Black and underserved populations would rather use the telephone than an mHealth app in a remote patient monitoring program, according to researchers
A new study finds that Black and underserved populations would prefer to use the telephone to connect with care providers in a remote patient monitoring program.
The research by BJC HealthCare and the Washington University School of Medicine’s Healthcare Innovation Lab underscores the value of multiple, even personalized, communication channels between patients and health systems, and the challenges of finding a reliable way of engaging with populations dealing with the social determinants of health.
That will be important as more and more healthcare organizations launch RPM programs to monitor patients at home, particularly as they seek to improve outcomes in areas such as chronic care management, post-discharge care and behavioral healthcare.
Led by Bradley A. Fritz, MD, MSc, a member of the St. Louis-based health system’s Department of Anesthesiology, the research team tracked roughly 7,600 participants in a RPM program for COVID-19 treatment. They found that Black enrollees preferred using the telephone over an mHealth app by a margin of 68% to 44%, as did those from less disadvantaged neighborhood vs. those in better-off areas (59% to 43%). Conversely, retention rates were about the same between Black and white populations.
“Although we do not know what would have happened if the telephone arm had been unavailable, its presence appears to have bridged an engagement gap for Black patients,” the researchers said in a study published online by Springer. “Failure to bridge this gap might have worsened disparities between Black patients and other patients that already exist due to structural injustices (e.g., housing discrimination, limited public transportation) that limit access to primary care, nutritious food, and exercise.”
“We did not ask patients why they chose one program arm over the other, so we do not know if limited access to smart devices, limited internet connectivity, data privacy concerns, or other factors impacted their choices,” they added. “Distrust in healthcare organizations that have mistreated Black patients in the past may contribute to the engagement gap.”
“Our findings suggest that home monitoring programs may need to offer non-app-based options for participation to ensure they reach all groups of patients,” Fritz and his colleagues concluded.
The researchers also wondered whether the social isolation brought about by the pandemic played a part in the choice of communication platforms. They noted that several participants listed the ability to talk to someone on the phone as the best part of their experience.
The study points to the importance of planning an RPM program that encourages patient engagement, especially if it targets underserved populations or addresses barriers to accessing care. A program won’t work if it doesn’t pay attention to the patient.
The University of Rochester Medical Center will soon be deploying AI-enhanced devices to help clinicians improve point-of-care management
The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) will be deploying AI-enhanced mobile ultrasound devices later this year to help clinicians improve point-of-care treatment.
The upstate New York health system is partnering with Connecticut-based Butterfly Network on the program, which seeks to improve clinical decision support (CDS) and eliminate time spent sending patients off for imaging by giving clinicians the tools they need to do the work themselves.
URMC will begin training staff on how to use the handheld digital health devices this summer, with plans to roll them out to primary care providers, home care nurses, and second- and third-year medical students in the fall. Officials are also planning to include the devices in research projects and enterprise-wide strategies.
"Oftentimes, practitioners call upon imaging modalities to confirm a hypothetical diagnosis and treatment plan," says Michael F. Rotondo, URMC's CEO and vice dean for clinical affairs at the university's School of Medicine and Dentistry. "With Butterfly, care teams can introduce point-of-care ultrasound as part of the initial assessment. A small, stapler-sized imaging probe paired with a smart phone becomes an advanced bed-side imaging tool. Care teams can use this information to confirm or exclude their diagnosis improving the overall care."
The project points to a growing interest among healthcare organizations in digital health tools and platforms that give front-line care providers on-demand access to CDS resources, so they can make better decisions at the point of care instead of scheduling tests and unnecessarily extending the time between examination and diagnosis (as well as diagnosis and treatment).
Portable Point Of Care Ultrasound (PPOCUS) "is undergoing a revolution similar to what computing technology experienced in the 20th century, an acceleration in the development of portable, efficient, and affordable systems," wrote Patrick Lindsay, MB, BS; Lauren Gibson, MD; Edward A. Bittner, MD, PhD; Marvin G. Chang, MD, PhD, all of Massachusetts General Hospital, in a 2020 research article in the newsletter of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation.
