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A “revolution” from mHealth or EMRs?
 Computerworld recently published a skeptical overview of the wireless medical applications that various hospital groups are adopting. The article included some interesting scoops: CardioNet competitor LifeWatch had about 35,000 patients hooked up to its mobile phone-based heart arrhythmia monitor in 2007 and just 120,000 users now; Methodist Healthcare System is rolling out AirStrip Technologies LP’s AirStrip OB mobile application, which sends fetal monitoring data to obstetricians.”
That said, it ended with a disappointing conclusion from Gartner analyst Wes Rischel.
First, Rischel threw cold water on wireless health applications by pointing to the tepid uptake of RFID tracking for medical devices. Sure, they both use some form of wireless technology, but how does RFID’s uptake relate to the potential of a wireless blood pressure cuff or connected blood glucose monitor? It doesn’t.
Next, Rischel said that technologies like the heart sensor patch that Dr. Eric Topol demonstrated at the CTIA conference are “incremental advances.” “The real revolution in health care IT, Rischel said, will likely come from something else: increased deployments of electronic medical records systems and the resulting improvements in data-sharing among organizations.”
The federal government’s effort to encourage all physicians and hospital groups to deploy electronic medical records (EMRs) may one day come to fruition. I’m in the camp that believes it will. While the challenges for EMR interoperability are staggering, the end result will correct a massive problem of inefficiency. And it’s a long overdue correction.
From a patient’s perspective, though, enabling different hospitals and clinics to share medical records is far from “revolutionary”. In fact, it’s more outrageous that the industry is still unable to do it fluidly. Sure, it will lead to better care for patients since all of their caretakers should have access to the same information leading to fewer repeated tests, fewer mistakes should follow and so on. That’s still just correcting problems, though.
The healthcare revolution will be patient-centered, participatory health care — anytime and anywhere. Wireless cardiac sensors like the one Topol demonstrated last month will lead to improvements in data sharing — not just among organizations — but among patients and caregivers, too. That’s the mark of a new era, not just a more efficient version of the old one.
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CardioNet denies reimbursement cut rumors
One of the critical success factors for a wireless healthcare service is a physician’s willingness to prescribe it, and that conversation typically begins once a service has been given the green light for reimbursement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other payers.
CardioNet, mHealth’s Reimbursement Pioneer?
CardioNet, the only pure-play wireless health company that has gone public, is one pioneering company that has sought CMS reimbursement for its wireless cardiac monitoring offering. In the first quarter of this year, CardioNet received Category I CPT Codes and Reimbursement Rates for the professional and technical components of its system, which has set “the stage for a more simplified and stable, reimbursement environment going forward,” CardioNet CEO Randy Thurman said during a recent investors’ call.
“In addition, the validation provided by having dedicated CPT Codes has been positive reinforcement in our efforts to establish coverage with the remaining commercial payers,” Thurman explained. “Year-to-date, we have added 11 new payers, representing over 4 million new covered lives. As such, CardioNet now has contracts covering nearly 200 million lives. Coupled with the fact that CardioNet will soon have been used on a quarter of a million patients, nearly 7 times that of any MCOT competitor, it is clear that we’ve moved well beyond the experimental or investigational stage.”
Reimbursement, then, is one of the final, official designations of a wireless health solution’s commercialization. Read More…
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Google records show no intent to sell PHR info
In the past few weeks Google Health has caught a good amount of flack for inaccuracies that made their way into a patient’s personal health record, and whether it deserves blame or not, you have to admit Google did play a part in that debacle.
Now, however, a consumer watchdog group has accused Google of lobbying the federal government to let it sell patients’ online medical records, and this attempt at a pile-on goes too far. Despite a number of inaccurate reports by various publications, the Senate’s lobbying records show no evidence that Google lobbied the government to let it sell patients’ online medical information.
“According to first quarter federal reports, Google participated in lobbying efforts aimed at allowing the sale of electronic medical records in the economic stimulus legislation,” an article over at Healthcare IT News asserts.
Actually, first quarter Senate lobbying reports show that Google and its hired lobbyists lobbied the government on these specific health issues — the list includes some repeats just to be certain we’ve got them all: “Online Health-related initiatives, including health information technology provisions in H.R. 1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”; “General online consumer privacy and protection issues”; “Online health-related initiatives; issues relating to online personal health records, including in connection with H.R. 1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″; ”Online Health-related initiatives, including health information technology provisions in H.R. 1, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”.
Miss the part about selling patients’ online medical information? So did we. (Click here to Read More)
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U.S. Army: mHealth lets patients play a role
During a plenary session at the American Telemedicine Association event in Las Vegas last week Colonel Jeffrey Davies, Acting Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command described an mHealth project for wounded soldiers who have recently returned home from conflicts overseas. Davies’ talk was entitled “The Army Medical Department’s Tele-TBI Intitiatives: Today Military Applications Setting the Pace for Tomorrow’s Civilian Telemedicine Opportunities.”
