Tags: colonoscopy | endoscopy | Given Imaging | PillCam | Rady Children's Hospital | wireless camera |
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the use of a wireless pill camera, like Given Imaging’s PillCam, in its current generation, is not as effective as a traditional colonoscopy procedure.
PillCam is an alternative to endoscopy, which requires the insertion of a long tube into a patient, a procedure that often necessitates sedation. PillCam’s camera takes some 60,000 photos as it makes its way down the esophagus, into the stomach and through the intestines over a span of about eight hours. The PillCam can help doctors diagnose small-intestine conditions, including Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, tumors and ulcerative colitis in patients 10-years-old or older.
The PillCam has a special coating that makes it slippery when wet and a bit easier to swallow. Once ingested, a monitoring device around the patient’s waist uses a low-powered radio frequency to receive the images from the capsule as it transmits.
For the colonoscopy study, however, researchers found that the capsule screening had a sensitivity rate of 64 percent and a specificity rate of 84 percent in detecting polyps that were at least 6 millimeters in size, while rates for detecting advanced polyps were 73 percent and 79 percent, respectively. Keep reading>>
Tags: A.D.A.M. | CallMD | iPhone | Medzio | Mobile Health Network |
ADAM recently announced that CallMD, a website that offers medical advice, diagnosis and treatments, has joined the Medzio Mobile Health Network and will be included in the network’s free iPhone application. The Medzio app, which launched earlier this year at the Health 2.0 event in Boston, combines symptom navigation, first aid info, GPS-enabled local listings for care centers (with maps and directions) and a feature called Health Talk, which aims to connect consumers with experts to share thoughts about health topics.
The app and ADAM’s Mobile Health Network are quickly becoming a who’s who of players in the mobile health space. Members and contributors to the app currently include: ADAM, CallMD, Dr. Greene, Health 2.0, Healthcare Blue Book, HealthiNation, HelloHealth, Livestrong, Norton Healthcare and Organized Wisdom. (Read more about the partners here.)
As part of the deal, CallMD will also license ADAM’s multimedia encyclopedia and Symptom Navigator for its new website.
“Mobile consumers use our service because the traditional health services and nurse lines just don’t work for them anymore,” said Curt McCallister, vice president of medical programs at CallMD. “We selected A.D.A.M. after evaluating several consumer health information providers and found the A.D.A.M. content and tools to be unsurpassed. We were also looking for a partner that could provide more than just health articles, and A.D.A.M.’s Symptom Navigator web and mobile device tools allow us to provide additional information to our clinicians. We were especially excited to be able to partner with them on the Medzio iPhone application, which we believe will have a huge impact on the way people seek and receive care.”
For more on the CallMD deal, read the company press release after the jump. Keep reading>>
Tags: Cisco | Diabetes | MyGlucoseHealth | telemonitoring | UnitedHealth |
Cisco, UnitedHealth ramp up remote doctor visits: Insurance company UnitedHealth said it will use Cisco’s HealthPresence in a nationwide program to enable doctors to treat patients remotely. The companies aim to create a nationwide network to enable video medical imaging, audio communication and health record information exchange between remote locations like retail stores, office settings and places of care. More
New Clinic-based MyGlucoseHealth meter uploads via Bluetooth: Entra Health Systems unveiled its MyGlucoHealth Clinical Point-of-Care System, which is a clinic-based diabetic testing for in-patient care environments. The offering includes a cloud-based interface called Clinical Point-of-Care that works with the MyGlucoHealth meter to upload blood glucose tests and data through Bluetooth or USB to tablet computer, PC or compatible PDA device. More
mHealth semantics/confusion alert: Houston-based healthcare organizations UniCare, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and Memorial Hermann Health Network Providers have teamed up to offer a “suite of cutting edge PPO products” called MHealth Insured. I think the M is for Memorial. More
Tags: Health Guide | Intel | ProActive Healthcare | Providence Life Services | Spectrum Medical | tablet |
Intel has added cellular wireless and residential phone service connectivity to its Intel Health Guide, which is Intel’s remote patient monitoring offering. Up until now the system only supported connectivity through cable/DSL broadband. Intel now counts Providence Life Services, Spectrum Medical, and ProActive Healthcare among its clients for the Health Guide.
According to the company, the Health Guide enables health care providers to gather information from patients in a customized and timely way. The touch screen device has been available since last year, and is Intel’s first regulated medical device offering. The device’s capabilities include video conferencing as well as vital signs collection.
The new connectivity options include 3G wireless connectivity where it is available, but for those without broadband in the home who would prefer to use their landline phone, Intel now offers “a simple and inexpensive” modem adaptor that would allow them to send vital sign data to their clinicians. So, no video conferencing for those who go that route.
Providence Life Services, which offers retirement living and senior care services, uses Health Guide to monitor patients who have recently been discharged from the hospital after suffering from heart failure (CHF).
Spectrum Medical and ProActive Medical are using Health Guides to help their patients manage CHF, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, hypertension and diabetes.
For more on Intel Healths Guide’s new connectivity options, read the company press release after the jump. Keep reading>>
Tags: LifeComm | MVNO | Qualcomm | wireless health |
It’s been more than four years since Qualcomm first announced its plans to help launch a healthcare-focused mobile phone service, called LifeComm. Qualcomm and its (still) undisclosed partners recently decided that it was time to pull the plug on LifeComm after failing to raise additional third party funding, mobihealthnews has learned from an anonymous source.
A circa 2007 mock-up of a LifeComm device
“Qualcomm is reviewing its options with LifeComm in light of current capital market conditions that have prevented LifeComm from raising the third-party capital necessary to fully develop its initial launch product,” a Qualcomm spokesperson told mobihealthnews when asked for comment. “Wireless healthcare remains a viable and vibrant space. Qualcomm is committed to this market by supporting its partners to enable wireless healthcare solutions. Qualcomm will continue to work with its partners and industry organizations as we innovate and create technologies for wireless healthcare.”
Financing, bridge loans and competitive woes
Qualcomm has been working to establish LifeComm since 2005 but determining the joint venture’s ownership structure has plagued the start-up since its conception. In 2007 Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said that the company’s launch date had been delayed because Qualcomm did not want to be the main investor in a company that offered wireless services. After all, some of Qualcomm’s most important customers are U.S. wireless carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Keep reading>>
Tags: Augme Mobile Health | Brandofino | Doctor's Digest | mobile marketing | Modavox |
In late April Augme Mobile, a consumer mobile marketing company, announced a joint venture with Brandofino Communications to form Augme Mobile Health, a specialist in mobile marketing technology for the pharmaceutical industry. This week online broadcasting company Modavox completed its acquisition of Augme Mobile and with it, Augme Mobile Health.
“I see so many possibilities for mobile technology for physicians and patients, and am thrilled to be working with Augme,” Jeannette Brandofino publisher of Brandofino said in April. ”Augme Mobile Health technology will now be encrypted to fulfill HIPAA requirements and will be fully PhRMA-compliant.”
Brandofino publishes Doctor’s Digest, which is available in print and e-subscriptions, vodcasts, podcasts and through an iPhone app.
Augme Mobile Health makes use of text messaging, 2D coding, Shazam visual scanning and audio voice recognition among its mobile marketing technology offerings. Augme says that its ”proprietary technology allows pharma brands to deliver relevant information and offers, to all kinds of mobile devices from any platform or carrier instantaneously.”
For more on the acquisition, read the company press release after the jump: Keep reading>>
