Even thought the HealthPAL device is not a phone, it does run on cellular networks. Is your solution always cellular-based? Do you have options that use existing land line data in the home?
We are offering a tiered approach. MedApps started with GSM (AT&T) and we recently added CDMA (Verizon Wireless). We have a docking station for HealthPAL that is used for charging, which is a big issue with the senior populations. We have found that many seniors believe that charging cell phones is wasting energy and money, so a lot of times they do not charge their units or leave them on — which, of course, makes them ineffective in this [remote monitoring] context. We have had this conversation with large technology companies that are going after the senior market. For our device’s docking station and really the whole solution: We consider the solution to be 20 percent technology and 80 percent psychology. The docking station charges the device but it will also use different modalities to communicate back to the online portal. We are adding POTS (plain old telephony services) to the docking station via an add-on module. We are adding a GSM chip directly into the docking station, too. In the future we plan on adding WiFi, WiMAX and Ethernet to the docking station as demand calls for it.
Really, WiMAX too?
Some of our partners will want WiMAX embedded, yes. WiMAX doesn’t have ubiquity yet, but the market will dictate to us. When we look at the 80 or 90 percent market share for technologies like Bluetooth, the decision to interoperate with those devices is easy. We will get into ZigBee and ANT+ or the other ones as demand for them increase.
You mentioned interoperability — Bluetooth and ZigBee are two technologies that the Continua Health Alliance has tapped as suggested technologies that personal health device makers should use to ensure interoperability among different companies’ products. It sounds like, market willing, however, MedApps plans to go beyond those?
Yes, well, our role at Continua is to be the early adopter. I came from big companies like American Express and Texas Instruments, and it’s really hard for big companies, especially in these hard economic times, to innovate and get their ideas to market and commercialize. Instead of just letting the big companies create smart technology that is not adaptable or adoptable in the marketplace, we see our role at Continua as being the young and agile company that is running out in front to determine what are best practices and what works. In any nascent market that is just starting to emerge, companies begin by developing technologies on simple platforms because it’s easy. However, if you walk in to Cleveland Clinic, which is where we are, and tell them you plan to monitor their patients with this really cool application, but add that they have to use a PC that is state-of-the-art and need broadband access or access to a smartphone… Cleveland Clinic will tell you: Great, you just eliminated 70 percent of the patients that are costing me dollars in the emergency room.
Right, which is where the dedicated device comes in. Since this device is a new one, however, what is the level of involvement required by technicians to help the patient use it?
What we are trying to do is drive back and create a system that is open allowing it to be used with any patient. One of the pain points that the market experienced, is that if you do put a solution based on a smartphone out in the market and you send it out to Granny — Does a technician have to go out to the person’s home to help them connect it to their PHR? Can it be ready to go right out of the box? If Bluetooth pairing is required, does Granny have to figure out how to pair the two devices via Bluetooth? Or can that be done remotely? Within 15 minutes of our device coming out of the box and getting charged, we can send firmware to it wirelessly to repair the Bluetooth connection. That way the service provider does not have to send a technician out. It is technology strategies like this, that help keep healthcare costs down. That’s also good for nurses: One of their biggest struggles over the last ten years has been becoming technicians for these types of services to help patients get them configured or to troubleshoot. Instead of spending time on making sure the patient is eating right or taking their medication, they have to spend time on the technology. That’s one pain point we are trying to solve.
Which of MedApps solutions already have FDA clearance?
We started out with a cell phone first and we got FDA approval for sending data wirelessly from a glucose meter back to the user’s cell phone and then onto a central server where a nurse reviewed it. We had an IVR system along with it, too. That baseline system was approved back in July, 2007. In June, 2009 we had the HealthPAL device approved by the FDA and that marked our redesign, taking us from a cell phone to our own dedicated device unit. The FDA approved HealthPAL not only for glucose [monitoring] but for connecting scales and pulse oximeters, too. That’s our wireless device offering. We are also looking at INR now, because there are reimbursement codes out there that are getting attention from our customers, because they can use some of them to get reimbursed for remote monitoring via our device too. That’s the whole thing in this industry: Where can you get reimbursement for your technology? For this case it is INR codes. We are also going through testing for adding peak flow (for asthma) as well as a pedometer to HealthPAL. They both work with our system currently but we need to go through FDA still. Also, our HealthHUB device should get FDA clearance sometime around December of this year.
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