If a week ago I started this series of posts about M2M Industries with “The Connected livestock farmer” despite not being one of the forecasted verticals that more business profit will generate for the vendors of devices, platforms, connectivity, applications and integration, this week I want to write on a vertical much more recommended by analyst (“The market for M2M healthcare applications will be huge – $69bn in 2020,” forecasts Jim Morrish of market-watcher Machina Research.” ) but also key to our happiness and prosperity: «M2M Healthcare».
According with the “The World Bank” indicators, the Health expenditure, total (% of GDP) in developed economies is around 10% and in US near 20%. Total health expenditure is the sum of public and private health expenditure. It covers the provision of health services (preventive and curative), family planning activities, nutrition activities, and emergency aid designated for health but does not include provision of water and sanitation.
People are living longer, and healthcare organizations are looking to technology to drive efficiencies and cut costs. Those two trends are coming together to spur growth opportunities in the mobile machine-to-machine communications segment of the healthcare industry. Hospital-based and home-based caregivers are exploring more devices that can track an aging patient’s vital signs and enable better personal emergency responses. – See more at: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/77898.html#sthash.HPVWE4lh.dpuf
M2M is one of the innovation that will transform medicine and will help us to maintain and improve our quality of life. Healthcare will be done at a distance with videoconferencing and remote monitoring of blood sugar, blood pressure, heart rate, and other health data. Examples like “Telit Wireless Solutions and Vaica, aim to provide effective, easy-to-deploy-and-use solutions to curb healthcare spending treating chronic conditions” demonstrate that the industry is in the right direction.
If you want to know how powerful can M2M be in Healthcare industry please take a look at this article: The Future is Now: Leveraging Machine-to-Machine Technology to Advance Clinical Trials and imagine Proteus Digital Health that provides an FDA-approved ingestible sensor that works together with a wearable sensor to capture precise information about medication ingestion, dose timing, physiologic responses and other behaviors, sending the digital health information to a patient’s smart phone. The ingestible sensor sends a signal containing a unique identifier allowing recording of the time the patient took a pill. A wearable sensor worn on the skin captures continuous readings of the patient’s heart rate, temperature, activity and rest patterns. The solution can collect more than 5,000 data points per minute.
Other no sci-fi examples like, Vanderbilt University´s first bionic leg, which uses M2M technologies to integrate human and machine like never before or inertial microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensor technology have the potential to transform the Industry.
However we still to have to overcome some barriers -: “ The Doctor vs. IT Conflict – The Battle for Innovation is Here – if we want to avoid expect a decade to make this industry as effective and efficient like others. We, the IT crowd, are living in our industry continuous changes (maybe a lot), but many doctors, and hospital managers still scared about the IT. We need to evangelize and pray for new managers bring in some fresh blood and facilitate M2M adoption quickly.
As a future “connected patient” I would live to receive the best health care possible and see more than “3 new ways to connect with me” implemented in hospitals before I retire. In the previous article you can find a few examples of how to engage patients on a digital level.
Nevertheless, there is change management in the patient behavior that need to be solve and a key question that need to be answer: “ M2M promises much in healthcare, but who will pay?”. Lots of these future devices will be bought by consumers, so we need to have both a technology & consumer view. Most cost effective medical care will come from approaching both “patient” centric and consumer-focused.
We should not forget when designing health M2M solutions that machines should not ever replace the human treatment that patients require. Online yes, but manage the “connected patient” as a person not as a resource.
TMForum
I participated (not very active to be honest) in TMForum´ Digital Health community. We discussed M2M sensors and plarforms, data privacy, end-to-end communication security, QoS, and enterprise software technology that has the potential to improve public health overall and ultimately to make health care more accessible and affordable for all of us. We all were totally convinced that with our work and recommendations we will contribute to the promise of improved outcomes and quality of life. I am not in the community any more but hope my colleagues continue evangelizing not only to Telcos but the other industries and Government that need to collaborate to make it possible.
Social Media
In a generation that is more likely to go online to answer general health questions then ask a doctor, what role does social media will play a key role in this process. I do not want to finish this post without a reference about how Social Media has Impacted the Health Care Industry.