While Davies never mentioned the Army’s key vendor partner in its mHealth initiative for wounded soldiers, we know it’s AllOne Mobile since we have been following their story for a few months now. Davies noted that having a mobile phone-based platform helps to increase interaction between patient and caregiver and leads to an augmented patient-caregiver relationship. Davies said it has been exciting to watch the program take off and make a difference in these soldiers’ lives.
Here’s how it works…
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Slideshow: Swine Flu mobile app round-up
 Earlier this week we wrote about IntuApps’ forthcoming Swine Flu Tracker application, which has gotten a huge amount of press as one way the iPhone is helping public health officials disseminate information about the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. Of course, IntuApps’ application isn’t available yet — Apple is still reviewing it, the company said.
You may not realize it, but there are actually two Swine Flu apps already in the AppStore. We also heard about one more that’s in the works to help physicians and other medical workers keep up-to-date on all things Swine Flu. PLAY
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IntelliDot CEO: Bigger plans than barcodes
Jim Sweeney, the founder of CardioNet and new CEO of handheld barcode scanner company IntelliDot, has no interest in Intellidot as it operates today:
“This company in its current form is of no interest to me,” Sweeney told Xconomy during a recent interview. “I have a vision of what can happen in terms of wireless technology and applications. I intend to take the company forward into providing lots of wireless connectivity to patients, nurses, and hospitals, and taking data out of the hospital into outside servers. That is where all of us are going.”
Sweeney has founded eight successful healthcare companies: Caremark, CarePartners, CareGivers, Central Admixture Pharmacy Services, or CAPS, McGaw, Coram, Bridge Medical, and CardioNet. For the past decade, however, he has been working “feverishly” on incubating innovation in the field of wireless healthcare.
Sweeney says healthcare has a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs because “it is very poorly managed and really focused on the wrong things. In many cases the patient is the last person who gets the attention of the system.”
Sweeney envisions a world of connected health where wireless devices and sensors transmit vital signs and other biometric data seamlessly (and without the patient having to do anything) to online health records for patient, caregiver or physician review.
“All of this sensed information leads to electronic medical records,” Sweeney told Xconomy. “If we can collect your data and take that information from the doctor’s office to a server, it wouldn’t matter where you were in the world and which doctor you saw, that doctor would have access to your data… The patient owns his medical information. What I envision is that he can also bring it with him.”
Read the Xconomy interview with Jim Sweeney for more (excellent piece).
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Text messages: Enabling privacy for sex ed
Major cities across the U.S. and Canada have recently launched text message-based sex education hotlines in an effort to stem teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto each have automated text message services for frequently asked questions that provide teens with answers and information on local clinics.
The New York Times recently published a feature on a similar service in North Carolina called the Birds and the Bees Text Line, which is not automated, but staffed by nine professional texters with public health backgrounds. According to the report, many epidemiologists and public health experts believe sex education in the classroom is either ineffective or insufficient. North Carolina, which instructs schools to teach abstinence-only curricula, has the country’s ninth highest teenage pregnancy rate.
“Technology reduces the shame and embarrassment,” said Deb Levine, executive director of ISIS, a nonprofit organization that began many technology-based reproductive health programs. “It’s the perceived privacy that people have when they’re typing into a computer or a cellphone. And it’s culturally appropriate for young people: they don’t learn about this from adults lecturing them.”
The North Carolina program is funded by a $5,000 grant for the cellphone line as well as advertising from the State Department of Health and Human services. Unlike the automated services, The Birds and the Bees Text Line offers one-on-one exchanges that are private, personal and anonymous, as well as outside the purview of parents.
While issues of privacy and security will be a constant concern for those deploying mobile health solutions, it’s clear that in some cases and for some demographic groups, the mobile phone may be the one and only place they can find privacy.
For more, read the New York Times article here.
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Doylestown Hospital goes all iPhone 3G
According to a recent profile on Apple’s corporate site, Doylestown Hospital, located outside of Philadelphia, PA, recently outfitted its 360 independent physicians and hospital staff with 3G iPhones in an effort to help them save time, be more productive and provide better care for their patients.
“Physicians need something that is a beeper and cell phone, and that allows them to get messages and information about patients,” Doylestown’s Dr. Scott Levy (pictured), Vice President and Chief Medical Officer told Apple.
“iPhone offers a major workflow improvement for our physicians,” said Rick Lang, Doylestown’s Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “iPhone is so intuitive that we have never trained doctors how to get information,” Lang says.
