| If you tell them you built it, they will come.
 Last month at the Health 2.0 meets Ix conference here in Boston, we covered The Pew Internet & American Life Project’s health research and digital strategy head Susannah Fox’s presentation on the opportunity that mobile devices present for engaging different populations in managing their own care. At the time, Fox noted that despite the opportunity mobile presents, there are pockets of people who lack access to basic technology, lack the skills to participate, lack the interest to try something new, or lack the feeling they are welcomed to participate. The team behind the Heath 2.0 conference posted video interviews last week from some of the event’s speakers, including Fox. In one video clip, Fox expands on her contention that the mobile platform could help health service providers reach a more diverse population. “We are seeing a deepening of the online experience with that group that is motivated by mobility,” Fox told the interviewer. “It turns out that mobility is actually changing people once again, as we saw with broadband. We are also continuing to see greater diversity in terms of race and ethnicity. If you want to reach a population that, for example, looks more like America, then go to a mobile application, because there are lots of people who don’t have a desktop computer but who have a really fantastic phone.” “It could be a trap though, what I saw in looking at the mobile data and looking at the health data, we are still finding that we do not have full participation,” Fox said. “The technology is there, but there is a lack — maybe of interest — there’s maybe a lack of confidence — there’s a lack of a sense of being welcome in the space. Mobile is an opportunity to be a game changer, but only if everyone gets in the game.” Fox makes a number of good points in the video, but I think her list of reasons for why people aren’t yet using wireless health services is missing the most important one: Before we can have a lack of interest or lack of confidence in mHealth, before we can feel unwelcomed, we need to know it exists. Wireless health service providers or mobile application developers cannot bank their entire marketing strategy on being featured in an Apple iPhone commercial. Mobile health application developers and their partners need to let patients know that the technology is here, that the technology works (be sure to prove it) and that the mobile phone does have the power to become a game changer. First, though, let them know the game is on. Click here for the video interview of Pew’s Susannah Fox, conducted on the sidelines of the Health 2.0.
|
 An unhealthy start for Nokia’s Ovi Store?
Nokia’s Ovi Store, which is the mobile phone giant’s answer to Apple’s iPhone AppStore, launched yesterday, and it is severely lacking in medical, health and fitness applications. As we have noted recently, the iPhone now has more than 1,500 health-related applications. Granted, the AppStore had a couple years head start on Nokia, but the Finnish phone maker has taken its time and — at first blush, anyway — the results are less than impressive. For starters, Nokia’s Ovi Store doesn’t even have a “health,” “fitness” or “medical” category for its applications, and at least one of the more promising health apps, which Nokia designed itself, is labeled with a disclaimer. It reads: ”NOTE: this is an experimental prototype that may break, change or disappear at any time.” While some of them are a bit of a stretch, mobihealthnews found these seven health or fitness related apps in Nokia’s Ovi Store within the “Sports,” “News & Info” and “Utilities” categories: Continue>>
|
| Interview: UCLA Wireless Health Institute
mobihealthnews recently caught up with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman of the Life Sciences Prize Group Steering Committee at the X Prize Foundation, and the newly appointed executive director of the UCLA Wireless Health Institute. Soon-Shiong is also founder and chairman of Abraxis BioScience and executive chairman and CEO of Abraxis Health. The Wireless Health Institute (WHI) was established last year as a community of UCLA experts from engineering, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, public health and other disciplines that aims to improve “the timeliness and reach of health care through the development and application of wireless, network-enabled technologies integrated with current and next-generation medical enterprise computing.” Soon-Shiong explained that the Institute’s mandate is to not only enable the development of these technologies but also to foster wireless health start-ups and test the wireless health technologies to prove their efficacy. “I believe the only way we can truly transform healthcare is if we enable both patients and providers to have access to data that is truly ‘outcomes actionable,’” Soon-Shiong said. “Evidence-based, outcomes-driven data at the point-of-care is the goal. Those few words have a deep meaning to them — evidence-based outcomes based point-of-care. That is the holy grail for healthcare transformation.” Continue>>
|
| Jitterbug recalls 160,000 phones for 911 failure
GreatCall’s Jitterbug service just had a major setback — the easy-to-use mobile phone service makes use of one phone, the Samsung “Jitterbug” and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Samsung “Jitterbug” phones sold between March 2008 and May 2009. That makes for a voluntary recall of some 160,000 Jitterbug phones. Continue>>
|
| ARRA, “Potential goldmines” for wireless carriers
According to a recent ABI report, the U.S. stimulus bill, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) contains “potential goldmines” worth up to $6.8 billion for wireless equipment vendors, infrastructure providers and wireless service providers. According to ABI, healthcare is one of the key verticals that will benefit from ARRA’s spending on wireless. “The ARRA represents a windfall for wireless service providers as well as for satellite service providers,” ABI VP Stan Schatt said in a statement. “It will have an enormous impact on Wi-Fi and wireless broadband vendors. It will also immediately benefit a number of specific vertical industries including healthcare, education, homeland security, the environment, and the nation’s electricity infrastructure.” The analyst firm writes that “in healthcare, the scope for adding wireless to the technology mix encompasses WiFi-enabled mobile devices and sensors, communications systems linking health networks, telepresence, wireless LAN equipment, and WiFi-enabled video surveillance systems.” ABI’s press release is careful not to say whether any of these particular wireless health use cases may be mentioned in ARRA, but the firm seems to believe that the opportunities for getting funding for them through ARRA do exist if wireless carriers and equipment providers find the right partners. For more, read ABI’s press release about the report.
