eHealth Review

Report: mHealth app market to reach $392 million in 2015

2012-01-26T11:18:00.003+02:00

The New Year brings with it new forecasts concerning the future of the mobile application (mHealth) market. While both two reports reflect the same growth trend, the strength of the change varies substantially. The difference between the two researches can stem from using different methodologies, but also from the difficulties arising from trying to predict market trends for new technologies that integrate elements from different industries.

Earnings of the mHealth app market are expected to rise to $392 million from $230 million in 2010, according to a report published by research company Frost & Sullivan.

"From 2008 to 2010 mHealth consistently outpaced forecast growth and revenue," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Zachary Bujnoch. "mHealth apps will continue on a steep growth curve as increasingly sophisticated mobile technologies and relationship-management tools disrupt the market."

Bujnoch added that today, we are seeing the tip of the iceberg in the U.S. mHealth market's potential as mobile apps are the single-biggest digital channel since the '90s and the Web.

Meanwhile, a separate report published by research2guidance estimates that the mHealth apps market was worth some $718 million in 2011.

The report, entitled "Mobile Health Market Report 2011-2016" claims that the smartphone application market for mobile healthcare is still in an embryonic state despite its huge potential. The authors noted, however, that during the course of 2011 the mHealth market grow very fast following the increase in the usage of smartphones and the doubling of the number of mHealth applications.

"A majority of the big healthcare companies have discovered mHealth applications as an innovative way to promote and deliver healthcare services and products," research2guidance analysts noted. "A testament to this is that a number of these large players published mHealth apps in 2011 that go far beyond a simple allergy tracker or pill reminder, e.g. Sanofi Aventis' sensor-based iBGStar Diabetis monitoring app."

Aerotel to launch GeoSKeeper in North America

2012-01-18T22:44:00.001+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will launch the GeoSKeeper personal safety and location system in North America after it received the regulatory clearance for this market.

GeoSKeeper mHealth Device

In Western Europe and Eastern Europe, the GeoSKeeper has been growing in popularity. The mobile based service enables the accurate location of seniors, children and lone workers. By wearing the light-weight device on their wrist, the users’ accurate location can be sent to family and caregivers in real time.

GeoSkeeper offers a new level of safety beyond existing PERS (Personal Emergency Response System) and traditional social alarm systems. The GeoSkeeper has recently received the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Certification, paving the way for further strengthening o Aerotel’s position in the lucrative U.S. market.

Overall, the year 2011 was a great year for Aerotel Medical Systems expending activities all over the globe. Aerotel has expanded its offerings in North America and in Europe and continues to support service providers offering remote monitoring services of health problems for patients suffering from chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Aerotel technology, which allows home-bound patients to take readings such as their weight, blood pressure and other key metrics, saves money and makes users’ life much easier.

With a client base of more than 50 countries around the globe and more than a decade of rich experience, Aerotel is well positioned to successfully enter new, mature and emerging markets in 2012.

Investing in automated monitoring systems reduces re-hospitalization rates

2012-01-09T18:40:00.003+02:00

The usage of home monitoring systems led to a 44 percent decline in 30-day hospital readmission rates, according to a study published by Medical Care Journal.

The research focused on the Geisinger Monitoring Program (GMP) interactive voice response protocol, which is a post-hospital discharge telemonitoring system, used as an adjunct to existing case management in a primary care Medicare population. The main objective of GMP is to reduce emergency department visits and hospital re-admissions.

The authors said, that while automated home monitoring systems have been used to coordinate care to improve patient outcomes and reduce re-hospitalizations, there is only very little formal study of efficacy.

"Investing in automated monitoring systems may reduce hospital re-admission rates among primary care case-managed patients," the authors concluded. "Evidence from this quasi-experimental study demonstrates that the combination of telemonitoring and case management, as compared with case management alone, may significantly reduce re-admissions in a Medicare Advantage population."

The researchers used a group of 875 Medicare patients, who were enrolled in the combined case-management and GMP program, to compare their results with 2,420 matched control patients, who were only case managed. Claims data were used to document an acute care admission followed by a re-admission within 30 days in the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods.

Number of remotely monitored patients to reach 4.9 million by 2016

2011-12-27T19:59:00.003+02:00

The number of home monitoring systems with integrated communication capabilities is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 percent until 2016, according to a report published by Berg Insight.

The report, titled 'mHealth and Home Monitoring' forecasts, that the number of patients worldwide using remote monitoring solutions will more than double to 4.9 million by the end of 2016, compared to 2.2 million today.

"The adoption of out-of-hospital wireless monitoring in healthcare is driven by a wide range of incentives, related to everything from demographics and technology development to new advancements in medical treatment," said Lars Kurkinen and Johan Fagerberg, analysts at Berg Insight. "There are, however, a number of barriers, including resistance to change among healthcare organizations and clinicians, misaligned incentive structures and the financing of wireless solutions by what is at large an underfunded healthcare sector."

The report indicates that the most common conditions that can be monitored by mHealth systems are chronic diseases, from which over 200 million patients in the EU and the US suffer. These diseases include cardiac arrhythmia, hypertension, ischemic diseases, sleep apnea, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Berg analysts said that applying information and communication technologies in the healthcare industry can lead to decreased costs, more efficient care delivery and improved sustainability of the healthcare system.

The report, which names Aerotel Medical Systems as one of the leading providers of mHealth solutions, shows that the number of devices that have integrated cellular connectivity rose to 570,000 from only 420,000 in 2010. The number is expected to surge at a CAGR of 34.6% to 2.47 million in 2016.

Several companies have developed integrated solutions for monitoring multiple chronic diseases and other conditions. The six leading providers of integrated telehealth systems include the major technology and electronics companies Bosch, Honeywell, Philips and Bayer, as well as the small specialist telehealth companies Cardiocom, and Numera.

Report: Medical monitoring products to push home health market

2011-12-13T17:47:00.003+02:00

The home health monitoring market is expected to generate higher revenues from services that are based on using monitoring products, according to a recent report published by research company Parks Associates.

In a report, entitled "The Role of IP in Revitalizing PERS", Parks said that the Personal Emergency Response Service (PERS) market is currently changing as it is re-introducing services as a more modern care concept. The report indicates that technology, particularly IP-enabled technology innovations in hardware, software, and service platforms, is driving the market transition.

"We in Aerotel defiantly feel that demand for services that use advanced monitoring solutions," said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems. "Products such as our GeoSkeeper offer a new level of safety beyond existing PERS and traditional social alarm systems."

GeoSkeeper

Parks analysts said that the long-term threat to the PERS industry incumbents comes from new senior independent living solution providers. These players offer a complete suite of software and service components that address needs for proactive risk assessment, self-care for chronic conditions and wellness, social communication, and health education/lifestyle adjustments.

They said that these providers offer PERS service as complementary and sometimes complimentary, service. The technology platform on which these capabilities are offered has to be IP-enabled, and this platform's cost will only go down as technology matures and operational scale builds.

The authors, Harry Wang and Jennifer Kent, said that the market is changing as new senior-friendly services, using either IP or traditional phoneline-based communications infrastructure, are now offered. They estimated that PERS services are expected to transform into a full-fledged senior independent living solutions.

Wang and Kent concluded that in the future, the market will become less fragmented and IP-based service infrastructure and IP-connected monitoring devices will be two of the change agents to give the PERS industry a rebirth.

mHealth apps downloads to reach 142 million in 2016

2011-11-30T00:26:00.007+02:00

The number of global downloads of mHealth applications is expected to more than triple to 142 million by 2016, according to a new study published by Juniper Research.

Source: GSMA

The research company added that the number of mobile healthcare and medical app downloads will reach 44 million as soon as 2012. It added that the combination of smartphones and app stores has created a vibrant mHealth market.

Juniper added that there is a need for US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) clarification on which apps require approval as such a move will add further impetus to the market. This is particularly important as the US is seen as the leading market in remote patient monitoring.

"Acceptance of new healthcare practices like remote patient monitoring will come directly from consumers becoming engaged in mHealth through the smartphone," said Anthony Cox, who wrote the report.

The authors noted that future mobile hardware peripherals will greatly extend apps capabilities. They added that application peripherals hardware designed to work with mHealth apps will allow smartphones to become an important portable accessory to the healthcare establishment for both diagnosis and relaying medical data to healthcare staff.

In a separate report, published last week, ABI Research predicted that the sports and health mobile apps market will grow to over $400 million in 2016 from $120 million in 2010.

ABI Research's report, "Mobile Devices and mHealth", estimated that growth will be spurred by the ability of mobile handsets to easily connect to wearable devices that in turn can deliver new functionality, accuracy, and appeal to sports and fitness applications.

"As applications increasingly become part of a bundle that ships with wearable devices, revenues from mobile applications will lag behind the growth in app downloads," said Jonathan Collins, principal analyst at ABI. "Mobile application downloads will actually grow at nearly twice the rate of revenues between 2010 and 2016, with more than a billion downloads annually by 2016."

Two-thirds of healthcare providers plan to increase mHealth expenditures in 2012

2011-11-28T15:52:00.000+02:00

Two-thirds of healthcare providers in the U.S. plan to implement or improve their use of mobile technologies in the next 12 months, according to a new survey conducted by CompTIA.

Source: CompTIA

The report indicated that more than 50 percent of healthcare professionals already use smartphones for their work. 38% of physicians with a smartphone are using medical-related apps on a daily basis and half of them are expected to do so over the next 12 months. At the same time, 25% of healthcare providers are already using tablets and another 21% expect to do so in the coming year.

"While laptop and notebook PCs are commonplace in the medical community, the next wave of mobile adoption is well underway as providers turn to tablets, smartphones and applications to increase productivity and improve patient care," the authors noted.

The report shows that almost one-third of providers use smartphones or tablets to access Electronic Medical Records or Electronic Health Records systems, with 20% expecting to start engaging in this mobile usage within the next year.

While mobile health (mHealth) is on the rise the use of telemedicine solutions remains low, with just 14% of healthcare professionals actively following news and trends in telemedicine and 37% expressing little interest in the topic.

Healthcare providers see the greatest benefits of telemedicine in the areas of continuing medical education (61%), specialist referral services (44%) and patient consultations (37%).

The U.S. helathcare sector employs over 17 million workers. The total healthcare spending will total over $2.7 trillion in 2011, making it the single largest componenet of the U.S. GDP.

GSMA: Asia Pacific mHealth market to rise by 70% to $7 billion by 2017

2011-11-21T17:18:00.004+02:00

The Asia Pacific mobile health (mHealth) market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 70 percent to $7 billion in 2017, the GSMA and accounting firm PwC said in a joint report.

In a report, entitled ‘Mobile Health – Enabling Healthcare’, the two bodies said that mobile health services that represent the largest opportunity across the region are monitoring services (55% market share in 2017) and diagnostic services (24%).

Source: GSMA & Decisive Media. Photographer: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

The report indicates that the Chinese mHealth market will be the world's largest in 2017. This will be driven by growth in monitoring and diagnosis that will facilitate the delivery of effective healthcare to a widely spread population who have poor health access.

This trend creates a market opportunity of some $2.4 billion in China, well ahead of other large markets such as Japan ($1.3 billion) and India ($540 million).

"The figures are in line with our expectations," said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems. "We have identified Asia and the Pacific in general, and China in particular, as strategic markets and have expended our activities there accordingly".

Monitoring represents the biggest opportunity in Japan (63% market share) due to the large number of elderly, while diagnostics represents the biggest opportunity (67%) in India as most Indians live in rural areas.

“Mobile health is a prime example of how mobile operators can leverage existing platforms and technology to provide innovative services to connect people throughout Asia Pacific,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA.

“Asia Pacific’s predicted growth in connected devices, through an array of applications, means that the region is on the threshold of radically transforming the lives of its consumers, professionally and personally. To make the Connected Life ubiquitous, it’s vital that the mobile industry works with key adjacent industries in the region, including healthcare,” added O’Hara.

Aerotel to showcase a personal GPS location mHealth device at Medica 2011

2011-11-09T19:34:00.003+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present a variety of remote monitoring and mobile health (mHealth) solutions at Medica 2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany on November 16-19, 2011 at Hall 9, Stand C01.

