Blip Care launches WiFi weight scale, BP monitor

By: Jonah Comstock | Dec 13, 2012        

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Blip BP MonitorThe smartphone is often seen as a big driver of the trend toward self-tracking and self-monitoring. But not everyone has a smartphone. While some people who track without smartphones do so in their heads — what Pew’s Susannah Fox described as “skinny jeans trackers” — others could benefit from lower-tech monitoring solutions. And some of the people who most need to monitor health data like their weight and blood pressure are older, and often not at the forefront of tech adoption.

That’s the idea behind Blip Care, the new consumer-facing side of wireless monitoring company Carematix, Inc. Blip Care has launched two products on Indiegogo: a wireless weight scale and an FDA-cleared wireless blood pressure monitor. Both work over a WiFi connection — the company says their blood pressure monitor is the first to do so — and both are designed to natively track health data for two people in a household and send it to a family member or designated caregiver.

“The 20- to 40-year-old is not really interested in their blood pressure because they don’t have a condition,” said Sukhwant Khanuja, one of the product developers. “But their parents are starting to worry, and [their children] want to stay connected to them.”

Blip Care is building their products for the quantified self community, but also people worried about the health of parents who live far away. So the scale and blood pressure monitor have native displays that make them easy to use even if the user isn’t tech savvy, but also can send a trusted family member a message if the user neglects to take their reading. The devices also have built in alarms that can be set to chime if people miss a scheduled check. They’re also designed for two-person households: the devices have buttons on them labelled “1″, “2″, and, in the case of the scale, “Guest”. If users hit those buttons before using the monitors, the system will store their data separately. The guest function on the scale can track weight for eight different additional users.

Khanuja says there are big advantages to checking blood pressure and weight multiple times per day and automatically tracking that information.

“Circadian rhythms affect blood pressure,” he said. “Depending on what time you take it, you will have a different score. This is not being discussed today because almost all people have designed their systems for a reading once a day.” More simply, home blood pressure readings can be more accurate because of the “white coat effect” — some people become anxious in doctor’s offices and this artificially inflates their score.

Although a key selling point of Blip Care is that it doesn’t require a smartphone or tablet to use, the company is designing apps for iPhone and Android to make it easier for users who want to to view their weight and blood pressure data in aggregate. They’re also building systems to integrate the data into existing tracking apps like LoseIt and DailyBurn.

According to the company, the scale will ship in February for $99, and the blood pressure reader will be available in time for Christmas for $149. Both devices have no subscription fee.

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FCC posts job for healthcare director

By: Jonah Comstock | Dec 13, 2012        

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FCCBack in September, MobiHealthNews reported that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) mHealth taskforce recommended, among other things, that the FCC hire a healthcare director. A job posting for that position has now been posted by the FCC.

According to the post, the Director of Health Care Initiatives will serve for a maximum of four years. The Commission hopes to hire someone with a Masters in Public Health or Healthcare Administration, and several years of experience in the healthcare industry, including experience with strategic initiatives and partnerships.

“The incumbent will lead the agency’s efforts in facilitating and promoting communications technologies and services that improve the quality of health care for all citizens and help reduce health care costs; facilitating the availability of medical devices that use spectrum; and ensuring hospitals and other health care facilities have required connectivity,” the posting reads.

The post lists a number of duties for the new director, including advising the FCC on health issues, providing guidance to the team overhauling the $400 million Rural Health Care program, working with other government bodies like the NIH and the FDA, and working with the private health care sector to develop effective FCC programs.

The salary for the position will be between $123,758 and $155,500 per year, and the posting expires in 25 days.

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The secure messaging problem for healthcare providers

By: Brian Dolan | Dec 13, 2012        

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Brian Dolan, Editor, MobiHealthNewsThis afternoon MobiHealthNews is hosting its fifth online event for 2012: Texting in Healthcare. We’ll be discussing an all-important topic for healthcare providers: secure messaging, both between providers and between providers and patients. In addition to a question-and-answer period with attendees, the webinar will also include presentations from Brad Brooks, President and Co-Founder, TigerText and Dr. Ernie Guzman, Program Director of Pediatric Residency at Adventist White Memorial Hospital. (Get your free registration for the event here, starts at 2PM ET today!)