|
| Twitter surgery timeline: 8 months of OR tweets
Chances are that by now you have heard about the many surgeries major hospitals across the U.S. have chronicled live (in 140 characters or less) via the increasingly popular social media site Twitter. The site’s founders did not come by that 140 characters limit arbitrarily, of course, it just happens to be the same limit for the text messages we send and receive via mobile phones. Twitter is one of the first and certainly most popular social media site that was built around mobile phone functionality — users can “tweet” directly from their mobile phones through text messages — if they don’t have a smartphone and Web browser. Users can also have Twitter send them updates from other users via text message, too. Using Twitter to live-stream surgeries has brought some hospitals a good deal of (mostly positive) attention. In some cases, hospital groups have tripled their number of followers, adding thousands more, to their Twitter feeds. Critics claim that tweeting surgeries is just a PR stunt that is perhaps a waste of time. Proponents extol participating hospitals as more “transparent” than their non-tweeting cohorts. Some have linked the practice of live-tweeting surgeries to a doctor’s role in educating the community about medical procedures: Twitter’s 140 character limit encourages the surgeons or their PR counterparts to report on the surgery in layman’s terms. Other groups position the live tweets as an educational channel for other doctors, medical students and patients alike. Whatever the reasons, it seems that at least for now live tweeting surgeries will continue. While there are likely to be other examples of live tweeted surgeries, we compiled a timeline of the most notable examples from the past eight months. Read on to re-visit how surgeons met Twitter. Be sure to let us know what you think will come of this trend. Continue>>
|
| AT&T, TI team up for wireless balance-sensing
“A lot of this is old technology,” Bob Miller, executive director of AT&T’s communications-technology research department, told the Dallas Morning News. “But we’re putting it together in ways that will help millions of people live dramatically better lives.” Miller and his team are looking at ways 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. Miller’s team at AT&T and Texas Instruments are working with New York-based start-up 24Eight to test the company’s smart insoles, which have been outfitted with pressure sensors and accelerometers. The sensors monitor how well walkers distribute their weight and can determine if their balance is deteriorating and if they are heading for a fall. The insoles aim to enable doctors to know just when to restrict elderly patients to wheelchairs before they could hurt themselves. About one fall per day occurs in a nursing home with 200 patients, and one in 20 of those falls typically leads to a fatal complication within six months, accord to the Dallas Morning News report. AT&T, TI, 24Eight and Texas Tech University are testing the insoles as well as many other devices at the Garrison Geriatric Center in Lubbock, Texas. “We haven’t collected enough data yet to discuss results, but we think it’s incredibly important to shift the focus of care from treating problems to preventing problems,” said Andrew Dentino, head of geriatric and palliative medicine at Texas Tech’s medical school. For more, read the entire report in the Dallas Morning News.