Aerotel intends to present its innovative GeoSkeeper, a personal wireless GPS location and tracking device, at Medica, which is the world largest medical trade fair.

GeoSkeeper offers a new level of safety beyond existing PERS (Personal Emergency Response System) and traditional social alarm systems. The GeoSkeeper is expected to soon receive the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Certification, paving the way for further strengthening of Aerotel's position in the lucrative US market.

In a newly designed booth in Medica, Aerotel will also showcase the Connect-CELL telehealth homecare hub, which was recently awarded by Connected World Magazine the prestigious gold Value Chain Award in the home health category. The Connect-CELL hub is part of Aerotel's e-CliniQ system, which is one of the most cost-effective home telehealth solutions available today with proven clinical and economical benefits.

“Since Medica 2010, we've expended our presence in Asia, the Pacific and Eastern Europe,” said David Rubin, Aerotel Medical Systems President and CEO. “Medica 2011 will provide us with an excellent opportunity to present our cutting edge solutions to those who are not familiar with them yet.”

With more than 4,560 exhibitors and 116,000 square meters of floor space, Medica 2011 is considered as the leading event for in the medical industry. Two thirds of the exhibitors this year are from outside Germany and more than 60 countries will be represented at the fair.

Aerotel ready to conquer Asian market

2011-10-14T19:30:00.004+02:00

Armed with a new investment by a Chinese IT giant and wide variety of innovative solutions, Israeli medical equipment provider Aerotel Medical Systems is ready to utilize its vest experience and enter the fast growing Asian telemedicine market.

Aerotel, which provides modular, mobile and home based telemedicine and telecare solutions, has recently attracted an investment from China's Neusoft Corporation.

The move is part of Aerotel's overall strategy of expanding its activity in Asia in general and in the Chinese lucrative market in particular. A recent report by Espicom Business Intelligence estimates that the Chinese medical device market grows at an annual rate of some 13 percent, turning it into one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

The analysts noted that prospects for medical devices spending are huge as the Chinese government has committed heavily in the construction of thousands of hospitals, healthcare centers, clinics. This will inevitably lead to spending on medical devices at an unprecedented rate in a relatively short space of time.

Aerotel intends to utilize Neusoft's position as a local market leader in the fields of medical equipment, medical IT solutions and healthcare services. The company will offer Asian populations cost-effective, high-quality and user-friendly medical diagnostic systems and devices for home care, eHealth and telemedicine, as well as telecare and personal safety.

With a client base of over 50 countries around the globe and more than a decade of rich experience, Aerotel is well positioned to successfully enter the Asian market. Judging by its previous practice, the company has all it takes to smoothly penetrate large markets.

So for example, Aerotel is currently providing Ambulance staffs in Brazil with devices to monitor people injured in car accidents or and other emergency situations. By using Aerotel's solution, paramedics can record ECG trace and transmit it within minutes to a remote medical centre using their mobile phones. The service provides significant benefits, including critical time savings, enhanced level of emergency treatment, expert guidance to the ambulance staff and increased chances for patient recovery form critical situations.

In the United States, Aerotel provides remote monitoring services of health problems for congestive heart failure patients. The technology, which allows heart patients take readings like their weight, blood pressure and other key metrics, saves money and makes users life much easier.

In Europe, Aerotel's GeoSKeeper personal safety and location system has won great popularity. The mobile service enables the accurate location of seniors, children and lone workers. By wearing the light-weight device on their wrist the users' accurate location can be sent to family and caregivers in real time.

A report published last year by research company, Global Industry Analysts, predicts that the global market for ECG telemetry devices will reach some $1.1 billion by 2015.

The analysts, which defined Aerotel as one of the major players in this field, noted that Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing market as it is expected to grow by an annual rate of more than 5 percent over the next four years.

This is attributed to aging population and growing cases of heart disease or cardiovascular diseases. In addition, rising expenditure and scarcity of alternative home care resources and services are expected to add to growing demand for home telemetry monitoring devices.

Aerotel, which recently launched its services in New Zealand and Australia, is now aiming at the growing Chinese market, allowing it to establish a strong foothold in the Asia-Pacific market.

World telehealth market to reach $990 million by 2015

2011-10-03T14:46:00.006+02:00

The global telehealth market is expected to continue growing at a command annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.4 percent to $990 million by 2015, according to a report by medical research company InMedica.

InMedica analysts predict that the market will continue to rise to over $1 billion in 2016 and has the potential to reach $6 billion by 2020.

The authors said that increasing demand for healthcare, associated with ever increasing disease prevalence and an ageing population creates a significant challenge for the delivery of care. The number of people with chronic condition is forecast to increase dramatically by 10%-20% over the next ten years. Moreover, the aging demographic will lead to a significant increase in disease co-morbidities in the population that is over-65.

Telehealth, also known as Telemedicine, means using information and communications technologies for the delivery of healthcare services. Telehealth reduces the unnecessary hospitalizations and reduces waiting lists for medical treatment with a significant saving factor on economic resources. This technology gives patients the ability to monitor the specific parameters of their conditions and then have the information sent directly to their physicians for management of their disease process via telephone, cellular or the Internet.

Telehealth has become a rapidly evolving field, thanks to recent technological breakthroughs, such as miniaturized sensors and advancements in telecommunications means that allow an almost permanent contact in case of need. Telehealth can offer cost-effective remote monitoring solutions that can seamlessly operate from anywhere at anytime.

The report illustrates that home-monitoring is becoming increasingly relevant in the treatment of chronic diseases. Home-use medical devices in Teleheatlh services, such as blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, weight scales and peak flow meters are being deployed to monitor four main diseases – congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension.

"The main driving force behind the sharp growth of the Telehealth market are the new solutions for monitoring chronic diseases answering the growing need for such solutions that will hold down healthcare costs," said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems. "From our experience the strongest demand is for hypertension (monitoring of blood pressure) solutions, followed by diabetes (monitoring of glucose and blood pressure), CHF (monitoring of blood pressure and weight) and COPD (monitoring of SpO2 and spirometry values)."

“Many public healthcare systems now have targets to reduce both the number of hospital visits and the length of stay in hospital,” said Diane Wilkinson, Research Manager at InMedica. “This has led to a growing trend for healthcare to be managed outside the traditional hospital environment, and as a result, there is a growing trend for patients to be monitored in their home environment using telehealth technologies once their treatment is complete.”

She noted that the US is the most established market for telehealth by far. So for example, the Veteran’s Health Administration’s extensive home Telehealth service aims to provide some 92,000 patients with Telehealth services by next year. Wilkinson added that there has also been some large-scale trial activity in Europe, mainly in the UK.

iPhone mHealth application market to grow by 44% to 13,000 apps in 2012

2011-09-25T18:49:00.004+03:00

Some 9,000 iPhone health applications are already offered by Apple's AppStore and the number is expected to continue rising further in coming months, according to a report published by MobiHealthNews.

The report, which is based on an analysis of Apple's AppStore, further indicates that by next summer the number of iPhone health applications will rise by 44 percent to some 13,000 apps.

The report shows that the average price of a paid health app is gradually rising as the average price for a paid health application rose to $3.21 on July 2011 from $2.77 in February.

Another report, published earlier this month by research company Technavio, predicts that the global mobile health applications market will reach $4.1 billion by 2014 compared to $1.7 billion in 2010.

"The number of health apps for consumers has grown at a steady, linear rate over the past 18 months," MobileHealthNews researchers wrote. "We expect it to continue on this track unless the regulatory environment changes drastically and scares off would-be developers from creating useful health apps for consumers"

The MobiHealthNews report indicates that the largest group of consumer health apps in the AppStore are cardio fitness apps, which account to 16.36% of all iPhone mHealth apps. The majority of these apps are running apps, which have attracted millions of users in the past year.

Diet related apps account to 14.15%, ahead of stress and relaxation apps (11.4%) and women's health apps (7.27%).

The authors note that while Apple’s health, fitness and medical categories claim to offer thousands more apps, many of these can't be seriously considered as mHealth related.

Aerotel enters Australia and New Zealand, partners with Elemental

2011-09-14T22:55:00.003+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems has launched a new personal safety service in New Zealand and Australia in partnership with Elemental Technologies, a leading Australasian provider of solutions for personal safety, aged care and healthcare.

Elemental Technologies will offer a new 24 hours by 7 days a week service, based on Aerotel’s highly successful GeoSKeeper personal safety and location system. The service will enable finding the accurate location and providing immediate assistance to elderly persons or people with dementia, offering users and family members safety and peace of mind. In addition, GeoSkeeper will be distributed in New Zealand and Australia by Elemental Technologies.

"We have formed a partnership with Elemental Technologies to bring our personal safety solutions to the Australia and New Zealand markets,” said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel. “This agreement is another step in our global market expansion."

“After conducting a comprehensive search, we have found GeoSKeeper to be the most sophisticated and well established personal safety device on the market,” said Patrick Rogers, CEO and Co-founder at Elemental Technologies. “The combination of mobile phone and GPS technologies grants freedom to the wearer to travel away from home or work and confidence to their caregivers that they can be located and communicated with, anytime and anywhere.”

Report: global mHealth apps market to reach $4.1 billion by 2014

2011-09-01T11:12:00.003+03:00

The global mobile health applications market is expected to reach $4.1 billion by 2014 compared to $1.7 billion in 2010, according to a report published by research company Technavio.

The company's analysts said they expect the market to grow by an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24% percent until 2014.

The report indicates that the key drivers for growth are the increase in general diseases and population of patients. It adds that the main source of revenue in this field will comes from smartphones used by the healthcare professionals.

Technavio estimates that the United States has the largest market share and is expected to grow at a faster rate in the future. The authors said that in the coming years, due to increasing focus on patients in developing nations, mobile Health software providers and telecom companies may penetrate further in countries such as China and India.

The analysts noted that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) intends to come up with proper rules for the approval of mobile health applications. This will, in turn, increase the productivity and the accuracy of these apps in the future.

At the same time, the analysts warned that there have not been proper or effective FDA rules and regulations yet. "FDA regulations seem to be more confusing than helpful to many vendors in the mHealth industry," Technavio wrote. "With the advent of numerous new Mobile Health applications being introduced in the market by various players, the FDA is finding it difficult to come up with any specific parameters for the Mobile Health applications".

Growing number of medical experts move into mHealth apps field

2011-08-14T17:56:00.004+03:00

Growing interest in mobile health applications has led to a sharp increase in the number of mHealth apps developed by universities, hospitals and other research institutes.

These organizations want to seize opportunities arising from widely circulating suggestions that the healthcare industry is facing a possible crisis. A report published last year by Pyramid Research indicates there is a global deficit of 2.4 million healthcare workers and an international shortage of hospital beds worldwide. This is leading to a situation in which governments, healthcare providers and insurance carriers are desperate to develop solutions that lower costs and improve patient care.

CATRA: Cataract Maps with Snap-on
Eyepiece for Mobile Phones

Unlike other consumer applications, developing medical apps requires a strong scientific background. The telemedicine field attracts researchers as it offers them an opportunity to utilize their medical knowledge to enter one of the fastest growing and most popular markets.

“In the past, most projects offered by academic researchers remained on the drawing board and most of them never materialized into commercial products,” said Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems.

“It remains to be seen if the growing popularity of mHealth will change this trend, and whether more scientific research projects will turn into commercial applications.”

Pyramid Research predicts that the mHealth technologies market will approach $5 billion by 2014 and more than double by 2020.

Here are several examples of applications and other mHealth solutions developed by researchers from the academic world.

DailyData - a mobile app that can tell users when they’re getting sick, based on models and predictions developed in MIT.

CATRA – a solution to detect and quantify cataracts with a compact eyepiece attached to a cell phone, also developed by MIT researchers.

Open mHealth – a project dedicated to apps that collect health-related information developed at UCLA and UCSF.

iTrem – an application allowing Parkinson’s disease patients to collect and send medical information developed by researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Nerve Whiz – an app for medical professionals interested in learning the anatomy of nerve roots, plexuses and peripheral nerves, designed by a neuromuscular neurologist at the University of Michigan.

If you know of any other applications that were developed by researchers please tell us about it in the comment box and we will update the post.

Report: Telemedicine companies should explore granting free trial period

2011-08-01T12:11:00.002+03:00

A brief use of a Web-based telemedicine service has a significant positive effect on patients' perceptions of the service, according to a survey conducted by a team of Dutch experts.

