CTIA: Wireless health now a $304M market
 “The current U.S. market for wireless, home-based health care applications is $304 million,” CTIA, the Wireless Association, wrote in an official comment to the FCC, which is mulling over the health care delivery elements of a national broadband plan. “That market is expected to grow to $4 billion in 2013, with estimated annual growth rates of 96 percent in 2010, 126 percent in 2011, 95 percent in 2012, and 68 percent in 2013,” The CTIA stated in reference to a recent Parks Associates report.
Perhaps even more interesting: Verizon Wireless estimates that “mobile broadband solutions improved U.S. health care productivity at a savings of almost $6.9 billion – an amount expected to grow to $27.2 billion by 2016,” the CTIA stated.
mHealth deserves more spectrum
The market data is part of CTIA’s case for urging the FCC to reallocate wireless spectrum to “enable the continued innovation and invention of mHealth applications and services, recognize carriers’ need for reasonable network management, and utilize the universal service rural health care support mechanism in a technologically-neutral approach to facilitate deployment of advanced wireless networks and mHealth applications.”
Net Neutrality threatens wireless health?
CTIA also stated that the FCC’s potential plans for network neutrality regulations of wireless networks will threaten the future of the wireless health industry: “With remote monitoring and off-site care via wireless comes the constant flow of real-time information to and from patients. Due to the life-saving importance of this information, significant network management by carriers is necessary to ensure that vital information can reach caregivers with the utmost haste. The Commission must recognize that wireless broadband networks are fundamentally different than other broadband networks for many reasons. The Commission also should be mindful of how network neutrality rules would be applied to relationships in the wireless and health care ecosystems, and how they might affect the efficient delivery of health care over wireless networks.”
Overall, the official filing from CTIA makes for an excellent overview of the wireless health industry and includes references to a number of mHealth services and apps, including Text4Baby, WellDoc, Zume Life and many more. Read the full filing here (warning: .pdf).
What do you think — do future wireless health services and innovations require reallocation of wireless spectrum for carriers? Would network neutrality regulation threaten wireless health services?
|
2009: A year of mHealth buzz, hype
mHealth: The Buzzword of 2009
The 2009 healthcare technology buzzword was ‘mHealth,’ or mobile health. Ovum has seen a moderate, but steadily increasing interest in mobile health over the year as the phrase began appearing with increasing frequency in the media and at conferences. Unlike the last healthcare IT buzzword, radio frequency identification (RFID), a type of mobile health technology which reached a ‘craze’ and then a subsequent ‘fizzle,’ Ovum does not expect the mobile health trend to end. But like all buzzwords, some of the excitement is hype, while other aspects ring true.
Without a doubt, healthcare is going mobile. In an industry where just over a decade ago, cell phone use was essentially banned within hospitals and physician offices, mobile technologies seem to be the one area where adoption of healthcare IT faces less end-user adoption barriers. While there are still challenges to adoption, including emerging applications and resistance from IT departments, end users are clamoring for devices because they make the lives of clinicians easier. The convenience mobile devices offer is simply too compelling. However, Ovum believes this phenomenon is not unique to healthcare. In fact, it is a simple ripple effect of what is happening in the consumer market in general and is an activity reflected in many other verticals such as banking and government. Though, Ovum does concede that they are aspects of mobility that are unique to healthcare.
The Hype: That mHealth is its own special entity
Continue >>
 |
| Analyst: Curb your enthusiasm over GE-QuietCare
Earlier this week we reported that GE Healthcare had acquired remote monitoring company Living Independently Group for an undisclosed sum. LIG’s key product is still in development: QuietCare, an infrared sensor system that monitors seniors activity throughout the day and sends alerts to caregivers if seniors appear to need assistance.
Aging in Place Technology Watch editor and analyst Laurie Orlov wrote in with some comments and analysis of the deal:
I don’t think this has much significance in the near term and I suspect little money was spent on this compared to the sizable sum that over the years was spent to market LIG’s offering, first to consumers then to senior housing organizations after that failed. And while QuietCare is certainly used in some independent living facilities, there are a number of issues associated with it and in general with the category, which in my view is a very early market, requiring much improvement that perhaps GE will eventually fund:
Continue >>
|
Allscripts launches Remote EHR for BlackBerry
Allscripts Remote, which enables physicians to access and control an Allscripts Electronic Health Records (EHR) directly from their smartphones, is now available on BlackBerry devices. Allscripts launched Remote at the HIMSS event in Chicago this past spring — up until now the Allscripts Remote application was only available for iPhone (pictured, left) and iPod touch users. The company also promised to launch Allscripts Remote for Windows Mobile devices by year-end.
According to the release, the Allscripts Remote application enables physicians to “safely make critical medical decisions even when they are away from the office, with all relevant information available on the one device they keep closest – their phone.” The new applications works with both the Allscripts Enterprise and Professional Electronic Health Records. The application’s capabilities include access to real-time patient summary information, communication to local hospital emergency rooms, ePrescribing, and real-time access to other information, including medical history, lab results and medications.
