Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance: Kindle, FDA, payers and startups

By: Brian Dolan | May 18, 2009        

Tags:

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs

During the first day of the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance meeting, called the Convergence Summit, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs defined convergence as the overlapping of computer devices, consumer electronic devices and wireless technology, according to Tim Gee’s Medical Connectivity blog.

Jacobs pointed to the Amazon Kindle, as a prototype for the future: a device with built-in wireless (cellular not WiFi) connectivity. Qualcomm’s Don Jones has also referred to the wireless health industry at times, as the Kindle-ization of healthcare. Seems to be a popular lens to view the emerging market through over at the San Diego-based company.

To view the rest of the slideshow of images and captions from the WSLA, click here.

Photo Credit: Charles Maloof, Independent Marketing Strategist for wireless health industry

View Comments |  | Email This Post
Advertisement

TripleTree’s I Awards: Proteus, Jitterbug, IntelliDOT

By: Brian Dolan | May 18, 2009        

Tags: | | | | | | | |  |

TripleTree i-award Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance La JollaLast week the mobihealthnews team attended part of the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance meeting out in La Jolla, California. One of the founding members of the Alliance, mid-market investment firm TripleTree, announced its inaugural wireless life-sciences innovation/insight/initiative awards: the I Awards.

TripleTree explained that the awards aim to “showcase companies that are delivering and developing disruptive technologies and services that demonstrate innovation, insight and initiative in the wireless life-sciences sector.”

This year TripleTree awarded Proteus Biomedical, GreatCall/Jitterbug and IntelliDOT as the first recipients of the firm’s awards.

The list of finalists reads like a who’s who of top companies in the emerging wireless health sector. Here’s the full list with links to each company’s website.

Proteus Biomedical – Electronically observed pharmaceutical therapy platform (winner)
GreatCall — Jitterbug: Simple cell phone with 24-hour live service (winner)
IntelliDOT — Wireless workflow manager connecting caregivers with information systems (winner)

BeWell Mobile — Multiple disease management applications
CellTrak Technologies — Homecare automation with GPS cell phones
Diversinet — Health Information transparency in partnership with AllOne Mobile
Epocrates — Rx drug and formulary reference
MedApps — Wireless health monitoring
MicroCHIPS — Continuous glucose management system
Philometron — PTMS program weight management system
Tagnos — Patient flow management applications
Triage Wireless — Wireless telemetry/vital signs monitoring

Related Articles:
Jitterbug: Repurpose mobile entertainment tech for mHealth
Proteus Biomedical partners with two drug companies for trials
IntelliDOT CEO has worked “feverishly” on mHealth
Diversinet brought in $1.6M from mHealth deals
Epocrates alerts doctors to potentially harmful drug
MedApps connects to Microsoft’s HealthVault

View Comments |  | Email This Post

JAAPA: Mobile platform is ideal for CME

By: Brian Dolan | May 18, 2009        

Tags: | | | |  |

WebMDEmory University’s School of Medicine’s Allan Platt penned an article in The Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants that concludes that personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones “are becomining an essential clinical tool that can help clinicians engage in lifelong learning as part of their daily routine.” Mobile devices allow for fast access to evidence-based information and can help prevent medical errors and improve care.

“Today’s practicing clinicians must be able to use these tools to keep up with the rapidly growing volume of medical knowledge,” Platt writes. “Students should be taught early in their studies how to use the tools just as they learn to use their stethoscope. Educators must become familiar with the equipment and software programs to teach the next generation of e-connected clinicians.” 

The JAAPA article points out the mobile devices are the ideal platform for continuing medical education (CME) programs because:

> Printed textbooks typically require a year of processing — may be out dated once published.
> Colleagues’ medical knowledge base may be lagging depending on what they use to stay current.
> The Internet provides sources that are updated, but some patient care settings don’t have access.
> CME programs are costly and remove the clinician from practice.

Good points all. Platt then concludes that “the ideal information tool should contain quick, portable, updated, authoritative content available in any clinical setting. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are convenient reference tools that help clinicians keep up with new treatments, practice lifelong learning, reduce medical errors, and prepare for recertification examinations.”

