Best Buy eyes wireless health opportunity
 In the fall of 2004, news broke that Best Buy planned to launch a new chain of retail stores, called Eq-Life, that targeted middle-age women shoppers. Eq-Life would help them access technology and resources to manage their family’s health. At the time, a Best Buy spokeswoman said that Eq-Life was serving an “uncharted industry.”
After about 18 months of lackluster sales at the original Minneapolis-St. Paul Eq-Life stores, Best Buy pulled out of the venture and sold its majority stake. Shortly thereafter all Eq-Life stores closed down.
Of course, since then the consumer healthcare industry has discovered a whole suite of new technologies to build on, including PHRs and smarter smartphones. Despite the Eq-Life debacle, Best Buy appears to be gearing up to re-enter the market in a very big way — this time, though, it looks like the its healthcare technology offerings will remain in-house.
At the Microsoft Connected Health Conference this past June, Best Buy teamed up with Microsoft’s HealthVault team to invite device makers to pitch the electronics store’s executives in a private meeting at the event: “If you believe that your product or solution can wow health-conscious shoppers at the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States, this is your chance to make it happen,” stated the Microsoft-Best Buy invitation for “HealthVaultDevices@BestBuy”. The invitation also explained that “outstanding solutions providers” would have the opportunity to discuss collaboration opportunities with Best Buy during a special dinner later this summer.
Qualifications for the device companies included the ability to “demonstrate how health data can be transferred from their device, via a wired or wireless connection, to a PC, phone or directly to the cloud.” HealthVault integration was considered a “plus” but not a requirement.
Last month, Lance Rusco, Director of Strategy for Best Buy within the Connected Digital World strategy group told attendees at Qualcomm’s Smart Services Leadership Summit in San Diego that Best Buy estimates 50 million cellular-enabled devices will pass through its stores in 2012. Rusco included medical monitoring and tracking devices among them.
In the U.S. there are more than 1,000 Best Buy stores. Wireless healthcare solutions providers looking to go direct-to-consumer should be encouraged by Best Buy’s renewed interest in the consumer health market. And with reports from Frost & Sullivan, ABI Research, Parks Associates and others just this past month — it’s far from an “uncharted industry” anymore.
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Study: mHealth reduces hospitalizations
A study set to be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that mobile phone-based telemonitoring of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) has the potential to reduce frequency and duration of heart failure hospitalizations. The study also included a caveat that ensuring elderly patients, in particular, could use the mobile phone-based service’s user interface comfortably would be a key challenge for any mobile-based service.
The objective of the Mobile Telemonitoring in Heart Failure Patients Study (MOBITEL) was to evaluate the impact of home-based telemonitoring, which uses Internet and mobile phone technology, on the outcome of heart failure patients after an episode of acute decompensation. Continue >>
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Report: $950M wireless health market by 2014
Wireless devices that monitor patients’ conditions and report the data to healthcare providers will show a 77 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) that will create global revenues of $950 million by 2014, according to a recent report from ABI Research.
“Hospitals and other healthcare providers are being economically squeezed,” ABI Research vice president Stan Schatt said in a statement. “The demands on the medical system are exacerbated by the aging of populations in most developed nations. Doctors and hospitals are looking for ways to save money, and wireless patient monitoring has a huge potential to do that, for both in- and out-patients. It’s a lot more economical to monitor patients remotely at home than to have them come in personally for checkups that consume time and resources.”
Schatt describes the costs of adding wireless technology to medical equipment as a “significant hurdle” for the industry. Interestingly, ABI’s press release notes that “while wireless healthcare is a global market, the cost of the equipment means that much of the activity in this segment so far is in the United States.”
“In the future we will see entire cellular networks designed as managed services for handling these machine-to-machine communications,” Schatt stated. “The whole process will be outsourced, and software will monitor the incoming measurements. Medical staff will be alerted when the data indicates their intervention is needed.”
For more, read the research firm’s press release here.
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Medication adherence costs $290 billion a year
A new report conducted by the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) found that not taking medications as prescribed leads to poorer health, more frequent hospitalization, a higher risk of death and as much as $290 billion annually in increased medical costs. Anywhere from one-third to one-half of patients in the U.S. do not take their medications as instructed. Not taking the medication on time, in the proper doses, or at all are just some examples of poor patient medication adherence. Reasons for following the proper medication regimen include: unpleasant side effects, confusion, forgetfulness, language barriers, and feeling “too good” to need medicine. Those with chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure are among the groups that are less likely to follow their medication regimen. NEHI is urging the federal government to the issue a part of the national healthcare reform debate.
