Aerotel's GeoSkeeper wins North American approvals

Aerotel Medical Systems has received the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Certification as well as Industry Canada (IC) certification for its innovative location-based personal alert system, GeoSkeeper.

The approvals pave the way for Aerotel to start offering the GeoSkeeper system in the lucrative North American markets of the USA and Canada. GeoSkeeper is already being sold in other markets around the world, including Israel, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America.

"GeoSkeeper offers a real solution to the needs of the North American medical alert and personal safety sectors," said David Rubin, Aerotel Medical Systems President & CEO. "Adding GeoSkeeper to Aerotel's family of products sold in this market will enable Aerotel to further expand its presence in the North American market for the benefit of both patients and healthcare providers."

Aerotel has started negotiations with several security and medical alert service providers in North America in order to start offering the GeoSkeeper™ to the growing market of medical alert and personal security in the near future.

Aerotel will showcase its mobile health (mHealth) and other telemedicine solutions at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, Barcelona, Spain, at Hall 2, booth 2C12 (Israel National Pavilion).

The GeoSkeeper personal safety and location system is specifically designed to provide peace of mind for elderly, chronically ill, children or lone workers, as well as their relatives and caregivers.

Aerotel has been active in the USA and Canada for more than a decade offering a wide variety of telemedicine solutions, including its personal handheld electrocardiogram (ECG) systems, homecare data hubs, and telemedicine remote monitoring software solutions. 

Aerotel's telemedicine solutions are in use by various remote monitoring service providers, taking care of chronically ill patients belonging to various health care organizations.

Medical app downloads to reach 142 million in 2016

Mobile healthcare and medical applications downloads will rise to 142 million in 2016 from an expected 44 million in 2012, according to a report on the mHealth market issued by research company Juniper Research.

Juniper analysts said they expect the number of patients monitored by mobile networks to rise to some 3 million by 2016, with the majority of them in the United States. The rise will be fueled by the market for healthcare peripherals and increased smartphone processing power.

"Remote patient monitoring will step in to reduce the cost burden of unhealthy lifestyles and aging populations," said Anthony Cox Associate Analyst at Juniper.



The report indicates that monitoring of cardiac outpatients is currently very dominant in the remote patient monitoring market as insurance companies try to lower their expanses. This is expected to change in the future, with the management of diabetes, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) and other chronic diseases leading the market.

Juniper added that developing markets continue to benefit from SMS-based education programmes and stand to benefit in medium term from app-based healthcare services such as mobile ultrasound that are now being developed.

EHR (electronic health records), which have not gained significant traction, will become in the future an important component of mHealth offerings.

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

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

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

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

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

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.