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Greetings,
Momentum continues to build for the Continua Health Alliance as we move
“From Guidelines to Products in 2008” And in this newsletter, I have the
privilege of relaying to you some of the new programs that the Alliance
has put together to help the Continua membership companies succeed in
this growing marketplace!
But before I jump into our exciting new programs and membership
benefits, let me take a few moments to try and convey some of the
excitement that was felt in Ireland two weeks ago…
The unique cooperation of Northern Ireland Health Minister Michael
McGimpsey and Economy Minister Nigel Dodds led to their joint
announcement of the establishment the European Centre for Connected
Health. The center is intended to help test various technologies
that allow people with chronic disease to manage their lives
independently. Taking another significant stride forward, Health
Minister Michael McGimpsey announced the allocation of $96 million to
help bring 5,000 people suffering from chronic disease in Northern
Ireland to a remote monitoring service by 2011.
To kick off the official procurement process for this service, Continua
will be working with Northern Ireland to host a special European Connected Health Expo Day.
Held on May 7, 2008 in Belfast, this event will set the stage for the
release of the official Request For Proposal (RFP) from the European
Centre and will allow Continua member companies to showcase their
products in a tradeshow setting. Northern Ireland government officials,
healthcare professionals, and the leadership of the European Centre for
Connected Health are expected to attend – with an obvious intent! More
information on this unique opportunity will be provided in the coming
weeks. Continua member companies save the date!
And now, let me introduce to you several of our new Continua membership
programs and benefits…
“From Guidelines to Products in 2008”
We want to make it as easy as we possibly can for our Member companies
to deliver Continua Certified products to the market in 2008. This
includes:
• FREE! Version One
Guidelines
• FREE! Continua Version
One Guideline reference source code to accelerate your product
development and dramatically reduce your development costs
• FREE! Plugfests in
2008…show up with your Continua products and test with other Member
companies for free! • FREE! Certification Testing for Promoter
companies!
Additionally, Continua will be providing the following marketing and
educational & industry research benefits:
• NEW Continua health
provider matchmaking program!
• FREE Product Showcase
Web site feature!
• NEW Critical Mass
Consulting's research study for Business Model / Barriers!
• FREE CDM/RPM
reports!
• NEW Release of the
Continua Logo Certification brand book!
• FREE Educational
Sessions for Promoter Members!
• FREE Speakership
Placement!
As always, please feel free to send us a note with any additional
membership services you believe would be valuable. We are always looking
for ways to help advance the personal telehealth marketplace and to make
Continua a valuable asset for the success of your organization!
Best of health!
David L. Whitlinger
President and Board Chairman
The Continua Health Alliance
Spring summit 2008 - luxembourg
Yes, it’s already time to start thinking about our next Member Summit
held in Luxembourg April 13–16, 2008. The Spring Summit promises to be
as productive as Dublin and will also feature Continua’s first official
Plugfest, held on April 16 in conjunction with the Med-e-Tel 2008 event
that week!
The Spring Summit will be held at the Hilton Luxembourg.
Registration will open to our membership this Friday!
2008 new membership benefits
Reference Source Code
(VASC): To help all Continua member companies get rolling
on building certifiable products and services, Continua is creating a
large library of reference source code that will be freely downloadable.
Hundreds of modules and thousands of lines of code are already available
(Vendor Assisted Source Code - VASC), and plans are in place to develop
more reference source code throughout the year. This is a very exciting
program that we hope you will take advantage of to get your product
developed quicker!
Test and Certification:
With the Test and Certification plan due out in 2008, Continua is
helping our members jumpstart the transition to “Continua Certification”
by making it easy to convert. First, both Promoters and Contributors
will enjoy free Plugfests all year long. And…Promoter companies will
also enjoy free Product Certification Testing in 2008 (Certification
fees waived for Promoters, no more than 4 waived products per Promoter
company in one year).
Speaker Opportunities:
Just as Continua wants to help our members with certification, we also
want to help them promote their telehealth products and services.
Continua’s new speakership services will place member companies’
executives directly in industry speaking events while its new Product
Showcase will allow members to demo their certified products at Continua
Summit Opening Sessions, tradeshow booths and other Continua events.
Members will also be able to highlight their certified products on the
Continua Web site and the public newsletter.
Continua Certified Logo:
Continua has recently developed guidelines for our Certified Logo. The
logo brings new measures of product confidence and consumer empowerment
through Continua’s interoperability. Member companies can accelerate its
recognition by supporting the precise reproduction, application and
predictability of its appearance. The certified logo can be applied to a
wide variety of member collateral, such as packaging, electronic media
and software, substrates and products themselves.
Research and Reports:
Continua members will be well informed in the coming year thanks to our
recent research and training benefits. Continua has secured four
research reports which deal with strategic analysis of European
telemedicine markets, telemedicine in rural North America and remote
patient monitoring services in the U.S. disease management and home
health care markets, are available at no charge to Promoter members.
To further assist our member companies, Continua has engaged Critical
Mass Consulting on a business model and barriers research project. The
project will inventory and assess business models for products and
services involving telehealth, patient self-management and remote
disease management. It will also characterize the strengths and
weaknesses of each model. Member companies will be able to utilize
Critical Mass’ results to better develop their strategies for
generating, increasing and sustaining revenues from products in those
areas.
And as a special bonus, we are also offering free educational
sessions at every Member’s Summit to Promoter members. Dealing with
topics such as regulatory medical device criteria, reimbursement and
Continua technologies, the sessions will help Promoter members continue
to stay on the leading edge of the industry.
Personal Telehealth Matchmaking
Program: Finally, Continua is bringing its membership
together like never before with our new Personal Telehealth Matchmaking
Program. Due out in early 2008, the program will facilitate
communication between technology companies interested in piloting
Continua-compliant technologies and provider companies interested in
doing the same.
Through a Continua online database, audiocasts and industry events,
health service providers will be able to showcase the trials they are
interested in. Their RFPs will be advertised through a showcasing tool
in the Members’ area on the Web site, the public newsletter, keynotes
and other Continua venues. Vendor companies can then identify the
specific pilot programs they want to support in order to demonstrate the
interoperability capabilities of their technology.
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