Bench2Boardroom report - The Future of Consumer Electronics in Healthcare
by Jon Howes (16 November 2009)
The Future of Consumer Electronics in Healthcare
by Jon Howes of NEuW
A report from last month's Bench2Boardroom conference in Cambridge UK on 21 October 2009.
Reporting some of the key points made by speakers in the Plenary panel session and in the following breakout session, especially those that were supported in conversations with experts outside of the formal sessions. Also reporting some discussion points from the session "Are mobiles the right platform for healthcare".
This event naturally repeated and reinforced some of the messages about the market opportunities and issues that can be seen in Gerry Watt's report on the Strathclyde event (9 October 2009).
For those of us hoping to enter these markets for the first time, the following should give some additional interesting pointers for understanding how to make, & when to expect, good returns on new products. It is interesting to be involved in this again when many more entrepreneurs in the consumer electronics area are so keen to get involved.
The speakers and their organisations (from these sessions) have some interesting experience, activities and viewpoints that are worth investigating further.
For overall issues and the electronics/wireless implications it is also worth looking at Nick Hunn's blog and more on nickhunn dot com.
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Plenary (panel) Session
The Future of Consumer Electronics in Healthcare
Chair: Bill Munday, blueAid
Justin Pisani, Hidalgo
Andrew Elder, Albion Ventures LLP
Janette Hughes, Wellness & Health Innovation Project (Scotland)
Michael Reilly, Orange Healthcare UK
J W (Hans) Hofstraat, Healthcare Strategic Partnerships, Philips Research
Janette described the creation and sale of the "Breastlight" product in and from Scotland. This product initially entered the Canadian market because the UK market was not ready.
At the moment the market for products like Breastlight has been limited by consumers only "dabbling" through some purchases at shops such as Boots.
It is a common hope of producers of such healthcare products that consumers will start to take ownership of their health concerns and their health monitoring.
However it was interesting to hear opinion from SureTouch of Los Angeles, where the investors had been pushing for sales to consumers but SureTouch wanted to make sure that such moves did not deliver initial success followed by being dismissed by medical professionals.
Other market growth opportunities are awaiting commitment and action from:
- Insurance companies (addressing the Wellness agenda)
- Governments (promoting and/or funding TeleHealth)
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Panelists believe that "disintermediation" of past health care providers such as the GP will happen, with the arrival of services from Tesco and others.
Doctors have been heard to protest that such separation will create problems through a lack of closeness to the patients and their issues. They and many others with experience in diagnosis and care point out that interpretation of results and taking the right actions is not a simple process.
Health professionals often have a negative view of technical innovations since they are seen to affect their work practices.
However where technologies can be put into the hands of healthcare professionals that really help make their jobs more efficient the reaction is very positive and the results have been good. An example was given of Midwives logging data from their visits on Blackberrys with great advantages. After the devices were in their hands for 6 weeks they did not want to give them back. This was not solely some magic influence of technology - healthcare field experience and study had been essential to get it right.
It is expected that the new technologies will lead to the redistribution of the activities of healthcare professionals, and that this is a good thing. But there will be challenges arising from associated losses of income. TeleHealth may primarily involve the community nurses and the GPs and not the hospitals.
Forcing "compliance will often be required to make a difference in work practices".
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TeleCare ("assisted living") is expected to generate demand long before TeleHealth applications.
There is a belief that first there should be a focus on health problem prevention. The hope is that consumers will lead the market growth. The focus of players backing that approach is on how to motivate people to buy services and products.
Some concerns were expressed that this might lead to a Nation of
hypochondriacs or to Stealth monitoring.
Some healthcare professionals, and panelists with experience of problems, note the difficulties generated by false positives and false negatives through self diagnosis. This is not only a concern over liability and litigation, it also could lead to serious overload of the healthcare system or to serious conditions being overlooked.
These concerns lead to strong suggestions for new equipment and services to always be networked with health professionals - with consequent counterbalancing concerns of overload on the healthcare system by the (potentially) market-driving "worried well". Checks and balances are believed to be needed with professionals analysing the data. Secure transmission is thought to be absolutely necessary with only healthcare professionals seeing the data.
There is a common theme to most opinions expressed: "These are medical products, care must be taken".
iPhone and the creation of medical Apps is seen as a great platform by many. But the relation of these products to the more serious "medical products" and legislation needs to be considered carefully.
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The great majority of the existing and proposed healthcare products will be wireless enabled. There are some concerns that lack of wireless connection (such as no 3G coverage in the Highlands of Scotland) may be problematic for devices delivering urgent information, possibly in an emergency. Fallback strategies to use other communications methods are already used and need to be considered for some products.
It is interesting to note that the mobile network providers are not in a position, and seem to have no intent, to guarantee connections for data transmission despite claims of good coverage.
At a separate conference in the last week of October a new standard for data communication over voice channels was discussed. It might be interesting in future for health technology applications since voice channels are often the most available "fallback" channel. This Qualcomm In-Band Voice Modem technology was created for timely communication of data for the automotive emergencies standard "eCall".
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When considering the creation of a medical product or service it is essential to consider the management of medical data carefully, and to choose the right partners. Selling through credible providers of medical products is very important in the healthcare community. Who is going to be responsible for the data is also a key consideration. Protocols for actions on the levels of medical alarm need to be planned carefully and formally.
Many suggest that technology providers should concentrate on what they are good at. For the data management and service hosting they recommend, for the reasons outlined above and more, that the main providers such as Mondial, Capita and Serco are used.
On the other hand startups usually have the problem of lacking in credibility and thus an inability to attract market leading partners. It is often essential for a startup to create their initial products without any partners just to gain some of that credibility.
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Investment availability is a different area of concern.
For both Remote Monitoring and Preventative Wellness people ask why there has been so little investment so far. It is far from clear that the spread of these capabilities will reduce the overall costs of care. There is a reluctance to roll out these capabilities to many patients. All things considered this is why investors are holding back.
Thus it is important from a funding point of view for a new product developer to be partnered with the bigger players. Investors suggest that new ventures should identify areas where adoption and sales will happen soon. Also it is suggested that ventures "do not wait for loads of investment to arrive".