NEWS - December 2009
REMOTE HEALTH MONITORING
For home-bound and other patients, health and medical services can be conveniently delivered through technologies that electronically "connect" them with care providers. Remote health monitoring has become more widely available over the past two decades to improve access to care, disease management, and medication compliance. Annual treatment costs are often significantly reduced, as summarized below.
National Spotlight: Corporate Developments / Technology Report
Two Minneapolis companies highlighted in recent news articles are GE Healthcare and Nonin Medical Inc. In early December 2009, GE Healthcare announced the acquisition of Living Independently Group (LIG) and its QuietCare infrared sensor monitoring system, which has not yet been commercialized. The remote monitoring solution was originally intended for aging-in-place (homes, senior housing, etc.) and health care use (hospitals and health care systems). In a previously announced agreement, GE Healthcare and Intel Corporation are committing $250.0 million to develop wireless sensors, in anticipation of strong growth and an estimated $7.7 billion home health monitoring market in 2012.
For more information, visit: MobiHealth News or Modern Healthcare News.
In late November, Nonin Medical Inc. received the 2009 North American Product Line Strategy Award In Remote Patient Monitoring from Frost and Sullivan in recognition of Nonin's accurate, innovative, secure solutions and leadership role in telemedicine. Recipients are chosen by Frost and Sullivan analysts, based on interviews conducted with end-users, industry participants, and suppliers to identify the product that "best addresses market needs and dynamics." Frost and Sullivan is a "growth partnership" company.
For more information, visit: PR Newswire.
The Center for Technology and Aging released a new report entitled: "Technologies for Optimizing Medication Use in Older Adults." The report once again highlights patient non-compliance with physician-directed prescription medication routines. An estimated 12.0% of the 3.0 billion prescriptions written each year in the United States are not obtained by patients. Among those patients who fill their prescriptions, 40% do not take the medications correctly. The report identifies the cost benefits of greater compliance (as much as $290.0 billion in savings) with use of technologies and tools that are already available but underutilized. A key factor is reducing "medication non-adherence" hospital and/or nursing home admissions, which can be partially addressed through medication monitoring technologies (e.g., portable electronic dispensing devices, mobile phone applications, "talking" pill bottles, etc.)
For more information, visit: Fierce Healthcare or Center for Technology and Aging.
State Spotlight: Mississippi
A program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) demonstrates how remote monitoring technology can help extend the services of a limited number of nurses and physicians provide in an intensive care unit (ICU). Demand is high for qualified "intensivists," but the current work force provides only 20.0% of the total personnel needed nationwide for round-the-clock care. UMMC's solution is the Philips' VISICU remote monitoring system, which uses two-way audio and video equipment to enable nurses and physicians working off-site to have a virtual bed-side experience. With assistance from a room-based team member, remote site practitioners can check vital signs, communicate with and evaluate patients, review lab data, view digital diagnostic images, etc.
To date, the system has reduced patient mortality by 25%. A single nurse can monitor up to 40 patients throughout the day and night, and on a 12-hour shift, one physician can monitor 100 patients. UMMC is the first of its kind nationally to implement such a system, which currently serves 83 beds and is being expanded in June 2010 to include 24 ICU beds at Delta Regional Medical Center.
For more information, visit: The Clarion Ledger.
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