REACH Call, Inc. EXPANDS Web-Based Telehealth Service Offering
 REACH Call, Inc., a provider of 100 percent Web-based telehealth solutions, has added a general telemedicine module to its service offering. This new general telemedicine module facilitates faster treatment for patients in rural areas by connecting rural ER physicians with specialists who can remotely diagnose, evaluate and recommend treatment for a variety of medical conditions from anywhere in the world using a Web browser.

“Our general telemedicine module enables a rural ER physician to remotely consult over the Internet with specialists in other hospitals, allowing them to virtually treat any condition, from a skin rash or burn to a broken bone or an aneurism, and everything in between,” said Sandeep Agate, REACH president and CEO.

REACH developed the general telemedicine module in response to demand from current customers, hospitals that already use the company’s remote stroke diagnosis and evaluation service. This 100 percent Web-based service originally was designed to facilitate faster treatment for stroke patients in rural areas by enabling neurologists to remotely diagnose, evaluate and recommend treatment from anywhere in the world. These same hospitals realized the value of Web-based telemedicine and asked REACH Call to design similar modules for other medical conditions.

“This move into general telemedicine expands REACH Call from a very specific use, stroke evaluationto a very generic competency,” Agate said. “Now that we have filled each end of the spectrum, there is a very large gap between our service capabilities and those of our competitors.”

More than 50 hospitals have deployed REACH Call in a “Hub and Spoke” design, where a larger “Hub Hospital” provides physician-consulting services to smaller “Spoke Hospitals.” Several Spokes are connected to the Hub and leverage the expertise of specialists at the Hub to provide care for patients in their own ERs. These Spokes use a mobile workstation to initiate a consultation request with a physician affiliated with the Hub. The workstation is an assembly of non-proprietary, off-the-shelf components including a laptop, LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a camera. It is battery powered and is equipped with a wireless bridge for maximum mobility within an ER. Spoke Hospital ER staff can use the Web browser running on the laptop embedded in the workstation to register a patient and request a consult with a remote physician affiliated with the Hub.
  
Since REACH is a 100 percent Web-based turnkey service, there is no hardware or software installed in the Hub Hospital. The consulting physician can use any laptop or PC, a standard off-the-shelf Web cam, and a broadband Internet connection to communicate with the Spoke and evaluate the patient.  The physician, who can conduct the consultation from anywhere in the world with a broadband Internet connection, has complete control over the two-way audio and video communication and can view all patient data and DICOM images, such as CT Scans or X-rays, to efficiently and effectively evaluate the patient and recommend treatment.

Nonin Medical Unveils World's First Bluetooth-Enabled, Wireless Fingertip Pulse Oximeter
Nonin Medical, Inc., in an effort to address rising healthcare costs and promote the use of remote monitoring, has unveiled the world's first fingertip oximeter with Bluetooth wireless technology. The Onyx II, Model 9560 fingertip pulse oximeter is designed for interoperability, meeting the requirements of the emerging Medical Device Profile (MDP), IEEE11073 and Continua compliance standards. With this innovation, Nonin Medical's commitment is to simplify healthcare delivery by providing innovative solutions that enable patients, such as those with chronic conditions, and clinicians to easily and cost-effectively manage monitored information.

One area of healthcare that stands to benefit greatly from wireless physiological monitoring devices is chronic disease management. Breakthrough devices such as the Onyx II, Model 9560 will enable patients and healthcare professionals alike. Patients who suffer from diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) or Asthma will be able to regain independence, living healthier lives. The environment where vital signs can be easily monitored by the patient and sent wirelessly through communication devices (cell phones, PDAs, PCs) creates freedom like never before.

"With the rapidly rising cost of healthcare and the ever-growing strain put on healthcare facilities, there is tremendous pressure for a streamlined solution that simplifies the exchange of information and promotes patient participation," said Gary Tschautscher, president and C.E.O. of Nonin Medical. "The integration of interoperable, Bluetooth wireless technology in health monitoring devices will provide patients and clinicians the ability to monitor vital signs with much greater ease and flexibility."

New Healthcare Study Outlines Strategies to Increase Adoption of Home Health Monitoring Technologies
The digital health industry still faces formidable challenges in convincing private insurers to adopt home health monitoring technologies. Yet vendors can overcome insurer resistance by providing independently verifiable trial results and further education regarding the benefits of home health monitoring technologies, according to “Private Insurance and Digital Health Solutions,” a new study by Parks Associates.

“With US market potential of $2.5 billion in device and service revenues by 2012, the home health monitoring industry has every incentive to convince private insurers, along with other potential payers, of the technology’s value and feasibility,” said Harry Wang, senior analyst, Parks Associates.

The new Parks Associates study outlines ten recommendations for vendors to strengthen home health monitoring technologies’ visibility and value proposition, including providing independently verifiable trial results, gaining recognition from the medical community and presenting a practical plan that will prevent over-utilization of the technology.

“While meeting private payers’ requirements, like providing a drilled-down explanation about the operational details on how the technology is used by consumers and caregivers, is important, the technology industry must also rally support from consumers, caregivers, and employers, many self-insured, to influence private insurers’ perception and the technology review process,” said Wang, who believes efforts from industry organizations like Continua Health Alliance, American Telemedicine Association, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative and Technology CEO Council are great starts.