The researchers, from the University of Twente, concluded that healthcare providers should consider offering patients a risk-free way to explore and experiment telemedicine services. They said that by doing so telemedicine companies can increase the development of accurate perceptions and user needs.

The survey focused on investigating whether patients' perceptions of Web-based telemedicine services changed after brief use. The research included 30 patients, who were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The results indicated that patients within the experimental group became significantly more positive about the usefulness and ease-of-use after a very short period of use.

The report indicates that despite the great potential of telemedicine user acceptance proves one important barrier to implementation in mainstream healthcare.

"These results show the significant positive effect of brief use of a telemedicine service on patients' perceptions of this service," The authors concluded. "Therefore, it is important to offer patients the opportunity to experiment with the service to foster the development of accurate beliefs, which will consequently result in more adequate user needs possibly benefiting patient acceptance."

FDA presents new mobile medical app draft regulations

2011-07-20T18:32:00.008+03:00

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outlined new draft guidelines, suggesting how it intends to regulate mobile medical applications.

Source: FDA

The FDA announced that it seeks public input on the proposed approach for certain medicine and health mobile applications. The agency said that currently, mobile medical apps include a variety of functions, ranging from monitoring calorie intake, helping people maintain a healthy weight, and allowing doctors to view a patient’s radiology images on their mobile communications device.

The FDA's draft guidance defines a small subset of mobile medical apps that may impact the performance or functionality of currently regulated medical devices including apps that:

Are used as an accessory to medical device already regulated by the FDA
Transform a mobile communications device into a regulated medical device by using attachments, sensors or other devices

"The use of mobile medical apps on smart phones and tablets is revolutionizing health care delivery," said Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "Our draft approach calls for oversight of only those mobile medical apps that present the greatest risk to patients when they don’t work as intended."

We at Aerotel welcome FDA regulation of mobile medical apps. We believe that there is a real need to assure the stability, reliability and quality of all mHealth solutions so patients won't face any risk.

Aerotel wins 2011 Connected World award for home health devices

2011-07-11T20:52:00.004+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems was awarded by Connected World Magazine the prestigious gold Value Chain Award in the home health category.

Aerotel received the award together for the company's e-CliniQ system and the Connect-CELL telehealth homecare hub. The company was nominated together with its partner Cinterion, the global leader in cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and a Gemalto company.

Connected World Magazine’s Value Chain Awards honor the most successful corporate adopters of M2M technology and the solution providers that make their success possible.

“Aerotel and its partner Cinterion were honored for using M2M technology to enhance quality of life for patients with chronic conditions by increasing access to doctors and care givers,” said Peggy Smedley, editorial director and publisher of Connected World. “Connect-CELL helps cut costs while improving quality of care and it also highlights the transformative power of M2M technology in solving global healthcare challenges.”

"The Connect-CELL hub is part of Aerotel's e-CliniQ system, which is one of the most cost-effective home telehealth solutions available today with proven clinical and economical benefits,” said Ofer Atzmon, Aerotel Medical Systems vice president for business development and marketing. "With Connect-CELL, caregivers can remotely see when a patient is in trouble and respond immediately for increased peace of mind and convenience.”

“Aerotel’s Connect-CELL homecare hub uses the latest Cinterion M2M technology to address the urgent need for solutions that reduce spending while improving quality of service for the growing ageing population,” commented Norbert Muhrer, CEO of Cinterion. “The use of Connect-CELL has already proven to reduce hospitalization costs by up to 30 percent.”

IBM: health device makers need to focus on Information Seekers

2011-06-28T18:36:00.005+03:00

Health device makers should start paying more attention to the overlooked market segment of consumers who are relatively healthy, but could use some help managing a health-related challenge, according to new research published by IBM.

The report - titled "The future of connected health devices" - calls this consumer segment "Information Seekers". These consumers are looking for solutions that can provide missing information to help them gain greater control over their conditions and ultimately lead healthier, more independent lives.

The authors noted that, to date, health device makers have primarilytargeted their products and services for consumers who are extremely health or fitness conscious as well as those who need to be regularly monitored.

"Between these two extremes sits a large, fragmented and often overlooked population who seek better information to effectively manage their health," the report authors Heather Fraser, YangJin Kwon and Margaret Neuer stated. "Our research suggests that successful solution providers will approach this market opportunity as an ecosystem of partners – with an integrated solution that extends beyond the device itself".

They added that thanks to recent technological advances and increased willingness to collaborate among industries, it is now feasible to deliver solutions that meet the needs of information seekers and help reduce long-term healthcare costs.

The report noted that health device makers now have the means to target Information Seekers and should focus on the following principles:

Make it easy - consumers need simple, intuitive, yet feature-rich devices and online tools that are designed for their specific needs.
Design the solution with the end result in mind - solutions should involve integration with healthcare providers, payers and even peer support networks.
Pick a position and partner well – since it is unlikely any single firm will be able to offer a full solution companies can determine, by evaluating competitive strengths and weaknesses, what they can profitably do on their own and where they will need partners.
Help set the rules - device makers should get actively involved in establishing standards for connected health devices.

"Super Mobile" doctors represent new type of professional mHealth user

2011-06-24T09:29:00.000+03:00

A new generation of physicians is enthusiastically embracing mobile technology, according to a study conducted among some 3,800 doctors by QuantiaMD, the largest mobile and online physician community.

The survey indicates that a growing number of physicians use smartphones and the usage of tablets is rapidly increasing.

"A significant group of 'Super Mobile' doctors now use both devices, and they are far more likely to use mobile technology in clinical settings to access decision tools, learn about new treatments, look up reference material, and handle patient information," Mary Modahl, Chief Marketing Officer, QuantiaMD concluded.

"The growing trend of mobile technology adoption illustrates the great potential of mHealth systems," said Ofer Atzmon, VP Business Development at Aerotel Medical Systems. "As the usage of mobile technologies among physicians increases, they are likely to show much more interest in adopting advanced mHealth technologies to improve the medical service. This will benefit both patients and caregivers."

Some of the study key findings indicated that:

Physicians are adopting mobile technology at a very high rate.
Physicians’ strong interest in tablet devices indicates this technology will soon command the physician market.
“Super Mobile” physicians who own both smartphones and tablets are accessing online resources at significantly higher rates across a broad range of core professional activities.
Health care institutions are beginning to adopt mobile technology for their physicians and show strong interest in moving forward.
Access to electronic medical record (EMR) data tops the physician wish-list for how they want to use mobile technology.

93 countries worldwide already offer mHealth services

2011-06-14T10:19:00.003+03:00

93 countries around the world are offering at least one type of mHealth service, according to a new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The four most frequently reported mHealth initiatives used by member states are:

Health call centers (59%)
Emergency toll-free telephone services (55%)
Managing emergencies and disasters (54%)
Mobile telemedicine (49%)

The report - titled "mHealth: new horizons for health through mobile technologies" - indicates that the use of mobile and wireless technologies to support the achievement of health objectives (mHealth) has the potential to transform the face of health service delivery across the globe.

The authors note that change is driven by a powerful combination of factors including: rapid advances in mobile technologies and applications, a rise in new opportunities for the integration of mobile health into existing eHealth services, and the continued growth in coverage of mobile cellular networks.

The WHO observes that health systems worldwide are under increasing pressure to perform under multiple health challenges, chronic staff shortages, and limited budgets, all of which makes choosing interventions difficult.

The authors note that mHealth needs to adopt globally accepted standards and interoperable technologies, ideally using open architecture.

"Communication technologies would enhance efficiency and reduce cost," the WHO said. "To accomplish this, countries will need to collaborate in developing global best practices so that data can move more effectively between systems and applications. Moving towards a more strategic approach to planning, development, and evaluation of mHealth activities will greatly enhance the impact of mHealth."

The Evolution of Wearable Mobile-Health Applications

2011-06-02T17:20:00.005+03:00

Wearable technologies offer exciting opportunities for personal mobile health applications development.

Wearable systems, such as Aerotel's GeoSkeeper, can be implemented in areas of chronic disease management and elderly care. They promise to provide seamless access to health professionals from anywhere and at anytime.

GeoSkeeper

The development of wearable mobile health applications is driven by the promise to bring healthcare to the people instead of bringing people to healthcare. By doing that, healthcare can become more personal and accessible to everyone and reduce costs for health care providers and insurers.

Wearable systems impose significant challenges to developers, in areas such as development of smart fabrics, miniaturization, battery management, cost-reduction and user interfaces.

Ofer Atzmon, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel Medical Systems, will present the past and present of wearable mobile health systems developments at Mobile Health Expo in New York on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, at 14:30.

Mobile Health Expo is a special event focusing on the convergence of mobile technology and healthcare across the entire mobile health ecosystem, including mhealth, telemedicine, wireless and connected health.

This year event will focus on eight market drivers: ageing at home, disease management, health inclusion for developed and developing countries, provider education, patient education, healthcare gaming, mobile wallets and benefits.

Report: mHealth to transform global healthcare

2011-05-11T17:27:00.005+03:00

Innovative mHealth (Mobile Health) applications have the potential to transform healthcare in both the developing and the developed world, according to a new in depth study published by the University of Cambridge and China Mobile.

Source: University of Cambridge

The 120-page report, titled Mobile Communications for Medical Care, focuses on the healthcare and health promotion applications. The authors, led by Professor Ian Leslie from the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory and Simon Sherrington, General Manager at Innovation Observator, note that these applications have the greatest growth potential in major emerging economics.

Cambridge researches concluded that mHealth applications will develop most rapidly in countries where healthcare delivery and public services generally, are in transition. Rapid development will also be encouraged where the population has rising expectations for healthcare, and where those involved in healthcare delivery are willing and able to experiment with new models.

The authors note that mHealth applications have the following advantages:

Contribute to bringing healthcare to unserved or underserved populations
Increase the effectiveness and reducing the costs of healthcare delivery
Improve the effectiveness of public health programs and research
Prevent illness
Manage and treat chronic diseases
Keep people out of hospital

"In developed economies, mobile will be used to collect, store, analyze and upload a wide spectrum of personal and environmental data, from vital signs (heart rate, body temperature, etc.) to location, motion, mood, ambient air temperature and pollution levels, and adherence to medication regimes," the authors said. "This will benefit individuals and will also lead to better forms of illness prevention and treatment, and earlier prediction of epidemics".

The report also examines the implications of mHealth for the developing world. In low-income economies, mHealth can improve access to services in areas that are hard to reach through conventional means of health delivery; disseminate information on medical advances and public health to professionals and the public; facilitate data gathering from remote areas during disease outbreaks, enabling better research and response planning; help secure the supply chain for drugs; and increase the effectiveness of treatments by supporting adherence to medication regimes.

Segmentation of mHealth Opportunities

The report also considers the role of mobile operators in mHealth innovation and, in particular, whether mobile operators should be the suppliers of mHealth applications or simply enablers. It illustrates that there are viable business models, and that mobile operators have a lot to gain from, and offer to, mHealth applications.

Related Articles:
Turning mHealth into be the next killer app requires different approach

Report: mHealth apps market to triple to 600 million by 2012

Implications of new FDA rule on mobile medical devices still unclear

2011-05-02T18:49:00.002+03:00

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) long awaited rule regulating how hardware manufacturers can introduce new mobile medical devices for use by health care providers went into effect earlier this month.

It is yet to be seen what will be the impact of the new regulations on medical equipment developers and software vendors as it is too early to predict how it will influence the market.

The new Medical Device Data Systems (MDDS) rule now classifies most health-related IT devices as Class I or low-risk medical devices. The rule requires IT companies to register health care hardware and software that transfer, store, convert or display health care data.

"This rule is a common-sense regulatory approach that provides clarity and predictability for manufacturers of these data systems," Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who heads the FDA center for review of medical devices M.D. said in a statement.

"This shows our flexibility in applying regulations for medical device data systems that are not overly burdensome for manufacturers, but continue to assure that data stored, transferred or displayed on these systems remain reliable," said Shuren.

Aerotel to present wireless health care solutions at Med-e-Tel 2011

2011-04-06T15:51:00.004+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present its innovative wireless health care and telemedicine products at the Med-e-Tel 2011 Conference that will be held at 6-8 April 2011 in Luxembourg.

