Chilmark Research releases a new report titled mHealth in the Enterprise: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges ($895). The report projects the enterprise mHealth market will reach $1.7 billion by 2014. Currently charge capture is the most widely used app category, but the report projects mobile EHR access will soon overtake it. The graph above surprised me, as it predicts that 100% of physicians will use smart phones with content apps by the end of 2013. I can’t imagine this happening unless you can find a way to really convince docs of an improvement in efficiency and bottom line with the use of smart phones. That or the private market drives 100% of physicians to become employed physicians and take what they are given by employers, which seems even more unlikely. Also, as a general rule, I don’t choose “always” or “never” on multiple choice tests.
A UK consortium wins a $6.4 million grant to develop the “chips and software” to allow for mobile phone, patient-administered STD testing. The intent is to offer the necessary chips in vending machines or pharmacies to help expand adoption of the new technology.
Philips offers 24/7 remote monitoring of pacemaker patients. The service began in August as a beta program and has progressed to a widespread offering. Device test data is reviewed and summarized by Philips technicians to provide cardiologists with concise, digestible information about pacemaker performance. I’d be curious to see how much intelligence or decision support is built into monitoring platform.
Quest Diagnostics officially launches Quest Care 360 EHR for the iPad, though it has been available in the app store since last month. Check out this demo video, which seemed very user friendly to me.
A research2guidance report finds that by 2015 the majority of mobile healthcare apps will be distributed through traditional healthcare distribution channels, as opposed to distributed through general apps stores as is the case today.
Victor S. Dorodny, MD, Phd, ND, MPH, launches new venture, Tele-Med Partners, that “fosters strategic partnerships between HIT manufacturers, medical service providers, consumers, and payors.” Dr. Dorodny has an impressive resume, including helping to create HIPAA — and check out that list of degrees. Leveraging a great name and network, as I’m sure Dr. Dorodny has, to forge partnerships between HIT and the larger healthcare market is probably a pretty profitable place to be right now.
This Harvard Health Letter details some of the higher-rated and more frequently used mHealth applications.
The VA issues an RFI to get information from vendors about wireless network alternatives for patients and visitors. The article states only 348 US hospitals offer wireless to patients, which surprises me as I think all of the hospitals I’ve spent time offered wireless, though they have all been large and / or academic centers.
A report by the National Venture Capital Association finds that the FDA is impeding technology development in healthcare and, in particular, mHealth.
A new report finds healthcare is the number three industry, behind financial services and the technology sector, to adopt iPads in the enterprise environment. The report found 10% of healthcare organizations had deployed iPads.
Wireless EKG transmitted from ambulance to hospital speeds time from arrival to cath lab. The specific case in the article only took 14 minutes from ambulance arrival at the hospital to cath lab and reperfusion.
Qualcomm and wireless carrier MTN partner to provide nurses in South Africa with smart phone-based health education material. Initial results found that 92% of participants, which numbered only 50, thought the devices and content were useful.
Remote telemetry solutions company Cardionet launches a joint venture with remote monitoring aggregator MedApps to collaborate “to deploy new and innovative wireless monitoring solutions.”
Doctors from Singapore are delivering telemedicine services to Indonesia using technologies from GlobalMedia (AZ).
I want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. We’ll be back next week.
Travis Good is in his final year of an MD/MBA program and is involved with multiple health IT startups.
The American Telemedicine Association issues guidelines for telerehabilitation services. If you go to the ATA standards web site, you can read about telehealth services in other clinical specialties.
The Indian mHealth market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion to $5 billion in four years, which is predicated on finding viable business models.
Novartis will seek approval in the next 18 months for pills with embedded microchips to better monitor med compliance. The company is testing the chip-embedded pills in transplant patients.
Home monitoring company VRI partners with Bosch Healthcare to combine VRI’s home monitoring solutions with Bosch’s telehealth systems.