NEHI’s report is an update on a 2001 report. The new one is based on seven systematic reviews of the medical literature plusinterviews with 16 health care organizations, insurers, drug makers and technology companies — the report was financed by this group, NEHI said, but it was written independently of them. Continue >>
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| Verizon Wireless promotes its mHealth apps
Verizon Wireless recently sent out a press release promoting their mobile health and fitness applications, some of which have been around for a number of years: Bones in Motion, Diet Fitness Diary, The Pill Phone, Healthy Body and Howcast. The applications are available for select Verizon Wireless phones and can be downloaded directly to the phone via the Media Center/Get It Now portal.
Unlike most iPhone, Palm Pre or Google Android health apps, Verizon Wireless’ apps cost upwards of $5.99 per month in subscription fees. That said, the carrier’s announcement about these tools, which could help Verizon Wireless’ 87.7 million customers better manage their health and fitness, serves as a reminder that the wireless health opportunity isn’t just for smartphones. At these prices, however, it may as well be.
Here’s a quick rundown of the health and fitness applications Verizon Wireless recently promoted: Continue >>
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Medication reminder GlowCap goes D2C
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vitality announced the commercial availability of its wireless Internet-enabled pill caps product, GlowCaps, which fit popular prescription bottles and help remind people to take their medications on time. GlowCaps are now available on Amazon.com for $99.
As the name suggests, GlowCaps use light and sound to signal when it is time to take medications, the product also records when a pill bottle is opened and then wirelessly relays this information into an online adherence report. The patient, their caregivers and doctors can receive a weekly adherence report email.
If a person fails to take their medication on time, the GlowCap will call the individual to remind them. The intelligent pillbox cap also connects the patient to their pharmacy once the pills are running low.
According to the company, Harvard Medical School, Duke Business School, and a number of “major pharmaceutical companies” are running randomized controlled trials to quantify the impact of GlowCaps on specific populations, conditions and therapies.
For more on Vitality’s GlowCaps, read the company’s press release here.
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Direct reimbursement: Key to remote monitoring
The market for remote patient monitoring is set to achieve double digit growth in North America, according to a recent report from Frost & Sullivan, so long as successful payment strategies are implemented. Last year the remote patient monitoring market made more than $98.2 million, but the market could top $428.6 million by 2015. Frost points to direct reimbursement as one type of payment strategy that needs to mature for the market to grow at this rate.
“At present, it seems very unlikely that any significant progress will be made toward direct reimbursement in the next two to five years,” Zachary Bujnoch, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan stated in the firm’s release. “As a result, market participants are forced to seek alternative payment strategies, and while some of these have proved successful, the huge billion dollar market potential this space possesses is unlikely to be reached without some form of direct reimbursement.”
Frost believes that competition in the home health market will “intensify greatly over the next couple of years” and that increasingly make price the competitive factor. The research firm also points out that while the home healthcare and disease management market consists primarily of small companies today, large companies are set to enter the market and their “diverse capabilities and ample financial resources” will lead to the intensified competition.
For more on Frost’s report, read the press release here.
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Stats on the primary care doctor shortage
One of the drivers often cited as an impetus for wireless healthcare is the shortage of primary care doctors. While there is no replacement for face-to-face interaction with a primary care doctor, some mobile health tools can act as “health coaches” that can help keep patients following their care regimens, which could result in fewer visits to their doctor’s office. USA Today recently had a report that listed a number of the relevant metrics associated with this alarming lack of primary care physicians. Here are some of the key facts and figures:
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the number of U.S. medical school students who choose primary care has dropped 51.8% since 1997.
The AAFP predicts that there will be a shortage of 40,000 family physicians in 2020. The U.S. has about 100,000 family physicians currently, but will need 139,531 in 10 years. Currently, only half the number of doctors needed are entering the field.
Demand for primary care physicians is being driven by the 78 million Baby Boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964, and who will begin turning 65 in 2011. The other group that could add to the strain on the system is the 47 million uninsured Americans — the federal government is currently deciding whether it should extend insurance coverage to them.
According to Merritt Hawkins & Associates, medical school tuition and expenses range from $140,000 to $200,000, while a primary care doctor typically makes $120,000 to $190,000 a year. Neurosurgeons, on the other hand, make $530,000 a year or more.
For more, read the USA Today article here.
