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Timeline: The iPhone as medical tool

Ever since Apple’s AppStore created a dedicated category for medical applications for the iPhone and iTouch, it seems that — as Apple’s Mark Wilson put it today at the World Wide Developers Conference — “The medical community is flocking to the iPhone.”

To put today’s launch of the iPhone 3.0 in perspective, we’ve assembled a list of just some of the health-related milestones that the iPhone has experienced during the past eight months. While it’s not the only mobile platform out there, it’s hard to argue with the fact that the iPhone has attracted more developers and therefore more applications and services for the medical community than any other on the market today.

Here’s a look back on the events that led to the iPhone’s growing importance for the medical field:

November 29, 2008: A medical student successfully lobbies Apple to create a “medical” category for applications in the AppStore that would include mostly applications for physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers. The new category took 82 applications from the still existing Health & Fitness category and marked the first spin-off category Apple has created. More

January 22, 2009: Epocrates Essentials becomes available in Apple’s AppStore for iPhone and iTouch users. More

February 12, 2009: During a question and answer period at a medical records event in Palm Springs, CA, the Food and Drug Administration’s Don Witters says that there may be circumstances where the iPhone should be considered a medical device and regulated as one. More

March 17, 2009: At Apple’s special sneak preview of iPhone OS 3.0, Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software at Apple gushed: “Now here’s a class [of services] that we think will be really interesting: medical devices.” Forstall explained that the new iPhone OS will allow application developers to sync medical devices like BP monitors via both Bluetooth and USB. “So imagine the possibilities,” Forstall continued. “We think this is profound.” Apple then invited a rep from LifeScan, a Johnson & Johnson company onstage to demonstrate how a Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose monitor synchs up to a diabetes management application running on the iPhone. More and More

March 31, 2009: An iPhone developer uses Google Health’s API to create Health Cloud, which allows Google Health users to view their personal health record from their iPhone. Google has yet to take the PHR mobile itself. More

April 8, 2009: AirStrip Technologies announced that the FDA had granted the company’s iPhone application, AirStrip OB, clearance to market the app to physicians via Apple’s App Store. AirStrip OB enables obstetricians to use their iPhones to remotely access real-time and historical waveform data for both the mother and the baby. The data set includes heart tracings, contraction patterns, nursing notes and exam status. The app pulls the data from the hospitals’ labor and delivery units. AirStrip has been planning its iPhone launch since July of 2008. More

April 9, 2009: By many accounts, Sarasota-based start-up Voalte steals the show at the HIMSS event in Chicago with its iPhone-based voice, alarm, text service for physicians, nurses and other hospital workers. More

April 15, 2009: Manhattan Research finds that twice as many doctors are using iPhones in 2009 than were in 2008. More

April 17, 2009: A pediatrician in New York is the first to access Allscripts’ popular electronic medical record using the company’s new iPhone application. More

April 21, 2009: The “medical” category in Apple’s iPhone AppStore becomes the third fastest growing category of applications for the first quarter of 2009, according to O’Reilly Radar.

April 30, 2009: 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. More

May 1, 2009: Winner of the $10,000 DiabetesMine Challenge effectively turns the iPhone into the controller for a combined glucose meter + insulin pump. More

May 5, 2009: At the height of the “swine flu” or H1N1 media frenzy, a number of quick coding developers created apps that helped people track swine flu cases’ locations, determine if their symptoms were signs of swine flu and more. The rush to create swine flu apps demonstrated the platform’s ability to offer timely applications to the market when needed, which could come in handy for future public health events. More

May 29, 2009: Dr. Natalie Hodge emerges as “The First iPhone Doctor” by running a pediatrics concierge service called Personal Pediatrics almost entirely from her iPhone. More

May 31, 2009: Scott Eising, director of product management for Mayo Clinic Internet Services, said the launch of the iPhone and the success of its AppStore convinced him and his colleagues that the time to figure out a mobile strategy is now. More

June 8, 2009: At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference AirStrip’s Dr. Cameron Powell takes the stage to demonstrate how the new iPhone 3.0 operating system lets “push” notifications from its remote wireless monitoring device transmit EKG systems to a doctor’s or clinician’s mobile phone. Apple’s Mark Wilson reportedly said that “The medical community is flocking to the iPhone” at the WWDC event during his introductory remarks for AirStrip. More

What did we miss?

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Continua picks ZigBee, Bluetooth LE for health devices, sensors

In what looks to be a coup for the ZigBee Alliance, the Continua Health Alliance has picked Bluetooth Low Energy and ZigBee for inclusion in its next set of guidelines for interoperability between health devices and systems. The two low power standards will become the technology that Continua promotes for devices used in health and fitness and aging independently.

The two technologies beat out rival low power technologies Sensium, ANT+, BodyLAN (used in Nike+) and Z-Wave, which all pitched Continua for the coveted spot in the guidelines. (Are we likely to see less of these technologies in fitness and health services moving forward?)

Continua picked Bluetooth low energy, which is still awaiting finalization of its specification, for future low power mobile devices, including activity monitors and heart rate sensors. The alliance also tapped ZigBee Health Care technology for sensors that could be used as motion detectors or bed pressure sensors and other use cases that would “enhance the daily living of those who require assistance aging independently,” according to the Continua press release.

