Newsletter - September 2008

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"Connected Personal Health in 2015: Getting It Right!"

From Continua's new White Paper

At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the predominant approach to health care focused on treating disease after diagnosis, and the costs for this health care continued to climb toward a national crisis.

Concurrently, health experts observed a premature onset of chronic illness: diseases once associated with aging populations were becoming more common among the young.Health experts pointed to poor nutrition and sedentary habits as significant causes of this trend.

However, the modification of lifestyles could prevent or delay disease onset, so that large portions of the population could maintain a low-risk status. This new knowledge led to a shift in perspective, from the treatment of disease to the proactive nurturing of personal wellness.

Meanwhile, businesses were paying more and more for health benefits while the overall health of their employees declined. As corporate America faced greater economic pressures and felt the burden of increasing health care costs, it demanded new health solutions. Some businesses took the lead, introducing prevention-based programs such as safety training, for example, that significantly reduced injuries and work hours lost due to safety problems. Implementing employee wellness programs was a logical next step.

The greater availability of personal health technology in the early 21st century provided a critical component in the solution to lower health care costs and improve health management. Enabling technology-in the form of telehealth devices, personalized biometrics, and device interoperability-could supercharge wellness programs, making connected personal health possible and scalable.

To help achieve the potential of these new perspectives and technology, leading technology and health care companies formed an open industry alliance to improve health. Today, the Continua Health Alliance provides a venue for evaluation and promotion of interoperability guidelines for integration of formerly siloed devices, sensors, platforms, and data repositories. In 2008, Continua began introducing technical guidelines (relying on existing technology and data standards) that can enable companies around the world to produce interoperable health sensors and monitoring devices.

This paper describes a vision for 2015-a future in which technology enables personal wellness, employee productivity, and sustainable health costs. Businesses can empower employees and their families to monitor and manage the links between lifestyle and health. Each person could have user-friendly mobile sensors that are integrated with health information tailored to individual wellness and disease management. These biometric devices provide objective, quantifiable metrics that measure modifiable health habits and will replace older modes of health assessment based on self-reporting of "perceived health behaviors" on annual health assessment questionnaires. This non-intrusive, secure ecosystem of connected health technology will enable employees to "get health behavior right" day in and day out, allowing them to manage their own health trajectories.

Sustained lifestyle changes are critical to improving employee health. Indeed, employees need to stick to a wellness program if the employer is to realize a return on investment in the program. Connected health technology can provide valuable feedback to employees, enable an almost real-time visualization of their personal health trends, and raise the health literacy of employees and their families-further encouraging them to stick with the program.

Early successes for the new vision of health and wellness likely will be achieved via incremental, affordable extensions of existing Health and Productivity Management (HPM) initiatives. Technology-enabled wellness programs will dramatically improve health costs per employee, productivity loss due to absenteeism, and other metrics. Personalized monitoring and real-time connectivity can enable businesses to assess aggregate health trends for employee populations on a monthly or quarterly basis and more quickly track the progress and return on investment of employee wellness programs.

The vision paper that follows is a creative synthesis of many ambitious ideas about possible developments in the field of telehealth. These imaginative glimpses of telehealth futures, crafted by some of the leading health and technology experts in the field, project a fascinating new world of personal health possibilities that could become very real within the next few years. Making best-case scenarios such as these come true is part of the Continua Health Alliance mission to promote sustained leadership in technology R&D, service innovation, public policy, corporate strategy, and personal behavioral changes around the world.

The future is not a place we go to, but one which we create. Join us in creating this future.

Read the full White Paper here!

Fall Summit Speakers Announced

Continua has announced the agenda for its fourth and final members-only summit of the year. Held in Boston from October 29 through the 31st, the Summit will allow Continua members to work face-to-face, network with their peers and take in several presentations from industry leaders.

Keynote Speakers

Adam Darkins, MD, MPH, FRCS, Cheif Consultant for Care Coordination at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Office of Care Coordination is a new program office responsible for a major disease management program deployment that incorporates home telehealth. Adam Darkins previously led the VHA's national telemedicine/telehealth program that is now incorporated into the Office of Care Coordination. VA is among the world leaders in telemedicine and telehealth development.
Martin A. Samuels, MD, DSc (hon), FAAN, MACP. Dr. Samuels has repeatedly been cited as one of the leading neurologists in the United States, having been fully trained and board certified in both Internal Medicine and Neurology. He is the only neurologist cited in all editions of the prestigious Castle & Connolly Best Doctors in America.
Chantal Worzala, PhD. - Health Policy R&D. Dr. Worzala is a Health Policy Advisor with Health Policy R&D, a health policy firm in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the law firm of Powell Goldstein LLP. She previously served as Senior Associate Director for Policy for the American Hospital Association, focusing on health information technology (IT) use and policy development, including health IT adoption, information exchange, standards development, Stark regulations, privacy and related issues.