"Ultrasound technology has evolved to the point that portable ultrasound devices can now fit seamlessly in a clinician's back scrub pocket at a price point as low as $2,000 USD," they wrote. "Furthermore, the imaging capabilities far exceed many of the best ultrasound machines of decades ago."
It also hits upon a lesser-known aspect to the digital health movement. While the nation is enamored with technology that allows people to access healthcare from their homes, cars, workplace, and other locations, they're paying less attention to the tools and platforms being developed for use in the health system.
In places like URMC, which serves a wide swath of rural New York, those devices and services can literally be lifesaving, especially if access to care is limited and it takes days or weeks to gather all the information necessary for an accurate diagnosis.
"While highly valuable, traditional ultrasound equipment can be rather unwieldy," says Rotondo. "It's cart-based and requires training whereas this much smaller bedside tool is highly portable and AI-empowered, to support caregivers of all kinds, including paramedics, nurses, physicians, and home healthcare workers. Our vision is that this will greatly aid in early detection and diagnosis and will accelerate treatment."
"Our intent is for Butterfly to integrate fully with our existing enterprise systems, workflows, and EMR vs. operating as a capability in a silo," he adds. "This is different and exciting; we're approaching imaging from an enterprise-wide lens—integrating it, optimizing it, and scaling it to improve care delivery across the institution."
The differences between digital health adoption outside the health system and within the health system are clear. Whereas consumer-facing technology focuses more on engagement and ease of use, tools and platforms for in-patient use must meet strict protocols associated with clinical care, particularly with regards to accuracy and reliability. Clinicians have long been wary of consumer-facing technology because they don't trust the data, and they're even more critical of technology they're using inside the four walls of the hospital.
Mobile clinical-grade devices, meanwhile, were in many cases first developed for uses outside the hospital setting, such as remote locations, disaster sites, and underdeveloped countries, where they could bring clinical services to first responders or medical workers. With the onset of the pandemic and the need to reduce contact between infected patients and care providers, those devices are now moving into the healthcare setting.
They're also being enhanced with AI technology.
"AI is a tool to support informed decision-making," says Rotondo. "The physician or care worker is ultimately charged with using her judgment before issuing any diagnosis and developing a plan. A diagnosis always needs to be done with judgment and consideration of likely alternate possibilities. In many cases, particularly in the early stages, it's tough to know exactly what's going on with a patient. In these cases, the best you can do is suggest a probable diagnosis and plan of action that might involve further tests or simply keeping an eye on the patient's progress."
Digital health advocates say AI has the potential to help clinicians make those decisions better and more quickly by automating the numbers-crunching and connecting the dots.
"The combination of cloud-based computing with advanced artificial intelligence has unearthed unprecedented opportunities for healthcare, and we believe the potential for AI in medical diagnostics is in its early phases," says Todd Fruchterman, MD, Butterfly Health's president and CEO. "We believe the combination of bedside imaging, powered by AI can help solve the problem of inadequately informed medical decisions. This is what we're passionate about. As with all applications of technology in healthcare, it needs to be done thoughtfully."
Researchers at Kyoto University have developed a mask filter that, when exposed to ultraviolet light, shows whether the user has been infected with the virus.
Researchers in Japan are developing a facemask that would glow under ultraviolet light when contaminated with COVID-19.
The project at Kyoto University comes on the heels of news about a Northwestern University program that’s attaching sensors to facemasks to track respiration and heart rate and the mask’s fit. And it points to the urgency in digital health circles to develop new ways of detecting the coronavirus and helping those at most risk of being infected.
At Kyoto University, researchers have created a removable filter made from ostrich antibodies that detects the coronavirus after being sprayed with a chemical and exposed to ultraviolet light. The filters were tested in a clinical trial with participants who wore masks for eight hours.
"If virus infection can be detected by putting a mouth filter carrying an ostrich antibody in a 'disposable mask' that is used every day in the world, non-symptomatic infected people such as super spreaders can be voluntarily treated at an early stage," Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, leader of the Kyoto University research group, told the dezeen news site. "It is a handy and inexpensive device that prevents the invasion of the Covid-19 virus into the human body.”
Tsukamoto said he came up with the idea of using ostrich antibodies after doing research on the bird’s immune system.
