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.
Intel Health Guide Adds New Connectivity Options, Customers
Intel Health Guide Enables Personalized Care Management at Home Through Video Conferencing, Vital Signs Collection, and Customizable Content
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Intel Corporation today announced additional connectivity options along with new customers for the Intel Health Guide, reflecting increased momentum for Intel's next-generation remote patient monitoring solution.
In order to give payers and providers more flexibility in deploying the Intel Health Guide, the system is now available to connect patients and their health care teams via multiple connectivity options including cable/DSL broadband, cellular wireless and residential phone service, also known as plain old telephone service (POTS).
In-home care and health services organizations such as Providence Life Services, Spectrum Medical, and ProActive Healthcare are incorporating the Intel Health Guide into their offerings to improve health care through better communication among patients, clinicians and family members.
Available since last year, the Intel Health Guide, Intel's first regulated medical device, allows health care providers to customize care, gather timely information about the status of their patients, and collect and prioritize patient data. The system engages patients in their own care by providing them with an easy-to-use, intuitive way to have timely interaction with their care providers and receive relevant self-care education - helping to minimize time-consuming and costly office visits.
"We believe that deploying technology in the home can help pave the way for a more personalized, cost-effective health care system and we will continue to innovate and develop products that achieve this," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "With more than 80 percent of health care spending focused on patients with one or more chronic diseases, we need to work together to make dramatic changes to how care is delivered. We are excited to partner with innovators such as Providence Life Services, Spectrum Medical, and ProActive Healthcare to start impacting business value and cost savings in health care while engaging the patients and caregivers in their own care."
Because of the Intel Health Guide's key differentiating features such as video conferencing and customizable content, customers have been able to easily integrate it into their existing activities in a way that benefits their particular business the most. Providence Life Services, which offers a full range of retirement living and senior care services, selected the Intel Health Guide to help monitor patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) who have recently been discharged from the hospital. By working with Intel, Providence hopes to reduce rates of re-hospitalization and open up new forms of independence and disease management.
Spectrum Medical and ProActive Healthcare have also purchased Intel Health Guides to support their commitment to home care and chronic disease management. Spectrum Medical, a not-for-profit affiliate of Benefis Health System providing a wide array of home- and community- based services to help Montana seniors remain in their homes, will use the Intel Health Guide to instruct and monitor patients with CHF, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, hypertension and diabetes in their own homes.
Cincinnati-based ProActive Healthcare, which offers customized telehealth programs through end-to-end remote monitoring services, chose the Intel Health Guide to provide superior care for patients suffering from a variety of disease states including COPD, CHF, diabetes, and hypertension. Providence Life Services, Spectrum Medical and ProActive Healthcare will all offer patients and clinicians access to the Intel Health Guide through a mix of connectivity options.
"We have always been committed to providing our clients with the best technological innovations available today, and our work with the Intel Health Guide represents the next stage in our offerings," said Chris Disimile, RN, BSN, Telehealth Nurse Manager of ProActive Healthcare. "By coupling the Intel Health Guide's unique offerings with our tailored home monitoring business model, we are able to give seniors the highest level of quality of life achievable. We recognize that integrating home-based health technologies is critical to help seniors and the chronically ill manage their health from the comfort of their own homes while reducing the burden to the healthcare system."
The Intel Health Guide's enhanced connectivity will also give seniors more flexible options for maintaining their health from home. In addition to the standard cable/DSL broadband support included at launch, wireless connectivity through cellular networks including 3G is available, building on the capabilities of standard broadband by offering high data transfer bandwidth with flexibility in location. With the use of a simple and inexpensive modem adaptor, seniors without broadband access will also be able to measure their vital signs and send data to their clinicians automatically across a residential phone line.
Informed by over a decade of Intel's ethnographic research, the Intel Health Guide is designed with the needs of the elder population in mind and is used by health care professionals to manage their patients at home, and is not currently available for general consumer purchase. Intel has staffed a team of clinical experts to provide a range of professional services to health care organizations, allowing them to successfully integrate the personal health system into their current disease management programs and models of care.
For information on how to purchase this product, visit www.intel.com/healthcare/ps/healthguide/wtb.htm.
For more information on the Intel Health Guide, visit www.intel.com/healthcare/telehealth. To learn more about Intel in health care, go to www.intel.com/healthcare.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
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