Six months ago, Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC) announced its decision to lead a strategic move by technology companies worldwide, with the goal of promoting medical monitoring for patients at home. Intel said that this would be one of its strategic growth engines in the coming years, and since then the company has been unstoppable. It decided not to go it alone and formed a group with other companies.
The new partnership, called Continua Health Alliance, is said to be developing a system of guidelines, and setting down technological standards for devices, so that both healthy and sick people, and their carers can use them to monitor patients’ condition at home. The goal is to provide better preventative care and reduce the number of non-essential visits to doctors’ surgeries and casualty rooms at hospitals.
Heading the new group is David Whitlinger, director of healthcare device standards and interoperability for the Intel Corporation in its digital health group. To date, 55 companies have joined forces with Intel in its drive to change the medical device world, among them Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KSX:5930), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Philips, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT), private healthcare company Kaiser Permanente, Partners Healthcare System Inc., which owns a chain of hospitals on the East Coast, and others. The list of companies who have joined the alliance includes several that have not previously been active in the healthcare sector.
The group is targeting several population segments: billions of overweight people worldwide, the 860 million sufferers from chronic illnesses, and the ever-increasing elderly population. The goal is to feed data from scales, blood pressure monitors or from sensor devices monitoring the elderly into a network that will enable medical staff and family relatives located elsewhere to monitor patients’ conditions. “We’re talking here about continuity of life. We want to help people to better manage their own health,” said Whitlinger.
The goal: 100 group members
The member companies of Continua Alliance are aware of the hurdles that they have yet to face. One of them, according to Dave Watson, CTO at Kaiser Permanente, the largest private healthcare company in the US, is the current lack of order and coordination between existing technology interfaces. Watson says that connecting Kaiser’s network to the 300,000 bio-medical devices located in doctors surgeries and hospitals will be a long and expensive process. “Locating suitable devices in our members’ homes would entail billions of extra devices that are outside our network. To make this work, our care system management team will have to stipulate appropriate terms in our contracts. They will have to supply products that are in line with the group emphasis and which are approved by Continua.”
David Whitlinger expects to increase the number of participating companies to 100 within a year. He believes that it will take the group a year to draft development guidelines, with member companies commencing design and production of suitable products for the market in 2008. Products such as heart rate monitor watches and scales will be sold at retail stores. Other items, such as advanced medical signaling monitors will be available from the various healthcare service providers. Continua has committed itself to the following goals: developing design guidelines that will enable vendors to build interoperable sensors and telehealth platforms, working with leaders in the healthcare industries to develop new ways to address the costs of providing personal telehealth systems, and installing advanced monitoring systems in the homes of employees of member companies, as a means of promoting growth.
The one Israeli member of the Continua alliance is EarlySense Ltd.. “We are currently developing monitoring systems for the improved care of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure patients,” says CEO Avner Halperin. “We have a team of experienced entrepreneurs, such as Yossi Gross and Guy Shinar.”
Globes: Why did you join the group?
Halperin: “Treating chronic patients at home is the only way to make healthcare more efficient. From the patient’s perspective it can save lives. From the healthcare point of view it will cut hospitalization costs. We’ve all seen this work, medically and economically, with diabetes patients, who in the past were frequently admitted to hospital and suffered from blindness and other conditions. Today, patients carry out glucose tests several times a day on their own, and their condition has improved. This market is worth an estimated $8 billion and it is growing. Everyone realizes that chronic diseases all follow the same process. Patients will receive a technological solution that will let them know when they need treatment, their condition will improve and the market will grow.”
EarlySense, according to Halperin, identified this market as early as three years ago, when it was first formed. The company is now moving ahead with applications for US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its products. “The challenges posed by this market are not easy,” says Halperin. “Over the last six months, the global giants have stepped to the fore and stated that they have an interest in seeing this market take off. It’s amazing to observe a company with a vision like that of Intel looking for growth opportunities, identifying the healthcare field, and putting its weight behind the development of home-based monitoring devices.
“When Intel enters a field, things move. To bring about change, we need to recruit all the relevant organizations, such as the technology giants, the leaders in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, the insurance companies that will provide cover for new products, and the start-ups that will provide the innovative technology. All these forces working together will be able, perhaps, to deliver change. Will we manage to move the market? The burden of proof is on us.”
What is the group currently working on?
“We’re defining new standards and we’re promoting a congressional bill that will govern the integration of new technologies in the healthcare system. Reaching arrangements for cover with medical insurance companies and federal payment mechanisms will be central to the development of the requisite infrastructure. Doctors, nurses, and healthcare service providers will be remunerated for their services through the network, just as they are paid today for the service they give at medical clinics. Continua will lobby for the approval of this form of payment mechanism.”
What benefit is there having small companies in this group?
“It should be understood that the entry by small Israeli companies to this US market is not an easy task. So having a small company take part in a monumental process is unique and should serve as an example for others. It’s plainly obvious that we can’t change the market or congressional legislation on our own. But when you gather together 55 companies, with a combined workforce of two million, that’s something else. Over the next two years we’ll see the first installations in various systems. Philips will develop a communications system linking the home and medical centers, and it will be looking for a technology that could be integrated into it. We hope that it will select ours, so that there will be synergy between the products of the group’s member companies.
“In recent months we have been trying to bring other Israeli companies on board, since we feel this is an excellent opportunity. Managers of small companies always try to make their pitch to the big players, and the group companies can make this process easier. But it should be remembered that the group has only just been formed and a long and arduous path lies ahead. Things don’t happen that quickly despite the fact that the trend is obvious. The market is real and the need is clear.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 3, 2007
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