Next, a very brief sampling of companies that are working in M2M Healthcare industry:
1 – Connectivity
“M2M providers for the healthcare sector will need to combat a significant degree of device fragmentation, understand strict local regulations, and be capable of dealing with a broad range of industry stakeholders. To successfully integrate M2M solutions into the healthcare system, providers will also have to offer value added service along with basic connectivity” Source: “Frost&Sullivan”.
The world’s largest telecom corporations are moving into the mHealth marketplace at an astonishing speed. According with Healthcare Global, the top 10 mHealth offerings from the world’s largest telecom corporations are:
#1. Vodafone
Healthcare providers use Vodafone mHealth Solutions to enhance internal efficiencies and to optimise the delivery of patient care, enabling healthcare professionals to spend more quality time with patients and improving patients’ quality of life.
#2. Airtel
Airtel offers its customers access to its mHealth service, Mediphone. Mediphone offers 24×7 medical advice on your mobile phone from anywhere, anytime of the day or night.
#3. Telefonica
Telefonica’s O2 Health is helping health organisations find better ways to deliver healthcare. “The patient and the teams that care for them are at the heart of what we do,” says the corporation.
In partnership with providers of care and support services, Telefonica aim to change the way care is delivered for the better. Bringing fresh, innovative and cost effective solutions to the home, to the community and to hospitals.
#4. Orange
“At Orange, we use our communications expertise to establish a health network.”
Traditional healthcare systems are under constant pressure to do more with fewer means. Orange is opening its doors to new solutions in the field of e-health to help healthcare systems evolve and face new situations head-on. For the last 10 years, the corporation has been equipping hospitals and clinics with software, communication and infrastructure solutions. Today, its offering new solutions for better coordination between all players in the healthcare system.
#5. AT&T
AT&T understand the various gaps in healthcare today, and have developed solutions to help address them. AT&T ForHealth solutions can help solve these challenges along the entire continuum of care — from acute care settings to home care settings. AT&T. AT&T provides mHealth solutions for hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, suppliers and providers.
#6. MTN Group
MTN Group Vice President for Commercial and Innovation, Christian de Faria, said “the potential for mHealth to accelerate the provisioning of affordable and quality health care in poor and developing economies is huge, much like the one for mobile telephony was more than a decade ago.”
#7. Etisalat
The Etisalat platform – called Mobile Baby – delivers affordable primary healthcare solutions to even the remotest regions of Africa and it has already demonstrated tangible results to meet Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5) which seeks to reduce maternal mortality in childbirth by 75 percent and deliver universal access to reproductive health by 2015.
#8. Saudi Telecom Company
Saudi Telecom Company has joined forces with mHealth Company (mHC) to expand its reach in the healthcare sector by targeting all mobile phone users, from smart phones to regular-basic mobile phones. mHC will be both interactive and rich in content, and will satisfy all users’ need in the health arena. It will provide services for patients, physicians, insurance companies and medical institutions.
#9. Turkcell
Turkcell began its mHealth offering by launching a SMS information service for expectant mothers in 2010 and now has some 110,000 customers each receiving around three messages a week. The company is also working on a home monitoring service for diabetes and hypertension sufferers, among other initiatives.
#10. MegaFon
At the end of 2011, MegaFon created MegaLabs, which is a united center for innovation and the operational launch of additional services. As a wholly owned subsidiary, MegaLabs will help MegaFon to gain leadership in markets that are aligned with an operator. One of the corporations will be m-health.
But there are also other Telcos with eHealth solutions that you can consider.
BT Global Services – At BT, we’re dedicated to helping you transform healthcare – whatever the challenges thrown up by this ever changing world.
Deutsche Telekom – eHealth solutions based on M2M facilitate affordable care for patients and the elderly.
KoreTelematics – KORE understands what it takes to deliver wireless data and has partnered with leading healthcare technology companies to provide integrated and optimized M2M healthcare applications services.
Numerex – Numerex provides healthcare device manufacturers and solution providers with the wireless expertise required to design new telehealth products and convert legacy landline systems to wireless.
Rogers – Improve end-to-end patient care with integrated tools, support and wireless connectivity that extend across the healthcare continuum.