A large-scale Yale trial of heart failure patients fails to find benefit, in terms of rate of readmission, with telemonitoring compared to standard of care. The trial used an automated phone system to collect symptom information as opposed to a live patient coordinator, which smaller trials have used to achieve reductions in readmissions. This is exactly what an immunologist I met at the mHealth Summit experienced when she piloted SMS messages for asthma patients. Her initial study, based solely on automated SMS-based data collection and transmission, found improved patient education with SMS, but no change in med compliance. Only after changing the protocol to include live interactions and coaching was med compliance improved.
Epocrates, the Bible for med students and residents, buys Apple mobile device app developer Modality for $13 million in a cash deal. Modality launched in 2007 with the Apple App Store and now has over 140 applications. The goal of the merger is to combine Epocrates content with Modality’s mobile health development expertise. Check out this list of Modality Health Sciences Apps.
Nevada doctor Kevin C. Petersen, MD, owner / operator of BPClinic.com, an online hypertension evaluation and treatment service, could lose his license for prescribing meds without physically examining patients. The web site is geared towards uninsured patients who can’t afford a typical office visit, which doesn’t exactly paint the picture of Dr. Evil. Peterson claims the statute he is allegedly violating applies to controlled substances, which are not blood pressure meds.
Vocera acquires patient experience company ExperiaHealth. ExperiaHealth will continue to operate as a subsidiary, leveraging Vocera communication tools to improve the patient experience.
A former health minister and surgeon in the UK launches the WellNote mobile app to provide consumers with facility ratings, appointment reminders, and storage of personal health data.
Another urgent care provider, AfterOurs Urgent Care (NJ), now has premier listings through the iTriage mobile app. There is no mention of mobile registration options as iTriage is doing in Florida.
Intermountain Healthcare launches the LiVe iPhone app (free) to help kids learn about eating healthy and staying active. The app is part of a larger campaign to prevent childhood obesity, which is a good thing because I really can’t imagine the app alone having much of an impact.
Lee Mental Health (FL) uses a $50K telemedicine grant to pilot remote capture of stethoscope and EKG data along with remote, video-based consultations.
iPad-loving Stanford, which issued incoming medical students iPads this fall, is testing the use of iPads for patient entertainment. I’m waiting to see when they roll out iPads in the cafeteria as digital menus. I’ve heard a healthcare CIO, though not one from Stanford, mention this potential application.
Not to be outdone by the West Coast, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (MA) is also issuing iPads to patients for three-hour rentals at no charge.
Not really mHealth-related, but interesting nonetheless: this article details a report by MetLife Mature Market Institute on the cost to modify a home to meet the needs of an aging population, in contrast to taking the nursing home route. The last three items on the list are for remote monitoring.
The mHealth Summit took up most of last week, so we haven’t had the usual news posts. We’re back on track now.
From Deja Vu All Over Again: “Note to bright-eyed entrepreneurs who have not been in the health care industry a long time: the existing HIT vendor mafia has always been much more effective in squashing innovation from disruptive outsiders to maintain the status quo than competitively innovating against each other. If you fashion yourself as David vs. Goliath, make darn sure that God is on your side before you start hurling rocks. Therefore, there will be a great deal of opportunity for those niche companies that focus on meeting the needs above by complimenting the old guard entrenched HIT vendor systems, but with an eye towards explosive disruption when they are embedded, delivering value, and the market timing is right.”
Congratulations to HIStalk Mobile Founding Sponsor Voalte for being recognized as one of the top healthcare vendors by CRN magazine. Other notables sharing the spotlight include Panasonic,Phillips, Siemens, Sprint, Toshiba, and Research in Motion.
Airstrip and Physio-Control announce AirStrip Cardiology, which enables providers to view ECG data from EMS crews using LIFEPAK 12 defibrillator / monitors.
Johns Hopkins releases the POC-IT Diabetes Guide, a smart phone app that helps providers get evidence-based advice at the point of care. This is the third POC-IT app developed by Hopkins, with the other apps focused on antibiotics and HIV. The apps are distributed by Skyscape.
Above is a video demo of McKesson Medisoft EMR on the iPad.
UBM Medica releases PhotoClinic Mobile, which provides clinicians with searchable, image-based clinical information.
More on Ashifi Gogo and Sproxil, the company that provides an SMS service to verify the legitimacy of medications in Africa. This is a very cool service that is being funded by the pharma companies.