Interestingly, when Allscripts originally launched Remote, they seemed to explain why they chose to launch with the iPhone: “Just as the Blackberry was designed to maximize email access, so Allscripts remote takes advantage of iPhone graphical capabilities to provide fast, easy access to the Electronic Health Record.”
Continue >>
|
WellAware raises $7.5M in venture capital
WellAware Systems, which develops wellness monitoring solutions for senior care providers, secured $7.5 million in venture capital from Valhalla Partners and .406 Ventures.
WellAware’s monitoring system consists of an array of wireless sensors placed throughout the senior’s home — these sensors capture data that is then communicated wirelessly through the cloud to the WellAware database. WellAware can then automatically generate alerts via email, page or text message in the event of a possible emergency. If for example the impact and motion sensors detect data that indicates a possible debilitating fall, WellAware would alert caregivers. Similarly, if the motion and temperature sensor detects data above a certain threshold while the stove is unattended, WellAware would alert a caregiver. Other sensors include humidity sensor, bed sensor and a door sensor among others. The patient also has a mobile personal emergency response system (PERS) medallion to push in order to call for help, too.
Continue >>
|
TelaDoc scoops up $9M in venture capital
TelaDoc Medical Services raised $9 million in additional investments to fund its next phase of growth, the company stated in a press release. The investment round’s lead investor was HLM Venture Partners, but healthcare-focused investment group Cardinal Partners contributed along with existing investor, Trident Capital.
Teladoc describes itself as a national network of board certified, licensed primary care physicians (PCP) that diagnose illness, recommend treatment, and prescribe medication, for its members over the phone — and it’s phone line is always open. TelaDoc bills itself as an alternative consultation service for minor medical problems, including respiratory infections, allergies, urinary tract infection, minor joint trauma (sprains & strains), arthritic pain, consultation for international and domestic travel as well as immunization planning.
Continue >>
|
Diversinet, AllOne consider recasting deal
Diversinet, a secure mobile application platform company, has announced plans to renegotiate its agreement with mobile health partner AllOne, which is a subsidiary of AllOne Health. For the record, AllOne Health is, in turn, a subsidiary of Hospital Service Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania (HSA).
Among other things, Diversinet provides security and encryption for AllOne mobile users’s health information and also enables the software to run across a number of mobile platforms. While no time table has been established for the conclusion of negotiations, the companies have assured existing and potential customers that they will continue to work together while they attempt to rejigger their agreement.
Following an investment in 2007, AllOne’s parent company owns a 15 percent stake in Diversinet. Last September, the two companies inked a five-year agreement that entitled AllOne to exclusive use of certain Diversinet technology in the personal health market. Here’s more on the specifics of that agreement, including the key financial metrics involved:
Continue >>
|
AT&T develops “smart slippers” for fall prevention
“These days, everybody is talking about medical care: Who gets it? Who pays for it? Who decides?” Robert Miller, executive director of technical research at AT&T, told the Star Ledger in a recent interview. Miller is a veteran of the wireless carrier’s research labs. “But few people are working on a technology solution that would lower costs and make medical care better at the same time.”
According to the Star Ledger report, AT&T’s scientists have been developing prototype connected health products for the past year, in an effort to make everyday household items “part of the network cloud.” As we reported earlier in the year, Miller and his team want to connect thermometers, scales, blood pressure cuffs and other “old technology” along with wireless radios to leverage WiFi networks and Bluetooth interoperability for connected medical devices.
That includes slippers.
Called “smart slippers,” they have pressure sensors embedded in their soles to transmit foot movement data over AT&T’s network. If something is amiss in an elderly patient’s gait, the device will alert a doctor via e-mail or text message, possibly preventing a fall and a costly trip to the emergency room, Miller said.
AT&T had announced a pilot this past May with Texas Instruments and start-up 24Eight to test the start-ups “smart inner soles.” While the Star Ledger report does not mention 24Eight, chances are that’s the technology powering the new consumer product prototype.
While AT&T would not comment on potential pricing models for “smart slippers” and similar products, Frost & Sullivan research analyst Zachary Bujnoch said costs can run up to $100 per month for each patient.
So, who pays? Continue >>
|
Prediction: 15 years until wireless health sensors?
Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) held a meeting this year to establish projections for the arrival of various technologies, including wireless health devices. Here’s what the group predicted:
- In five years, a variety of wearable devices should interface wirelessly with assistive robots.
- In 10 years, smaller-scale and lighter-weight wireless wearable sensors providing a range of physiologic data should be available to detect and classify, as well as to some degree, predict user physiologic state such as heart rate or blood oxygen or glucose level.
- In 15 years, off-the-shelf wireless physiologic sensing devices should be interoperable with computer- and robot-based coaching systems to facilitate bio-feedback and other forms of feedback to the user for facilitating sophisticated human-robot, and more generally, human-machine interaction.
