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July 26, 2011



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A little telemedicine goes a long way toward building patient support
Brief use of Web-based telemedicine has a significant positive effect on patients' perceptions of the service, a Dutch research team concluded. Writing in Telemedicine and e-Health, the team added that since patients do not have prior experience with innovative telemedicine services, offering patients a risk-free way to explore and experiment with the service can increase the development of accurate perceptions and user needs—which in turn will increase patients' acceptance of telemedicine. Future studies should investigate the effect of continued usage on patients' perceptions of telemedicine, the researchers said.
Read the study
CONTACT: Corresponding author Karlijn Cranen, M.Sc., Roessingh Research and Development, P.O. Box 310, Enschede 7500 AH, The Netherlands. + 31 (0)53 487 57 58

Expanding beyond India, Apollo Hospitals tripling its telemedicine centers
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (Chennai, India) plans to more than triple its number of telemedicine centers to 500 from 160 worldwide with a focus on Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Burma. “The telemedicine centers are a pull factor for international patients,” Krishnan Akhileswaran, Apollo's CFO, told the Indian newspaper Mint. Apollo, which is one of India's largest private healthcare providers, on July 20 completed a Qualified Institutional Placement, through which it raised Rs. 330 crore ($74.4 million) toward its expansion plans by selling 6,666,666 shares at Rs. 495 ($11.16) per share to qualified institutional buyers. The placement is part of the Rs. 1,000 crore ($225.5 million) Apollo has said it would raise toward adding 2,400 beds by 2014. Apollo now operates more than 8,500 beds across 54 hospitals throughout India.
Read about Apollo's telemedicine effort

Air Force Medical Support seeks bids for study on autism healthcare via telemedicine
Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Human Performance Wing, on behalf of Air Force Medical Support (AFMS) Agency /Modernization Directorate is soliciting white papers on research topics that include exploring the use of telemedicine to deliver Autism healthcare services. “Current AFMS staffing constraints, limited AFMS system capabilities, and a mobile patient population requires a medical infrastructure capable of meeting unique provider and patient circumstances,” the agency noted in its solicitation. The Air Force anticipates awarding 10 to 20 awards annually, each award totaling $100K to $1M annually, with total contract values of up to $3M over three year periods. Total program cost is $49.5 million over five years.
Read the synopsis of the grant opportunity
CONTACT: Kimberly Rhoads, contract negotiator, (937) 656-9763


	FDA health app guidance will help some developers, hinder others Back in 1989, the FDA issued a draft policy statement designed to help it determine if “computer-based” and “software-based” devices were medical devices, and thus subject to agency oversight. But after seeing exponential growth in the use, types, and complexity of computer and software products, FDA pulled back its “Draft Software Policy” and went slower in crafting rules it eventually approved for software in medical devices. Now, FDA wants to get a handle on all those new health apps filling the screens of iPhones, Androids, and other smartphones. The agency has issued the 29-page Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff - Mobile Medical Applications, and launched a 90-day public comment period. The Draft Guidance applies to mobile medical apps that meet FDA's definition of a medical device and 1) are used as an accessory to a regulated medical device; or 2) transform a mobile platform into a regulated medical device. For example, an app that analyzes glucose content in the blood of people with diabetes would have to obtain 510(k) premarket notification approval from the FDA. An app that allows users to simply write down their glucose readings or other numbers would be exempt. “The Draft policy in 1989 was an extremely broad policy and did not reflect today's advances,” Bakul Patel, policy advisor for the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), told the News Alert. “The health app segment is indeed showing similar growth patterns, however the proposed guidance narrowly defines an approach that is in alignment with the current device laws and policy. We do recognize that as this area grows, the final approach may have to adapt and update as needed.” According to the Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015, released in November by Research2Guidance, some 17,000 health apps are now on the market. Nobody knows how many will be subject to the guidance should it become final. Some apps clearly are or aren't medical devices. Others occupy a gray area: Is an app that potentially could be a diagnostic tool—something that tracks the caloric intake of an anorexic patient—a device? Health app developers will see varying effects if FDA ends up approving its draft guidance. For developers experienced in dealing with the agency because they make traditional medical devices and only now expanding into mobile apps, the draft guidance “is less of a hindrance and more of a help. Now you'll actually know what you're dealing with. You'll have real guidance,” Zachary Bujnoch, senior industry analyst-telehealth with Frost & Sullivan, told the News Alert. But for startup developers looking to break into health apps, he added, “If you're going to fit into some of those definitions that have started to be explained, it's going to increase your cost pretty substantially.” Large or small, app makers can expect to spend at least a few months undergoing FDA 510(k) review. That process has lengthened over the past decade, FDA disclosed last week—from 96 days in 2000 to 140 days last year, largely because the industry needed more time to answer FDA questions. Those numbers will likely increase once health apps start coming before the FDA. So too will the cost of developing a health app. FDA says the extra expense and time are more than justified by greater safety for users. That is no small consideration since apps that don't work could lead to a doctor's misdiagnosis, resulting in injury or death to a user, Bujnoch says. As a young industry, health apps have relied almost entirely on innovative developers and their customers for direction. But if FDA's draft guidance becomes formal policy, app users eager to track their heart rate or weight won't be the only ones shaping the future of the industry.

