Vendors

Swift Medical looks to expand to home health

April 17, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

TORONTO – With $11.6 million in fresh funding, wound care management company Swift Medical is ready to make a push into the home health care market.

The company currently counts more than 1,000 health care facilities as customers, serving 100,000 beds across North America.

“We want to expand our base to as many organizations as our technology can be used, especially home health,” said Carlo Perez, co-founder and CEO of Swift Medical.

Swift Medical’s AutoDepth software allows clinicians to take wound depth measurements by using a mobile app and waving the smartphone over an injury like a wand. The app tracks thousands of points in the images and generates information for health care providers to discern wound depth, all without ever making physical contact. It also enables sharing of information, and collaboration between health care providers and patients.

The technology was first integrated by EHR platform provider PointClickCare and wound care center Healogics, and has since been used by other facilities to heal around 10,000 patients per month, Perez said.

“We offer a new approach to wound management,” he said. “Our software allows clinicians to get a precise longitudinal understanding of treatment and it lets the treatment be more agile.”

Capitalizing on the Series A funding from Data Collective, Real Ventures, Relay Ventures, DHVC and Business Development Bank, Swift Medical will look to double its size by early 2019, said Perez.

“All of our technology was developed specifically for home health,” he said. “Home health agencies have wound care visualization challenges and difficulty treating wounds in the field. Our technology produces accurate images and really shines in those remote cases.”

emocha eyes market expansion

April 10, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

BALTIMORE – Mobile health company emocha, which uses video-based technology to improve medication adherence, is building on a flurry of recent activity to push into additional markets.

The startup, which currently serves the public health market in areas like Washington, New England and Texas, was recently named among Fast Company’s 2018 Most Innovative Companies, ranking No. 9 out of 10 in the health category. It also named Tom Carroll as COO, charging him with leading the company’s market expansion.

“We’re going to push into broader markets like payers and hospitals—even life insurance,” said Carroll, who has more than 25 years of experience in health care finance, including at investment banking firms Stifel Nicolaus and RuxtonPark Healthcare Capital. “We’re really looking across the board regarding constituents.”

Patients use emocha’s mobile app to video-record themselves taking their medication. The videos are uploaded to a platform for care providers to validate and collect dose-by-dose adherence data. Communication tools are also built into the platform so providers can send messages of encouragement to patients or check in if a dose was missed.

Carroll said emocha is about to launch its new platform, which includes an update to the back-end and can address more pervasive diseases, in addition to hepatitis C, tuberculosis and opioid use disorder.

“It’s the grown-up version of what we’ve been working with and can reach a broader group,” he said.

The Fast Company ranking recognizes pioneering companies across 36 categories, from health to artificial intelligence to wellness. The company was cited for its use of technology to improve medication adherence for the treatment of high priority health challenges.

“Our technology allows people to leverage something low-tech like a smartphone and prove that through directly observed therapy, people tend to do what they’re supposed to be doing in terms of health care,” Carroll said.

MyNotifi uses AI to eliminate need for call center

March 27, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

SAN ANGELO, Texas – MedHab has launched MyNotifi, a wrist-worn device that eliminates the need for a call center because it uses artificial intelligence to detect falls and automatically notify a user’s caregivers.

“The whole idea of this device is to encourage and promote senior independent living,” said Johnny Ross, CEO of MedHab.

MyNotifi’s technology, which uses an algorithm that is 99% mathematically accurate, evaluates acceleration and jerk movements similar to those in a fall. Upon detecting those movements, the device asks the wearer if they fell. If it receives a “yes” response or no response at all, the device automatically sends text messages to caregivers with the location of the wearer. Caregivers can then call for help.

The device will also send messages to the wearer’s contact list if the wearer hasn’t moved in a set time or if the battery needs to be changed. Additionally, it includes a set of range of motion and strengthening exercises specifically geared toward mobility and fall prevention.

MyNotifi is connected to the wearer’s smartphone via Bluetooth and must be in a certain range to operate properly. If the device and app are too far apart, an alarm will sound on the smartphone.

