Cambridge Consultants' Vena platform enables A&D Medical to launch Continua Certified blood pressure monitor and weighing scales

Cambridge Consultants has successfully deployed its Vena software platform for A&D Medical, one of the world's leading manufacturers of advanced measuring, monitoring, controlling and testing instruments, including the next generation of telehealth devices. Enabled by Vena, A&D's blood pressure monitor and weighing scales are amongst the first wireless Continua Certified devices to be made commercially available.

The devices are at the leading edge of a new generation of telehealth services designed to equip healthcare systems with the means to tackle many of the world's growing health problems. Globally, 300 million people worldwide are clinically obese, and over 600 million have chronic diseases. Spending in the US alone on these conditions is expected to increase from $500 billion a year to $685 billion a year by 2020. The number of people aged 60 and over is expected to double from 600 million in 2000 to 1.2 billion by 2024. In the face of these major challenges, the healthcare community is turning increasingly to telehealth products and services that enable better monitoring and compliance, leading to lower treatment costs and improved patient outcomes. Continua Health Alliance, an organization of more than 200 leading healthcare and technology companies, is working to improve the quality of telehealth and healthcare in general by establishing an ecosystem of interoperable health device communication based on common standards.

"It is part of A&D's strategy to offer innovative, easy-to-use and standards-based telehealth products that offer clearly better value to all those we serve," said Jerry Wang of A&D Medical. "Cambridge Consultants offered us a quickly deployed, cost-effective solution to achieve complete Continua certification without a costly hardware redesign. We anticipate that the wide ranging compatibility that this certification allows will encourage the development of advanced and innovative telehealth solutions, which will ultimately benefit the patient."

Cambridge Consultants has installed the Vena software platform onto the existing hardware and sensor of A&D's blood pressure monitor and weighing scales. The platform embeds the Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP), optimized for the secure transport of medical data, onto a single chip. Vena also offers the IEEE 11073 standard for compatible exchange of information between health devices.

"The Vena platform has been specifically developed to be easily built into devices at any stage of the design or production process," said Paul Williamson, Head of Wireless Medical at Cambridge Consultants. "It is this ease of implementation, combined with our own expertise in wireless communications, which has made it possible for A&D to quickly bring to market two Continua-certified wireless devices. What this partnership demonstrates is that rapid development by a technology company at the heart of the Continua Alliance like Cambridge Consultants can help product companies like A&D Medical adopt market leading positions quickly."

"In order to address the significant healthcare challenges facing nations around the world, we need to harness technology to enable people to manage their own healthcare," said Rick Cnossen, President of Continua Health Alliance. "Interoperable, Continua-certified devices such as A&D's blood pressure monitor and weighing scales are another step in a healthcare revolution where technology and communications provide a network of care, allowing patients to be more independent while being unobtrusively monitored for any danger signs."

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Notes for editors

Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology critical issues for clients worldwide. For nearly 50 years, the company has enabled its clients to turn business opportunities into commercial successes, whether launching first-to-market products, entering new markets or expanding existing markets through the introduction of new technologies.

With a team of over 300 engineers, designers, scientists and consultants, in offices in Cambridge (UK) and Boston (USA), Cambridge Consultants offers solutions across a diverse range of industries including medical technology, industrial and consumer products, transport, energy, cleantech and wireless communications. In 2009, the company was awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade. For more information visit: www.CambridgeConsultants.com

Cambridge Consultants is part of Altran, the European leader in innovation and high technology consulting. The Group's 17,500 consultants, operating worldwide, cover the entire range of engineering specialties, including electronics, information technology, quality and organization. Altran offers its clients ongoing support throughout the innovation cycle, from technology watch, applied basic research and management consulting to industrial systems engineering and information systems. The Group provides services to most industries, including the automotive, aeronautics, space, life sciences and telecommunications sectors. Founded in 1982, Altran operates in 20 priority countries. In 2008, it generated a turnover of €1,650 million. For more information visit: www.altran.com

A&D Medical is a division of A&D Engineering, and is ISO 13485:2003 certified. Since 1977, A&D Medical has been manufacturing and distributing a full line of advanced electronic blood pressure monitoring equipment and healthcare products for home and professional use. The company has established itself as a leader in home health monitoring technology through the development and introduction of unique products. A&D Medical offers leading telemedicine solutions for remote patient monitoring of heart disease and other chronic diseases through wired and Bluetooth® wireless systems for health system integrators.

The Continua Certified^TM and Bluetooth-enabled automatic blood pressure monitor UA-767PBT-C and precision weight scale UC-321PBT-C devices are already available for purchase. For more information, see www.andmedical.com

The Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry coalition of the finest healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal healthcare. With more than 200 member companies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal health solutions with the knowledge that extending those solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals and provides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management. For more details, see www.continuaalliance.org

IEEE 11073 Personal Health Data is a framework of standards that addresses transport-independent application and information profiles between personal telehealth devices and monitors / managers (e.g. health appliance, set top box, mobile phone, personal computer). Device profiles include pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor, weighing scale, and thermometer.

The Bluetooth word mark and logo are registered trademarks and are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. A Bluetooth profile defines how different applications use Bluetooth wireless technology to set up a connection and exchange data. The Medical Devices Working Group of the Bluetooth SIG developed the Bluetooth medical device protocol to ensure that devices in the medical environment can transfer data between devices in a secure and well defined way via Bluetooth wireless technology