Ofer Atzmon, vice president for business development and marketing at Aerotel, will discuss wireless health solutions for chronic care management. The presentation will be held during the tele-cardiology session, which will take place on Wednesday, April 6 in conference room 4 at 14:00-16:00. The presentation will be given again on Friday, April 8 in conference room 3 at 16:00-17:30.

The presentation will focus on wireless homecare hubs used for connecting multiple medical sensors in the home and will deal with the use of wireless technologies for the provision of healthcare services.

Among others the presentation will highlight:

Market drivers
Need for chronic disease management
Benefits of remote home monitoring
Homecare evolution

Aerotel will also introduce at the event the Connect-Cell Wireless Homecare Hub, which shows the measurement of blood pressure by patients with remote web interface consultation. In addition, the company will showcase its personal GPS location and tracking system, GeoSkeeper, and the HeartView, a personal hand-held 12-lead ECG monitor.

Med-e-Tel is an official event of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH) and the international federation of national associations, who represent their country’s Telemedicine and eHealth stakeholders.

Turning mHealth into be the next killer app requires different approach

2011-03-31T17:05:00.005+02:00

The significant growth in demand for advanced portable devices and the increase in usage of mobile applications led to the publishing of optimistic forecasts by many analysts concerning the possibility of utilizing mobile health opportunities by Mobile Network Operators (MNO).

Source: Arthur D. Little

A new research by Arthur D. Little follows the general trend, while making several clear recommendations. The bottom line is that mHealth could be the next killer app in the mobile industry, but it requires a completely new market entry strategy.

“The MNO must assess its own capabilities, decide what role it will play and how it will contribute to the service, align the internal capabilities required for the selected business model, and then partner with other players to acquire key capabilities to effectively and efficiently bring patients into the ecosystem,” says Dr. Karim Taga, Director at Arthur D. Little’s Telecoms, Information, Media & Electronics Practice.

The new report, titled: Capturing Value in the mHealth Oasis: An Opportunity for Mobile Network Operators? recommend mobile operators to carefully examine the degree of development and specific characteristics of individual markets in order to launch the appropriate solutions.

It suggests that in developed markets, operators must focus on solutions that fit within the current health care industry structure. At the same time, in emerging markets, the 'Keep it simple' attitude should lead the penetration process. In those markets, mobile operators should focus on mHealth solutions, such as the delivery of medical information by SMS or MMS, medicine reminders, remote data collection, and medical help-lines, that can help improve patients’ access to basic medical care.

The authors note that mHealth has been hailed as the next major development for mobile networks operators, while warning that it might be "wishful thinking from a sector desperately seeking additional revenues to offset margin erosion."

The report concludes that if MNOs adhere to a few simple guidelines they can avoid major obstacles and increase their chances of success. If these guidelines are taken into account, Arthur D. Little believes that mHealth will surpass even the most optimistic industry predictions within the next five years and add significant value to the mobile industry.

We as Aerotel would recommend, in any case, adopting a careful approach which is based on building a strong partnership with other players, who are already active in the market and have compatible advantages. In our view, the natural partnership for MNO would be with health services providers and technology developers, with proven expertise in the eHealth market.

Telemedicine market to more than double by 2015

2011-03-08T17:30:00.006+02:00

The global telemedicine market is expected to grow by more than 100 percent in the coming five years, according to a report published by BCC Research.

The report, titled "Telemedicine: Opportunities for Medical and Electronic Providers" predicts that the telemedicine market will be worth some $23 billion in 2015 compared to $9.8 billion in 2010. The company's analysts estimate that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.6 percent over the next 5 years.

The authors noted that the global telehospitals and clinics market accounted for 71% of the total Telemedicine market in 2009, and was worth $6.9 billion in 2010 compared to $5.6 billion in 2009. This sector is expected to continue and increase to $15 billion in 2015, at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8%.

The telehome market, which represented 28.5% of the market in 2009, is believed to capture nearly 35% by 2015. This sector is valued at nearly $2.9 billion in 2010 and is expected to increase at a 22.5% annual growth rate to $7.9 billion in 2015.

BCC said that there has been a global focus on the use of telemedicine as a tool to cut down healthcare costs and bring about mammoth savings.

Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor visits Aerotel at MWC 2011

2011-02-23T10:13:00.004+02:00

Shalom Simhon, Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, visited Aerotel Medical Systems at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011 in Barcelona, Spain.

Aerotel's booth at MWC 2011

Simhon was among the hundreds of participants, who came to visit Aerotel and get a demonstration of the company's Mobile Health and Telemedicine Solutions.

The total number of people visiting Aerotel's booth rose in comparison to last year and included senior officials from large telecom companies, system integrators and distributors.

"The main reason for our great success this year is the growing interest of cellular companies and eHealth solution providers in the field of mobile health," said Ofer Atzmon, VP Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel. "This, together with careful planning and meeting scheduling by the Israel Export Institute and Israel's commercial attaches allowed us to meet a large number of potential clients and partners in a relatively short time."

mHealth was one of the areas that received most attention at the MWC. Like Aerotel, most mHealth solutions presented at the show where device centered rather than smartphone-based.

Overall, more than 60,000 visitors from 200 countries attended MWC, marking a record for the mobile industry’s premier event. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world’s largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organizations, as well as government delegations.

Aerotel to present mHealth solutions at MWC 2011

2011-02-09T13:59:00.005+02:00

Aerotel Medical systems will showcase its mobile health (mHealth) and other telemedicine solutions at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011, which will be held in Barcelona, Spain.

The main innovations to be presented by Aerotel at Hall 2, booth 2C12 (Israel National Pavilion), include:

Wireless homecare hub - Connect-Cell, a highly flexible wireless homecare hub for chronic patient monitoring and disease management.
Wireless ECG - HeartView Personal hand-held 12-lead ECG monitor with Bluetooth connectivity.
Mobile-CliniQ - a mobile phone application that enables remote monitoring of various health parameters.
GeoSkeeper - a personal GPS location and tracking system. traditional social alarm systems.

In addition, Aerotel's Connect-Cell wireless hub powered by the CINTERION MC55i module, showing the measurement of blood pressure by patients with remote web interface consultation, will be demonstrated by Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, at Hall 8 - Stand 8A102.

"The mobile health market is developing very fast, as health care providers worldwide finally recognize that real-time mobile communication is a powerful tool in meeting the challenge of today's ailing healthcare system," said David Rubin, Aerotel Medical Systems President and CEO. "This understanding contributes to the growing interest in Aerotel products that use the existing wireless networks and are both safe and easy to use for both medical teams and for the patients themselves."

Report: Revenues of US digital health sector to surpass $5.7 billion by 2015

2011-02-04T15:12:00.001+02:00

Sales of digital health technology solutions and services in the US will exceed $5.7 billion in 2015 compared to only $1.7 billion in 2010, according to a report issued by research company Parks Associates.

The income growth is forecasted to be fueled by chronic-care monitoring solutions, senior aging-in-place services, and connected wellness and fitness apps and programs. Perks said in its Delivering Quality Care to the Digital Home: 2010 Update that the projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the industry for the next five years will be 27%.

The authors noted that mobile broadband will be a key growth driver as many emerging health devices and services rely on high-speed connectivity to track vital signs or enable interactive features.

"The digital health industry has many subsectors, and near-term growth will be uneven across these segments," said Harry Wang, director of Parks Associates' health research team. "Adoption of chronic-care monitoring will grow slowly, and medication management and senior fall-detection programs will expand at above-average rates. The real engines of growth in this industry will be mobile care solutions and tracking applications."

Wang noted that political impasse over the new healthcare law could delay investment in new technologies and create funding challenges for new business models. "To move forward, this industry needs smart entrepreneurs and visionary industry leaders and a regulatory and reimbursement system amenable to innovative, effective, and cost-saving technology advances."

Heart diseases and aging will drive ECG telemetry market to $1.1B by 2015

2011-01-25T15:59:00.004+02:00

The global market for ECG telemetry devices will reach some $1.1 billion by 2015, according to a new report on ECG telemetry devices markets issued by research company Global Industry Analysts.

The authors, which defined Aerotel Medical Systems as one of the major players in this field, noted that while the economic turmoil has negatively impacted the medical equipment industry in 2008-2009 it had a moderate impact on the ECG telemetry market. This is attributed to aging population and growing cases of heart disease or cardiovascular diseases.

The US represents the largest regional market for ECG telemetry devices worldwide and is expected to further increase as a growing number of Americans receive home care.

Global Industry Analysts said that rising expenditure and scarcity of alternative home care resources and services are further expected to add to growing demand for home telemetry monitoring devices. At the same time, Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing market as it is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 5% over the next four years.

"Most of the larger hospitals are moving towards computerization for maintaining Electrocardiogram (ECG) records and investing heavily in data management systems to allow physicians to assess the comparative analysis of patients’ histories," the report stated. "The data management system offers hospitals with increased efficiency, reduces data loss, and provides accurate billing for medical procedures. This method of data assembly offers operational and administrative advantages to healthcare institutions justifying its expense."

mHealth among '100 Things to Watch in 2011'

2011-01-04T10:37:00.000+02:00

mHealth, medical and public health supported by mobile devices, is one of the top '100 Things to Watch in 2011', according to marketing communications firm JWT.

In its annual forcast, JWT said that people should look for mobile health applications to help improve health care and change the way patients and their physicians interact. It gave as an example doctors using smartphones to access patients’ medical histories and patients monitoring their own blood pressure and glucose levels.

JWT added that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is currently funding research into mHealth. And with 500 million people forecast to be using mobile health apps by 2015, global opportunities in this market are valued at as much as $60 billion.

“Many of the items on our list reflect broader shifts we’ve been tracking over the past few years, such as the evolution of the mobile phone into an ‘everything hub,’” said Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT. “Others reflect counter-trends—for instance, to balance out our growing immersion in the digital world, people will increasingly embrace face-to-face gatherings and digital downtime.”

Global home health remote monitoring market worth $10 billion in 2010

2010-12-24T10:54:00.002+02:00

The global market for home health remote monitoring of welfare diseases was valued in 2010 at some €7.6 billion ($10 billion) and is growing about 9 percent annually. The diabetes monitoring segment is by far the largest segment, worth about €6.3 billion ($8.2 billion). According to a report published by research firm Berg Insight.

The analyst firm said that the most common chronic diseases that are monitored today include diabetes, cardiac arrhythmia, sleep apnea, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

These conditions cause substantial costs and reduce both life expectancy and quality of life. Berg said that more than 200 million people in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) suffer from one or several chronic diseases where home monitoring can become a treatment option.

At the end of 2010, an estimated 1 million patients used a home monitoring service based on equipment with integrated connectivity. The figure does not include patients that use monitoring devices connected to a PC or mobile phone; it only includes systems that rely on monitors with integrated connectivity or systems that use monitoring hubs with integrated cellular or fixed-line modems.

“Progress is being made in the adoption of wireless technology among manufacturers of medical monitoring equipment, but there is still a long way to go before remote monitoring becomes a standard practice in the healthcare sector,” said André Malm, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight. "Consumer-oriented health and wellness monitoring will drive the mHealth segment in the near term."

The report estimated that a growing number of wellness and medical monitors will be connected to mobile devices via Bluetooth and other short-range technologies. And that in the future smartphones are likely to be the primary monitoring device for many patients.

"More and more health and wellness apps are also being released for smartphones, ranging from BMI calculators, diet guides and sport trackers to medical reference apps," Malm said.

Report: mHealth apps market to triple to 600 million by 2012

2010-12-20T11:33:00.000+02:00

The number of mobile health (mHealth) applications in use is expected to increase threefold by 2012 to 600 million from 200 million today, according to a new report published by Pyramid Research.

Pyramid experts conclude that the mHealth industry is well positioned to offer real solutions to the growing needs of the global healthcare sector. The report indicates that healthcare is facing an immediate crisis as there is a global deficit of 2.4 million healthcare workers and an international shortage of hospital beds worldwide. This leads to a situation in which governments, healthcare providers and insurance carriers are desperate to develop solutions that lower costs and improve patient care.

The report, titled "Key Players in Mobile Healthcare", indicates that some 70% of the world population is interested in having access to at least one mHealth application, and are also willing to pay for such services.