Dubai Healthcare City launches an iPhone application to help locate providers in the free zone.
UPenn connects its PA-based clinicians to patients and providers in Botswana to provide teleconsultations in dermatology, radiology, cervical cancer, and oral health.
Welcome to Thomson Reuters, a new Platinum Sponsor of both HIStalk and HIStalk Mobile. The company offers the Clinical Xpert solution suite, which delivers real-time data to clinicians via the Web and a variety of smart phones (Windows Mobile, Palm, BlackBerry, and the just-added iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch). Clinical Xpert has been the KLAS Category Leader for Mobile Data Systems for eight years in a row. It gives providers tools to improve quality and reduce cost without changing the underlying IT systems, including a pharmacist dashboard, a surveillance tool to prompt clinicians to intervene, the patient information app, a billing system (powered by Ingenious Med), and a handoff tool. Thanks to Thomson Reuters for their support of HIStalk and HIStalk Mobile.
A new report projects that 500 million smart phone owners, or roughly 35%, will be using mobile healthcare applications by 2015. The report also found that 43% of the 17,000 currently available health apps are built for providers.
Littmann unveils its Scope-to-Scope Tele-Auscultation System, which allows real-time, remote assessment of heart sounds.
John Brumby proclaims that if his party is returned to power he’ll provide $12 million to buy all doctors in Australia’s public hospital system iPads.
A human resources blog says that mobile health apps should not be the first place employers are spending benefits money.
Just when you thought you’d heard the last of the mHealth Summit, here are the big financial wins for mHealth that came out of the conference:
HP commits $1 million to the mHealth Alliance over two years to improve health systems using mobile technologies;
The Rockefeller Foundation gives the mHealth Alliance $1 million to use mobile technologies to improve health in low- and middle-income countries;
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) joins the mHealth lovefest with a $1 million grant to the mHealth Alliance to support its Maternal mHealth Initiative.
I’d like to start incorporating some focused commentaries, guest posts, product reviews, and interviews in HIStalk Mobile. There is more than enough in the mHealth space to fill these categories, but let’s hear your suggestions. Or, if you have an interest in writing a guest post, e-mail me.
The mHealth Summit finished up today. Today was all large-group sessions, the final one being a debate, with some keynotes mixed in.
As with most conferences, attendee numbers were down and the air seemed to have been let out of the group. The last three days have shown clearly that this is a fast-moving, fragmented industry which, depending on your perspective, is either on the brink of a tipping point or bubble burst.
The difficulty in putting mHealth into one of these buckets is that mHealth is so many different things, to so many different people, in so many different place and health systems. The talk this week has included such far-reaching subjects as mobile money, decision support, integrated health information systems, SMS for patients and providers, data security and integrity, remote monitoring, business models, open source, wellness programs, and clinical trials.
This conference has been globally focused, with lots of talk of mHealth as a means of “leapfrogging” health systems forward in developing and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. On a global level, in both the least-developed and missing-middle countries, the consensus here is that mHealth is essential to overcome the shortfall of over 2 million health workers worldwide.
The other side of the equation for mHealth is its application in economically developed countries. In this context, the area of focus this week has been on remote monitoring and more broadly remote data collection, which is distinct from the global goal of making mobile phones into remote healthcare facilities. The problem that needs to be solved in the US is figuring out how mHealth augments and integrates into the current delivery paradigm, empowering consumers to make more informed health and wellness decisions.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, every session at the summit seems to come back to some common themes which I think are reflective of the stage of mHealth as a industry. These include:
Open Standards / Architecture / Source. As with most technology debates, the issue of open source, or at least open platforms, came up time and time again. As the moderator from The Economist pointed out to the academics on his panel, successful open source is more the exception than the rule. But good examples of open source in e-health, such as Jembi, OpenMRS, and FrontlineSMS Medic do exist. My opinion is that open source will continue to win in the mHealth space until viable business models emerge, at which time we’ll see the proprietary platforms from the big players take over.