Construction on $9.8M upstate NY telemedicine network swinging into ACTION
Construction is expected to start by month's end on the $9.8 million Adirondack-Champlain Telemedicine Information Network (ACTION). The 239-mile telemedicine network will link 48 medical facilities in eight New York state counties known as the North Country region. ACTION is expected to be completed, and to go live, by the end of July 2012. The network has been funded through a $7.6 million Federal Communications Commission Rural Health Care Pilot Program grant, as well as with $250,000 in planning funds from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, and two grants totaling $800,000 from the state's economic development agency, Empire State Development. One of those grants was a $550,000 award to the project's sponsor, the State University of New York (SUNY) Research Foundation.
Read more about ACTION

Intel-GE venture combines wellness, social networking in Care Innovations™ Connect
Intel-GE Care Innovations™ (Sacramento, CA) has launched Care Innovations Connect, a system that combines wellness and social networking. Care Innovations Connect includes both an in-home digital device for seniors, and an online portal that allows professional caregivers to customize content for each of their members. That content includes wellness surveys, access to wellness data, and community information. The system's first customer is senior service provider Evangelical Homes of Michigan, which has campuses in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Saline and Sterling Heights.
Read about Care Innovations Connect and watch a video demonstration

iRobot eyes healthcare applications with InTouch Health
iRobot (Bedford, MA) signed a joint development and licensing agreement with remote presence telemedicine solution provider InTouch Health (Santa Barbara, CA). The companies agreed to explore opportunities for healthcare applications on iRobot platforms, such as the iRobot Ava™ mobile robotics platform. The agreement includes “extensive” cross-licensing of the companies' patent portfolios, the companies said. In a February conference call, Colin Angle, iRobot's chairman, CEO and co-founder, included development of robots for the remote presence market in the company's goals for this year. In April, iRobot folded into its consumer unit a healthcare business unit created in 2009, saying it wanted to refocus on home healthcare.
Read and download a brochure about iRobot Ava

Vendors help Australia's RACGP craft standards for telehealth technology
Representatives of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) have met with 13 vendors to discuss standards for telehealth technology as well as possible opportunities within Australia's A$618.5 million ($671.5 million) telehealth program. RACGP is working under an October deadline for crafting standards for video consultations for the program, launched on July 1 [News Alert, July 5 ]. Meeting with RACGP were U.S. tech giants Microsoft and IBM, as well as AIIA, Telstra, Optus, AAPT and BT Australasia. Videoconferencing vendors Lifesize, Polycom, Vidyo, Attend Anywhere and Vantage Systems also met with the general practitioners' group, as did medical technology supplier Medtel.
Read about RACGP's Telehealth Standards project