The author notes that the main obstacle to wider adoption of mHealth applications stems from costs associated with using such services. These expenditures include the costs of developing new services and educating healthcare providers, patients and payers. Another key question is how to justify such costs for reimbursement purposes?

"Healthcare solutions that are delivered via mobile technology are creating a new frontier of innovation that is driving down costs, increasing access, and improving quality of care," indicated Denise Culver, who wrote the report. "And even as mHealth connects, informs, and protects patients and caregivers in powerful ways, it also opens up many opportunities for mobile network operators like AT&T, BT, Orange, and Telefonica; original equipment manufacturers including Apple, RIM, and Ericsson; hardware and software vendors, such as Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, and Google; and a new breed of device and application providers that specialize solely on mHealth, including CardioNet, Epocrates, and NowPos."

12 ways pharmaceutical companies can benefit from mHealth apps

2010-12-16T16:12:00.000+02:00

A recent article published by research2gudiance explains how smartphone applications can be instrumental for pharmaceutical companies.

The author, Ralf Gordon Jahns, names eight reasons and we at Aerotel Medical System added four more based on our own experience.

Potential reach: High growth rates will enable pharmaceutical companies reach 20% of the world population by 2015, mainly in developed countries.

Differentiation: The potential for mHealth apps to support patient adherence and compliance makes them the ideal add-on for pharmaceutical products. Pharma companies offering applications will not only be providing a service, they will also differentiate their products from those offered by the competition.

Facilitate improved patients outcomes: Manufacturers have an opportunity to support patients by developing applications that assist them in achieving compliance, thereby improving their outcomes.

Contemporary marketing: Drug makers should re-allocate marketing budgets to applications, which are cheaper, more innovative, and represent a real value.

Learn more about patients: Apps provide direct usage information which can assist in understanding patients' habits.

Saving costs: mHealth applications have the potential to offer various cost-saving areas.

Improve relations with doctors: Apps are very personal tools and are one of the few things that doctors always carry with them. It represents new possibilities to interact with physicians and other healthcare professionals.

Increasing revenue: With the price for mHealth apps at $5 to $10, the possibility to develop apps that enable automatic replenishment of drugs based on patient consumption and electronic prescriptions exists.

We would add to the list:

Faster development - Sharing emerging health info between users thorough mobile apps can help research-based pharmaceutical companies and medical laboratories identify disease patterns and develop new solutions in a faster and safer way.

Clinical trials – Participants in clinical trials are required to provide information on their day-to-day moves. Using mHealth applications allows monitoring these patients in real time gathering critical data.

Pharmacovigilance – Mobile applications can be used to allow faster detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of unexpected side effects of new medicines. By using mHealth solutions, drug manufacturers can quickly gather such information from a large group of users who are located in different areas.

Fighting counterfeit medicines – The World Health Organisation estimates that more than 10% of medicines on the global market are fake and that in developing countries the some 25% are counterfeit or sub-standard. By using mobile applications, manufacturers can verify the authentication of their medicines.

Science Journal: mHealth brings hope to chronic disease patients

2010-11-22T17:35:00.000+02:00

The usage of mobile devices equipped with Internet and social media capabilities presents real opportunity to enhance chronic disease prevention and management, according to a report published by Science Journal.

The authors, Deborah Estrin and Ida Sim note that chronic diseases including diabetes, asthma, and obesity account for 46% of global disease burden.

They call for a public-private partnership to define and instantiate open mHealth architecture in order to support medical discovery and evidence based practice.

The main argument is that the development and treatment of chronic diseases usually takes place outside of traditional clinical settings. mHealth allows patients to collect and share relevant data with their medical staff at any given time allowing more rapid convergence to optimal treatment.

The report concludes that standardized interfaces and shared components are critical for realizing the full potential of mobile health care delivery and research.

"Government, commercial, and nongovernmental entities involved in health IT and innovation should cooperate to define and instantiate architecture, governance, and business models and to steer initial mHealth investments into open architecture," Estrin and Sim wrote.

"open mHealth architecture may encourage innovation by easing application development. Shared standards and reusable components may enable rapid authoring, integration, and evaluation of personal data capture for clinical care and research. Hospitals, accountable care organizations and public health practitioners could mix and match from a rich, flexible set of data acquisition and analysis components".

Report: Third of all smartphone users to use mHealth applications in 2015

2010-11-12T18:13:00.002+02:00

Over half a billion smartphone users will use healthcare mobile application by 2015, according to a new report published by research2guidance.

The report titled “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015” predicts that over one third of all smartphone holders (1.4 billion people) will be using mHealth solutions in five years time.

The report notes that (43%) of mHealth applications are primarily designed for healthcare professionals. These include CME (Continued Medical Education), remote monitoring and health care management applications.

The authors said that consumers are taking advantage of mHealth solutions to manage and improve their own health. “Our findings indicate that the long-expected mobile revolution in healthcare is set to happen," said Ralf-Gordon Jahns, Head of Research at research2guidance. "Both healthcare providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving healthcare.”

Today, some 17,000 mHealth applications are offered in major app stores, 74% of them adhering to the paid business model. The report predicts that future business models will include healthcare services, sensor, advertising and drug sales revenues.

“With the growing sophistication level of mHealth applications, only 14% of the total market revenue in the next 5 years will come from application download revenue,” said Egle Mikalajunaite, senior research analyst. “76% of total mHealth application market revenue will come from related services and products such as sensors.”

Aerotel to present new wireless data hub device at Medica 2010

2010-11-03T20:03:00.003+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present a variety of remote monitoring and homecare solutions at Medica 2010, which will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany on November 17-20, 2009 (Hall 9/C01).

Aerotel intends to showcase its new data hub device, Connect-Cell, at Medica, which is the leading international trade fair for the medical industry.

Connect-Cell can collect various environmental, industrial or personal data for remote monitoring applications. The innovative device has recently won the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Certification.

One of the most advanced applications of the Connect-Cell is as a homecare data hub that enables users to easily transmit vital signs data via the cellular network to a central monitoring center.

The new solution is already deployed in North America by AMC Health (New York), a leading homecare monitoring company that provides remote monitoring services for chronically ill patients belonging to more than 65 diverse health care organizations.

“The ageing population worldwide, along with rise in chronic diseases, creates an acute need to reduce health spending and improve medical services by using new innovative technology products,” said David Rubin, Aerotel Medical Systems President and CEO. “Aerotel homecare and personal health solutions addresses these needs by utilizing existing communications networks for the benefit of both patients and healthcare providers.”

Aerotel to present at Mobile Health Expo 2010 in Las Vegas

2010-10-04T09:59:00.001+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will showcase innovative mHealth solutions at the Mobile Health Expo, which will take place October 19-21, 2010 in Las Vegas.

Ofer Atzmon, Vice President for Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel, will hold a presentation titled "Health in Action - Case Studies and Future Developments" Atzmon will present mHealth applications in the areas of homecare, chronic patient monitoring, ambulance services and medical alert. The presentation will be held on Tuesday, October 19 at 14:45.

Aerotel has been involved with various successful mHealth projects around the world and the company will show various solutions including wireless handheld ECG devices, wireless-based homecare hubs for chronic patients monitoring, personal wearable mobile alert systems, public mobile telehealth kiosks for use in remote and rural areas and more. Atzmon will also demonstrate some exciting wearable personal mHealth systems that are currently being developed.

Mobile Health Expo is the only event focusing on the convergence of mobile technology and healthcare across the entire mobile health ecosystem, including mHealth, telemedicine, wireless and connected health.

The event will focus on eight market drivers: aging at home, disease management, health inclusion for developed and developing countries, provider education, patient education, healthcare gaming, mobile wallets and benefits.

The 2010 event will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Key note speakers include: Dan Gillison, National Director of Vertical Industry, Healthcare at Sprint ;Scott Ellis, Business Development Manager for telemedicine at T-Mobile; and David Kalb, Director of M2M Business Development at AT&T.

Survey: 88% of US physicians wish patients use mHealth solutions

2010-09-13T22:27:00.003+02:00

88 percent of American physicians would like their patients to be able to track and monitor their health at home, according to a recent survey conducted by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

American doctors said they are particularly interested regular updates on weight, blood sugar levels and vital signs. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the physicians surveyed said they are using mobile health solutions that aren't connected to their practice or hospital IT systems.

The survey has also indicated that 30% of US consumers are willing to use their smartphone to track and monitor their personal health. The PwC report, entitled Healthcare Unwired, further showed that 40% are willing to pay for a remote monitoring device.

The survey, which is based on 2,000 consumers and 1,000 physicians, indicates that wireless technology, remote monitoring and mobile devices are changing the nature of healthcare and reduce healthcare costs while keeping patients healthier.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute estimates the annual consumer market for remote and mobile monitoring devices and services to be $7.7 billion to $43 billion, based on the range consumers said they would be willing to pay.

"Remote and mobile technology is making it possible to move healthcare delivery outside the traditional settings of physician offices and hospitals to wherever patients are. It's bringing back the concept of doctors making house calls," said Daniel Garrett, leader of the health information technology practice, PwC.

"New consumer-oriented business models and technologies are emerging. Companies that will be well positioned competitively are those than can integrate mobile health into healthcare delivery and create value in the health system by helping doctors and their patients better manage health and wellness through mass personalization."

Caregivers willing to invest more than patients on home health monitoring

2010-09-07T16:14:00.000+03:00

The number of US consumers, who care for an ill family member, that are willing to pay for a home health monitoring service, is 100 percent higher than the number o those willing to pay for the same services for themselves, according to a report by research company Parks Associates.

The report indicates that some 20% of US consumers are willing to pay for remote monitoring service, while only some 10% were willing to spend money for themselves.

The survey, titled Uptake of Personal Health Tools & Services, shows that motivations for adopting home health monitoring include:

Concerns by caregivers that they will be unable to accurately measure and track their loved one’s vital signs.
Fear that they will be unable to detect warning signs of health decline.
Acknowledgment that home monitoring is a good solution.

The report showed that over 70%, of those caring or planning to care for a fragile senior, feared most that the person in their care would take an accidental fall.

“There is a self-pay market for home health monitoring, but interest is stronger among caregivers than patients,” said Harry Wang, director, Parks Associates’ health research team. “Companies in this market segment should target caregivers and emphasize how these technologies can quell their anxieties and help overcome the immense challenges of caring for a loved one who is sick or infirm.”

Healthcare handheld devices sales to reach $8.8 billion in 2010

2010-08-26T18:48:00.003+03:00

Sales of handheld device for healthcare use are expected to increase by 7 percent in next five years, according to a recent report published by healthcare research company Kalorama Information.

Global sales of healthcare devices are expected to rise to $8.8 billion from $8.2 billion in 2009.

The report, titled: The Global Handheld Healthcare Device Market, focuses on Patient Monitoring Devices and Administrative Devices. The authors wrote that stimulus incentives designed to spur hospitals and physicians to use EMR systems are among several factors that will drive growth.

According to InformationWeek the report shows that in 2009, patient monitoring products generated a market worth about $5.3 billion for 2009 with a market share of 64%. This accounts for the largest share of sales in the handheld market, largely due to the range of product availability, number of conditions requiring monitoring, and increasing demand for essential monitoring products in portable sizes, such as ultrasound and ECG. PDAs and Smartphones for healthcare applications were worth about $2.6 billion combined in 2009.

“The ARRA incentives for electronic medical records do not specifically reimburse doctors for devices,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. “But they are getting healthcare organizations to think about IT purchases, and they are helping to make the argument for better electronic data entry, something that we think will lead to increased sales for devices used to enter data.”

Other factors which impact the growth of the market are:

•    Growing and aging population, a
•    A shortage of qualified medical professionals
•    Cost restraints
•    Medical error reduction measures

“Healthcare workers need to be mobile, and so PDAs and monitoring devices have long been a good fit,” said Carlson.

FDA to change medical device regulation to shorten approval time

2010-08-18T15:47:00.011+03:00

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) intends to change regulations for medical device manufacturers in attempt to shorten approval time.

A report by news agency Bloomberg indicated that the FDA released proposed new requirements for the 510(k) program. According to Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the FDA intends to grant device companies a more predictable process while asking them for additional safety data.

