Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Despite the reimbursement issue, there are numerous commercial home telehealth
products on the market. The simplest and least expensive deliver a single physiologic
measurement such as blood pressure. They may be Bluetooth® enabled so that the
data can go to a cell phone and, from there, to a web site. Often this data flow is a
service provided for a monthly fee by the device maker. While this business model
is attractive to companies since recurring revenue is far more lucrative and, hence,
more valuable than one time device purchases, it risks creating a series of “walled
gardens”, each of which has its own narrow view of the patient.
There are initiatives and offerings designed to avoid this happening. The
Continua™ Health Alliance was created in 2006 by a group of technology, medical
device and healthcare delivery organizations and now has 240 members. [
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] The
goal is to create standards for interoperable home telehealth devices and services in
three major categories: chronic disease management, aging independently, and
health & physical fitness.
Even without such standards, exporting telehealth data from the home to a PHR
can integrate it with data from other devices and with the rest of the patient's clinical
record. Qualcomm's Health Management division offers their own approach to this
integration. [
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] Their 2net™ Hub Platform includes two components. The first is a
small hub device that plugs into an electrical outlet and provides single point collec-
tion of wireless health data in the home. It supports the Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low
Energy, WiFi and ANT+ local area radio protocols. It is also Continua™ certified.
The second component is a cloud-based service for aggregation and analysis of the
data. The data can be sent from there to EHRs and other systems operated by pro-
viders or other organizations interested in the patient's status. It can also be sent to
the patient's PHR. According to the company the system was designed and engi-
neered to meet all HIPAA requirements.
References
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3. Gerber BS and Eiser AR (2001) The Patient-Physician Relationship in the Internet Age: Future
Prospects and the Research Agenda. J Med Internet Res 3(2):e15
4 .
http://www.mayoclinic.org/patienteducation-rst/
Accessed 19 July, 2012
6. Wick P, Vaughan TE, Massagli MP and Heywood J (2011) Accelerated clinical discovery
using self-reported patient data collected online and a patient-matching algorithm. Nat
Biotechnol. 29(5):411-4.
7 .
http://www.va.gov/bluebutton/
Accessed 19 July, 2012
8 .
http://www.surescripts.com/
Accessed 19 July, 2012
9. Computerisation of personal health records (1978) Health Visit. Jun;51(6):227
10. Kaelber DC
et al
(2008) A Research Agenda for Personal Health Records (PHRs). J Am Med
Inform Assoc Nov-Dec; 15(6): 729-736