Ability / Readiness to Scale. People seemed to disagree on this point. mHealth pilots, numbering in the thousands based on estimates given this week, are fragmented. Those who said it was time to scale were countered by others that felt we needed to better define the purpose and place of mHealth before thinking about scaling. I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle, as it does seem to be the time to start growing pilots, collecting better evaluation data, and integrating into the larger health system; but, it is also time to better define, and inform decision makers about, mHealth as a viable mode of providing health services.
Sustainable Business Models for mHealth. As I said, this was a hotly contested area at the summit with no good examples given other than Nike Plus. This is an evolving space with the only area of consensus being that there is no one business model for mHealth. Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran at The Economist is supposed to be running a report at the end of this week on the various mHealth business models attempted, with outcomes.
Develop with Customer Needs in Mind. Saying solutions have to be built to meet real needs of customers guaranteed an applause this week and the point is well taken. Let’s start building mobile solutions people (both providers and patients) need to improve performance and health.
Integrate mHealth Solutions into Health Systems. This was a good point that seems obvious, but is not always realized in a market driven by grants and pilot projects. mHealth solutions need to be built to be a part of larger health systems and health information systems if they are going to deliver on their large scale promise.
No matter where you stand on the hype of mHealth, the one thing that is clear is that mHealth is moving at an extremely fast pace in many different directions. I can’t wait for the 2011 summit to compare notes to see what a difference 12 months makes. Llet’s hope at that time we have some hands go up when the question of “who is actually making money” is posed.
Day Two of the mHealth Summit followed a similar pattern to day one, though I think speakers have learned what needs to be said to get an applause – namely, something about open standards or solutions built to meet the needs of customers. The focus here is definitely global in nature, and as such, the audience and speakers heavily represent the academic and development sectors. I think this is what is making the summit so intriguing, but also what is making certain answers, in particular around business models, elusive.
The themes of summit, according to me and which I will try to expand on tomorrow at the conclusion of the summit, that seem to be revisited in almost every super session, breakout, or keynote are:
Open Standards / Architecture / Source.
Ability / Readiness to Scale
Sustainable Business Models for mHealth
Develop with Customer Needs in Mind
Integrate mHealth Solutions into Health Systems
Additionally, maybe I’m choosing the wrong breakout sessions but I’ve found the super sessions, keynotes, and exhibits to be much more valuable than the breakouts in terms of content. The one exception was a breakout session on using enterprise architecture to design systems, though this session was not very mobile-heavy. The breakout from this morning was on remote monitoring and health outcomes, which entailed investigators going through projects focused on alcohol dependence, food habits, and diabetes.
The big names today at the event were Ted Turner and Bill Gates. Gates provided some interesting perspective on the power of mHealth both in the US and abroad. His opinion was that in the US, you need to go beyond providing information if you want to change behaviors. He also said vendors need to show that the solution works, and hopefully saves money, and then try to sell it through somebody. He said internationally the biggest change would be created by a solution that improved vaccine adherence.
Ted Turner’s talk, which was short, was probably the most entertaining. He is definitely a smart, practical guy and a straight shooter, admitting to not reading his own magazine any more because it has too much coverage of movie stars, which he doesn’t have time for. He said a couple of other things that I wanted to get down. When asked about advice to all the innovators in the room, he said “Early to bed, early to rise, work hard, and advertise”, which is very sage advice. He also went on to say that his passion now is nuclear weapons disarmament, adding something to the effect of you can connect all the health information in the world but what good is it all if a nuclear weapon blows it all up.
Lots of press releases this week from attendees of the summit.
West Wireless Health Institute unveils Sense4Baby, a tool for remotely monitoring fetal activity. A demo video was shown with providers counseling pregnant patients on its use.
Diversinet wins a five-year contract from the US Army to provide its MobiSecure platform in support of returning wounded veterans.
Entra Health System announces that MyGlucoHealth Wireless, a Bluetooth glucometer, is now a part of NASA SEWP, making it available for procurement by federal, state, and local government agencies.
text4baby announces an extension of its partnership with Johnson & Johnson to expand text services to pregnant women. Additionally, text4baby is being supported by HHS to help meet the goal of 1 million subscribers in the US by 2012.