Shuren said device makers will be asked to provide a complete summary of all information about the safety of their products. This will include clinical studies relevant to a product.

The FDA intends to create a Science Council for its medical device unit to “assure quality and consistency” about “some of the tougher science questions,” Shuren said.

The agency also plans to streamline the application process for a category of devices that aren’t similar to earlier products and are deemed to have a low enough safety risk that human studies aren’t needed, Shuren said. The “de novo” process, a subject of frequent complaints by the device industry, has been plagued by “lengthy review timeframes and nontransparent data requirements,” Shuren said.

The agency expects to begin making the changes later this year after a 60-day public comment period, Shuren said.

Mobile networks to bring health relief to Africa

2010-08-10T17:15:00.001+03:00

Surging investments in mobile networks in Africa are expected to lead to a sharp increase in the usage of cellular infrastructure to improve health services.

The World Bank has recently announced an investment of $63.66 million in a regional network of 25 public health laboratories in Africa. The network will improve access to diagnostic services. The new multi-country laboratory network will help identify potentially devastating disease outbreaks at an early stage and enable African countries to act quickly and prevent the rapid spread of diseases across borders.

Among others, the new network will support the roll-out of new technology for drug resistance monitoring and provide for more efficient tuberculosis diagnosis most notably for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The project will include web-based knowledge sharing, e-learning modules, and health alerts. The project also supports joint training and capacity building across countries, joint operational research, regional coordination, and program management.

In the majority of African countries, penetration rates of mobile telephony stand at a moderate 25% creating a potential market of 500 million new subscribers. The potential is already attracting multinational mobile operators, who seek growth away from their stagnated markets.

A recent report in This is Africa illustrates how much potential there still is in Africa. It shows the case of the mobile market in Zimbabwe in which the subscriber base of local operator Econet more than tripled in 2009 from 1.2 million to 4 million.

The BBC has recently forecasted that the explosion of mobile use in developing countries will help transform health care. It gave as an example the story of DataDyne, which uses mobiles to gather information about vaccination rates and instances of HIV in Kenya.

According to Joel Selanikio, co-founder of DataDyne, while internet access via desktop or laptop computers is not readily available to all, many people, even in the developing world, have a mobile phone.

"We haven't even begun to realize what it means when every health worker, every schoolteacher, when literally everyone has a connection to the internet," Selanikio told The Guardian. "People underestimate the effects this change is having. I think it will rival the printing press for its effects on society."

Since DataDyne's software, episurveyor, became a mobile web application, its business has exploded with 2,000 downloads across 120 countries. With a company staff of just 10, this growth wouldn't have been possible if the software wasn't easy to use.

Wall Street Journal: eHealth solutions save money and improve heart patient's quality of life

2010-08-05T19:01:00.003+03:00

Remote monitoring of health problems for congestive heart failure (CHF) patients saves money and makes users life much easier, according to an article published in The Wall Street Journal.

The article stated that technology – which allows heart patients take readings like their weight, blood pressure and other key metrics using wireless and other technologies - is gaining traction.

The paper gave the example of Carolyn Brown, a 63-year-old retired teacher's aide from Bronx, N.Y., who started using a new monitoring system after she suffered two heart attacks.

The program puts a scale, blood-pressure cuff and glucose monitor into patients' homes and then collects the data daily via wireless or landline. The data is transmitted to a case manager or medical care giver allowing them to catch, and address, warning signs before the patient lands in the emergency room with shortness of breath or a heart attack.

The featured equipment includes Aerotel's Connect-Cell, which is a Cellular-Based Homecare Data Hub enabling users to easily transmit vital signs data via the cellular network (GPRS) to a central monitoring center.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., says it pays about $6,300 for a Medicaid heart patient's typical hospital stay while the cost for the remote monitoring system is only $626.

"It is more important than ever for health plans and patients to combat medical costs, growing at a clip of between 6% and 9% a year, according to various estimates," the Wall Street Journal said. "Heart failure is a leading cause of hospital readmissions, with about 25% of patients returning to the hospital within 30 days. It's also one of the biggest single claims expenses at insurance companies. Aetna estimates that 40% of readmissions are avoidable".

The paper added that, a new study of 1,450 patients that published by Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, showed that implantable defibrillators that wirelessly transmit data on the patient's heart function reduced in-hospital evaluations by 45%. Suspected cardiac events were evaluated in less than two days compared with 36 days.

Healthcare adoption of Wi-Fi networks and wearable sensors surges

2010-07-17T16:35:00.001+03:00

Remote patient monitoring is one of the fastest growing areas of healthcare according to a report released by ABI Research.

The report indicates that the usage of Wi-Fi by the healthcare industry rose by more than 60% over the last year. The research company said that in the last 12 months Wi-Fi adoption grow in both wireless local area network and Wi-Fi RTLS (Real-Time Locations Systems) deployments. It added that high double-digit growth is expected to continue for at least the medium term.

ABI noted that healthcare has started using other wireless technologies such as cellular M2M and wearable wireless sensors. Moreover, wireless communications continue to be adopted in healthcare applications ranging from Wi-Fi networks to wearable sensors.

“Wi-Fi adoption has helped overcome initial concerns about complexity and reliability of wireless within healthcare,” wrote ABI Research principal analyst Jonathan Collins. “The growing number of wireless technologies and wireless applications being developed, piloted and deployed within healthcare further underline the level of interest in using wireless to improve the flexibility and efficiency of healthcare services around the world."

In a separate report ABI predicted that revenue from sales of Wi-Fi-enabled healthcare products worldwide (not including Wi-Fi-equipped medical equipment) will total $4.9 billion in 2014. This represents an increase of nearly 70% over today’s figure.

The importance of healthcare wireless and mobile technology was illustrated in a hearing of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health. Rep. Michael F. Michaud, who chairs the committee, said that these technologies represent "the new frontier in health innovations, as well as a great way of increasing access to care for millions of veterans."

"Mobile health makes it possible for healthcare professionals to receive real-time health data such as vital signs, glucose levels and medication compliance because data from the patient's mobile sensors are relayed over wireless connections," Michaud said.

One such application was revealed in a report saying that STMicroelectronics plans to develop a wireless MEMS sensor that acts as a transducer, antenna and mechanical support for additional read-out electronics in a breakthrough platform developed by Swiss company Sensimed AG. This solution will enable better management of glaucoma patients via earlier diagnosis and treatment that is optimally tailored to the individual patient.

European eHealth market to grow by 3% annually

2010-07-01T20:04:00.002+03:00

The European eHealth market is expected to grow by a compounded annual growth rate of 2.9 percent, according to a report published by the European Commission.

The final report, “Business Models for eHealth study”, which is based on a study funded by the ICT for Health unit of the European Commission’s DG Information Society and Media, expects the European eHealth market to reach some 15.6 million euro by 2012 compared to 14.2 million euro in 2008.

The study, which was coordinated by RAND Europe in partnership with Capgemini Consulting, confirms that France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom are the principal European eHealth markets. The authors noted, however, that over the next three years all national eHealth markets will experience some form of growth in this area.

It should be noted that eHealth was defined by the European Commission as a Lead Market. The pivotal role of eHealth for Europe was confirmed at the 2009 EU Ministerial Conference in Prague and by the December 2009 conclusions of the European Council calling for the implementation of safe and efficient healthcare through eHealth. There has been a call for overarching governance structure so as to remove barriers to the development of eHealth in Europe.

The study introduces a set of policy recommendations for the European Commission and other stakeholders to improve the overall quality and efficiency of health services through eHealth. It called on national healthcare authorities, health professional associations, healthcare delivery organizations, the industry and the research community to share perspectives on applicable best practice and experience.

BRIC telemedicine market to surpass $418 million by 2014

2010-06-17T19:39:00.001+03:00

The telemedicine technology market of the BRIC countries will increase to over $418 million by the year 2014, according to a new report published by research firm MarketsandMarkets.

The market research report titled "BRIC Telemedicine Market" forecasts that the market of the largest emerging economics will grow by a compound annual growth rate of 16.6% to $307.4 million in the next five years. The telemedicine service market of BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will increase by 13.8% to $111 million in 2014.

The BRIC term was coined by US investment bank Goldman Sachs in 2001, which argued that based on their rapid development, BRIC bloc of countries would eclipse the world’s richest economies by 2050.

The authors of the report note that the BRIC telemedicine market is witnessing a significant growth due to increase in the number of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart failure (CHF), asthma, hypertension, and diabetes.

They added that health services in BRIC countries are expanding their overall IT spending boosting demand for telemedicine services. In addition, growing demand for better healthcare services and growth in telecommunication network are also impacting the BRIC telemedicine market.

Wireless medicine to revolutionize medical practice

2010-06-14T09:20:00.016+03:00

Wireless medicine has the potential to revolutionize medical practice and to help curb healthcare costs, according to Dr. Joseph Smith, Chief Medical and Science Officer for the West Wireless Health Institute in La Jolla, California and former Vice President of Emerging Technologies for Johnson & Johnson in the Corporate Office of Science and Medicine.

In an interview with Medscape Business of Medicine, Dr. Smith said that the model of remote monitoring to control titratable therapy can be extended for nearly any chronic disease that has a measure of disease activity.

"It's easy to contemplate remote monitoring of heart failure and diabetes. It's not a big stretch to contemplate remote monitoring of autoimmune diseases or other forms of chronic diseases characterized by waxing and waning periods and exacerbations," he said. "I think we will readily monitor and titrate therapy at a distance for such patients to avoid the expensive decompositions of these chronic diseases."

The estimates are in line with a report published by Juniper Research earlier this year indicating that healthcare smartphone applications are expected to significantly contribute to mHealth revenues.

Dr. Smith added that remote monitoring equipment would also affect physician assistants, nurses, and other office staff who are typically involved in patient-monitoring interactions allowing them to do a better job of assuring that patients most in need of care get that care in places and times that are most appropriate.

The growing interest in telemedicine is also attracting large mobile phone manufacturers who show growing interest in this field.

So for example, RIM, the manufacturer of Blackberry mobile devices, and Vodafone announced recently a new services that allows doctors check the ECG of patients through mobile devices allowing them to get results in a much more efficient and less time consuming manner.

Aerotel to showcase personal homecare solutions at Brazil's Hospitalar 2010

2010-05-26T16:39:00.006+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present its innovative personal homecare solutions at the Hospitalar 2010 expo and conference, which will take place in São Paulo, Brazil on May 25-28, 2010.

During the show, Aerotel will showcase its e-CliniQ Homecare System for remote monitoring of various health parameters and other eHealth and mHealth solutions. Ofer Atzmon, VP Business Development and Marketing at Aerotel, will present the Heartline ECG Monitoring and GeoSkeepr Personal Safety Device at the Israeli booth at the Green Pavilion N87, which is located at the Expo Center Norte.

Hospitalar, which is the largest specialized event in the medical market in Latin America, is an international fair of products, equipment, services and technologies for hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and clinics.

1,200 exhibitors will present their services and products to some 86,000 professional visitors. Hospitalar is organized in cooperation with MEDICA - World Fair of Medicine and is affiliated to the International Hospital Federation (IHF), the worldwide association of hospitals.

Aerotel's products Heartview P12/8, Heartview12L and HRS receiving software are already used and certified in Brazil market and the company has several local clients including ITMS, which provides a service to SAMU, the national ambulance service of São Paulo state.

During the show Aerotel will hold a presentation describing the usage of mobile handheld ECG tele-monitoring devices by ambulance services and will present case studies of services in Brazil, Italy and in Russia.

Ambulance staffs (paramedics) use the devices to monitor people injured in car accidents or in various emergency situations at home. They can record the ECG trace and transmit it within minutes to a remote medical centre using their mobile phones. The service provides significant benefits, including critical time savings, enhanced level of emergency treatment, expert guidance to the ambulance staff and increased chances for patient recovery form critical situations.

Atzmon has presented already opportunities for cooperation in the field of Telemedicine and Home Telehealth, at a special seminar on technological cooperation between Brazil and Israel.

Aerotel to present innovative mHealth solutions at ATA 2010 conference

2010-05-17T09:56:00.005+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present new innovative and affordable personal Mobile Health (mHealth) solutions at the ATA 2010 conference, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas USA on May 16-18, 2010.