"Ostriches rarely die from filth, minor injuries, or illnesses, and live for 60 years," he said. "I realized that the secret of longevity is that it is resistant to infectious diseases with its amazing immunity and resilience, so I started researching ostrich antibodies in earnest."
Tsukamoto and his research team have applied for a patent for the mask and hope to make them available later this year. They’re also hoping to refine the process so that the filters can be analyzed by light emitted from a smartphone.
Long-term, they hope to develop masks that use this process to detect other viruses, such as the flu.
Kaiser Permanente has joined Graphite Health, a non-profit formed by several large health systems to create an interoperable digital health platform and bring new products and services to scale.
Kaiser Permanente has joined several other large healthcare organizations in a collaborative aimed at creating an interoperable digital health platform for developing and scaling innovative tools and services.
Graphite Health operates as a non-profit, according to officials, with a board of executives comprised of representatives from Kaiser Pemanente, Intermountain Healthcare, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and SSM Health. Members help guide the company’s direction and will receive products designed for and by them along with the resources to use them.
“We know that by working together to address interoperability at scale, we can create more convenience, better quality care, and lower costs,” Ries Robinson, MD, former vice president and chief innovation officer at Presbyterian and Graphite Health’s new CEO, said in a press release. “As Kaiser Permanente is nationally known for their innovative approach, we look forward to working closely with them to digitally transform and improve health care, and ultimately, to help patients and members across the country live better, healthier lives.”
The company, launched roughly four months ago, is modeled after Civica Rx, a non-profit developer of generic medications formed in 2018 by a number of healthcare organizations (including SSM Health and Kaiser Permanente) and philanthropies aimed at reducing drug costs and drug shortages. That company now partners with more than 55 health systems, the US Department of Defense, and 18 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, plans to bring more than 100 medications to market by 2023 and is building its own manufacturing facility in Virginia.
The initiative targets the fast growing digital health industry, which includes mHealth apps and devices, connected health sensors and wearables, telehealth platforms and digital therapeutics. Interest in the field has taken off with the pandemic, which forced many health systems to shift from in-person to virtual care and is now playing a part in many post-pandemic strategies.
“Graphite Health is tackling some of the most pressing issues in health care today, making it easier to adopt digital health tools with a focus on trust and transparency,” Kaiser Permanente chair and CEO Greg A. Adams said in the press release. “By joining Graphite Health now, we are excited to help shape the future of digital health transformation, and to improve patient and member experience at Kaiser Permanente and beyond.”
Company officials said they expect to add more healthcare organizations and philanthropies in the future, and are looking to partner with technology innovators.
Dubbed the 'FaceBit,' the quarter-sized sensor array attaches to any mask and tracks the wearer's respiration and heart rate, as well as the mask's fit.
Researchers at Northwester University have developed a digital health attachment for a facemask, which they’ve dubbed the FaceBit.
The quarter-sized, battery-powered sensor attaches to any N95, cloth or surgical mask with a magnet, and can monitor a user’s respiration rate, heart rate and time wearing the mask, as well as how well the mask fits. The data is transferred to an mHealth app, which allows the wearer to monitor his or her health in real time and receive alerts when the monitors sense something amiss.
The project, funded by a National Science Foundation Grant for Rapid Response Research, was recently detailed in the journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
“We wanted to design an intelligent face mask for health care professionals that does not need to be inconveniently plugged in during the middle of a shift,” Josiah Hester, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science who led the device development team, said in a news story published by the university. “We augmented the battery’s energy with energy harvesting from various sources, which means that you can wear the mask for a week or two without having to charge or replace the battery.”
Hester and his colleagues say the FaceBit gathers physiological data to “help wearers better understand their own bodies in order to make beneficial health decisions.” And by monitoring breathing and heart rate, the mask can also detect stress and alert the wearer. That information could also be collected by health system administrators to study staff stress.
The researchers also consulted with healthcare providers in designing the sensor array, finding through surveys that doctors and nurses were most concerned about the mask’s fit. Clinicians periodically go through a 20-minute “fit test” to determine whether a mask fits properly.