Nanosensor 'tattoo' enables iPhone to track sodium, blood glucose levels
A new technology is being developed that, through a nanosensor 'tattoo,' allows a modified iPhone to track sodium, glucose, and other analytes. Heather Clark, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University, presented results of that effort at the BioMethods Boston conference, held July 14–15 at Harvard Medical School, and was part of a research team that published details of creating the nanosensors in a study published earlier this month in the Journal of Visualized Experiments. Each nanosensor is composed of a highly plasticized polymer matrix and biocompatible coating with a diameter of 120 nanometers. The recognition elements reside within each polymer sphere and generate a fluorescent signal that correlates to the amount of analyte in the surrounding cell or tissue, Clark said.
Read the study and see the technology demonstrated in a mouse
Read how the technology has been applied in iPhones

University of Minnesota Amplatz installs Video Guidance videoconferencing systems
Video Guidance (Bloomington, MN) has installed video communications systems at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital (Minneapolis, MN) to connect young patients with their families. Video Guidance's stationary and mobile videoconference initiative includes 21 in-room systems dispersed between the hospital's fourth, fifth and sixth floors. Three mobile videoconferencing carts will primarily float between the pediatric intensive care units (PICU) and neonatal intensive care units (NICU), but will also serve patients throughout the hospital. The videoconferencing systems allow doctors and nursing staff to visually communicate with parents who are at home, work, or traveling. In coming months, classmates of the patients will learn about the illnesses through the systems.
Read about Video Guidance's videoconferencing solutions

Eye surgeon's team uses telemedicine to screen Armenian children for eye diseases
Thomas C. Lee, MD, a member of the physician team collaborating with the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP), recently returned to Yerevan, Armenia, and neighboring rural areas to teach more doctors how telemedicine can help them diagnose and treat complex blinding diseases in premature infants. Dr. Lee, eye surgeon with The Vision Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, last year joined the AECP in its annual mission to Armenia to teach local doctors how to save sight in children by diagnosing and treating Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). The doctors determined they needed an interactive telemedicine and distance learning portal. To date, Dr. Lee and his team have screened more than 300 children and observed more than 1,000 supervised exams over the internet.
Read about the Armenian EyeCare Project

Mayo's Arizona 'spokes' access Telestroke Network through GlobalMedia
All nine of Mayo Clinic's “spoke” centers across Arizona have selected the telemedicine solutions of GlobalMedia (Scottsdale, AZ) to communicate with Mayo's team of specialists for patient assessments by linking to the Mayo Clinic Telestroke Network. GlobalMedia has designed models of its mobile telemedicine carts—either the i8500™ Series or the P-Series—to work with the telestroke network and other specialty programs. To date, Mayo stroke neurologists have performed more than 500 emergency consultations with the nine Arizona facilities. The primary stroke center, or hub, is the Mayo Clinic Hospital (Phoenix, AZ). The network recently expanded beyond Arizona, into Missouri [News Alert, June 10].
Read about GlobalMedia's mobile telemedicine carts

HIMSS urges vendors, providers to employ nurse informaticists for system design
Vendor organizations that develop electronic systems for clinician use should employ nurse informaticists in analyst, leadership and officer roles, the Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) said in a recent policy statement. HIMSS' Position Statement on Transforming Nursing Practice through Technology & Informatics said the nurse informaticists could design systems that are interoperable, patient-centric, and user friendly, as well as educate engineers, systems analysts, and other non-clinical positions on healthcare operations and clinical processes. HIMSS also urged that healthcare providers develop informatics departments that include nurse informaticists, and employ them in leadership roles.
Read the HIMSS blog and download the position statement

Nursing college wins $339K grant for project that includes telemedicine
The College of Nursing at South Dakota State University has won a $338,447 federal grant through the Nurse Education, Practice and Retention Program, overseen by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. The project will use patient simulation technologies and telehealth resources to prepare nursing students to practice in rural settings. Funding for the grant program came from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the healthcare measure enacted last year by President Obama.
Read about the Nurse Education, Practice and Retention program