Aerotel will use the three day expo to demonstrate its Mobile-CliniQ, a mobile phone application that enables remote monitoring of various health parameters, such as electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, blood glucose level, weight, etc.

This and other solutions, including e-CliniQ homecare, and other advanced telemedicine and telecare systems, will be presented by Ofer Atzmon, VP Business Development and Marketing, at Aerotel's Booth 825 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

ATA 2010 is the world’s largest international meeting and tradeshow, which is focusing exclusively on telemedicine and telehealth. It is organized by The American Telemedicine Association and is aimed at answering growing public demand for telemedicine, which is now widely recognized as an integral part of modern quality healthcare.

With the spreading usage of smart phones, Web applications, remote monitoring devices and social media, a growing number of patients are using these tools to improve their own healthcare. At the ATA 2010, the advantages of telemedicine will be exposed in educational sessions, professional networking and access to vendors.

The general sessions at ATA 2010 feature insightful keynotes, including Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States, MG James K. Gilman, Commanding General, US Army Medical Research, and Materiel Command and Fort Detrick, and John P. Howe, President & CEO of the international health foundation, Project HOPE.

Healthcare Smartphone apps to push mHealth revenues

2010-05-06T10:55:00.001+03:00

Healthcare Smartphone apps are expected to significantly contribute to mHealth revenues according to a report released by Juniper Research.

The number of mobile fitness and healthcare application has already reached some 5,000. Most healthcare apps provide health information to professionals or end users, while fitness apps are available to measure calorie intake or measure distance travelled for those running.

According to the report healthcare Smartphone apps are expected to significantly contribute to mHealth revenues. Eventually a new market will spawn for advanced apps which integrate sensors worn on the body. It further indicated that in the past eighteen months there has been a renewed interest in mHealth from operators globally.

"Mobile monitoring will demonstrate substantial growth in the US and some other developed markets,” said Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research.

Cox noted, however, that while mobile monitoring will contribute to healthcare cost savings in developed markets, national wealth and the structure of the healthcare market in a given geographical region will have an important bearing on the extent to which it is rolled out. "In Africa, for example, the opportunities for mHealth monitoring will be limited, instead, SMS based education programs will be rolled out there and these can be of great benefit."

The report also indicated that income from remote patient monitoring over cellular networks is expected to rise to almost $1.9 billion globally by 2014. The writers added that heart based monitoring in the US accounts for the bulk of early mobile monitoring roll-outs.

Aerotel to present tele-monitoring devices at Med-e-Tel 2010 Conference

2010-04-10T21:04:00.026+03:00

Aerotel Medical Systems will present its new innovative products at the Med-e-Tel 2010 Conference that will be held at 14-16 April 2010 in Luxembourg.

Ofer Atzmon, vice president for business development and marketing at Aerotel, will hold a presentation that will demonstrate the usage of Telemedicine to enhance emergency care by ambulance services. The presentation will be held during the tele-cardiology session, which will take place on April 16 between 13:00 and 14:45, in conference room 2.

The presentation will feature the usage of mobile hand-held ECG tele-monitoring devices by ambulance services and will include case studies from Brazil, Italy and Russia.

It will feature Aerotel's wireless hand-held electrocardiogram (ECG) recorder/transmitter devices for measuring 12-lead ECG signals, by private and institutional ambulance emergency services.

Ambulance staffs (paramedics) use the devices in order to monitor people injured in car accidents or in various emergency situations at home. They can record the ECG trace and transmit it within minutes to a remote medical centre using their mobile phones.

The Med-e-Tel 2010 features presentations of successful business cases, research activities, pilot projects, practical experiences from health and social care providers, and panel discussions, offering both local and international perspectives on eHealth and telemedicine opportunities and experiences.

US mHealth market to reach $4.6 billion by 2014

2010-03-31T18:24:00.000+03:00

The US mobile health (mHealth) market will reach some $4.6 billion by 2014, according to a report on the state of the U.S. mHealth published by CSMG, the strategy division of TMNG Global.

The report titled "mHealth: Taking the Pulse" claims that while the market is expected to grow it will be fragmented across many solutions and device types.

The mHealth market is currently estimated at some $1.5 billion and is expected to grow over the next five years at a 25 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate). CSMG analysts noted that if several health care reforms will be instituted, such as pay-for-performance, adoption could accelerate even further.

"mHealth is well positioned to address the needs and evolution of the US health care delivery because it provides cost-efficient care delivery and increases access to quality health care," said Rich Nespola, Chairman and CEO of TMNG Global. "The proliferation of embedded wireless connected devices and Smartphone growth creates significant transformational opportunities to deliver cost-effective and viable mobile health care options."

CSMG outlined several leading mHealth technology opportunities including monitoring, personal emergency response services (PERS), telemedicine, mobile medical equipment, mobile health information, RFID tracking and health/fitness software.

The report outlined four key drivers that will influence the pace and direction of mHealth evolution:

Mobile/connected device technology innovation drives near-to-mid-term growth.

The appeal of mHealth will overcome short-term barriers on consumer concerns about the quality of mHealth solutions.

Health care-specific technology developments such as adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) will remove barriers to mHealth adoption.

Broader health care industry reform will be required to reach the full market potential.

mHealth at the center of CTIA Wireless 2010

2010-03-22T17:00:00.003+02:00

Mobile Health (mHealth) is expected to be on the radar at the coming CTIA Wireless 2010 exhibition which will open on March 23 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The event organizers said that wireless solutions for wellness, fitness, healthcare services, remote diagnostics, and telemedicine will be a major theme at the International CTIA Wireless 2010.

More than 1,000 exhibitors and tens of thousands of spectators are expected to come to the show, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary. An article published by British Newspaper The Independent notes that one of the biggest trends to watch will be wireless solutions for wellness.

"Innovations in wireless are influencing all aspects of our lives. The convergence of healthcare and mobile technologies has the potential to change the lives of individuals and to contribute to better care, healthier choices and increased quality of life," said Robert Mesirow, vice president and show director for CTIA. "Opportunities in mHealth are growing every day."

The growing interest in mHealth solutions at the CITA follows the attention the industry has received at the 2010 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) that was held in February in Barcelona, Spain.

US Government incentive to push personal health to records

2010-03-05T17:37:00.001+02:00

Personal health record (PHR) providers are expected to be among the main beneficiaries from the U.S. government’s recent EMR (electronic medical records) incentive, according to a report published by international research firm Parks Associates.

The report, titled Electronic Health Records: Information Center of Connected Care, notes that the intuitive will raise awareness among consumers and will push the total number of PHR users to over 100 million by 2014.

This authors note that the $19 billion financial incentive from the U.S. federal government includes a “meaningful use” requirement. They added that although PHR is not fully spelled out as part of the reform, designed to promote EMR adoption, it is implied in one of the requirements.

“Despite a slow start, the PHR market is poised to grow, thanks in large part to government incentives,” said Harry Wang, Director, Health and Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. “Patient portal as a tethered PHR will experience the fastest expansion over the next few years because it will serve a dual purpose for physicians. PHR will serve as a patient communication tool and will also help them qualify for the incentive. Doctors will communicate the benefits of PHRs to consumers, resulting in rising awareness and more frequent usage.”

Der Standard: Aerotel's mobile healthcare solutions carry great potential

2010-03-02T12:30:00.000+02:00

The mobile healthcare solutions of Aerotel Medical Systems have great potential, according to an article published by Austrian daily Der Standard.

The article was written following the successful participation of Aerotel at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. Der Standard illustrates how the company devices can be used to collect data about the physical condition of patients (such as blood pressure), which is then delivered through mobile devices to remote health centers in a simple and efficient way.

Ofer Atzmon, VP Business Development at Aerotel, was interviewed by Der Standard saying that simplicity and reliability are the key to success in the mobile healthcare market has and to exploit its great potential.

Atzmon emphasized the fact, that unlike other companies, who focus their efforts on technology, Aerotel concentrates on the user interface and ease of use in order to make the application as simple as possible.

He added that he envisions a reality in which people will carry around portable devices that will continuously monitor their health status and the data will be transmitted through wireless networks to remote physicians.

Ofer Atzmon and David Rubin, Aerotel CEO, at MWC10

iPhone changes mobile health applications landscape

2010-02-28T08:54:00.001+02:00

In the first 18 months since the iPhone was released it has completely changed the impact of mobile health applications on health care system, according to an article written by Mike Kirkwood, a specialist in enterprise systems.

The post was written following his attendance of the mHealth initiative conference in Washington D.C. Kirkwook noted that "mobile and wireless health applications directly impact the individual's health and have the promise of ensuring that when a patient leaves a doctor visit, they don't become "lost" in the system. It allows consumers to be engaged with health and wellness in their daily lives and connect back to their health care provider."

Dr. Mohit Kaushal, health care director for the National Broadband Taskforce, said at the conference that mHealth industry is facing several key challenges including:

The US needs to invest in infrastructure to meet the growing needs of a mobile-enabled population.

Spectrum must be allocated (or reallocated) to meet the needs and the right areas of growth.

Regulations need to be designed to maximize incentives for innovation in care delivery.

There must be reimbursement incentives and viable business models for companies to succeed in delivering profitable services. In the health care system, we know that fee for service doesn't work nearly as well as an outcome based approach for delivery of health, rather than more procedures.

Remote monitoring can save $200 billion a year in healthcare costs for OECD and BRIC countries

2010-02-24T11:54:00.001+02:00

The adoption of remote monitoring solutions can lead to saving some $175-200 billion in annual healthcare costs for managing chronic diseases in OECD and BRIC countries, according to a new report.

The report was issued by global management consultancy firm McKinsey, and the GSMA, an association of mobile operators and other companies active in the mobile industry.

The figures were released as part of the Embedded Mobile initiative, a program designed to accelerate the global adoption of wireless connectivity in a wide range of devices in key vertical markets such as healthcare, consumer electronics, automotive and utilities.

As part of the plan, the GSMA has formed a partnership with the Continua Health Alliance, a non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companies, to promote innovation and drive the use of embedded mobile solutions in healthcare.

Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA, said that the rise in the number of connected devices will lead to a reduction in the cost of innovative healthcare solutions.

The GSMA said the move, which emphasizes the important role embedded mobile technology will play in healthcare, will grow and promote the global mHealth sector.

The organization said that the mobile industry can contribute substantially to improving the accessibility of healthcare systems around the world, as well as helping to reduce costs, by providing solutions to diagnose disease, monitor patient health and intervene ahead of acute events.

Telehealth equipment market seen surging by more than 700% until 2012

2010-02-21T09:14:00.002+02:00

The global telehealth equipment market will grow by more than 700 percent in the next four years, according to a report published by research company InMedica, which specializes in the medical devices industry.

Analyst Neha Khandelwal, forecasts that the market will grow to some $900 million by 2013 from only $123.3 million in 2009.

Remote patient monitoring is targeted at three main groups:

People who are ageing independently
Patients suffering from chronic diseases
Worried well people

The report, which is based on interviews with leading industry executives, indicates that the population of each group is set to increase raising the potential demand for remote patient monitoring.

InMedica said that the combined unit shipments of home-telehealth devices (digital blood-glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, weight scales, pulse oximeters and peak flow meters) were estimated to be around 155 thousand. By 2013, the unit shipments are expected to grow to over 1.6 million.

According to InMedica the following factors are driving the growth and introduction of telehealth in the healthcare industry:

Ageing population
The burden of chronic diseases
Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases
Increasing public expectations for standard of care
Spiraling costs of healthcare
Government initiatives to control rising healthcare costs
Success of large-scale telehealth trials
High-profile working group
Progress in regions other than the US

Mobile Health to take center stage at 2010 Mobile World Congress

2010-02-14T12:45:00.002+02:00

The Mobile Health (mHealth) field is generating growing interest and is expected to play a major role at the upcoming 2010 GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

The world's leading mobile industry trade show, will showcase mHealth devices such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, PDA's and other wireless services. Aerotel Medical Systems, for example, will introduce at the show new innovative and affordable Personal Mobile Health solutions.

One indication to the importance the Mobile world Congress organizers give to the mobile health industry is the fact that the GSM Association intends to deliver a day-long conference program under the title: mHealth – Collaborating for Universal Care. The day will focus on the use of wireless networks to support health delivery. It includes a series of high-level presentations and seminar panels, which will take place on Thursday, February 18, 2010.