“If you wear a mask for 12 hours or longer, sometimes your face can become numb,” Hester said in the news story. “You might not even realize that your mask is loose because you cannot feel it or you are too burnt out to notice. We can approximate the fit-testing process by measuring mask resistance. If we see a sudden dip in resistance, that indicates a leak has formed, and we can alert the wearer.”
Hester said he hops to someday develop a battery-free mask, perhaps by harvesting thermal or kinetic energy to power the sensors.
“FaceBit provides a first step toward practical on-face sensing and inference, and provides a sustainable, convenient, comfortable option for general health monitoring for COVID-19 frontline workers and beyond,” Hester said. “I’m really excited to hand this off to the research community to see what they can do with it.”
The pandemic has pushed more care online, which in turn has also pushed clinicians back into the EHR, often after hours. That might be a problem.
A new study finds that the shift to virtual care during the pandemic has driven clinicians back to the EHR – with good and bad results.
As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, clinician time spent in the EHR had dropped prior to 2020, but it jumped right back up as COVID-19 took hold, especially after normal business hours. Researchers linked that increase to more time spent reviewing clinical notes and answering messages from colleagues and patients.
Researchers led by A. Jay Holmgren, of the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research said the increase was due in large part to the shift from in-person to virtual care, which pushed clinicians away from their patients and onto computers.
“The pandemic-driven shifts toward virtual treatment, and the corresponding change in patient expectations and awareness of communication tools such as secure messaging via the EHR, have substantially altered the nature of ambulatory care,” Holmgren and his colleagues wrote. “Further, as telehealth and the pandemic incentivized patients to become familiar with the use of online portals to access their health information and connect with clinicians, the time required for those clinicians to manage the care of their patients through the EHR increased.”
“The long-term shift to a mix of face-to-face and virtual care, as ambulatory patient volume returned in the second half of 2020, may have exacerbated these issues as clinicians delivered care across multiple modalities in a single day,” they added. “Given that many of these changes, such as increased patient familiarity with asynchronous messaging, may persist beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to evaluate how they have impacted clinician work.”
The study adds a new wrinkle to the idea that the pandemic has helped thrust virtual care into the spotlight and given healthcare organizations more proof that they need to shift to a hybrid platform that mixes in-person care and digital health. It suggests that while telehealth and other digital health tools and channels may improve access to care, health system leaders need to understand how that shift affects clinician workloads, which could negatively impact care and increase stress.
The challenge will lie in mapping out hybrid care strategies that reduce that workload burden while still improving care outcomes, perhaps by shifting responsibilities to other members of the care team or integrating AI tools to automate some tasks. In simpler terms, they need to make the EHR easier to use – a task that has plagued the industry long before COVID-19 arrived.
“Although near-universal adoption of EHRs was an important enabler of the shift to telemedicine, increased reliance on EHRs may exacerbate existing issues of low job satisfaction and poor well-being amongst clinicians,” the study pointed out. “Many clinicians spend a significant amount of time working in the EHR, and clinicians in the United States already face a greater EHR burden than their international peers. Total time spent working in the EHR, ‘after-hours’ time working outside of scheduled clinic hours, and responding to In-Basket messages without protected time or reimbursement for messages have been associated with a variety of negative impacts, including burnout, which can translate into higher costs and lower-quality care. Further, if the increased EHR burden is driven by activities such as messaging with patients, these new demands on clinician time may be concentrated on tasks that are outside of the bounds of the traditional ‘visit’ and are currently nonreimbursable for most clinicians.”
The researchers noted that policy makers should take these findings into account when developing coverage guidelines for virtual care. Current reimbursement guidelines don’t take into account the fact that patients are shifting to messaging platforms because they’re more convenient, thus adding to the clinician’s in-box. In addition, those guidelines have traditionally focused on documentation work, rather than the communicating with patients.
“This increase [in EHR use] was driven by time spent in Clinical Review and In-Basket messaging, with clinicians receiving 157% of their prepandemic baseline messages from patients,” the study concluded. “These patient messages represented a significant demand on clinician time, with each requiring an additional 2.3 [minutes] of daily EHR work on average. Policymakers and health system leaders looking to create sustainable workflows incorporating telemedicine in the post-pandemic period should be aware of these new demands on clinician time not only to avoid clinician burnout but also to accommodate rethinking the model of ambulatory medicine as patient expectations for care expand beyond the scope of the traditional face-to-face visit.”