|
| 39% senior communities to be smart homes
Senior living community administrators predict that during the next five years “smart home” technology and wireless connectivity will help attract residents, according to The Trends in Senior Living survey conducted by the Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging. The survey polled operators within 107 senior living organizations, which represent some 435 senior living communities in 13 states. The operators also said that they expect home health services, wellness programs, internet-based education and smaller and “greener” facilities will bring in more residents. “The survey results tell us that it will not be business as usual for senior living communities in the years ahead,” said Linda Hollinger-Smith, Vice President, Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging. “It’s clear that with the projected decline in the 75 to 84 age population over the next decade, senior living organizations will need to identify their niche to attract this generation prior to the arrival of the Baby Boomers.” Currently, 24 percent of respondents said the community they operated offered home health services, but respondents to the survey project that that number will reach 62 percent by 2013. Likewise, wellness offerings will grow from 25 percent to 52 percent, according to the survey. Finally, including “smart home” technology to help seniors foster a greater sense of independence will also see a rise from just 8 percent of communities today to 39 percent in 2013, the survey found. For more, check out this press release about the survey results. Related Articles: Remote Monitoring will save $20+ billion Intel, GE think home-health monitoring will be $7.7B market by 2012
|
| Doro: Designing mobiles for seniors
Swedish consumer electronics company Doro has been targeting the senior market with easy-to-use devices since 1974, and began offering easy-to-use mobile phones in the Fall of 2007. As a result, the company has a lot to teach the wireless health industry, which needs to find ways to successfully engage the older demographic since remote wireless monitoring has the potential to greatly impact that demographic’s well-being while reducing costs for the healthcare industry as a whole. Who are these “seniors,” anyway? “Even ’seniors’ can not be called one group,” Doro’s CEO Jerome Arnaud told mobihealthnews during a recent interview. “We have to be much more accurate when determining our demographic. Age is often not the best criteria,” Arnaud said. “Of course, using age groups makes it easier to communicate so you may see that on some of our marketing, but when we design products we have a much more detailed demographic in mind. We clearly understand that within the group of people who are 75-years-old, there are sub groups with totally different social behaviors and activity levels. Some live in the countryside, while some live in cities.” “Having said all that, we typically refer to our target ’senior’ end users as those 65 and up,” Arnaud explained, “while our Baby Boomer group is 60[-years-old] at a max. That’s who we are targeting, but nothing prevents younger people, even teenagers, from buying our products if they are looking for an easy-to-use device. We have nothing against attracting new customers.” Will the senior demographic always need easier-to-use mobiles? Today’s 55-year-old businesspeople, however, are no strangers to smartphones. Will they ever need easier-to-use devices? Won’t the aging population become increasingly tech-savvy as the years go by? Continue>>
|
| X Prize: Giving Health Reform a Rocket Boost
The X Prize Foundation has set its sights on healthcare reform and has launched a $10 million Healthcare X Prize competition to spur innovation from global health innovators. The overall aim of the competition is to increase health care value by 50 percent in a 10,000 person community over a three year period. As we have heard from a number of wireless health thought leaders, remote monitoring and mobile applications could play a big role in achieving the X Prize’s vision. The foundation has invited written ideas for the Healthcare X Prize. They plan on choosing five ideas for a three-year trial run in real U.S. communities or at employers. The winner would then be chosen based on a “community health index” that includes things like: improved ability to climb stairs, reductions in visits to emergency rooms and overall health costs. Here’s the complete run down on the competition from X Prize Foundation’s Senior Health Advisor Scott Shreeves, MD: Continue>>
|
| BlackBerry app aims to keep teeth whiter
5C-Mobile is giving BlackBerry users a new reason to smile — Bright Smile Toothbrush Timer and Oral Care Guide, a mobile application for the “health-conscious.” The application includes a toothbrush timer that indicates how long each section of the mouth should be brushed and also includes detailed oral hygiene guidelines that cover brushing, flossing and general oral care. The Bright Smile Toothbrush Timer and Oral Care Guide is available for BlackBerry mobile phones at the BlackBerry App World. It can also be downloaded from 5C-Mobile’s own app store: Bandarin.com. While 5C-Mobile probably won’t have to worry about this for a few years, last month at the BodyNets conference, mobihealthnews met Rice University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Lin Zhong whose team is testing a toothbrush that uses wireless sensors to actually determine how well users brush their teeth. The sensors keep track of the duration of brushing as well as whether the brusher is using the correct motions. While we wait for the wireless toothbrush to hit the market, read more about 5C-Mobile’s app, and check out the company’s press release.
|
| Is Bluetooth de facto for medical connectivity?
Has Bluetooth already won the race to wirelessly connect medical devices? Currently, Bluetooth’s Health Device Profile is the only wireless technology specification that the interoperability group Continua Health Alliance has included in its guidelines, however, last month the Alliance met in Spain to begin the process of deciding which other wireless technologies should be included. The group has yet to announce its decision. If it were up to Nick Hunn, Vice Chairman at the Mobile Data Association and CEO of WiFore, chances are Bluetooth Low Energy would be the technology that Continua picks: Hunn’s recently released report on Bluetooth’s dominance in the wireless medical devices sector extols the many virtues of Bluetooth and explains in great detail the technology’s many successes in the medical industry. “To achieve success eHealth needs a critical mass of devices,” Hunn writes. “Today there are just over 3 billion Bluetooth devices in existence. In 2011, there will be more Bluetooth devices than people. From the start of 2010, mobile phones will incorporate chips which support standard Bluetooth as well as low energy Bluetooth. No other wireless technology can begin to emulate this.” Continue>>
|
|
 |
 |
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 October 6-9, San Diego, CA: CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment No matter what your business is – healthcare, entertainment, fleet management or financial planning – wireless can transform how you do business. International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment brings this possibility to life. With a focus on applications, network architecture and technologies such as LBS, machine-to-machine and WiMAX (just to name a few), this international event brings a community of users, carriers, developers and manufacturers together to generate dialogue, share ideas and debate the economics of MOBILE BUSINESS. Register October 27-30, San Diego: TEDMED 2009 The fifth in a series created by Marc Hodosh and Richard Saul Wurman, TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone’s life around the globe. Register
|
|
|
.jpg)