Ross said MedHab has also begun working on a smaller belt-worn fall detection device geared toward the more active senior that will launch soon.

MedHab sponsors the National Senior Corp Association and is making MyNotifi available to directors, volunteers and clients of the program, said Ross. The company will work with NSCA later this year to offer a fall education program on fall dynamics and prevention to seniors and their caregivers.

MobileHelp, Samsung offer new remote monitoring solution

March 19, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

BOCA RATON, Fla. – MobileHelp Healthcare is working with Samsung to introduce a new remote patient monitoring solution with integrated emergency response capabilities.

MobileHelp Touch will be built on Samsung’s Tab A tablet and supported by its Knox defense-grade security.

“We know better management of patients with chronic conditions reduces readmissions for ACOs and results in better outcomes,” said Chris Otto, senior vice president of MobileHelp, in a statement. “MobileHelp Touch takes that to the next level by combining RPM and emergency response services in a single platform.”

Following the physician-ordered period of remote monitoring, patients will have the opportunity to keep the tablet and peripheral equipment and continue monitoring their own vital signs.

In initial pilot programs with health care providers, MobileHelp found that the basic clinical knowledge patients receive during a 30- to 60-day home health period while using MobileHelp Touch provides a natural transition to self-monitoring.

A recent MobileHelp pilot with the Visiting Nurse Association of Rockford, Ill., found that patients monitoring their own vital signs reported a 47% increase in confidence regarding their ability to manage chronic conditions, and an 18% increase in physical activity and mobility.

The MobileHelp Touch system on Samsung’s tablet includes features like: remote patient monitoring and program support; virtual video visits; medication reminders; fall detection/activity tracking; messaging; and educational resources.

Novartis and PEAR Therapeutics team on prescription digital therapeutics

March 15, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO – PEAR Therapeutics is working with Novartis to develop prescription digital therapeutics for people with multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.

The collaboration brings together Novartis’ expertise in neurological disorders, clinical development and commercialization with PEAR’s experience in prescription digital therapeutic design and implementation.

Digital therapeutics uses digital technologies to treat a medical or psychological condition.

“Novartis shares our vision for prescription digital therapeutics that work alongside drugs to deliver superior patient outcomes,” said Dr. Corey McCann, president and CEO of PEAR Therapeutics, in a statement. “We believe this collaboration further supports the clinical viability of prescription digital therapeutics as an emerging treatment modality and we are poised to execute on that opportunity.”

The two companies will pursue approval for PEAR’s existing THRIVE digital therapeutic and will work together to develop a new therapeutic application to alleviate disease burden in patients with MS, which they will then seek to validate in clinical studies.

PEAR’s prescription digital therapeutics are clinically-validated, FDA-regulated software applications that deliver

evidence-based interventions to patients through mobile applications. Once cleared, they may be prescribed alongside drug therapies and have the potential to be developed to treat a range of diseases.

“With widespread adoption of digital devices, prescription digital therapeutics could potentially play an important role in future treatment models for a range of diseases with high unmet medical need, used both alone and in combination with systemic agents,” said Dr. Jay Bradner, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, in a statement.

As part of the collaboration, Novartis also invested in PEAR’s Series B financing.

Study finds mHealth app can detect diabetes

March 6, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

SAN FRANCISCO – Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have found that mHealth wearables integrated with digital health startup Cardiogram’s DeepHeart app can detect diabetes and other medical conditions.

“By detecting diabetes earlier, we can help people live longer and healthier lives,” said Brandon Ballinger, co-founder of Cardiogram, in a statement.

In a collaboration between UCSF’s Health eHeart Study and Cardiogram, researchers recruited more than 14,000 users of Cardiogram for Apple Watch and Android Wear for the study. Health sensor data was used to train a deep neural network, which uses machine learning to analyze large sets of data, by presenting it with samples from people with and without diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, atrial fibrillation and high cholesterol.