Educational Sessions

Vendor Assisted Source Code (VASC) Training - Presented by Alex Neefus, Continua Test Operations Manager. Mr. Neefus will guide participants through the VASC system and show how it will help Continua members jumpstart the certification process for their personal telehealth products.
Preventative Medicine: Opportunities for the Technology Industry - Presented by Harry Wang, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. This presentation will analyze the evolving concept of preventive medicine to the execution models in today's healthcare environment. It will look into service models and personal health technology adoption in three unique but interwoven market sectors: Disease Management, Corporate Wellness, and the emerging WebCare sector.
IEEE 11073-20601 - Presented by Douglas Bogia, PhD, Chair of IEE 11073 Personal Health Device Committee. The tutorial will cover all of the optimized data and communication standards being created in the IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device working group.
FDA 101 - Presented by Scott Thiel of Roche Diagnostics. The presentation will provide a basic level of understanding and some resources for those unfamiliar with FDA and the regulated medical device environment. It will also provide resources, background and context for the areas of interest to Continua members.

Summit Activities

Plugfest #003 - Continua will host its third official Plugfest in Boston. After tripling the Plugfest attendance from early 2008, Continua looks to continue its growth of these confidential, yet informal engineering events. Plugfest #003 will allow Continua members unique access to diverse products from many vendors, all while fixing bugs and taking strides toward Continua compliance.
Improv Asylum - The Continua Membership is in for a fun night of comedy improvisation with the Improv Asylum Group. Come prepared to laugh and enjoy a night of comedy and camaraderie.

Continua members can go here to register for the Fall Members Summit.

In the News

The European Commission has launched a public consultation. Continua President David Whitlinger served as an expert for a recent Fox News telehealth piece, and mainstream media continues to explore several of Continua's use cases.

Upcoming Industry Events

October 20-22, 2008

Location: Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, National Harbor, MD

The impact of chronic disease on the U.S. health care system has increased dramatically over the past century. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 7 out of 10 patients die due to chronic illness, and accounts for 75% of the nation's $1.4 trillion medical costs.

Health insurance companies and health care providers are exploring the value proposition behind wireless technology to help manage chronic diseases and a number of important pilot studies have been undertaken. But many issues need to be resolved before the industry will see commercial solutions become commonplace. Communication and dialog between the key players - from healthcare providers to insurance companies to policy makers to the mobile solution providers - is crucial.

In response to market demand, the American Conference Institute has developed this unique educational forum, where attendees can learn first-hand how industry experts are using wireless technology to combat diseases on the rise such as diabetes and asthma. ACI's executive-level conference demonstrates the value proposition for such solutions as industry stakeholders come together to share their first hand experiences and results from trials and case studies.

To learn more about this event or to register, please click here.

Partners Symposium

October 27-28,2008

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Who Provides, Who Decides, Who Pays:

The 5th Annual Connected Health Symposium, hosted by the Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health.

Opinion leaders and trend-setters in connected health strategies will provide insight and lead discussions regarding the toughest challenges in healthcare delivery and patient-centered models of care. Speakers include:

U.S. Sen. John Kerry
Regina Herzlinger, Harvard Business School professor and leading force behind theconcept of consumer-driven healthcare
Executives from Microsoft and Google, who will square off on Personal Health Records
Venture capitalists, human resources executivesand online quality rating experts, who will debate the next wave of connected health innovations.

Other session topics will be provocative, informative and instructional:

Provider Incentives, Penalties and Mandates
The Hospital CIO's Take: Connecting for Health Beyond the Bounds of Institutions
Coordinating Chronic Care: Is the Ball Back in the Primary Care Practitioner's Court?

Join more than 1,000 healthcare and technology leaders from leading hospitals, clinics and health plans, product entrepreneurs and developers, large-employer executives, academic thinkers, government officials and patient organizations representatives.

For more information or to register, please visit www.connected-health.org.