Continue >>
|
St. Louis hospital: $1.7M in wireless health backpay
Today’s nurses are indeed mobile, as one hospital system recently learned the hard way:
SSM Health Care, a St. Louis-based hospital system has agreed to pay $1.7 million in back pay to nurses who had time deducted from their pay during meals despite whether or not they worked via their mobile phones, according to a report from the Associated Press.
The U.S. Department of Labor found that the hospital owed the nurses the back pay following an investigation by the agency. The back pay was distributed among 4,000 affected employees.
“SSM said in a statement that some nurses carried hospital-provided wireless phones while on meal breaks, accepted calls and did not report worked time, even though SSM policy states phones are not to be carried during meal breaks,” according to the AP report.
Source article from AP
|
Shorts: $232B personalized med market; Apps
Personalized Medicine a $232B market? Mobile phones and wireless technology are clear enablers of the growing “personalized medicine” industry — which is set to grow 11 percent annually according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The market is set to grow to $232 billion, according to the firm. More
iPhone medical apps list: CNN’s London unit put together a round-up of medical applications it found useful. More
Apps to prescribe to your healthcare worker: Fast Company also assembled eight medical applications that consumers should “prescribe” to their health workers. Excellent headline! (And reference to MobiHealthNews.) More
Free wireless for low-income New Yorkers: Sure, we are pushing the 90 percent penetration rate for wireless subscribers in the U.S., but what’s going to push us beyond that? Virgin Mobile looks to get more people using mobile phones through its Assurance Wireless service that launched today: Assurance Wireless is “a new cell phone service that makes wireless calling available at no cost to more than a million eligible lower-income households throughout New York.” More
|
Shorts: Philips $300M loan; WiFi scale; uHealth
Philips snags $300M loan for R&D: Philips has attained a EURO 200 million loan (about $300 million) from the European Investment Bank for research and development for healthcare ICT projects in Europe: Image-guided intervention, clinician support tools and home healthcare. The loan is for 10 years and is provided under the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF). More
USA Today lists WiFi weight scale at top of holiday gift-buying guide: “A ribbon-wrapped scale? No one wants that. Just try giving your spouse the Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale ($159 at withings.net) and see how delighted he or she is. (It has a wireless connection that can post a person’s weight to a personal website or, worse, Twitter it to the world.)” More
The Korea Times published a feature on uHealthcare (ubiquitous healthcare, similar to mHealth): “Micro-technologies offer the possibility of small size, but also of intelligent, active devices, working with low energy, wireless and non-invasive or minimally-invasive techniques. Wearable devices are particularly user friendly and combine sensors, circuits, supply, display and wireless transmission in a single box, which is very convenient for common physical activities. Healthcare smart clothes make contact with 90% of the skin and offer many possibilities for the location of sensors… Healthcare smart homes are designed to improve the patient’s living conditions and to avoid the cost of long hospitalization. Exo-sensors are used for measurement of the activity and behavior of the patient. The field of applications is very large. For example, it could be used for continuous monitoring of elderly populations, professional and military activities, athlete performance and conditions, and people with disabilities.” More
NC academics develop smart inhaler: Two professors at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have created a prototype smart inhaler system for people with asthma: The device aims to modulate “the patient’s inhalation waveform and then [release] a controlled drug-air stream which targets specific lung sites.” More
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| What’s Happening |
2010 Silvers Summit
Jan. 9,
at
International
CES, Las Vegas, NV
Boomers are re-booting life’s rules on how we age. Whether they’re listening to MP3’s on the treadmill, playing brain games on a netbook, or monitoring their parent’s home safety or texting the grandkids, this generation is maximizing their digital life. Hear from the companies, organizations and thought leaders applying technology to improve quality of life and independent living of adults over the age of 45 and for their elderly parents. Experts weigh in on lifestyle trends, product design, caregiving and reminder technologies and more.
Register here
OneMedForum 2010 Emerging Company Finance Conference:
Jan. 14, San Francisco, CA
Some of the country’s leading investors and experts will examine three driving forces that are at the core of reforming healthcare delivery. Panelists will discuss strategies on how investors and entrepreneurs can best capitalize on these trends.
Register here
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.
Register here
International CTIA Wireless 2010
March 23-25 at the Las Vegas Convention Center
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!
Register here
CIO Healthcare Summit
May 9-12, Scottsdale, AZ
The CIO Healthcare Summit is a gathering for C-suite executives and industry thought leaders to discuss IT challenges currently facing the health care industry, including improving patient care, controlling costs and meeting government regulations.
Register here
Institute for Health Technology Transformation’s Spring Health IT Summit
May 12-13, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
The Transforming Healthcare through Health IT Summit is designed to help top-level executives, legislators, physicians, regulators and technologists come to grips with the swirling forces of health information technology change, policy development and changing business models. The Summit provides an intimate, high level forum that facilitates open avenues of communication amongst executives and stakeholders in healthcare fostering the growth and adoption of HIT resulting in safer, more efficient and cost effective healthcare.
Register here
|
|
|