The study found that the app was 85% accurate in distinguishing between people with and without diabetes. It was also able to detect high blood pressure with 80% accuracy and sleep apnea with 83% accuracy.

“While there have been many attempts to build special-purpose glucose-sensing hardware to detect diabetes, this is the first large-scale study showing that ordinary heart rate sensors—when paired with an artificial intelligence-based algorithm—can identify early signs of diabetes,” said Ballinger. More than a quarter of a million people use Cardiogram actively, and 73% of them open the app on a daily basis, he said.

“While these research results are promising, ultimately, Cardiogram’s goal is to save lives in the real world,” said Ballinger.

Medically Home brings hospital to home

February 27, 2018 by Kathy Dion 1 Comment

BOSTON – Medically Home’s micro-hospital program for the home using Amazon Alexa marks a transformational shift in the way health care can be delivered, believes the company’s CEO.

“This is the first time that the patient’s home has used technology to configure care that is normally delivered in a hospital,” said Richard Rakowski, CEO of Medically Home.

The program, called Cesia Continuum, is a combination of software, hardware and third-party technology under Medically Home’s “mission control center.”

Rakowski said the connected care ecosystem brings together: physician oversight of patients through telemedicine; evidence-based care delivery protocols; two-way audio/visual communications between patients and their care team; patient biometric monitoring and predictive analytics; and rapid response protocols and resources in an emergency.

“Compared to the current acute care hospital-based approach, our model delivers more patient care over a long period of time—and at the heart of the model is high patient, family and clinician satisfaction,” he said.

Cesia Continuum is led by the patient’s physician, with a team of nurses and other clinicians, for 30 days. The program is an option that a physician can recommend to patients with selected medical and surgical diagnoses that traditionally require hospitalization.

Rakowski said programs like Cesia Continuum have the power to disrupt the health care industry.

“Advanced technologies for patient vitals monitoring, seamless on-demand communications and a reliable emergency response are and will be the core technology platforms that will change the face of a patient’s home as a site for safe medical care,” he said.

Going forward, Medically Home plans to expand into new markets and geographies, and add more eligible diagnoses. Rakowski said the company is also considering adding a remotely programmable automated pill dispenser to increase medication adherence.

“This is just the beginning for Medically Home, as we continue evolving to transform quality patient care and the future of health care,” said Rakowski.

Q&A: Noom’s Adam Fawer on how the Amazon deal might fix health care

February 13, 2018 by Kathy Dion

NEW YORK – When Adam Fawer, COO and CFO at online health coaching platform provider Noom Inc., heard the announcement earlier this month that Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway were partnering to form a new nonprofit health care company, he welcomed the news.

“There are so many health care devices, wearables and other technologies out there, so I imagine everyone using their own home health diagnostic kit to diagnose a health issue, then having their physician instantly prescribe something to treat it and Amazon drops the medication off at the patient’s home,” he said.

HHTN: What signal does the Amazon/JPMorgan Chase/Berkshire Hathaway announcement send?

FAWER: I think this is a big wake up call to the healthcare sector, especially the insurers. It’s going to put pressure on healthcare companies, providers and payers to be more innovative, to start buying (like the CVS/Aetna deal,) and to purchase innovative technology companies. I think this announcement could send them all into a panic. Having a competitor like Amazon will put intense pressure on insurers to innovate quicker and take bigger leaps.

HHTN: What do these companies need to do to make an impact in health care?

FAWER: The players in this deal have said the new company is going to focus on prevention and that’s the No. 1 thing I would work on. I could see them approaching CEOs of other companies to pledge to focus on prevention—if all companies would do that, we’d all save money. There is a huge incentive to improve health outcomes through prevention. I could also imagine this company doing more in telehealth, like lobbying government to improve access to that kind of care and making the old face-to-face model of care antiquated.

HHTN: Are you concerned about how this new company will affect smaller companies, like Noom?