Joining Holmgren in the study were N. Lance Downing and Christopher Sharp of Stanford University, Mitchell Tang of Harvard University, Robert S. Huckman of Harvard Business School and Christopher Longhurst of UC San Diego Health.
Researchers from Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing are joining forces on an NIH-funded project to improve care management at home for seniors and people living with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers at Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing are launching a study that will test the value of AI and remote patient monitoring technologies to improve care management for seniors and those living with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Aging in place is a priority for most older Americans,” George Demiris, PhD, FACMI, a professor at both Penn Nursing’s Department of Behavioral Health Sciences and Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and one of the project’s leaders, said in a press release. “This goal can be challenged by chronic illness including Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. We need innovative solutions that will help us detect risks, address disparities, support decision making and improve access to care.”
“The overarching goal of our Collaboratory is to facilitate the development and dissemination of such tools to help aging Americans live safely, in optimal health, and remain socially engaged,” he added. “To achieve this, we will develop and implement a national pilot project funding program for the development and evaluation of cutting-edge technology.”
That cutting-edge technology will include artificial intelligence platforms that draw and analyze data from digital health tools and the electronic health record, as well as remote patient monitoring and other technology that allow patients and their care providers to track health and wellness at home and incorporate on-demand communication and treatment.
The collaborative will “identify, develop, evaluate, commercialize, and disseminate innovative technology” that might be used to help seniors and those living with Alzheimer’s stay at home, rather than in an assisted living facility, and stay in touch with caregivers. It plans to launch several funded pilot projects.
“Penn is uniquely poised to serve as a research and innovation accelerator based on our expertise in geriatric medicine, aging, Alzheimer’s disease and biomedical informatics,” added Jason Karlawash, MD, co-director of the Penn Memory Center, associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Perelman and a professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy and neurology, in the press release. “We aim to advance the development of effective solutions that will be used in the real world and ultimately improve the lives of older adults’ and their caregivers.”
CES 2022, held last week in Las Vegas, offered a dazzling display of new technology, toys, and concepts, some of which could benefit healthcare organizations.
Many healthcare providers may have been too busy with the pandemic to visit Las Vegas this past week for CES 2022, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be interested. What happens in Vegas in this case may not stay in Vegas for long.
The announcement by Abbott Chairman Robert B. Ford of a new line of biometric wearables may have grabbed the headlines, but those devices—like pretty much everything else healthcare-related at CES—are targeted at the consumer-facing health and fitness crowd. It will take a while for providers to find a way to apply them to clinical care.
But there was a strong undercurrent of clinical care in this year's event, encouraged by the Consumer Technology Association's efforts to bridge the gap between consumers and providers. And healthcare executives would be wise to pay attention to the trends coming out of Sin City as they map out their digital health strategies.
In addition, vendors are starting to include the healthcare provider in their pitches. What had once been the realm of health and fitness for the worried consumer is now sprinkled with references to "linking up" or collaborating with doctors and nurses, managing chronic conditions with care providers, and offering clinical-grade services.
The Consumer Market Takes a Shot at RPM
For example, several companies offered mobile and wearable devices aimed at the fast-growing remote patient monitoring market, which is designed to enable consumers and their care providers to monitor health at home and collaborate on care management. While many early devices were focused on health and fitness and chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma, the more advanced products are linking them together, often to a telehealth platform, to enable more diverse treatment.
For example, Waltham, MA–based EarlySense unveiled its new InSight+ platform, which officials say was built first on a medical-grade platform and then adapted to consumer use. The platform collects sleep and respiratory data and heart rate, as well as "clinical marker alerts related to heart rate instability and respiratory rate depression," and stores that information in what's called a "Vital Signs Cellular Processing Unit, powered by AT&T IoT."