Medica

November 19-22, 2008

Dusseldorf, Germany

MEDICA is the center of attraction for all those involved in the health service. More than 135,000 visitors are expected to again obtain information on all the current and future trends in in-patient and out-patient care at this annual event. With its extensive ancillary program, numerous special events, two major congresses and the largest product display in the industry, MEDICA is the hub of the medical trade.

With an expected 400+ exhibitors from the United States, and approximately 50 from Canada, North America will offer the leading foreign contingent of exhibitors represented at MEDICA 2008 - making it the strongest medical industry trade fair outside of the North American continent for U.S. and Canadian exhibitors.

Whether you are a market leader or an innovative newcomer, use the opportunity to present your products and services to an informed audience. Make the decision to be successful in the global medical market and register as soon as possible!

Please click here for more details.

CES 2009 - Silvers Summit

January 8-11, 2009

Las Vegas, NV, USA

Currently there are about 78 million boomers in the US (450 million worldwide) - born between 1946 and 1964 - hitting their peak earning and spending. One of the main catalysts is technology. Whether they're playing brain games for fun, monitoring their homes, visiting the grandkids via video conferencing, or navigating the back roads in their GPS-enabled SUVs; this generation is maximizing the benefits of the digital age.

The Silvers Summit, a full day program to be presented on Saturday, January 10, at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), will showcase the products and services that keep boomers engaged, entertained, connected and healthy.

Continua and several of its members will have an extended booth at this year's Silvers Summit, showcasing the first wave of interoperable personal telehealth products. Details soon to be announced!

Progress Report

Test Tool Vendor Selected

Continua is excited to announce it has selected Continua member AT4 Wireless as its Test Tool vendor.

AT4 Wireless will develop an automated Certification Test Tool to be used within the Continua Health Alliance certification program. AT4 Wireless will also perform manual certification testing services for the first wave of new health devices based on Continua requirements.

"We at AT4 wireless are very proud to be selected as a Test Tool Developer and first wave Test House for Continua Health Alliance," said Luis Fernando Martinez, General Director of AT4 wireless. "One of our focus areas has been eHealth, on which this accreditation from Continua Health Alliance is a great achievement. We will be working closely with Continua to make this industry initiative a success."

Vendor Assisted Source Code (VASC) Released!

Continua recently released its first edition of Vendor Assisted Source Code (VASC) to its membership! VASC is shared software modules that help Continua members deseign Continua-compliant devices.

By offering this free to members, Continua will save its membership hundreds of thousands of dollars in development fees while helping members jumpstart their products for Continua's certification program.

Abt Database Access for Continua Promoters

Continua's US Payer Working Group engaged Abt Associates last year to deliver a database of all peer-reviewed remote patient monitoring literature conducted over the last 5 years in Europe and the United States.

As a result of this research, the Abt Group has compiled an extensive database comprised of all the articles identified that met the above criteria. Access to this database will be provided free to Promoter Members. If your company is interested in obtaining this valuable tool, please contact admin@continuaalliance.org.

U.S. Policy White Paper Commissioned

The US Policy and US Payer Work Group have combined to commission a White Paper entitled US Policy Environment for Remote Chronic Disease Management. The paper is being researched and created by Health Policy R&D. This paper will provide Continua with a base for a lobbying campaign and develop a workable strategy for future policy decisions.

Continua and IHE Come Together with Memorandum

Collaborating to improve the delivery of healthcare, Continua Health Alliance and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise International (IHE) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) to enable and promote interoperability of healthcare devices. Continua and IHE recognize the need for and benefit of connecting medical and patient care devices with the healthcare system, a synergy that supports the joint educational and marketing efforts between the organizations.

New Continua Board Members Announced

Please welcome Continua's two newest Board Members:

James E. Fisher, Director and co-leader of Health Information Technology & Digital Health Community^TMservice offerings, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Horst Merkle, Director Information Management Systems Diabetes Care, Roche Diagnostics

Membership Update

Continua's membership has reached more than 170 member companies and is still growing! Most recently, Allion Test Labs, Inc., Andago Ingenieria s.l., Cambridge Consultants Ltd., Foundation for Research and Technology, Freescale Semiconductor, Home Guardian, LLC, LG CNS, MEDCEL, Medixine Oy, MedSignals, Midmark Corporation, Monitray, LLC, Southern Nevada Wellness joined at the Contributor level.

LifeSync Corporation joined at the Promoter level. If you would like to read more about the Continua Health Alliance membership benefits please click here.

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