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FTC: PHRs must notify users of data breaches
While it has yet to rule on whether PHRs should be covered under HIPAA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted 4-0 and issued a final rule that requires certain “Web-based businesses” to alert consumers if there is a security breach of their electronic health information. If 500 or fewer consumers’ health information is breached, then the health service provider must alert the consumers only. If more than 500 consumers’ health data is breached then the service provider must also alert the media, according to the FTC ruling.
Interestingly, the FTC explains that the new rule applies to these groups: vendors of personal health records, which it defines as “online repositories that people can use to keep track of their health information” and entities that offer third-party applications for personal health records.” The FTC describes these third part applications as devices like blood pressure cuffs or pedometers, which consumers can use to upload health and fitness data into their personal health records. Continue >>
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Healthsense: Wireless help for Alzheimer’s
Healthsense’s eNeighbor remote monitoring system aims to help those taking care of friends and family with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Developed with grants from the National Institutes of Aging (NIA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Healthsense’s eNeighbor system is based on battery-operated WiFi sensors that include pressure sensors in beds to detect when a resident gets in or out of bed; motion detectors on walls to detect movement or inactivity; toilet sensors to monitor toilet usage; contact sensors on kitchen cupboards and refrigerator doors to monitor whether the resident is eating regularly; and door sensors that alert when the resident tries to leave the residence or enter potentially hazardous areas, such as stairways. The monitoring system then uses algorithms to analyze the sensor data and figure out whether or not the resident needs assistance. eNeighbor will send out assistive prompts or alerts via any phone when help is needed and information and reports can also be viewed from a secure online portal.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, but as the baby boomer population ages the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to hit 7.7 million in 2030. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that currently some 10 million people, which includes family members, provide unpaid care for Alzheimer’s patients.
A couple of companies are offering competitive or complementary offerings to Healthsense’s eNeighbor: Continue >>
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Diversinet: $1.6M in Q2 wireless health revenue
Mobile security solutions provider Diversinet announced another successful quarter as revenues for the company totaled $1,945,000, a 244 percent increase over last year. The amount includes $1,625,000 in revenues from the company’s $40 million five-year worldwide license and revenue share agreement with AllOne Mobile. The company also brought in $1.6 million in revenues from its AllOne Mobile partnership during the first quarter of 2009.
Diversinet’s net income for the quarter was $1,056,000, compared to a net loss of $1,205,000 during the same period last year. During the first quarter, Diversinet’s net income was a mere $182,000 — clearly the company has gathered momentum these past few months.
“We believe that 2009 will be our first profitable year since our founding twelve years ago. From a business perspective, 2009 will continue to be measured by our and AllOne’s ability to negotiate pilots and strategic partnerships as we wait for the wireless health care market to emerge,” Albert Wahbe, CEO and Chairman stated. ”While we would like to see the market evolve faster, we have noticed an increase in telehealth activity over the last three months. From a competitive standpoint, we believe Diversinet is a leading secure application platform for the mobile world. Through our partnership with AllOne Mobile we have established exciting new relationships with Microsoft HealthVault and the U.S. Army, establishing a credible footprint. Additionally, we have several U.S. and international activities that I am confident will emerge during the second half of 2009. Please note that Diversinet is providing technology leadership in the telehealth segment that is still in its infancy and evolving rapidly.”
Read on for some of Diversinet’s highlights from its second quarter: Continue >>
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Vanguard Health joins Dossia PHR Consortium
Vanguard Health Systems has become the tenth company to join the Dossia Consortium, which is a non-profit organization made up of U.S. employers that seek to empower their employees to make smarter, more informed healthcare decisions by providing them with access to their healthcare data through what the consortium calls a personally-controlled health record (PCHR). That sounds a lot like a personal health record (PHR).
The other nine members of Dossia: Applied Materials, AT&T, BP America, Cardinal Health, Intel, Pitney Bowes, Abraxis BioScience, sanofi-aventis and Wal-Mart.
“I am very excited for Vanguard to be a part of Dossia’s mission to bring vital healthcare tools to our employees, and look forward to further developments from this partnership in the future,” Charlie Martin, Chairman and CEO of Vanguard Health Systems said in a statement. “Current market conditions are creating a great need for untethered PHRs, and Dossia’s PCHR is perfectly positioned to fill that need. Transportability of healthcare data is key to empowering employees with control over their own healthcare.” More
ALSO: Dossia has its eye on mobile applications, too — to learn more about its perspective on the mobile opportunity in healthcare, be sure to attend MobiHealthNews Presents: Everywhere Healthcare at the CTIA I.T. & Entertainment event in San Diego in October. Dossia CEO Colin Evans is one of the speakers at the event.