Stage 2 for Meaningful Use requires some form of secure messaging in place to increase provider’s engagement with patients: “[S]ecure email, a secure portal, even some type of mobile application could all be examples for secure messaging methods that could potentially meet this certification criterion. Along those lines, we decline to specify or restrict certification in this case to a particular transport standard because, again, we intend to permit a wide range of different secure messaging solutions, that will likely use different approaches and transport standards,” ONC states. Stage 2 was delayed one year — it’s now 2014 — from its original mandate (2013), as called for in the original stimulus act.

In my presentation this afternoon I’ll point to some adoption metrics and highlight different ways that providers are using messaging services with patients today. While there are many ways to leverage traditional SMS as well as secure messaging, meaningful use still puts it as a requirement that’s a year or two out.

The greater need today might be secure messaging between providers themselves. Physicians — like everyone else with a mobile phone — apparently love texting. In an age of BYOD this can cause a real headache for CIOs looking to stay on the right side of HIPAA. TigerText’s Brooks and Dr. Guzman will explain the drivers of secure messaging and other challenges that providers and healthcare CIOs face. Can secure messaging really wean physicians off of SMS?

The discussion begins this afternoon at 2PM EST/ 11AM PST. Register for the complimentary event right here. Have your questions ready and don’t be late!

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ONC sticks to basics in mobile security outreach

By: Neil Versel | Dec 13, 2012        

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ONC HIPAA videoWhile hospital CIOs and privacy officers sweat over the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and the BYOD phenomenon, federal health IT officials are trying to put their minds at ease with a series of resources to help providers safeguard patients’ protected health information.

Wednesday at its annual meeting in Washington, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) introduced an educational initiative for healthcare organizations to understand and manage privacy and security risks associated with laptops, tablet and smartphones.

Resources on the page include simple how-to’s on protecting health data, managing personal mobile devices used on institutional networks and dealing with lost or stolen devices. The page features basic explanatory videos and downloadable fact sheets on such topics as helping individual users understand organizational policies for using mobile technology.

CIOs also can download posters to educate and remind staff of procedures and responsibilities. “Your Patients Trust You to PROTECT and SECURE Their Health Information. TAKE THE STEPS when using a mobile device to safeguard patients’ information,” reads one.

The outreach is in response to public comments the Department of Health and Human Services received during and subsequent to a roundtable held in March.

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Neurosurgeon-led “eBra” team moves to pillowcases, sheets

By: Neil Versel | Dec 13, 2012        

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Varadan book cover1031212033811PMThe University of Arkansas team that developed the “e-bra” – a remote monitoring system embedded in the fabric of base layers – has big plans for unobtrusive, wearable sensing technology. Think products that can replace expensive, inconvenient diagnostic testing and even predict heart attack and stroke.

The team, led by neurosurgeon Dr. Vijay Varadan, distinguished professor of electrical engineering at the Fayetteville, Ark., school, and research scientist Linfeng Chen, has woven sensors into pillowcases and sheets so patients at sleep clinics don’t need to be wired up, have their heads shaven or even have patches stuck to their skin. “You can sleep in any position you want,” Varadan explains to MobiHealthNews.

Right now, the system, featuring six sensors in the pillowcase to track brain activity and six more in the sheet for measuring vital signs, is about 90 percent accurate. “We’re working to improve that,” Varadan says.

Varadan and Chen just published the first of about 10 volumes they plan on contributing to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers series of highly technical manuals on wireless health sensors. This book focuses on the history of textile-based sensors, health monitoring systems and mobile healthcare applications.

Two of the future volumes will look at sleep disorders and calorie burn rates to help determine the optimal mix of exercise for amateur and professional athletes. Others will examine the connection between brain and heart functioning in many medical ailments, according to Varadan, who directs Arkansas’ High Density Electronics Center and the Center for Wireless Nano-, Bio- and Info-Tech Sensors and Systems. “When your brain is happy, your heart is happy,” Varadan explains.

Wearable sensors potentially can pick up many of the signs of heart and brain disease that otherwise would require costly, uncomfortable imaging. “You can measure with a garment so you don’t need to go to the hospital for an MRI,” Varadan says. “You can do it at home.”

Or the testing can be performed during everyday activities, as the e-bra sports bra for women and vest for men does, rather than in a lab when the patient might not be in a natural situation. “Through your daily activities, you are not relaxing,” Varadan explains. Textile sensors pick up vital signs as people go about their lives.