Sprint – Machine to Machine has ignited a remarkable expansion of advanced devices, applications and healthcare management solutions for improving patient care.
SingTel – With superior coverage in Asia, SingTel M2M offers you real-time control over costs and device in half the time.
Telenor – Communication technology is part of the solution. See our mHealth initiatives across Telenor Group.
TeliaSonera and Acenture– mHealth: connects medical devices via a mobile gateway to a central platform and provides access to data through portals and interfaces
2 – M2M Devices Vendors
Sierra Wireless – In this article, OLIVIER PAUZET from Sierra Wireless talks about how cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communications have opened the door to a world of new, beneficial healthcare applications, previously thought to be unfeasible.
Gemalto – http://www.gemalto.com/brochures/download/cinterion_mHealth_brochure.pdf
Digi
3 – Measuring and Monitoring Medical Devices – Medication and Health-Management Devices
According to Juniper Research, revenues from remote patient monitoring services that use mobile networks will rise to $1.9 billion globally by 2014. Other analyst and research firms have even larger projections of $4.4 billion by 2013 in the U.S. market alone (up from just $304 million in 2009).
With these types of projections, mHealth (or mobile health or telemedicine) is a massive opportunity for medical device manufacturers to extend patient care to households.
The hard work to realize this future is in the software that supports these devices, an opportunity for device manufacturers to actively partners with specialized software development vendors with domain knowledge.
Sorin – Robust patient data protection – SMARTVIEWTM solution is governed by a multi-tiered security policy to protect personal and medical patient information, using security safeguards, encryption and strict access controls.
Telcare – Telcare uses award-winning cellular machine-2-machine technology to bridge the last mile between patients and their caregivers in order to improve the care of chronic illness.
Gemalto – http://www.gemalto.com/brochures/download/cinterion_mHealth_brochure.pdf
Lantronics – Lantronix launches M2M medical device aggregator. iMDsoft, a partner of Lantronix, provides medical information systems to work with Lantronix’s conenectivity.
Abbot –
Jonshon& Jonshon: http://www.jnj.com/healthcare-products/medical-technologies
Cordis: http://www.cordis.com/products/cordis-corporation-products
Biosense Webster – http://www.biosensewebster.com/
Lifescan: http://www.lifescan.com/
Animas – http://www.animas.com/
..
PHR and EHR Supported Devices
} Microsoft Health Vault: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/tools-devices/directory.aspx?type=device&condition=
} MedApp: http://www.medapps.com/devices.html
Blood Pressure Monitors
} Homedics http://www.homedics.com
} Withings http://www.withings.com/
} Omron http://www.omronhealthcare.com
Insulin Pumps
} OmniPod http://www.myomnipod.com/
} Minimed http://www.minimed.com/products
} Animas http://www.animas.com/
} Accu-Chek http://www.accu-chekinsulinpumps.com/ipus/products/insulinpumps/spirit.html
Glucometers
} Bayer
◦ manufactures many store brand meters
4 – Healthcare Solutions Vendors or Provider
Teladoc – Teladoc is the first and largest telehealth provider in US, founded in 2002.
Bosch Healthcare and Remedy Health Media partner to launch a suite of innovative web-based products for remote patient monitoring.
5- M2M Applications Platforms
ThingWorx –
IRIS International Selects ThingWorx.
Biocartis Selects ThingWorx for Next-Generation M2M Solution.
Axeda – Siemens is using Axeda software to enable proactive, remote service of its ADVIA Centaur® Immunoassay System and other laboratory instruments. The ADVIA Centaur system provides testing for a broad range of conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, fertility, anemia, thyroid diseases, allergy, metabolic diseases, therapeutic drug monitoring, and congenital and infectious diseases
DeviceWise : M2M Application Platform – Patient care and compliancedon’t have to compete. http://www.devicewise.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Medical.pdf
Cluster Wireless: http://www.clusterwireless.com/healthcare.php
Additional info:
If you can pay 4000€, here is a link to a Machina research report: Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communication in Healthcare Sector 2010-20.
Health 2.0 Linkedin group.
For additional information please contact: francisco.maroto@oies.es
Paco Maroto's IoT Blog 
Thanks for a great in depth article ….
Loved it !!!
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