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ARRA: $3M grant for wearable wireless sensors
The National Science Foundation has awarded Dartmouth College a $3 million federal grant, which is part of the federal stimulus bill, to develop secure, efficient systems that enabled physicians to monitor patients through mobile phones and wearable wireless sensors. The three year project aims to explore the security challenges related to protecting patient data while also making sure that the healthcare providers can access the information that they need.
Dartmouth College faculty will work with partners from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont along with industry partners Intel Labs and Google.
The project is called the Trustworthy Information Systems for Healthcare (TISH) and its full agenda sees the team examining privacy concerns, security challenges and studying economic risks and benefits.
“The team will develop new secure, efficient, and easy-to-use protocols that allow remote health monitoring through mobile phone and wearable wireless medical sensors; design new machine-learning methods for analyzing and summarizing sensor data; seek a deeper understanding of the economics of information security in healthcare; and explore how patients and clinicians trade off usability, security, and privacy,” according to the team’s press release. Continue >>
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IBM: Cost prohibits proactive healthcare
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn has a great post over at Health Populi on a recent survey conducted by IBM that uncovers some stats about patients’ relationships and attitudes toward primary care doctors, proactive healthcare and its associated costs.
IBM’s survey found that the number one reason why Americans deter proactive health care is cost and that goes for the insured, uninsured, employed and unemployed. Postponing a visit to the doctor when feeling well is a common practice:
55 percent of all Americans say they can’t afford the cost of wellness visits out-of-pocket
81 percent of uninsured Americans say they can’t afford the cost of wellness visits out-of-pocket
76 percent of unemployed Americans say they can’t afford wellness visits costs out-of-pocket
25 percent of Americans did not see their physician for a wellness visit in the past year
54 percent of those Americans who did not have a wellness visit said that it was not worth the out-of-pocket expense
Read on for more results from the survey.
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The Inaugural Medical Device Connectivity Conference & Exhibition
September 10-11, Boston
This innovative conference and exhibition focuses on the integration of medical devices and information systems. The conference will feature in-depth coverage of strategy and implementation as well as legal/regulatory issues. Keynote speakers include: Tim Gee, Medical Connectivity Consulting and Julian Goldman, MD, Partners HealthCare Biomedical Engineering.
Register here
ATA Mid-Year Meeting
Sept. 24-25, Palm Springs
The Third Annual ATA Mid-Year meeting is one great meeting combining two great tracks & showcasing the latest in products and services:
Track I:
Cutting Edge and Off-The-Shelf Technology: Making the Right Decisions
Track II:
4th Annual Pediatric Telehealth Colloquium
Register here
MobiHealthNews PRESENTS:
Everywhere Healthcare
October 8, San Diego
With today’s wireless networks, the doctor is always in. While connecting patients to caregivers has never been easier, the search for the right business models for wireless health devices and services has just begun.
Don’t miss your appointment at the MobiHealthNews Presents: Everywhere Healthcare event during International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009!
OPEN TO ALL REGISTERED ATTENDEES! There is NO separate registration fee for this event and it is included in ALL registration packages. Please see registration form for details.
Register here
CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009
October 6-9, San Diego
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 here
Health 2.0
October 6-7, San Francisco
With nearly a hundred speakers and plenty of new healthcare demos and technologies on display on stage and in the exhibit hall, you’ll get a sweeping overview of the ways that information technology and the web are changing healthcare. We’ll be looking at the "traditional" Health 2.0 areas like vertical search, online social networks and tools for consumers. But the conference will also be focusing on how new technologies are connecting patients and clinicians, and examining the impact of Health 2.0 technologies on patients lives.
Register here
6th annual Connected Health Symposium
October 21-22, Boston
Up from Crisis: Overhauling Healthcare Information, Payment and Delivery in Extraordinary Times
hosted by the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare
Healthcare will have its renaissance when it moves beyond the hospital and clinic and into the day-to-day lives of patients and consumers. The Connected Health Symposium asks how information technology — cell phones, computers, the Internet and other tools — can help people manage chronic conditions, maintain health and wellness, and age with independence.
Use invitation code mobihealth to receive a $100 discount!
Register here
TEDMED 2009
October 27-30,
San Diego
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 here
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