We have written about a number of CME mobile applications in the past, including ReachMD CME and WebMD’s MedScape.

Click here to read the entire JAAPA article, which includes a table of about 35 PDA and mobile phone applications.

View Comments |  | Email This Post

Tech can no longer ignore “Nana” Generation

By: Brian Dolan | May 18, 2009        

Tags: | | | |  |

If designed and marketed under the right conditions, America’s seniors are actually very receptive to technology, in fact, they already have adopted many consumer electronic devices, according to a report from the Miami Herald.

As we have noted before, one of the biggest drivers of mobile healthcare solutions is the aging Baby Boomer generation, which is the group of Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The older members of that group are only two years away from celebrating their 65th birthdays.

”It’s that cohort, the 74 million strong, that has been the tipping point,” says Elinor Ginzler, a senior vice president for AARP. “They want things for their parents and for themselves. The market is simply responding to the demand of sheer volume and spending power.”

Here’s a rundown of some of the metrics from the article:

78 percent of 50- to 54-year-olds are online
45 percent of 70- to 75-year-olds are online
More than 7 million Baby Boomers own gaming systems
29 million Baby Boomers own digital video recorders
60+: DVD players, digital still cameras, broadband and mobile phones most popular 
Currently 12 percent of the U.S. population is 65-years-old or older
By 2030, 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65+
By 2030, 31 percent of the U.S population will be 50+
In 2001, those 78 million Americans 50+ controlled 67 percent of the country’s wealth
The 50+ crowd also accounted for $2 trillion in total expenditures in 2005 

‘”Our research shows that they’re anxious to participate,’” says Sara Czaja, co-director of the Center on Research and Education for Aging and Technology Enhancement at the University of Miami. “But they’re looking for specific things: usefulness and not too complicated features.”

For the entire article, read the Miami Herald story here

View Comments |  | Email This Post

CardioNet’s new offering: Wireless diagnostics for sleep apnea

By: Brian Dolan | May 15, 2009        

Tags: | | |  |

CardioNet LogoCardioNet, the only pure play wireless health company that has gone public, began selling a sleep disorders clinical indicator, called SomNet. The company believes that SomNet has the potential to identify patients with a high likelihood of sleep disorders by measuring cyclic variation of heart rate (CVHR), a rhythm that is caused by repeated arousals from sleep because of the disorders.

“There is a high prevalence of sleep disorders like sleep apnea in the cardiovascular and arrhythmia population,” said Randy Thurman, CEO of CardioNet in a company press release.

“Although slightly less sensitive than more labor intensive human overreading, the MCOT system and SomNet may provide a platform for efficiently identifying patients with severe sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, in a large population,” said Dr. Phyllis K. Stein, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, after overseeing a pilot of 80 patients.

mobihealthnews reported on rumors around the time of CardioNet’s acquisition of Biotel that the company was looking to leverage its technology for diagnosing sleep apnea. 

For more on SomNet, check out the company’s press release.

Sleep apnea was also on Dr. Eric Topol’s list of top ten targets for wireless health — click here to read about the others.

View Comments |  | Email This Post

Does automation sacrifice patient empowerment?

By: Brian Dolan | May 14, 2009        

Tags: | | | |  |

Brian DolanWireless biometric sensors, connected health devices, mobile phones and online portals hold the promise of automating the management of chronic diseases. Some service providers, however, aim to do no such thing.

If you truly automate the process of measuring a patient’s blood pressure, for example, do you miss the key opportunity to engage that patient in their care regimen? If a chronic condition is automatically monitored wirelessly from a smart bandaid, will the patient have a convenient way to review that information or does the automation itself remove the ideal window for the patient’s review?

Zume Life founder Rajiv Mehta thinks automation does just that. We cannot remove the patient from this process, Mehta told mobihealthnews during a reception at the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance here in La Jolla, California. If a patient is experiencing abnormal biometrics, like a higher A1c, then the service should give them a chance to explain why they think that may be, Mehta explained.

Others disagree that automation sacrifices patient empowerment and discourage having patients manually entering biometric data at all costs. Keep reading>>

View Comments |  | Email This Post
Page 420 of 457« first« previous 418419420421422next » last »