Sanford Guide enters the smartphone age with app for Apple, Android
The Sanford Guide, which for more than 40 years has served as a reference for healthcare professionals caring for patients with infectious diseases, announced the release of its first mobile app. The Sanford Guide App is available at the same $29.95 price for both the Android and Apple smartphone operating systems, with the Apple app good for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The app, like the guide, delivers recommendations for treatment and prevention of bacterial, fungal, viral, retroviral, parasitic and mycobacterial infections. It provides recommendations for surgical prophylaxis, and relevant drug information covering pharmacology, adverse effects, drug-drug interactions and dose adjustments, supported by editor commentary and detailed references.
Read about The Sanford Guide App for Apple
Read about The Sanford Guide App for Android

Movers & SHAKERS

Kevin Olson, M.S., has been appointed VP of information services and CIO for Via Christi Health (Wichita, KS). He previously served as regional CIO for SSM Health Care of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, OK)…Brian J. Zink, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (Providence, RI) and physician-in-chief and attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital/Hasbro Children's Hospital and The Miriam Hospital (Providence, RI), has been appointed a member of the Medical Advisory Board of US Tele-Medicine (Beverly Hills, CA)… Roger L. (Vern) Davenport, M.B.A., has been named chairman and CEO of MedQuist Holdings (Franklin, TN), succeeding Bob Aquilina as chairman and Peter Masanotti as CEO. Davenport most recently served as special senior strategic advisor to the chairman of Quintiles, and earlier was CEO of Misys Healthcare Systems, where he led the 2008 merger with Allscripts…Thomas G. Klopack, M.B.A., former president and CEO of Automedics Medical Systems (San Diego, CA), has been named CEO of Skylight Healthcare Systems (San Diego, CA). He succeeds David Schofield, M.B.A., who resigned “to pursue additional entrepreneurial opportunities” after leading Skylight from start-up to profitability, according to the company…Rodney Hamilton, M.D., administrator and clinical staff member at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt (Nashville, TN), has been named CMIO and managing director of product safety at PointClear Solutions (Nashville, TN, and Huntsville, AL)…Dominick A. Bizzarro, M.B.A., has been named healthshare business manager at InterSystems (Cambridge, MA). He was formerly CEO of the Healthcare Information Xchange of New York (Latham, NY), a regional health information organization serving the Albany, NY, capital region and northern New York state…Kristen Saponaro, M.A., former principal of Saponaro Communications, has been named VP of marketing for Precyse (Wayne, PA, and Alpharetta, GA). Saponaro is the consulting firm that supported Precyse in its recent rebranding and launch of a new corporate identity…Healthcare software provider digiChart (Nashville, TN) announced three appointments. Stephen Faris has been promoted from VP of technology to CTO…Melissa Harris, P.M.P., formerly migration manager at Healthways (Franklin, TN) and project manager at Stinger Medical (Murfreesboro, TN), has been named VP of client services; while Fred Aiken, who was most recently national account manager at Informa Investment Solutions (Nashville, TN), joins digiChart as VP of account management…Nate McLemore, M.B.A., general manager, Microsoft Health Solutions Group, announced that people using the soon-to-be-discontinued Google Health service can easily transfer their personal health information in Google Health to Microsoft HealthVault using the Director Project messaging protocols established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Upcoming EVENTS

First Annual American Telemedicine Association Policy Summit
July 27, The Westin Washington D.C., City Center
More Info

American Telemedicine Association Fall Forum 2011
September 19–21—Egan Convention Center, Anchorage, AK
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2011 mHealth Summit
December 5–7, 2011—National Harbor, MD
More Info

To showcase your event here, please email us at events@telemedicinealerts.com



		*Telemedicine and e-Health* delivers more authoritative content from the peer-reviewed journal of record. The peer-reviewed publication,*Telemedicine and e-Health,* is published 10 times a year in print and online covering all aspects of clinical telemedicine practice, technical advances, enabling technologies, education, health policy and regulation and biomedical and health services research. The journal also deals with the clinical effectiveness, efficacy and safety of telemedicine and its effects on quality, cost and accessibility of care, medical records and transmission of same. For complete information and to subscribe, check out our website. *Telemedicine and e-Health* is an Official Journal of the American Telemedicine Association.

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