"With the pandemic still firmly with us, we know we will continue to see an explosion in use cases for patients who want to be cared for at home and for providers who want to incorporate virtual care solutions into their practices in the long-term," company CEO Matt Johnson said in a press release, (which also noted the product is "an investigational device not yet available for sale.")
In displaying at CES, EarlySense and many others are strategically placing themselves in front of the consumer crowd, hoping to gain a groundswell of interest that will convince healthcare organizations to integrate their products into clinical services. The value here is in piquing the public's interest and giving health systems a reason to believe that the devices will push the needle on patient engagement, which has long been an issue for medical-grade wearables.
That's the line being followed by Withings, the France-based developer (with an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts) of a line of smart devices, including watches, sleep monitors, and scales, that has been making a push recently into RPM. The firm, which labels itself "the pioneer of the connected health movement," unveiled an update of its Body Scan smart scale, first introduced in 2009, which now can monitor heart rate, vascular age, and "segmental body composition," including nerve activity.
"With Body Scan, we will turn the morning weigh-in into a sophisticated home health check with access to holistic health data and personal health programs created by medical professionals," company CEO Mathieu Letombe says in a press release. "We will empower our users with the ability to take meaningful actions based on medical-grade data, adding a new dimension to ongoing lifestyle and chronic condition management through the ultimate in-home experience."
Then there's Stevara, a startup based in Charleston, South Carolina, that unveiled BPCorrect. The company, founded by a family physician and general internist, markets its RPM solution as an mHealth app and a clinician portal that can help patients manage their blood pressure with their care providers.
Cara Litvin, MD, one of the company's founders, notes in a press release that BP monitoring isn't always accurate, even in the doctor's office, so the best platform combines home monitoring by the patient with a virtual link to the clinician for care management.
A few years ago that press release would have focused solely on the home monitoring part, but in today's climate the virtual link to a doctor adds new value to the product.
The Smart Home Movement
Withings is one of a number of companies staking their claim to the smart home movement, part of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), which integrates appliances and other items into the home with sensors and other technology so they can not only be controlled remotely but gather information and send that to an mHealth app or platform for review.
This category has been around for awhile—think smart doorbells, TVs, and thermostats—but is taking off with interest from healthcare, especially organizations that focus on helping seniors and those with disabilities stay at home, as well as those with innovative ideas for the RPM space. They're taking a good look at products like smart refrigerators, which help with diet planning; smart toilets, which can monitor, ahem, daily output; smart doors, which can monitor activity and help track those with memory issues; and smart beds, which can track vital signs and sleep.
For example, there's Caregiver Smart Solutions, a New Jersey–based company that unveiled the Age in Place Core Kit at CES. The telehealth platform uses sensors and AI to track movement and activity, giving caregivers insight into the daily routines of a loves one or patient.
"Designed as a DIY self-installation, smart sensors are placed around the home and monitor habits to understand patterns," company founder Ryan Herd said in an e-mail to the press prior to the conference. "They feed this data to a customizable app that reports critical information including when the person wakes, how often they are eating, taking medicine, and visiting the bathroom, along with movement throughout the home."
One of the bigger names in tech also unveiled a smart home hub. Samsung introduced its SmartThings smart home controller during a virtual keynote, unveiling an 8.4-inch tablet with AI and Bixby voice assistance technology that will "be able to connect to every product within the SmartThings ecosystem." The hub, still very much in development, points to an interest among innovators in creating a telehealth dashboard that will help not only consumers but caregivers manage all devices in one place.
Introducing Artificial Intelligence
The inclusion of AI, or machine learning technology, into consumer-facing technology was a popular trend at CES 2022. Companies in a number of fields, from automotive to entertainment to gaming to healthcare, are advertising the technology in tools that gather, analyze, and "learn from" data, making assumptions that in the past had been handled by humans.
On company looking to use AI to bridge the gap between clinical care and consumer self-care is Cardiomo. At CES 2022, the New York–based company unveiled the Cardiomopatch, billed as an "AI-based holter monitoring system." In an e-mail to the press, the company is basically pitching a medical-grade wearable that has been adapted for consumer use, offering "real-time and remote continuous cardiac monitoring [that] is trusted by clinicians to detect and diagnose many different kinds of irregular heart rhythms" and using AI to process "data in the cloud service helping more accurate disease prevention."
