GE Unveils Carescape
GE Carescape is the main focus of a front page story
in Healthcare IT News (dead tree edition that came today). GE
Healthcare brings out the big guns to describe the Carescape solution.
Let's start with the problem as they define it:
Each system serves an important function, and yet they might not all be connected in a way that information is shared easily.
Patient monitoring is defined as devices that collect and display
patient data. According to GE Healthcare officials, false alarm rates
exceed 80 percent, clinicians are overwhelmed by the amount of data
they have to collect, and critical vital signs are sometimes not
provided in time for proactive responses.
According to David Freeman, chief marketing officer of monitoring
solutions for GE Healthcare, “…traditional patient monitoring
(measures) have not been keeping pace.” Amen to that. But it seems to
me that a major factor in this “jungle of technology” is the proclivity
for vendors like GE – virtually all medical device vendors, in fact -
to build end-to-end proprietary systems. This megalomaniac vision that
places the vendor's product (and not anyone else's) as the center of
the universe is perhaps the biggest factor in patient safety problems
at the point of care. The traditional solution for this problem is to
buy everything from one vendor – except there is no one vendor who
makes everything, not even GE.
The solution is, “a new product portfolio called CARESCAPE. Its goal is to provide a
wireless infrastructure that offers clinical decision support, advanced
parameters and device integration and control at the patient’s bedside.”
Using enterprise access – what Freeman calls “the wireless
backbone” of the suite of solutions – CARESCAPE is designed to pull
together a wide range of disparate devices and systems for easy access
and control, allowing a doctor in an emergency room to quickly call up
a patient’s full electronic medical record or a nurse coming on duty to
check the status of all of his/her patients.
“It just takes one or two clicks on the keyboard and it’s all
there, as opposed to walking away somewhere else” to a distant computer
or series of workstations, says Munesh Makhija, general manager of
systems and wireless monitoring solutions.
What exactly all this means, time will tell. Perhaps I will be able to get some details next week at the AAMI conference in Boston.
Ambulatory Surgery Center Market Report Released
Outpatient surgery centers are an increasingly important market for vendors, with sales increasing 24.3% from 2001 to 2003. The Health Industry Distributors Association has published a new report on the topic:
“Since 2000, analysts report the number of surgery centers has grown
more than 9 percent each year compared to nearly zero growth for
inpatient hospitals,” said Adam Korengold, HIDA’s Director of Research.
As Americans age, the volume of surgery center procedures is expected
to jump from 14 percent of current levels to 47 percent by the year
2020, states HIDA’s 2006-2007 Ambulatory Surgery Center Market Report.
Surgery centers, where patients generally undergo a procedure and are
released within 24 hours, offer a number of treatments including
cataract removal and colonoscopies.
HIDA’s 2006-2007 market report includes the top distributed products
for these facilities plus national healthcare and Medicare spending
data in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).
The report also provides a look at the landscape for the developing ASC
market, which accounted for about $11.2 billion of U.S. healthcare
spending in recent years.
“A number of trends are emerging with these centers as healthcare in
the United States evolves,” said Korengold. “Among these trends is a
new emphasis on private funding of surgery centers and the
consolidation of surgery center chains.”
HIDA reports are usually reasonably priced, and of modest length and detail. Here are some more juicy details from the report.
total healthcare expenditures. Medicare reimbursements to ASCs last
year totaled $2.9 billion, or 0.9% of the total $276.9 billion in
Medicare reimbursements in 2003. Self-payers and private insurance
payments to ASCs were $7.1 billion in 2003. The top five public chains
account for over 20% of total ASC revenues, despite having interest in
12.8% of total ASC facilities.
VeriChip and Digital Angel to Co-Develop Implantable Blood Glucose Sensor
VeriChip is working with Digital Angel to develop an, “implantable glucose microchip to determine glucose levels in the
bodies of animals and humans, removing the need for diabetics to draw
blood regularly to monitor their blood glucose level.” (Press release) The goal is to develop a chip that can be implanted for up to 6 months. The project will be run by a committee made up of 6 folks from both companies – many from senior management.
patent award in October 2006, we are positioned to begin development of
a glucose microchip, which has the potential to revolutionize the way
people with diabetes live and the medical care they receive. There
are estimated to be hundreds of millions of people around the world
living with diabetes, many of whom are not compliant with their care
regimens due in large part to the discomfort and inconvenience of
pricking their fingers numerous times per day. This chip could provide a painless way to quickly and accurately scan blood glucose levels to an external reader.”
…
Theimplantable bio-sensor chip will have a passive transponder, a sensor
and integrated circuitry that could allow anyone implanted with the
microchip to painlessly scan it to determine their blood glucose
concentration. The RFID microchip would then quickly and accurately
transmit the glucose data back to a wireless scanner that displays the
glucose level. The RFID microchip will be powered by the scanner
signal, avoiding the need for a battery in the microchip.
The patent, No. 7,125,382 was granted on October 24, 2006 and is titled “Embedded Bio-Sensor System.”
So they've got a patent, but the press release gives the impression they're shopping for technology to have, you know, a product they can sell. Of course such an implantable sensor could be revolutionary, provided it costs the same or less than current methods and only needs to be replaced twice a year – that would be truly disruptive.
In other news, VeriChip reports that they've sold their 1,300th infant abduction system.
This is led by systems sold under the HUGS brand. In the first quarter
of 2007, the number of infant protection systems sold by VeriChip
increased 14%, while the number of infant protection systems sold to
new customers increased 28% (compared to the first quarter of 2006).
VeriChip's infant protection systems are designed prevent infant
abductions and inadvertent child mismatchings.
Siemens Partners with Ekahau for RFID
Siemens Communications and Ekahau announce a strategic relationship, “By adding Ekahau's RTLS and site survey solutions to its HiPath
Wireless portfolio, Siemens enables companies to benefit not only from
user mobility but also from the cost-effective integration of asset and
people tracking in their business processes.” Siemens HiPath Wireless is their rebranded Chantry Networks acquisition.
uses active RFID tags to track key assets and people across the WLAN.
The EPE can track the real-time location of more than 10,000 objects on
a single server.
Siemens has also integrated the Ekahau Site Survey (ESS) tool with
HiPath Wireless Manager HiGuard to create a full WLAN planning toolset.
An enterprise's site survey planning results can be directly imported
from the ESS into HiGuard. As a result, network designers can reduce
the number of site surveys from three to one, lowering both time and
cost requirements. (Previously, separate site surveys were required for
deploying WLAN APs, wireless IPS sensors and RFID tags.)
Aperio Raises $10.6 Million Round
Digital pathology vendor Aperio has raised $10.6 million in venture funds. The company has raised a total of $33 million in equity capital, but which round the $10.6 million represented was not disclosed. The company has made good progress in the market with, “an installed base of more than 250 systems in more than 23 countries,
and customers that include half of the top 13 pharmaceutical companies
and more than two-thirds of the top 14 rated U.S. hospitals…”
and operations efforts, develop new products, and implement its
clinical market strategy.
You can read more about Aperio here. Pictured right is an Aperio reading station.