The attempt to bring together the healthcare and mobile fields is expected to attract representatives of major wireless operators and health and strategy companies.

David Aylward, Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance said that "the marriage of health with wireless is a win-win opportunity for the mobile industry, for health providers, and for everyone who cares about creating healthier communities."

mHealth brings hope to the Developing World

2010-02-11T13:01:00.025+02:00

Adopting mHealth (mobile health) technologies has the potential to transform health care in poor and low-income countries, according to the February 2010 issue of Health Affairs, a leading journal of health policy thought and research.

The different articles indicate that by tapping modern information and communications technology it is possible to transform health and health care services in developing countries.

The reports constitute a broad review of the multiple e-health applications already in use in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. One of the articles - written by James G. Kahn, Joshua S. Yang, and James S. Kahn from the University of California, San Francisco - indicates that mobile technologies are widely available and can play an important role in health care at the regional, community, and individual levels.

The authors note that developing countries face steady growth in the prevalence of chronic diseases, along with a continued burden from communicable diseases. They write that innovative applications of mobile technology can simplify communication among researchers, clinicians and patients and offer care strategies for dealing with chronic diseases.

The article claims that the integrated nature of mHealth systems “offers improved communication, access to diagnostic tools and ability to store and access personal medical data in central repositories.” It can also, strengthen communication between individuals in a health care system, which can improve patient care coordination, allow exchanges of best practices and raise the quality patient care standards.

Mobile World Congress 2010 to highlight mHealth solutions

2010-02-08T12:00:00.003+02:00

New innovative and affordable personal Mobile Health (mHealth) solutions will be taking center stage among the solutions that will be presented by Aerotel Medical Systems at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

One such product is the Mobile-CliniQ™, a mobile phone application that enables remote monitoring of various health parameters, such as electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, blood glucose level, weight, etc.

Mobile-CliniQ can be connected via a Bluetooth® interface to external vital signs monitoring devices. Data is transmitted via General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to a medical monitoring center. By using it, physicians can view patient data and provide interpretation and advice from practically anywhere, saving time and travel expenses, and reducing healthcare delivery costs.

Mobile-CliniQ and other remote monitoring and mobile solutions will be presented by Aerotel at booth 2C72 (Israel National Pavilion), at the MWC 2010.

The company also intends to showcase its new Connect-CELL, a Cellular-Based Homecare Data Hub. It is a highly flexible global wireless connectivity hub, enabling users to easily transmit vital signs data via the cellular network (GPRS) to a central monitoring center. The flexible device incorporates both wired serial interface and wireless Bluetooth connectivity.

Aerotel enters the Finnish telecare market

2010-01-21T17:19:00.007+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems has entered Finland's telecare market and will start offering its GeoSKeeper personal safety and location system through a new telecare service. The innovative mobile service enables the accurate location of seniors, children and lone workers, granting users and relatives safety and peace of mind. The new service is offered by EcoTec, a leading Finnish provider of personal safety and tracking services.

The Finnish market is expected to witness a sharp rise in the demand for mobile and home-based telemedicine and homecare solutions as the country's population is rapidly ageing.

According to recent data published by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Finland is projected to have 26% of its population over 65, by 2030. This figure is one of the highest in Europe and the world.

By wearing the light-weight GeoSKeeper device on their wrist the users' accurate location can be sent to family and caregivers in real time. The personal telecare safety device is equipped with a built-in speakerphone and active GPS receiver. When the wearer wanders outside a specified zone the system sends an automatic alert via a short message (SMS) or email to a monitoring center and to a relative or caregiver.

Telehealth market to mature in 2012

2010-01-07T13:23:00.012+02:00

Telehealth solutions will start to be used by healthcare providers on a much wider scale from 2012 onwards, according to a recent report by research company InMedica, which specializes in the medical devices industry.

The report forecasts that the number of gateways used in telehealth applications will increase to over one million in 2014 and to around 3.6 million in 2018.

The report authors believe that initiatives taken by governments and private healthcare providers to increase reimbursements and reduce the legal and liability issues will help in the roll out of telehealth as a mainstream technology for remote disease and home health monitoring.

According to InMedica, in 2009, health hubs were the most widely used telehealth gateways, constituting about 80% of the total gateways market. In the short to medium term, health hubs are expected to remain the most practical solution for professional healthcare providers, as the infrastructure can then be standardized and simplified on a large scale.

The report notes that the number of integrated cellular handsets used as telehealth gateways is expected to reach over 350 thousand in 2014.

“The use of mobile phones as telehealth gateways has had a surge of interest over the last couple of years; with patients and device companies recognizing the benefits of data transmission on the move," writes Neha Khandelwal, market research analyst at InMedica. "We anticipate that cellular service providers will play an increasingly important role in the long-term future of the telehealth market.”

Aerotel reveals new mobile health systems at Medica 2009

2009-11-14T15:15:00.023+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems presented for the first time two new wireless telehealth and homecare solutions at the Medica 2009 trade fair in Germany.

The two new innovative products are:

Mobile-CliniQ - An affordable personal mobile health solution, which enables remote monitoring of various health parameters. It is a cellphone application that enables the transmition of medical data to a monitoring center.

This innovative solution allows remote monitoring of electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, blood glucose level, weight and other health parameters. By using Mobile-CliniQ, physicians can view patient data and provide interpretation and advice from practically anywhere, saving time and travel expenses and reducing healthcare delivery costs.

Connect-CELL – A cellular-based homecare data hub that allows users to easily transmit vital signs data via the cellular network (GPRS) to a central monitoring center. The flexible global wireless connectivity hub incorporates both wired serial interface and wireless Bluetooth® connectivity.

The products were specifically designed to replace standard fixed systems and to allow elderly people benefit from higher mobility possibilities.

Medica, which is held in Dusseldorf on November 18-21, 2009, is the leading international trade fair for the medical industry. Aerotel presented at the trade show also other advanced telemedicine and telecare systems, including the Heartline tele-cardiology system, e-CliniQ homecare solutions and other systems.

Can home health monitoring help cure diseases in EU and the US?

2009-09-12T13:07:00.011+03:00

Some 300 million people in the EU and the US currently suffer from welfare diseases, The question is which future medical services can provide a solution that will be both medically efficient and cost affective?

According to a published by research company Berg Insight, the answer to the question is the growing usage of home health monitoring, which has the potential to become a serious treatment option for these patients.

Berg Insight estimates that among welfare patients, about 25% would benefit from existing wireless home monitoring solutions available and another 50% would benefit from handset integration of existing medical devices.

The market for home health monitoring of welfare diseases grows on an annual rate of some 10 percent, according to Berg.

The report concluded that the market for these products, which was worth some $11billion in 2008, will continue to grow at a rapid pace in the near future. It noted, that despite the fact that wireless technologies have only just begun to penetrate the market, they have a huge potential.

The authors noted that the adoption wireless monitoring is driven by a wide range of incentives, related to demographics, technology development and new advancements in medical treatment.

They added that there are several potential catalysts that could speed up the adoption of cellular communication for healthcare monitoring purposes. These include increasing monitoring during clinical trials, insurance company requirements and growing popularity for nonprescribed medical monitoring.

The report said that, while the wireless medical monitoring services generates only neglectable revenue currently, the field shows great potential. The volume of traffic related to medical monitors will increase sharply in the next few years, as new web based services are being established.

How will President Obama's Health Reform impact wireless health care market?

2009-08-14T15:02:00.020+03:00

President Obama's healthcare appeal is expected to lead to many changes in the US healthcare market. One interesting question is, which healthcare services will benefit from it most?

According to a recent report published by international research firm Parks Associates one of the main beneficiaries will be the market for wireless home-based healthcare applications and services, which is expected to reach some $4.4 billion by 2013.

The rapid rise is supported by the healthcare reform of the Obama Administration, which is expected to encourage the adoption of wireless technologies in healthcare and the promotion of technologies that improve healthcare efficiency.

The report, titled Wireless Healthcare: Analysis & Forecasts, indicates that the market will grow at a five-year cumulative annual growth rate of over 80%.

The study indicated that wireless technologies can benefit home care in areas such as chronic care management, medical diagnostic device monitoring, wellness and fitness applications, medication management, and senior independent living solutions.

Another report, published by Parks Associates in February 2009, showed that providers of personal health technologies such as health monitoring devices and personal health records (PHR) can generate over $460 million in revenue in 2013.

The research firm said that changes in the healthcare landscape, combined with health reform initiatives, are catalysts for accelerated technology spending over the next five years.

Should the US act to fasten the adoption of telemedicine solutions?

2009-07-27T13:46:00.000+03:00

he market for telemedicine solutions is constantly rising but experts wonder whether the Washington should actively move to encourage the development of telemedicine solutions?

According to a report published by US Department of Commerce the answer to this question is absolutely yes. The report, which was written by International Trade Specialist Matthew A. Hein from the International Trade Administration, concluded that: "the time to raise telemedicine’s profile has arrived, so that patients across the United States and the globe can benefit from the efficiencies that telemedicine can provide in fulfilling healthcare needs."

Hain said that in the current environment of a shortage of healthcare professionals, greater incidence of chronic conditions, and rising healthcare costs, telemedicine offers a potential tool to improve efficiency in the delivery of healthcare.

He said that the need for telemedicine is supported by the following factors:

Significant increase in the U.S. population

Shortage of healthcare professionals

Increasing incidence of chronic diseases

Need for efficient care of the elderly, home-bound, and physically challenged patients

Lack of specialists and health facilities in rural areas

Adverse events, injuries and illness at hospitals and physician’s offices

Need to improve community and population health

Hain concluded that telemedicine can play an important role in providing solutions to these challenges. He called on the U.S. Department of Commerce to play an important role in addressing barriers and to collaborate to deliver telemedicine products and services.

Aerotel introduces new telecare safety device in Switzerland

2009-02-04T16:48:00.001+02:00

Aerotel Medical Systems introduced a new personal safety and location system in the Swiss market.

The system, GeoSKeeper™, which is offered in Switzerland under the brand name AlarmTouch™ GPS, is distributed by Swiss company GEBOA SA, a leading distributor of interactive mobile solutions and services for security, location and communication. The GPS-based personal telecare safety device is specifically designed to meet the special needs of seniors, children and lone workers.

A report published by Credit Suisse bank indicates that the percentage of those aged 65 years and over in Switzerland will increase from the current 15.4% of the population to 24.3% in 2030.

The AlarmTouch GPS can activate a warning signal or initiate a voice call in case of need, identifying the caller’s location in order to provide the user with immediate assistance.

The wearable personal safety phone enables user remain in close contact with their relatives or caregivers and get immediate help in case of emergency from a tele-assistance center.

AlarmTouch allows two-way voice calls and text messages with an advanced alerting system for enhanced personal security. The product is fully programmable over the air via a user-friendly Web-based interface.

The device has attracted much interest and was presented on the “Nouvo” show on Swiss French TV channel and on Euronews.

Tele-Cardiology services reduce costs significantly

2008-04-21T09:36:00.012+03:00

The introduction of Tele-Cardiology services can improve patient care and save costs, according to recent study conducted in the UK.

The report, which was published in the TeleHealth World magazine, is based on the findings of a pilot study of a new tele-cardiology service, commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

The research shows significant cost saving potential for the tele-cardiology service. The savings calculated showed a surprisingly short 3.5 months payback time for the investment in the technology. The NHS suggested that when extrapolated to England as a whole the potential financial savings of using such services could be a minimum of £45 million (some $90 million) per annum.

The pilot used Aerotel's HeartView series of hand-held 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) recorder/transmitter devices. These devices are used in an identical manner as conventional ECG machines, except that they can record the ECG and then transmit it wirelessly from a patient’s home or a primary care clinic to a remote tele-cardiology consultation center, where it is captured and displayed on screen.

Practice staff and patients, who participated at the experiment, were overwhelmingly positive about the advent of tele-cardiology equipment in primary care. The report recommended that administrators should consider the use of telemedicine technology in cardiac care in a wide scale due to its significant benefits. It also became evident that as physicians gained confidence in the new technology it became an important tool for supporting clinical decision making to the extent that inappropriate referrals to A&E departments were being prevented.

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