Considering this, Virginia-based Exmovere have developed biosensor pyjamas called Exmobaby. Exmobaby is the world’s first baby garment capable of monitoring heart rate, behaviour and ‘emotional state’. Every Exmobaby onesie/baby grow comes with a Zigbee wireless transceiver that snaps into a pouch. From there, data is transmitted to a nearby PC or mobile phone keeping parents and carers informed of a baby’s status. The baby’s heart rate, emotional state and activity levels are displayed by icons on the parent’s mobile phone. Zigbee technology has been chosen as it requires a lower data rate and has a low power consumption. Exmovere CEO David Bychkov claims the system provides an “emotional umbilical cord’ between mother and child.

In early 2011, Exmovere will begin a limited edition marketing campaign where just 1000 pyjama kits will be released. These will be available in pink and blue to select buyers from a waiting list. Included with these kits will be an Exmobaby garment set, one Zigbee transceiver, PC and cell phone monitoring software and six months of online service. Cheyenne Crow, Vice President and COO expects mass market and medical versions to be available in Q3 2011.

“Can you say Big Brother? This is a complete intrusion. Ridiculous. I hope the NHS isn’t funding this. Now you need a microchip, a bluetooth receiver and a cell phone to take a pill? Doesn’t that seem a bit much?”

Martin’s comment raises a number of interesting questions, in particular, those relating to privacy, patient freedom and mobile health. When talking about pill reminder systems like the one covered in the aforementioned article, the purpose is to ensure the patient takes their medication and ideally stays as healthy as possible. However, for some people whether they take their prescription is their business, and their business alone. The idea of a technology that automatically logs when medicine is or isn’t taken for these people is intrusive.

We routinely share personal, often embarrassing details, with our doctors. Is it any different to do this via an automated process using our mobile phones? A rather interesting article by Cameron Norman (brought to my attention by David Doherty at 3G Doctor) discusses the data we transmit over mobile devices and the internet. He points out that in the case of the mobile internet our devices and data providers give up every last bit of information about us; as soon as a mobile phone is used to transmit any sort of medical data, it passes through the hands of many more people than, say, if a diabetes patient hands over a written log of blood glucose levels to their doctor. He concludes that privacy and eHealth/mHealth can never coexist.

Still, we have the choice of whether to use mobile health solutions and in turn share medical information in this way. At present no one is obliged to use Proteus’ smart pill system. However, if we do choose to take advantage of it (and I would hazard a guess that most people would feel the benefits far outweigh what may be perceived as an invasion of their privacy), or any other mHealth solution’s benefits it may be that we have to accept, at least for now, our personal information will pass through the hands of our data providers.

Philips, already operating a dedicated healthcare arm and active in the mobile health space, is investing in Gilde Healthcare III as a means of fostering further innovation in areas of strategic interest to its healthcare business. As one of the fund’s anchor investors, Philips will contribute to the shaping of its innovative scope with home healthcare solutions, sleep improvement techniques, image-guided interventions/therapies and clinical decision support, with emphasis on cardiology, oncology and women’s health being particular areas of interest.

“Over the past years the venturing community has been instrumental in bringing breakthrough healthcare innovations to the market,” said Steve Rusckowski, CEO of Philips Healthcare. “Through our participation in the Gilde Healthcare III venture capital fund, we are taking another step forward in driving innovation in areas of strategic interest to Philips in healthcare. At the same time we will become even more connected to the venturing community, which is an important element of Philips’ open innovation approach.”

Philips holds a minority share in the fund and it is being joined by additional institutional financial investors. The Gilde Healthcare III fund has a target size of EUR 200 million (USD 250 million). It will be managed by Gilde Healthcare Partners – a Dutch venture and growth capital firm that currently has more than EUR 300 million under management.

Proteus’s ingestible sensor and personal monitor system, called the Raisin^TM System, is indicated under the CE Mark to timestamp, via ingestion, any discrete event (such as the ingestion of a specific pharmaceutical) and to record this event along with physiologic information such as heart rate, activity, body angle and patient-logged information. The unique ingestion event and personalized physiologic information are then communicated via Bluetooth to any computerized device, such as a mobile phone for emerging mHealth applications.

The Raisin System is being developed as part of Proteus’s integrated intelligent medicine system to link sensor-based formulations of pharmaceutical products to individualized physiologic response and outcomes-based treatment systems. Proteus and its partners are currently developing these integrated product systems in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, psychiatric disorders, organ transplantation and infectious disease.

As part of its development and commercialization of the Raisin System, Proteus also announced today the creation of a new product development group focused on user experience. Arna Ionescu, formerly Connected Health domain lead at the global design firm IDEO, has joined Proteus as Director, Product Development, User Experience. She will lead a team focused on applying the principles of human-centered design to create intelligent medicine products that empower consumers and transform the delivery and management of health care. Ms. Ionescu also teaches product and interaction design at Stanford University and California College of Art.

“CE Mark approval represents a significant achievement for Proteus, and a major milestone for the advancement of intelligent medicine,” said Andrew Thompson, president and chief executive officer of Proteus. “As we commercialize our products and empower patients and their families we will begin to realize the potential of a more connected, pervasive and personalized standard of care that promotes better access, higher value for money and more sustainable innovation models. The timing is very good – many government health budgets are under financial pressure and our approach is one that promises better results with less spending and higher consumer satisfaction.”

About Proteus Biomedical

Proteus Biomedical is pioneering intelligent medicine, an emerging field of advanced therapeutics that integrates in-body computer, sensor and communications technologies into existing pharmaceutical and medical device products. Proteus’s proprietary computing and sensing technologies enable proven therapies to be personalized, offering broad potential benefits across a range of care settings and therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, psychiatric, metabolic and neurologic disorders.