FAWER: I believe they’re going at this with a good heart and it’s actually good for companies like ours and I can imagine more investment in these types of companies, as a result. I can’t think of anything about this that would intimidate us as a company—Amazon would be more likely to purchase a company like ours, not develop something to compete with us.

HHTN: In the context of this announcement, how do you envision home health care in the future?

FAWER: Today, much of medicine takes place face-to-face in the physician’s office. You get treated, you get your paper prescription and bring it to the pharmacy to be filled—this is time-consuming, inefficient and costly. Amazon wants to make everything convenient. There are so many health care devices, wearables and other technologies out there, so I imagine everyone using their own home health diagnostic kit to diagnose a health issue, then having their physician instantly prescribe something to treat it and Amazon drops the medication off at the patient’s home. It will be interesting to see who else will be inspired and step up, as well—maybe someone like Elon Musk or Bill Gates. I think this is the first announcement of what could be many like it.

Home health companies deploy Parallax’s Good Health Outcomes

February 12, 2018 by Kathy Dion

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – As part of an expanded relationship, Accredited Home Care, a provider of home health care and nursing services, will add Parallax Health Management’s Good Health Outcomes telehealth platform to its remote patient care program serving more than 35,000 patients.

”Accredited has been a client of Parallax for over two years, and we are excited that they have decided to expand their telehealth and remote patient monitoring services with our next generation connected health platform Good Health Outcomes,” stated Paul Arena, CEO of Parallax, in a statement. “Our mutual goals are to deliver our connected health products and services to 30% of their patient population in the first 12 months of our agreement, and 70% by the end of 24 months.”

Parallax Health Management has also announced a contract with telehealth company Uni Care Home Health to deploy the Good Health Outcomes platform to address the growing needs of Uni Care’s patient population and increased insurance reimbursements related to their remote patient care business.

”Our system reduces the costs related to hardware and logistics associated with our competitors while increasing data capture, quality and analytics capabilities,” said Nathan Bradley, chief technology officer at Parallax Health Management, in a statement. ”My team continues to make progress in the reduction to practice of our patented and patent pending solutions, converting concept to realization, resulting in an increase in our client’s operational efficiencies, service expansion and patient satisfaction. Our capabilities are generating a market separation from our competitors.”

Uni Care is a provider of home health and telehealth services within the San Diego and Riverside counties in California.

“Parallax enables us to reduce our costs of care delivery while increasing the quality of life for our patients coping with chronic disease management and acute rehabilitation,” said Albert Keshavrzi, CEO of Uni Care, in a statement.

Q&A: American Well’s Jeff Kosowsky

February 6, 2018 by Kathy Dion

Company positions itself for global growth

BOSTON – American Well recently announced partnerships with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Philips and Netsmart, and received a $59 million investment from Allianz. Jeff Kosowsky, senior vice president of corporate and business development at American Well, spoke with us about how health care is moving away from the hospital and into the home, and how the company plans to keep up with that trend.

HHTN: How are telehealth and other home health technologies impacting the way health care is delivered today?

KOSOWSKY: The model for health care is changing. Care is moving out of the hospital and into the home, or wherever the patient might be. Telehealth technology platforms provide that first touch for patients and providers. Whether they have a video visit, connect for medication or get referred to a specialist, they can do all of these things online or from their phone without having to go to a bricks-and-mortar practice unnecessarily.

HHTN: What does the integration of telehealth into home health devices mean for consumers?

KOSOWSKY: Telehealth offers consumers opportunities for improved access, outcomes and economics of care using the power of virtual visits.

HHTN: Describe your vision of health care in the next five years.

KOSOWSKY: American Well plans to focus on: the need to provide better access to quality health care; the general trend toward the consumerization of health care and consumer comfort with Internet-enabled services; and health systems’ interest in attracting new consumers through innovative technologies and services.

HHTN: How will you leverage the investment from Allianz?

KOSOWSKY: We’ll leverage the investment in our platform to serve a broader global market through connected care opportunities, pharma, medical device and physician partners. In general, we believe our global partnerships will make us stronger.