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

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

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

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

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'

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

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

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."