Telecardiology Among New Enhancements to Philips Xcelera Cardiology Image Management System
Philips has released enhancements to Xcelera multimodality cardiology image management, analysis and reporting solution featuring telecardiology capabilities to increase access to images and information.

Philips has released Xcelera R3.1 with new telecardiology capabilities to support clinical workflow and help provide faster sharing capabilities for cardiac patient information. Telecardiology allows remote access to cardiac information — including from a home office computer, image sharing with referring physicians and the ability to access Xcelera functionality through other applications such as an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. Xcelera R3.1’s enhanced remote workflow capabilities fit into modern clinical environments by supporting flexible work schedules, coverage for satellite clinics and physicians on-the-go. Harborview Medical Center, part of University of Washington Medicine, was the first hospital to implement Xcelera R3.1. 

Xcelera R3.1 can deliver cardiac images and clinical reports to an institution's EHR system. The new release also offers an expanded pediatric echocardiography normative dataset. Xcelera R3.1 is now available globally and upgrades are available for more than 2,000 existing Xcelera customers.

AT4 Wireless Completes Testing of First Blood Pressure Monitor and Weight Scale Devices for Continua Health Alliance Certification
AT4 wireless, a company focused on wireless certification and testing laboratory, has successfully completed certification testing for two new wireless devices from A&D Medical.

AT4 wireless was selected at the end of 2008 by the Continua Health Alliance, an open industry group of technology, healthcare and fitness market leader companies, to develop a fully automated Test System that will be used for the Continua Health Alliance certification program, and to provide certification testing services for health and fitness devices based on Continua Health Alliance requirements.

The UA-767PBT-C blood pressure monitor and the UC-321PBT-C weight scale are the first wireless devices of these medical specializations that have demonstrated compliance with the Continua requirements, therefore ensuring interoperability for the transmission of data.

Wireless in Sports and Fitness – Prevention is Better than Cure
The global epidemic of obesity can not have escaped many people’s attention; to the point where it has its own terminology “globesity.” The increasing prevalence of obesity is associated with many diet-related chronic diseases including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension and certain cancers.

Filomena Berardi, Research Analyst at IMS Research said, “As sad as this is - of greater concern is the ever increasing expenditure on healthcare. Governments are under increasing pressure to find ways to fund obesity-related healthcare services. Furthermore, there is also the indirect cost of obesity on business. Poor health and obesity are an increasing cause of more sick days and for this reason the obese are considered ‘costly to society.’ Wireless in fitness is by no means a cure to obesity. However ‘prevention is better than cure’ and getting fit could help reduce poor health associated with being overweight. Furthermore over the last couple of decades the fitness industry has been booming and consumers are becoming more health and image-conscious than ever. Therefore not only is the fitness industry lucrative for wireless, but wireless could help encourage, improve and monitor fitness levels.”

Wireless technologies will enable the user to upload data from a sports performance monitor to a host machine such as a cellular handset or notebook PC so that performance can be analysed and recorded. In addition, real-time data can be monitored between a sensor (e.g. a heart rate sensor) and an outdoor computer or sport watch for example.

In terms of the technologies used for these applications, 5 kHz wireless technologies today dominate. GPS has also found a niche in fitness; providing keen cyclists and runners with the means to track directions, routes, distances, cadence, heart rate and so on. IMS Research estimates around 0.5 million GPS sports and fitness devices were sold in 2008. However as ‘fitness phones’ and MP3 players with sports monitoring functions become more popular other wireless technologies are expected to capture more of the fitness scene.

ANT is a proprietary technology. It too has been incorporated into a number of leading products like watches. ANT’s can automatically transfer data from an ANT-enabled sensor to a host computer. This saves the consumer time and effort in downloading data for analysis. In addition, ANT’s system has been designed so that it can be used in a busy environment such as a gym without interference. Furthermore it has been designed to optimize power consumption to maximize the life of a single battery cell.

Bluetooth technology brings benefits to the market in that it has a legacy of Bluetooth-enabled host devices; for example IMS Research estimates over 650 million Bluetooth-enabled cellular handsets and 45 million Bluetooth-enabled notebook PCs were sold in 2008. Furthermore the upcoming Bluetooth low energy standard is also aiming to enter the fitness and sport environment. It is intended that dual mode Bluetooth host devices will connect to low energy peripheral sensors used in sports performance monitoring.

Zigbee has traditionally been used in industrial applications; however, recently has begun making some inroads in the consumer and medical markets. Zigbee has been doing well in the patient monitoring market and so the leap to sports and fitness should be seamless. BodyLAN is another technology that has been tipped to make some impact in the fitness market. It claims to consume substantially less power than rivals Bluetooth and Zigbee.

Many wireless technologies are active and emerging in this space and bring to the party different performance profiles, use-cases and solutions. Usual co-existence, backward compatibility and power efficiency issues will affect implementation into sensor and host devices. However, one thing remains clear, wireless will be a big part of the sports and fitness market and help in the fight against “globesity.”

IMS Research’s upcoming market report “Wireless in Sport & Fitness” will all of these issues and forecast the uptake of each wireless technology in a range of sports & fitness devices.

Telemedicine in Mongolia
The Ministry of Health (MoH) in Mongolia will integrate the Medical Network Communication Platform "Campus Medicus" at all major hospitals in Mongolia.

MoH has approved the use of Telepathology packages with Campus Medicus platform for cancer, surgery and OBGYN cytology. Campus Medicus will be used for diagnosis, epidemiology and distance teaching.

Klughammer GmbH, Germany, developer of Campus Medicus, will supply the hard- and software for the project and do the installation, training and support. Additional members of the project are the Swiss Surgical Team (SST), WHO and UNFPA.

Up from Crisis: Overhauling Healthcare Information, Payment and Delivery in Extraordinary Times
October 21-22, 2009
Boston

The Center for Connected Health's 6th annual Symposium "Up from Crisis: Overhauling Healthcare Information, Payment and Delivery in Extraordinary Times" will be held October 21-22, 2009 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.  Healthcare will have its renaissance when it moves beyond the hospital and clinic and into the day-to-day lives of patients and consumers. The Connected Health Symposium asks how information technology – cell phones, computers, the Internet and other tools – can help people manage chronic conditions, maintain health and wellness, and age with independence. Join over 1,000 healthcare executives, physicians, patients, and more.  For more information and to register, visit http://www.connected-health.org/events/symposium-2009.aspx.