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.”
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.