Like the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing, the Arkansas researchers have tested wireless sensors on football players and other athletes. But Varadan takes the concept one step farther, putting monitors not just in undershirts, but in helmets for capturing brain waves during actual game action. “Right now, they do prescreening with the sticky stuff [patches],” Varadan says.

Inverted T-waves, which Varadan says are somewhat common in wide receivers, raise the risk for heart attack, severe angina and even death, according to published research. Varadan also notes that there has been little published research from physicians on neurogenic T-waves, an abnormality that he says  can predict the onset of a stroke up to six months in advance.

Varajan indicates that he is looking into setting up a company to market smart fabrics and garments, some of which even have embedded GSM transmitters that work over cellular network. However, he has not been able to find a U.S.-based manufacturer, which he prefers. “Every textile [he is working with now] is made in China or India,” he says.

The Arkansas researchers have applied for patents and Food and Drug Administration clearance on some of their innovations, including the sensor-laden sheets. Varadan also has applications pending for implantable devices that not only stimulate the brain of people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, they can measure the effectiveness of such treatments.

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SecondMarket plans fund for StartUp Health inductees

By: Jonah Comstock | Dec 12, 2012        

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Steven Krein, co-founder of StartUp Health

Steven Krein, co-founder of StartUp Health

SecondMarket, a secondary market investment advisory company, is partnering with incubator StartUp Health this month to make small accredited investors more aware of the opportunities in the digital health space, and to give make a chance to fund some of StartUp’s inductees.

StartUp Health co-founder Steven Krein described StartUp Health as “an academy for health and wellness entrepreneurs” in an interview with MobiHealthNews earlier this year.

“We use the term academy specifically because we provide a longterm program for the life of the entrepreneur’s startup,” he said. “What we have learned — being entrepreneurs ourselves — is that the real work begins after you get customers and after you get funding.”

SecondMarket is best know for trading in private Facebook shares before the company went public this past summer. Now they’re focusing on acquainting accredited investors with what they call “next generation investments.” Part of that strategy is an education program where the company devotes each month to educating investors about a different space.

The focus for December was health tech, and SecondMarket partnered with StartUp Health to produce a webinar for interested investors that covered trends in digital health.

According to GigaOM, StartUp Health is offering SecondMarket investors the opportunity to contribute to a planned $7.5 million innovation fund to help support 100 digital health companies that will participate in StartUp Health’s accelerator program. The fund will own between 2 and 10 percent equity in the companies it supports.

In the webinar, StartUp Health co-founders Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes focused on the concept of creative destruction – a term coined by Austrian Economist Joseph Schumpeter and recently applied to healthcare by Dr. Eric Topol in his book “The Creative Destruction of Medicine.” It refers to a point of transformation that occurs when an existing market becomes too large and set in its ways to foster innovation and begins to fall apart. As StartUp Health chairman Gerald Levin put it in the webinar, “the big ships just can’t turn around fast enough.”

“There’s never been a more interesting time to invest in health and wellness,” said Stoakes. “That’s because healthcare is being completely reimagined. We are at the beginning of what we believe will be an epic decade of innovation and progress.”

Bob Kocher, a partner at Venrock, the Venture Capital arm of the Rockefeller Foundation, outlined the ways the health field is becoming ripe for innovation. He said the healthcare market is growing, because of a combination of more people qualifying for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the population aging, and an increasing number of people with chronic conditions.

Kocher was also optimistic about a change in payment models – from a system where health care providers are paid for their time to a system where patients and providers share risks and rewards based on outcomes for patients. Kocher also talked about downward pricing pressure and physician shortages that would encourage hospitals to look for ways to increase labor productivity. Technologies that help hospitals do more with fewer people will be great places to invest, he suggested.

Finally, employers are changing their health priorities to focus on prevention, fitness, and wellness to drive down eventual health costs.

These trends have already spurred increased venture capital for health tech companies. According to StartUp Health figures presented at the webinar, more than $3.5 billion has been invested in digital health since 2010 – a figure that doesn’t include legacy medical technology, pharmaceuticals, or life sciences companies. The way that capital is distributed has also been changing in a way that suggests startups can do more with less. The average deal size in the space dropped from $10.8 million in 2011 to $5.1 million in 2012, even though the total amount invested went up. The space saw 219 seed deals in 2012, compared with 131 in 2011.

“For some time in the last several years there was a reluctance [on the part of investors] to really get involved,” said Levin. “The regulation seems daunting, the payment models seem complicated. But as you heard, it’s all coming together now.”

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