AT&T continued to reveal the constituents of its ForHealth portfolio of mHealth and telehealth solutions that aim to improve disease management. MedApps' offerings include a remote care monitoring hub called HealthPAL and a Web-based application called HealthCOM. AT&T will provide 3G connectivity to MedApps' hub and will co-market and distribute MedApps products along with other remote care applications, peripherals and devices in AT&T's new ForHealth portfolio.
"Instead of having to adapt to every new platform that comes out, we use a single purpose device or personal health device (PHD) that sends personal health information (PHI) into the personal health record (PHR)," MedApps CEO Kent Dicks told MobiHealthNews in an interview in 2009. "That’s what we are doing at MedApps: We are creating a platform that is dedicated solely to collecting personal health information, behavioral information and biometric information to send it to a central server in an invisible way so that the user doesn’t have to press any buttons. If the user misses any data, HealthPAL will alert them to send the data or it will alert a caregiver."
"MedApps' focus on cloud computing and open platform architecture, allowing connection of multiple clinical devices to a single plug-and-play hub, is highly aligned with AT&T's vision," Randall Porter, assistant vice president, AT&T ForHealth Solutions stated in the press release. "It will help AT&T offer mHealth solutions that are user agnostic and universally accessible, despite carrier, device type and operating-system. AT&T is excited to work with MedApps to provide a comprehensive remote care monitoring solution suite to our healthcare customers."
ForHealth already includes WellDoc's mobile and Web-based DiabetesManager program.
MedApps received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its HealthPAL device in June 2009, while it secured a CE Mark for Europe and approval by Health Canada this time last year.
One of MedApps' biggest partnerships to date was with New Jersey-based hospital group Meridian Health, which uses MedApps' wireless remote monitoring technology to keep an eye on patients who were recently discharged from acute care settings with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). According to the two companies, the aim was to monitor the patients on a daily “near real-time” basis in an effort to improve patient outcomes and decrease re-admissions to the hospitals.
CardioNet also inked a deal with MedApps late last year to co-market MedApps' solutions bundled along with its own mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry (MCOT) services. The companies positioned the partnership as a “strategic alliance” to “deploy new and innovative wireless monitoring solutions that benefit patients in a cost-effective, meaningful manner.”
MedApps navigated the early years of wireless health, first as a mobile phone-based solution, which the FDA approved in 2007, before switching to a connected, dedicated device, called HealthPAL. It’s a bit smaller than a mobile phone, but unlike a phone based solution MedApps does not require the user to push any buttons to function. Although HealthPAL has buttons to access simple menu options, users are not required to even touch the HealthPAL device in order to transmit data for review and online storage. The goal was to maximize usability to improve compliance. Read more about the origins of MedApps in this interview with company CEO Kent Dicks from back in September 2009.
For more on the AT&T ForHealth portfolio and the addition of MedApps, read the release here