“Version two of our guidelines is well on its way,” Continua Health Alliance President David Whitlinger told mobihealthnews a few months ago and just before the alliance began discussion on picking the new technologies. The first “radio selection will be predominantly geared toward the health and fitness devices that are typically body worn… The other use cases being addressed via low power radio are the sensors that might be distributed throughout the home of an elder individual, for example,” Whitlinger explained. “It’s possible they could both be the same technology, but because the use cases are different there is an option that there could be two separate radio technologies.”

Whitlinger’s comment that one technology could handle both use cases prompted many to speculate the Bluetooth LE would be picked for both uses, which makes the ZigBee pick a coup for the technology.

“The exciting aspect of Bluetooth low energy is its ability to enable low cost devices to be made that can send their data all of the way to the web. It’s based on over ten years of experience and promises to have the fastest growing ecosystem of any wireless standard. Today’s meeting sent a clear message to developers that they need to start designing now to be ready for the first generation of Bluetooth low energy handsets,” Nick Hunn, an analyst over at Creative Connectivity, wrote in a recent report.

Continue reading for the full press release from Continua Continue >>

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Palm Pre launches with no medical apps

Palm Pre Despite its long history in the medical industry, Palm has launched its latest device with no medical applications. We have written about Palm’s legacy as a platform of choice for doctors and other health workers who have depended on the company’s PDA for the last decade, but with the company’s new smartphone, the Pre, it seems Palm did not have them in mind.

Well, Palm CEO Ed Colligan did have the medical community in mind in February when he told listeners on an investors’ call that there were only a few apps that Palm felt it needed to have at launch. The only one he specifically mentioned at the time? Epocrates.

Most of the lists of apps expected to hit the Palm Pre at or near launch included Epocrates and WebMD, but neither seemed to make the cut. For those looking to port legacy Palm OS apps onto their new Palm Pre, you are in luck. The one app that will surely be helpful to the medical community is a simulator called MotionApps Classic app which allows old Palm apps to run on the new Pre.

We expect to see Epocrates and WebMD for the new Palm Pre in the coming days or weeks, but until then Palm Pre users can experience the old as new again by navigating through the legacy versions of these and thousands of other apps. Continue reading for a video showing how MotionApps looks on the Palm Pre. Continue >>

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FDA approves MedApps wireless remote monitoring

MedApps The FDA announced today that wireless remote monitoring system HealthPAL, which MedApss developed, has received 510(k) clearance, according to an email from the company.

HealthPAL is the small, portable dedicated device that MedApps uses to collect data from connected glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters and weight scales. The data is then sent over a secure server to an online portal like Microsoft’s HealthVault or Google Health for caregivers, physicians or the patient themselves to view.

MedApps has conducted pilots at Cleveland Clinic and Baptist Home Health Network to test the system.

The HealthPAL device is “about the size of a cell-phone” and “its low cost enables remote monitoring to be available to large patient populations.” MedApps explains that while it has some buttons for special features and set-up, the reading and data transmissions are automated: “The patient does not push any buttons, navigate any screen commands or touch the HealthPAL in any fashion.” Continue >>

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Wireless health leader Dr. Eric Topol now “Rockstar of Science”

Dr. Eric Topol in GQ We have heard the West Wireless Health Institute’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eric Topol referred to as a “poster child” for wireless health and he’s also an easy contender for most influential thought leader in the emerging industry, but last month when we heard he’d be appearing in GQ magazine, it was the first time we heard him referred to as a “rock star.”

GQ highlighted Dr. Topol and just a handful of other scientists as the “Rockstars of Science,” for an ad campaign that paired leading scientists with famous musicians.

Topol told Heartwire he participated in the campaign because it was for a good cause.

“Science and medical research, in particular, don’t get much regard from the public, especially in comparison with entertainment/music,” Topol said. “We need to improve its image, get young people to pursue this career path, and ameliorate the funding for such efforts to impact the future of medicine.”

While the caption stresses Topol’s genomics-related accomplishments and positions, here’s hoping Topol’s participation brings more interest to wireless health initiatives. If nothing else, though, we look forward to seeing more fashionably dressed attendees at wireless health events moving forward.

(Photo: Dr Eric Topol poses with Seal and Dr David B Agus. Photo Credit: Ben Watts)

For more on Topol being a Rockstar of Science, read this article from Heartwire.

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Microsoft: 10% of US wants texts from health insurers

Ten percent of Americans believe text messaging is the best way for them to communicate with health insurers, according to the Microsoft Health Engagement Survey 2009, which Kelton Research conducted. The survey concluded that consumers want coaching via email and phones from their healthcare providers to help them improve their own health.

66 percent: Interested in emails from providers for encouragement
52 percent: Want emails from providers that include feedback on their health progress
62 percent: PHRs (like Microsoft’s HealthVault or Google Health) are valuable
55 percent: Healthcare system is fragmented for helping people proactively manage their health
49 percent: Health plans only support them once they need to visit a doctor, not for wellness
77 percent: Find technology “inviting” instead of “intimidating” when it comes to helping them manage their health

While the survey found that only 10 percent of Americans believe text messaging is the best channel for communications from health insurers, if the survey’s sample size (1,002 Americans 18-years-old and up) is to be believed: That’s equivalent to 30.4 million people in the U.S. Read more for other stats from Microsoft’s survey. Continue >>

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