Doylestown physicians have synched up their iPhones to the hospital’s Microsoft Exchange ActiveSynch for email, calendar and contacts and leverage the mobile email app to receive time-sensitive hospital-wide email alerts.
The iPhones also synch up to Doylestown’s EMR system MEDITECH Client/Server 6.0. As long as the doctors have secure access to a Safari browser on iPhone, they can access patient information from anywhere in the world, Levy told Apple. The mobile EMR allows doctors to check on patients’ vital signs, medications, lab results, allergies, nurses’ notes, therapy results, and even information about patient diet.
Another favorite category of app on the iPhone among the Doylestown doctors are medical reference applications, like Epocrates Essentials, which helps to explain diseases, interpret lab results, and provide drug information.
For more, check out Apple’s site and be sure to listen in on the narrated slideshow.
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Photos from ATA: The Federal Funders
Here’s our round-up of images from the second day of the American Telemedicine Association event in Las Vegas last week, including speakers panel sessions and some of the mHealth products on display in the exhibit hall.
Lots of dedicated devices — more companies need to leverage the tools already in the market, like mobile phones. Click here for the photos!
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Phreesia adds more to its wireless check-in
Phreesia, which offers wireless tablets for patient check-in at physician’s offices, just announced a new risk assessment tool that aims to help doctors identify patients at risk for osteoporosis. The company worked with osteoporosis expert, Felicia Cosman, MD, and based its new assessment survey on the National Osteoporosis Foundation’s (NOF) recently released Clinician’s Guide to Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis.
The disease, which affects some 44 million in the U.S., is characterized by increased susceptibility to bone fracture because of low bone mass. The NOF estimates that osteoporosis-related injuries cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $17 billion each year.
“Osteoporosis-related fractures result in approximately 2.5 million medical office visits annually in the United States, and Phreesia is committed to reducing the enormous medical and personal burden of this disease on aging individuals and their families,” said Chaim Indig, Phreesia’s President and Chief Executive Officer in a company press release. “Bone health is essential to overall health and an important component of Phreesia’s measurement guided care program, and we are very pleased to be leveraging the expertise of Dr. Cosman and the National Osteoporosis Foundation to help improve health outcomes in our network,” said Indig.
Phreesia has up until now provided doctors’ offices with free, wireless-enabled tablets that replace the old-fashioned, pen-and-paper clipboards used for patient check-in. The company offers the tablets for free because after the patient has checked-in, the tablet asks permission to share some health information, which may or may not be sponsored by a pharma company.
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May 12, La Jolla, CA:
2009 Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance Investor’s Meeting
An Investor’s Meeting to facilitate discussion and information exchange between capital sources and successful companies achieving traction and developing key emerging technologies in this rapidly advancing sector.
Register
May 13-14, La Jolla, CA:
2009 Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance Convergence Summit
Business, Medical and Scientific Leaders Explore the Convergence of Wireless Technologies, Life Sciences and Consumers.
Register
May 13-16, Boston, MA:
The Heart Rhythm Society’s 30th Annual Scientific Session
Science, discovery and innovation represent the driving forces behind this year’s Scientific Sessions. Collectively, they embody the accomplishments and aspirations of the field of cardiac arrhythmias. Attend and gain first-hand knowledge and perspectives you can put to work immediately in your own practice and learn more about the emerging and enabling technology of the future.
Register
June 16-17, Ft. Lauderdale:
8th CCS Summit
Transforming Healthcare through Health Information Technology
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 CCS HIT provides an intimate, high-level forum that facilitates open avenues of communication amongst executives and stakeholders in healthcare.
Register
June 22-23, Seattle, WA:
Sixth Annual Healthcare Unbound Conference & Exhibition
Healthcare Unbound will have a strong focus on use of remote monitoring / home telehealth technologies for wellness promotion and disease management, with a special emphasis on Baby Boomers and the elderly population. The agenda will also cover topics such as the emerging role of mobile/wireless technologies, legal/regulatory developments and reimbursement issues, strategies for success for Healthcare Unbound vendors and much more.
Register
July 27-28, Boston, MA:
The World Health Care Congress Leadership Summit on Wireless Health
This two-day Summit convenes policy-makers, payers, providers and medical group practices from across the nation to discuss business and clinical opportunities for integrating mHealth, Remote Monitoring and Telehealth solutions into existing care systems. Real-life, case studies and the results to-date from pilots at several leading provider organizations will be shared..
Register
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| Check it out…
Vital Wave Consulting’s Report, mHealth for Development: The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World
Report and audio presentation
2009 DiabetesMine Design Challenge
Do you have an idea for an innovative new diabetes device or web application? This is your chance to win up to $10,000.
Click here for more information
UC Berkeley’s
Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge |
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