earlier this year, we discussed how the executive director of it would have to be someone with a strong mix of both healthcare expertise and technology experience. Can you describe your background and how it weaves those two areas together?
Aylward: Yes, and I was particularly pleased with this position exactly because of that blending of both health and technology. To be honest, though, there is a third leg to this stool, and it is really knowing the developing world. I don’t, but I grew up in it. My dad was a foreign service officer and ran the United States Government Food for Peace refugee program in the Far East, specifically Hong Kong, which is where I grew up. I never had that international job. In the U.S. for the past 13 years I have been working on emergency response, specifically emergency medical response. All of that to one degree or another involves taking modern communication technology into two spaces that don’t use it: healthcare and emergency response. For somebody with 30 years or more in information and communications technology, which is my field, it was really surprising when I first ran into it. The whole range of issues that arise from trying to modernize healthcare that the administration is wrestling with from electronic health records and their various uses have been things that I have been up to my neck in for quite some time.
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CTIA: Wireless health already a product category
“Wireless carriers are really behind wireless health,” Rob Mesirow, Vice President, CTIA, the international association for the wireless industry told MobiHealthNews in a recent interview. Wireless healthcare has quickly become a true product category for the wireless industry during the past six months, Mesirow explained.
“You don’t typically see a product category emerge and get that kind of status as quickly as wireless health has,” Mesirow said. “It bodes very well for everyone in the wireless health space.”
Earlier in the year Mesirow explained that CTIA’s wireless carrier association members had put healthcare initiatives at the top of their list for new areas to explore for next generation services, which is why at the CTIA Wireless IT & E event next week in San Diego, wireless healthcare will be a topic bubbling up in many sessions.
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MedApps: The case for dedicated health devices
“Everyone is going to look for solutions that not only improve care but that are also going to save healthcare dollars,” MedApps CEO Kent Dicks told MobiHealthNews in a recent interview. “No one can dispute that.”
MedApps navigated the early years of wireless health, first as a mobile phone-based solution, which the FDA approved in 2007, before switching to a connected, dedicated device, called HealthPAL. It’s a bit smaller than a mobile phone, but unlike a phone based solution MedApps does not require the user to push any buttons to function. Although HealthPAL has buttons to access simple menu options, users are not required to even touch the HealthPAL device in order to transmit data for review and online storage. The goal was to maximize usability to improve compliance.
Dicks describes the current climate for wireless health companies as the time the wireless healthcare pioneers have been waiting for — finally, the big companies are getting interested in the space.
“This fall is going to be a very engaging time for all of us,” Dicks said. Read on for more highlights from our recent interview with MedApps: Continue >>
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| CDC launches H1N1 flu texting pilot
Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began a pilot that leverages text messaging to send information about the H1N1 (swine flu) and other health topics. The pilot is a three month long study that will also include feedback surveys from users to help the CDC better use the platform moving forward.
Unfortunately, the pilot does not make use of free to end user text messages, so any one signing up for the H1N1 texting pilot needs to pay for any texting fees that result from the pilot. To subscribe to the pilot, text HEALTH to 87000 and answer the demographic questions. Pilot subscribers can expect about three health messages per week during the three months. Subscribers can opt out at any time by texting HEALTH QUIT to the number above.
For more on the pilot, check out the CDC’s pilot website here
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Fitbit device launches to track calories, activity
Fitbit, a wireless-enabled, fitness and calorie tracking device became commercially available this week. The device, which is small enough to clip on to the user’s clothing, uses an internal motion detector to track the wearer’s movement, sleep and calorie burn during both the day and night. The device costs $99.
Fitbit provides users with metrics like: Amount of steps you took today, miles traveled, calories burned, calories consumed, time you went to bed, time it took to actually fall asleep, number of times you woke up during the night, total time in bed, actual time sleeping. It’s certainly a tool for those seeking to live a “quantified” life.
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White House, CDC, Voxiva’s Text4Baby: soon?