More information about Proteus Biomedical can be found at www.proteusbiomed.com

The Royal Berkshire and Imperial College healthcare trusts will be recruiting 40 patients for the clinical trial which will use ‘smart pills’ developed by US company Proteus Biomedical. Subjects will be given versions of their regular beta blockers and diuretic pills that includexs a small microchip. The pill sends signals to a patch worn by the patient which sends them a text message if they forget to take their prescription.

The system, called Raisin, was originally tested in the US last year and it is hoped that it will lead to increased efficiency and better patient care in the NHS by improving patient compliance which is typically poor and reducing hospital readmissions.

For the original story visit the Financial Times

This move comes a year after the two companies announced a $250 million healthcare alliance to develop solutions for the management of chronic illnesses and independent living. The new agreement will build on this alliance with the two sharing ‘common vision to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes and to improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic conditions’. Intel and GE say that with the rise of chronic illnesses amongst the world’s population has given rise to a need for new models of healthcare delivery (read: huge market opportunity).

The new,as yet unnamed, company is expected to be operational by the end of this year pending certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions at which point new market products, services and technologies that promote healthy independent living at home and in assisted living communities will be developed. It will focus on three major segments: chronic disease management, independent living and assistive technologies.

“New models of care delivery are required to address some of the largest issues facing society today, including our aging population, increasing healthcare costs and a large number of people living with chronic conditions,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “We must rethink models of care that go beyond hospital and clinic visits, to home and community-based care models that allow for prevention, early detection, behavior change and social support. The creation of this new company is aimed at accelerating just that.”

The new company will have headquarters in the greater Sacramento, Calif. area. Louis Burns, currently vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Health Group, will be CEO of the new company, and Omar Ishrak, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems, will be chairman of the board.

Rather than making us truly one with our TVs, mobiles and PCs, users are able to receive sound directly from devices without the need for any additional cables, wires or uncomfortable accessories. Dr. Laurel Christensen, Chief Audiology Officer of ReSound points out that “other wireless technologies used in the hearing industry require the user to wear inconvenient accessories around their neck, with Alera there is no intermediary device, the signal goes directly to the hearing aid and users have complete freedom.”

The Unite range of accessories includes a TV streamer, phone clip and remote, with the Alera tuning directly to the user’s TV or phone directly via Bluetooth. Users can participate in conversations while tuned into devices because environmental noise is not blocked out.

The claim that ReSound has achieved “complete human/technology integration” with the Alera and Unite products is perhaps a little far-fetched; a statement we can excuse as press release hyperbole. The Alera, for instance, still requires accessories including a remote to achieve its unique function. Still, the device does use wireless technologies to bring users greater freedom and improve quaity of life for those who are hard of hearing and it will be interesting to see this idea developed further, perhaps with a direct link between hearing aid and mobile phone in future.

Hat Tip: Medgadget

In spite of having a dedicated healthcare division for the past four years this service signifies the operator’s first major activity in the UK healthcare sector. Smartnumbers – which is powered by Resilient Networks – gives callers instant access to the best placed person or team available, thus ensuring that healthcare workers and patients ae guaranteed the right person, first time, every time they call.

For example, if a doctor is on duty and unavailable to take a call it is diverted to the appropriate colleague. This creates a more flexible and efficient healthcare service. Smartnumbers will be particularly useful for health workers in the field such as midwives, nurses and carers for whom 60% of ordinary call attempts to colleagues fail to reach the right person first time.

Martin Stiven, VP of Everything Everywhere said, “We are extremely proud to be the first UK operator offering this valuable service to the healthcare sector.  We believe that there is huge potential for mobile communications to help the UK healthcare industry to provide better services to the public and increase efficiencies at the same time.”

The two companies have signed on to a multi-year renewable agreement under which HealthPartners will utilise the MobiSecure platform to support applications developed alongside Diversinet, expanding its mobile portfolio. Applications will begin to be rolled out later this year with the first users being women with high-risk pregnancies and sufferrers of chronic illnesses recently discharged from hospitals. It is hoped that this will reduce premature birts and hospital readmissions.

Babette Apland, HealthPartners Senior Vice President, Health and Care Management, said: “Diversinet’s platform will enable us to communicate with and increasingly monitor patients in a more personalized, more detailed and continuous manner. We expect the new applications to contribute to our ongoing efforts to improve quality of care, patient outcomes and affordability.”

The agreement comes less than a month after Diversinet announced the termination of its license and revenue sharing deal with AllOne.

Telstra Business Group Managing Director Deena Shiff

With the e-health rollout now given the green-light, Telstra will be participating with the National Broadband Network (NBN) to provide faster broadband nationally. The RACGP and Telstra will then provide the College’s 17,200 members access to multiple healthcare applications – including e-prescribing tools, care plans, refeeral tools and decision support tools – via a single sign-on web hosted service.

RACGP President, Dr Chris Mitchell stated that this represented an exciting opportunity with many benefits for GPs that will offer both increased efficiencies for their practice and provide real opportunities to significantly improve the quality of care GPs can deliver to their communities.

“We will work together to lay the foundations Australia needs to accelerate take-up of e-health solutions including patient identification, secure messaging and records storage. These capabilities are a critical first step in the evolution of a national e-health record for Australians,” said Telstra Business Group Managing Director, Deena Shiff.

Shiff also expressed the desire to work closely with the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to develop further initiatives, such as secure messaging. As the country’s largest mobile operator it would not be a surprise if Telstra started to rollout a similar mobile-based service in the future to further improve the quality of care provided by Australian GPs.