There are three standard objections to adding a home telehealth program: does it really work? will patients put up with medical devices making their kitchen or bedroom look like a hospital room? and how in the world do we pay for it? We spoke with a company at this year’s American Telemedicine Association meeting who may have addressed all three.
NMTA was formed to bring together New Mexico healthcare providers interested in home telehealth issues to discuss opportunities, regulations and funding opportunities and to share resources and promote the use of telehealth systems throughout the state. In this video interview, we spoke with alliance president Dr. Arturo Gonzales and vice president Joie Glenn.
Viterion president Sunil Hazaray and vice president Dr. Lisa Roberts introduced a number of new products at this year’s ATA annual meeting, signifying the Bayer subsidiary’s conscious shift from disease management to wellness support.
The government’s certification program for health information technology will continue to evolve over time, according to a review of the recently released final rule for the temporary certification program, released last week. The temporary program to certify electronic health record technology went into effect on June 24 and will be replaced by a permanent certification program as soon as Dec. 31, 2011. However, the analysis by the College of Health Information Management Executives indicates that certification criteria will change, necessitating the ongoing need to certify HIT products for the foreseeable future.
Moving rapidly into the home health care market after its successful start in CHF disease management, Cardiocom made three significant announcements in recent weeks. This article provides brief summaries of the Minneapolis company’s new interfaces with Thornberry’s NDoc and ContinuLink’s home health application and its internally developed and manufactured, fully integrated pulse oximeter. As per our VW custom, we also provide links to each company’s web site.
As a telehealth clinician I can certify there were many new products to jump up and down about at the American Telemedicine Association’s annual meeting and exhibition. One such technology, spotlighted by a multi-year exhibitor, quietly stole the show for me.
If there were awards for best new company name, the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare in Boston, would win for 2010. “Healthrageous” has just completed a significant round of financing and will soon bring to market “personalized, interactive, motivational self-management tools to help individuals shed unhealthy habits, improve their adherence to medical advice and embrace healthy lifestyles.”
New terms always make interesting news. At the ATA meeting last month we learned about “Proactive Passive Monitoring.” These are systems that deploy unobtrusive “person sensitive” sensors, strategically placed in the living space, to monitor motion, impact, bed, door and threshold, motion/temperature and motion/humidity, delivering readings to a central observer. Staff writer Sylvia Talkington’s interview with one of the developer’s of the concept had a lot to say last month about how well we anticipate the needs of elderly persons living alone.
Familiar PERS systems typically place the base station in the middle of the house. The elderly person living alone wears a pendant that opens a phone line on the base and is powerful enough to hear and be heard from several feet away. A five-year old Virginia company had a different idea. At the recent ATA annual meeting, LogicMark demonstrated a PERS with the phone in the pendant. Staff writer Sylvia Talkington spoke with company president Mark Gottlieb last month in San Antonio.
ZOE® fluid monitoring technology can detect a CHF exacerbation a full two weeks prior to the onset of weight gain. Now, thanks to an arrangement with Philips, more patients will have access to ZOE® monitors and Philips’ home health care agency customers will benefit from a smooth data flow from one to the other.