And then there's the Zerema smart pillow, developed by Korea-based Maetel, which integrates AI into a pillow to adjust height and control snoring. According to an e-mail sent to the press prior to CES, the user can monitor sleep patterns through an mHealth app.
Several companies displayed robots this year, with functions that range from working in restaurants and hotels to performing basic household chores to helping people manage their medications, connect with family, friends, and caregivers and even playing games.
Wearables Seize the Day
But for all the talk of platforms and integration, CES 2022 was still all about the technology and toys for the consumer. And there were plenty of wearables to choose from.
A few companies took note of Oura's success to introduce smart rings. California-based Movano, for instance, unveiled the Movano Ring and accompanying mHealth app, which collects biometric data and is designed to help women "help you make connections between cause and effect and understand the correlation between how you feel and various areas of your health." France-based Circular, meanwhile, showcased its Smart Ring, which "focuses on how the user responds to their activities, daily choices, and rhythms and provides personalized recommendations based on the data it gathers rather than just providing metrics and raw data graphs."
Among hundreds, if not thousands, of others displaying their wares, in person or virtually, were the following:
Cubtale, out of Turkey, offers a care coordination platform aimed at tracking an infant's daily care needs, from breastfeeding to medication management to sleep management, through small smart buttons (cubs) that capture data for parents, caregivers, and pediatricians.
Human Touch, a California-based developer of massage chairs, unveiled a new product line that includes access to a "virtual therapist" through voice commands for "a tailored therapeutic experience."
Elidah, out of Connecticut, introduced the Elitone, a digital therapeutic device aimed at helping women living with pelvic floor disorders with their exercises.
Brush, out of France, displayed the Y-Brush, a mouthpiece-shaped electric toothbrush designed to clean one's teeth in 10 seconds flat.
Rockley Photonics, based in California, displayed an array of photonics-based "clinic on the wrist" sensors that attach to the skin and capture a wide range of data, including heart rate, hydration, blood pressure, blood oxygen, alcohol, lactate and glucose indicators, and core body temperature.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), based in Taiwan, displayed several innovative devices, including an mHealth device that attaches to a dog's collar and monitors heart rate, respiration, and activity; and a smart mirror that helps its user analyze the strength of specific muscle groups, posture, flexibility, endurance, and balance.
Powercast, out of Pittsburgh, has developed flexible wearables that can be created with a 3D printer and used to track gait, muscle performance, and temperature.
NuraLogix, based in Toronto, unveiled the Aunra Web, a browser-based version of its Affective AI software, which can track "more than 30 health measurements from just a 30-second video selfie."
iNNOVA, a startup out of Italy, unveiled the CheckMED, an RPM platform that includes wearables, an mHealth app, and a telehealth platform and allows caregivers to remotely manage the health of a patient or loved one.
Advanced Human Imaging, based in Australia, showcased FaceScan, a smartphone scanning technology that examines blood flow beneath the skin to measure heart rate and blood pressure, as well as DermaScan, which can detect more than 500 skin conditions, and BodyScan, which can monitor changes to one's body, fat loss, and muscle gain.
Tover, out of Holland, unveiled the Tovertafel, or "Tover Magic Table," a projection-based game system that can be used on any surface and is designed to help seniors and patients living with dementia and intellectual disabilities strengthen their cognitive abilities "in a fun and playful way."
RENPHO, a company based in both the U.S. and UK, offers a line of smart bikes and treadmills enhanced with AI technology, enabling the user to monitor health data and design exercises that target specific health concerns.
Virility Medical, out of Israel, showcased a wearable patch designed to help men with premature ejaculation, a common sexual dysfunction.
The Commonwealth on Monday announced that residents can now access their COVID-19 vaccination history through the May Vax Records tool on the COVID-19 Smart Health Card platform.
Massachusetts has joined about a dozen states in creating on online portal for residents’ COVID-19 vaccination history.
Governor Charlie Baker announced on Monday that residents are now able to use a QR code to access the My Vax Records tool on the COVID-19 SMART Health Card platform, offering a digital repository for vaccination status. They can enter their name, birth date and e-mail address or phone number to create the account, which offers the same data as a paper record.
