Telzuit BioPatch Wireless Holter Monitor
The electrode patch, pictured at right, includes a Bluetooth radio that communicates to a PDA (a nifty looking Treo). This wireless sensor configuration has a number of advantages. Obviously, it's wireless. The disposable BioPatch provides full 12-lead data (via the EASI algorithm) from 6 leads, and you get a full 24 hours of 12 lead data. During the monitoring period (every 2 to 4 hours), data is transmitted to a central diagnostic processing center. There are also event monitor, apnea monitor and long term care flavors of the product.
Having worked on projects like this before, I would expect the BioPatch to capture significantly less noise than traditional individually-placed electrodes. Even though a holter or event recorder may only be worn for 24 to 48 hours, the type of adhesive used is very important. Establishing and maintaining patient context between the sensor (BioPatch) and gateway (the PDA) is also key, especially when multiple patients could be in close proximity (the Bluetooth radio has a range of 30 feet).
The BioPatch Systems patch is sold by Telzuit Medical Technologies, a subsidiary of Taylor Madison. You can download a copy of their corporate PowerPoint here – it describes their product, business model and key suppliers.
Medtronic Reports Q3 Results – Connectivity Impact Noted
Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE:MDT) today announced record revenue for the
quarter ended January 27, 2006, of $2.770 billion, a 9 percent increase
over the $2.531 billion recorded in the third quarter of fiscal year
2005. Medtronic's implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) revenue grew 21%, and the Medtronic CareLink Network continued to expand, with close to 60,000 patients now being monitored by about 750 clinics. Medtronic is more aggressively investing in R&D; spending increased 16% to $280 million, or around 10% of company revenue for the quarter.
I've been watching Medtronic's adoption of wireless technologies for some time – they are well positioned to extend their implantable device business into remote monitoring. But the transition won't necessarily be easy. The first challenge is organizational; a number of different product groups are adopting wireless – cardiac rhythm management (Concerto AT), neurological and diabetes business units (Pain-Control Pump/Personal Therapy Manager, and Guardian RT System). Given the potential benefits of wireless connectivity, I can only imagine the number of other early stage projects underway, and the potential for duplicate efforts. Patients and physicians will expect technologies, features and even products (like back-end applications, servers, cell phones and PDAs) to be common across all of Medtronic's wireless solutions – getting development groups to agree on a common direction can be, ahem, difficult. Making the right technology, standards and vendor selection decisions will also be critical to their success. Finally, connectivity will require adjustments across their business delivery system, impacting requirements gathering, R&D core competencies, regulatory strategies, marketing, sales and sales administration, manufacturing, service and support.
Being a large public company, we'll all have a ring side seat to watch Medtronic transition from an embedded/implanted system business to one that generates a major portion of revenues from general purpose computing platforms (hardware/software for servers and hand held devices) made up of third party devices and services (like cell phone carriers). If they don't have a comprehensive wireless business plan that encompasses these areas, then product delays, unanticipated costs, and possibly customer dissatisfaction will result. If you'd like a little help (or a lot), give me a call.
Hospital Building Boom Continues
We are in the midst of the largest hospital building boom in the US since World War II. New construction and renovations are reshaping the health care delivery system in response to new technology, research on the impact of hospital design on patient safety, and patient demographics. Pictured at right is the new UCLA Westwood replacement hospital, demonstrating that these projects are not without their cost overruns – $35 to$45 million in this case. So, how big is the boom?
billion were under construction as of late 2005, according to the
consulting firm Reed Construction Data/RSMeans Business Solutions—more
than double the amount in 2000. “Everything is holding very strong,”
says Robert Gair, a principal for RSMeans Business Solutions in
Washington, D.C.
Dealing with the effects of ambulance diversions and emergency room overcrowding have driven much of the current construction.
a key factor in the growth of the renovations market, which saw 1,000
projects under way at U.S. hospitals in late 2005. Another is the
ongoing conversion from semiprivate to private rooms. “Almost every
facility we touch now has a (room) conversion under way … and almost
every project has some kind of an ED expansion going on,” says Jim
Eaton, vice president of health care program development for St.
Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies Inc.
Improving hospital operations, efficiency and patient flow are also important goals in new construction.
More hospitals are being built with rooms
that either are acuity-adaptable—they can be changed into
intensive-care unit rooms when the population gets older and sicker—or
instantly adaptable so a patient can stay in the same room without a
transfer to ICU, according to Houston architect Mark Vaughan. Reducing
the number of transfers has been shown to decrease the risk of medical
error as well as eliminate costs and staff time.
These operational and care delivery improvements require new technologies that must be built into new hospitals and renovations.
The HFM/ASHE survey found that the feature
most commonly being installed for the purpose of flexibility is
wireless infrastructure, cited by three-quarters of respondents,
followed by extra cabling and conduit, power plant expansion capacity,
decentralized nurses’ stations and shell space for future expansion.
Some smart folks have actually studied hospital design and its impact on productivity and patient safety. Most of the research surrounds basic tasks and environmental factors. Conveniently located sinks increases hand washing, resulting in reduced rates of infections. Improved lighting has been shown to reduce med administration errors. More complex findings have shown that replacing traditional care models with variable acuity units (or even “universal beds”) reduces patient length of stay (LOS), improving patient flow and reducing the total number of required beds. This research is not without controversy, but overall is slowly being adopted in some projects.
Use of evidence-based design is growing
gradually as more research shows the positive impact of design on
patient health, financial operations, and staff satisfaction and
turnover. While 21 percent of those surveyed by HFM/ASHE didn’t know
what it was and nearly a third weren’t using it, 48 percent said they
were using it to some extent in new facility construction or
renovations.
I'll leave you with a nifty marketing metric, hospital construction costs per square-foot: “Square-foot costs are forecast to jump 8 percent nationwide in 2006 for two- to
three-story hospitals (to $228.85 per square foot) and 8.6 percent for
four- to eight-story hospitals (to $209.45 per square foot).”