Last week the key stakeholders in the Text4Baby maternal health initiative met at the White House. The service, which plans to provide free tips to mothers three times a week before their baby’s birth, includes reminders to take a multi-vitamin, to get a flu shot, and so on. After the birth, the mother is reminded about vaccinations, and other health issues. When it was originally announced in June, Text4Baby had a September launch date: As the month comes to a close we wonder if a launch is imminent.
The service’s proposed website: text4baby.com is still “under construction” but the service does have a Twitter account outfitted with the slick piece of marketing.
Voxiva, along with the National Healthy Mothers-Healthy Babies Coalition, CDC, the White House, and others plan to launch the free Text4Baby service because the United States has one of the worst infant mortality rates, which is highly concentrated in lower-educated, minority populations. It just so happens that the technology penetration in this demographic shows that 85 percent use text messaging.
Despite only coming to light in June of this year, by July representatives from the White House were already excited about Text4Baby and discussing it at industry events: Continue >>
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Federal CTO tracks eating habits via iPhone
Matthew Holt from Health 2.0 recently interviewed the federal government’s first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra about his take on Health 2.0. Chopra is keynoting the Health 2.0 event in San Francisco next week. Chopra mentioned that he uses an iPhone application to track his eating habits:
“I would begin with [President Obama] who has been absolutely clear that if we move our healthcare system to one that rewards wellness and prevention in addition to what we currently do around managing sick patients, we will create the market conditions, I believe, that will spur innovation in that space. I can’t tell you how various technologies will come together to convince me to be healthier,” Chopra said.
“Everyday today when I visit a certain coffee shop, I enter into my iPhone — I click, click, click — and it tells me exactly what my sugar consumption patterns were from that grande vanilla nonfat latte, and it becomes very clear to me what this has done to my nutrition habits,” Chopra continued. “So I don’t know, and nor should the government be in a position to tell the country how and in what manner these applications should come together. If we create the market conditions that would spur market innovation: We hope to create a great deal of innovation anchored to the consumer and anchored around prevention and wellness. That’s the opportunity in healthcare that everybody believes whether conservative or liberal.”
Check out the short video interview after the jump: Continue >>
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CTIA to FCC: More spectrum for mHealth
The wireless industry association, CTIA, asked the FCC to allocate 800 MHz of spectrum over the next six years in order to continue the “virtuous cycle” of innovation in the wireless industry: CTIA specifically points to mHealth and smart grids as recent examples. The request comes as the FCC has been working to gather information under a notice of inquiry (NOI) about a national broadband strategy that seeks to bring broadband Internet, whether wireless or wired, to the under served areas in the United States.
“We recognize that any effective effort will rely heavily on wireless broadband as the wave of the future, and a key element to reach hard to serve areas. Considering America’s ever-increasing appetite for reliable broadband services and applications from mobile devices, the role that wireless will play is huge and undeniable,” FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein stated in his comments about plans for a National Broadband Policy. “There is a clear need for focused efforts on spectrum efficiency and management, which will require a thorough spectrum inventory, as many in Congress are now proposing. The future success of our economy demands that we promote the expansion of communications infrastructure and focus our energies on optimizing our spectrum resources.”
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Mobile app QoS company sees uptick in healthcare
DeviceAnywhere is an end-to-end mobile application testing, test automation and application monitoring company that over the years has helped many different industries fine tune the quality of their mobile offerings. DeviceAnywhere recently noticed that during the past year there has been a marked uptick in healthcare-related applications that sought out their testing services. As a company that has monitored the rise of interest in the mobile platform across various industries, DeviceAnywhere’s perspective highlights the growing popularity of mHealth.
“Healthcare has now gotten it’s foot into the mobile channel,” DeviceAnywhere CEO and co-founder Faraz Syed told MobiHealthNews in a recent interview. ”Mobile is now one of the critical channels to reach the consumer market — it started a few years ago with media and entertainment companies… and last year it was the banking and travel companies” that began exploring the mobile channel. Now DeviceAnywhere has noticed a lot of activity in mobile healthcare.