“This system provides an optional way that residents can access their vaccination information and a COVID-19 digital vaccine card,” the governor’s office said in a press release. “This will provide residents with another tool to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination, should it be requested by businesses, local governments, or other entities.”
Commonwealth officials said they worked with the VCI, a coalition of public and private organizations that developed the open-source SMART Health Card Framework, to synch the digital platform with the Massachusetts Immunization Information System (MIIS), the official database used by healthcare organizations to record vaccination data. The platform only lists Massachusetts-based information for residents, so anyone who receives a shot outside the state needs to contact his or her healthcare provider to have that information included.
Massachusetts joins California, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Puerto Rico in offering residents digital access to their vaccination records. The service is also available through CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Walmart and Albertsons.
The program is the latest effort by state and federal governments to develop digital health tools and platforms for easier access to healthcare information and services. The digital health card can be accessed on mHealth apps stored on a smartphone, such as the Apple Wallet.
The pharma giant unveiled its Lingo line of biometric wearables Thursday at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, continuing a trend in digital health innovation brought on in part by the pandemic.
Abbott Chairman Robert B. Ford introduced a new line of consumer-facing wearables at CES 2022, positioning the pharma giant near the top of a fast-growing digital health trend.
Ford unveiled Lingo, sensor-enhanced wearables designed to track biometrics such as blood glucose levels, ketones, lactate and even alcohol.
"This will be like having a window into your body," he said. "It's science that you will be able to access any time so you can understand what your body is telling you and what it needs. Our vision is that Lingo will go far beyond today's wearables for consumers to help you proactively manage your health, nutrition, and athletic performance."
Ford’s keynote highlights a busy week in Las Vegas, conducted on a mishmash of in-person and virtual venues due to COVID-19. His was the first keynote for a healthcare executive in the history of the Consumer Technology Association’s massive show, and represented the building interest in devices – especially wearables – that monitor and collect health and wellness data.
Perhaps just as important, healthcare organizations are taking an interest in those devices as they seek to balance in-person and virtual care and develop new programs that allow care providers to connect and collaborate with their patients outside the hospital, clinic or doctor’s office.
Ford’s announcement isn’t entirely ground-breaking: The company in one of many to have developed mHealth-enabled wearables over the past few years for people with diabetes and other chronic diseases. But it shows the healthcare industry’s growing interest in technology that’s designed first for the consumer, with engagement in mind. Healthcare providers have long sought to bridge the gap between clinical devices that accurately capture information but aren’t necessarily stylish and popular consumer technology (think Fitbit or the Apple Watch) that has been slow to prove that the data collected is reliable enough for clinical use.
Abbott’s announcement is just one of hundreds being made at and in conjunction with CES 2022, which is ending today (one day early, again as a result of concern over the pandemic). And digital health has been at the center of many of these announcements.
Among the more notable products being introduced this week are sensor-embedded rings, remote patient monitoring platforms, smart home products and mHealth apps that allow users to connect with care providers and peers and access personalized resources, particularly for mental and behavioral health concerns, substance abuse treatment, women’s health and sensitive issues like sex education and sexually transmitted diseases.
Of particular note are the innovative ideas being pitched by small start-ups and companies spun out of the healthcare industry, who often struggle in the shadow of the big tech giants. With COVID-19 pushing many vendors onto virtual platforms, the splashy press conferences and exhibit hall displays are muted, and the press releases and announcements are focused more on the technology and the uses than the glitz and glamor.
CTA President and CTO Gary Shapiro said in the days leading up to CES 2022 that he had decided not to go all-virtual because many of those small start-ups had invested a lot of time and energy in the show, and he didn’t want to rob them of that opportunity.
“Innovation can come from anywhere and anybody, and we must respect and encourage that,” he said in a commentary published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This conviction informs all of our public policy positions, and the major tech companies — almost all of whom are our members — respect CTA for always looking out for smaller companies. Indeed, at CES and even as members of CTA, more than 80 percent of our membership is smaller companies. These companies and these founders are the ones I think of when I say it’s not time to pull the plug on CES 2022.”