“Private Insurance and Digital Health Solutions” is Parks Associates’ latest primary research on the private health insurance industry. The study’s analysis is based on January 2008 interviews with twenty senior executives from the private health insurance industry and includes twelve major findings and ten key recommendations.

Compressus Completes Interoperability Implementation for E-Rad Solutions Teleradiology Customers
Compressus, providers in interoperability of disparate healthcare IT systems, has unveiled the implementation of an integrated digital imaging and data management solution at E-Rad Solutions teleradiology clients, Charlotte Regional Medical Center and Peace River Medical Center in Florida, both HMA facilities.

The implementation at the two hospital group, which generate more than 130,000 diagnostic imaging exams a year, involves the installation of a spectrum of MEDxConnect System components. Designed to enable seamless integration of disparate information systems, the Compressus system provides users the freedom to select best of breed PACS, HIS/RIS, EMS and CIS tools, regardless of vendor. E-Rad Solutions selected Compressus to support its innovative approach to teleradiology: the use of state of the art technology to help hospitals and radiology groups improve workflow, enhance delivery of high quality patient care, and optimize satisfaction and financial performance.

"Like many regional medical centers, we've had to rely on locum tenens, or consulting radiologists, to read exams and create diagnostic reports. Before contracting with E-Rad Solutions, this was particularly inefficient with night reads, as our on-site physicians would have to review and perform a final read on every case that received a preliminary read at night," said Gail Hopkins, BS.RT, director medical imaging, Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda, Fla. "Needing to read exams from the previous night and all cases coming through during the day, the on-site radiologists were required to read almost 24 hours worth of exams in an eight hour shift. The turnaround time on reports was dependant simply on when the radiologists could get to the study."

According to Hopkins, workflow was further hampered as a result of proprietary communications blockages between the different PACS and RIS systems at the two medical centers that resulted in the inability to transmit images and patient information between sites for consults or workload balancing.

"Even though the Compressus system has only been live for a short time, this is clearly a very effective way to distribute images and patient reports between sites. Not only have we already seen improvements to our workflow and turnaround on diagnostic reports by enabling final reads at night, the MEDxConnect System was crucial when our RIS went down recently during an upgrade. For more than 15 hours, the network could not generate orders and images were being sent to the PACS as unspecified exams, meaning that they could not be read. The only way we maintained operations was because we were able to push images to the Compressus system, enabling exams to be read and reports generated."

The integrated imaging and data management solution from Compressus is designed to support a facility's current and expanded workload and provide an infrastructure for sustained growth. Building the functionality required for remote connectivity, the system enables users to access diagnostic images and reports in the existing data stores at each facility, increasing the level of medical care while reducing the associated costs.

"Increasingly, we are finding that third-party PACS and information systems continue to have minimal adherence to industry standards, which makes it virtually impossible to create a cost-effective solution for providing comprehensive teleradiology services with seamless, automated connectivity throughout the entire process," said Stuart Gardner, CTO of E-Rad Solutions. "One of Compressus' core competencies is the ability to rapidly deploy a customized implementation designed to address the many complexities unique to teleradiology, enabling users to truly integrate into multiple disparate PACS and RIS systems simultaneously without the need to be tied to one platform."

MEDSEEK Continues Growth and Expansion
MEDSEEK, a provider of enterprise portal management solutions designed to transform the customer experience, has announced that Eastside Partners, a private equity fund that targets fast growing companies in the healthcare, financial, and information technology sectors, led a $6 million dollar investment in MEDSEEK.

The increasing need for easy “anytime anywhere” access to clinical data for physicians, patients, consumers and employees is rapidly accelerating the demand for enterprise scale portal technology. MEDSEEK is meeting this demand by providing hospitals and IDNs an enterprise-wide solution that allows for the creation of highly interactive and transactional portals that become the virtual front door to the facility. By allowing consumers, patients, physicians and employees remote access to information within the facility via the portal, MEDSEEK allows the hospital to differentiate themselves in their market by greatly improving the overall customer experience.

“This is a substantial and growing problem as educated consumers are taking an active interest in their healthcare choices. MEDSEEK has been and continues to be a pioneer in eHealth enterprise portals and services. We were impressed with MEDSEEK’s proven track record of over 10 years of growth with very little outside capital. The ability to take a capital efficient company and pursue additional growth initiatives was compelling,” said Emerson Fann, managing director of Eastside Partners. ”The company has an outstanding management team with significant healthcare domain expertise and a track record of profitable growth.”

“We're delighted to have such insightful investors join the MEDSEEK team. Eastside Partners, with its deep healthcare domain expertise, has a well-established track record of helping healthcare companies get to the next level,” said Peter Kuhn, MEDSEEK’s president. “This financing validates our success and leadership position in eHealth. With these funds we will continue to invest in R&D, product development programs, general operations and client support” said Kuhn.

Second Annual Summit on Behavioral Telehealth: Technology for Behavior Change & Disease Management
June 2-3
Boston, Mass.
www.tcbi.org