“In the healthcare sector we have been successful in securing a number of software vendors as well as large companies, including one of the largest health insurers in the nation — as they start providing ongoing health management software and services to consumers,” Syed said. “The companies that we are working with include EosHealth, Humana’s Sensei and StratREF and that national health care services provider,” which has more than 25 million customers in the U.S. Syed explained that the health care services provider was not ready to announce its mobile plans just yet so it’s name is as yet undisclosed.
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AirStrip inks deal with hospital purchasing group
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Premier healthcare alliance inked a deal with mobile application developer AirStrip Technologies for AirStrip OB, which provides obstetricians and nurses with real-time, remote access to fetal and maternal waveform data, including fetal heart rate and maternal contractions. Premier began offering the application to its 2,200 hospital members about two weeks ago.
AirStrip OB works with the BlackBerry and iPhone platforms as well as a number of Windows Mobile phones. The mobile solution’s reputation grew after it was featured during a demonstration at an iPhone developer conference earlier this year — the AirStrip OB application only received FDA clearance this past April.
AirStrip’s existing customers include Cleveland Clinic and Texas Health Resources, both of which are members of the Premier healthcare alliance purchasing group. AirStrip has more than 100 customers already.
“A number of Premier alliance member hospitals are successfully using the technology already,” said Mike Alkire, president of Premier Purchasing Partners. “This relationship with AirStrip will ensure that more healthcare providers will be able to experience the benefits the technology provides.”
To read more quotes from AirStrip’s customers, including Cleveland Clinic and Texas Health Resources, read the company’s press release here.
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Home health monitoring $11B market in 2008
The market for home health monitoring of chronic diseases was worth about $11 billion last year, according to a report from Berg Insight. The analyst firm estimates that the market is growing about 10 percent annually. Berg estimates that some 300 million people in the EU and the US have at least one chronic disease that may benefit from home health monitoring.
Of those 300 million people, Berg estimates:
- 25 percent, or 75 million people would benefit from existing wireless home monitoring solutions currently available.
- 50 percent, or 150 million people would benefit from integrating or connecting existing medical devices with their mobile phones.
Continue for more >>
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Shorts: Qualcomm; IBM; Mayo; Ericsson
Qualcomm brings 3G wireless health services to rural China: “Qualcomm enthusiastically supports the Chinese government’s commitment to rural informatization, improved medical services and the development of enhanced rural health care systems,” said Jing Wang, executive VP of Qualcomm Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. “We are pleased to be working with an innovator like Xi’an Kingtone to help China’s rural doctors gain better access to medical information and services. Providing adequate health care services to widespread rural populations is a challenge in many countries. 3G wireless technology has proven to be effective in overcoming many of these challenges and we continue our commitment to using wireless technology to help improve economic conditions and enhance quality of life in local communities across China.” More
IBM’s Secure Living telehealth project heads to Italy: IBM announced a telehealth project for about 30 patients in Bolzano, Italy. The patients are all in their 80s and the one-year project, called “Secure Living” aims to improve the independence and quality of life of the elderly patients, who will be remotely monitored with in-home sensoring gear. More
Mayo Clinic builds out its online offerings: “Our new features help people suffering from hypertension and high cholesterol better manage their health based on the expertise of Mayo Clinic physicians,” said Sidna Tulledge-Scheitel, a primary care physician at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Rochester, Minn., and medical director of Mayo Clinic Global Products and Services. “The fields of technology and medicine are constantly advancing, and Mayo Clinic Health Manager will continue to evolve so our users will always have the best health information and tools.” More
Ericsson helps lead the Digital Health Initiative: Ericsson said it will be a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Digital He@lth Initiative (DHI), a multi-stakeholder partnership aimed to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health through the utilization and promotion of digital health solutions. Ericsson will provide strategy and direction to “help DHI leverage information and communication technologies to dramatically improve health care in even the poorest of countries.” More
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The 5th Annual World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress (WHIT v.5.0) is the premier industry event for senior executives tasked with making these multi-million dollar IT decisions. WHIT v.5.0 presents the latest innovations and initiatives in accelerating the adoption and implementation of information technology in the health care setting.
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