Texting to Save Children's Hearts & Lives

The Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital is partnering with CareSpeak Communications to bring mHealth (mobile health) to its teenage heart transplant patients and their families. The CareSpeak system uses 2-way text messaging to ensure patients take their medications on time and as prescribed, significantly decreasing the likelihood of organ rejection due to medication non-adherence. The system's efficacy was demonstrated in research published in the November 2009 issues of Pediatrics. Read Press Release

New York Times Press Coverage About CareSpeak and Mt. Sinai work on compliance

Last week the New York Times Health on-line publication wrote an article about the work CareSpeak has been doing with the Mt. Sinai Medical Center's pediatric liver transplant patients. Read more here

Mobile Phone Application For Juvenile Diabetes Monitoring

About a year ago my neighbor was telling me how frustrating it is for her to call her 12 year old diabetic son 5 to 6 times per day on his cell phone to check his Blood Glucose Levels (BGL), and how annoyed he gets with her calls. She also talked about how uncomfortable her son would feel when the nurse would pull him from class to measure his BGL. That conversation sparked the idea of expanding CareSpeak's 2-way text messaging platform to help parents like her manager her child's Type-1 Diabetes --- DiabeText was born!

After more then a year of work I am happy to announce that DiabeText public beta has launched. DiabeText is like an "Intelligent Logbook" on your cell phone that makes it easy to track glucose, insulin and carbs using simple text messaging. It works on any cell phone, with any carrier, anytime, anywhere. All recorded values are automatically forwarded to any cell phone and charted on an on-line account. If you already subscribe to an unlimited text-message plan with your carrier, you will not incur any additional charges using DiabeText.

Please spread the word about DiabeText to anyone who you think might benefit from using it. Although it has initially been designed with children in mind, it can also be used by adults.

Please note that graph function in MyDiabeText dashboard only works on the following browsers: Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome. Internet Explorer should be available shortly.

Thank you so very much for your interest and for spreading the word!

Try DiabeText beta by clicking here.

Liver disease: Better monitoring, better prognosis

Liver disease: Better monitoring, better prognosis

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Mt. Sinai Study Follow up

I apologize for being off-line for so long, but I am done with all my 2008 consulting projects so I can get back to my passion of mobile health care. 

We completed the Mt. Sinai study that I wrote about earlier and we've had some fantastic results. Fourty one (41) pediatric liver transplant patients who had very poor compliance were signed up our MediM AS system for nearly  a year, and we compared the data to the 12 month period prior the study. In the period prior to the study 12 out of the 41 patients had an episode of organ rejection due to non-compliance. In the 9 to 12 month period during the study only 2 episodes were recorded!!! To read the abstract of the study click here.

MediM Significantly Improves Medication Compliance

Mt. Sinai Medical Center's pediatric GI department located in New York City recently published the 6 month results of a clinical study conducted with liver transplant patients using MediM AS communications platform provided by CareSpeak Communications.


Liver transplant patients have to take immuno-suppressant medication for the rest of their livers in order to ensure the body does not reject the transplanted organ. A group of patients with low compliance was entered into the study. Each patient received daily text messages with reminders and instructions to take their medications. In case the patients didn't confirm intake via a return text message, a caregiver (usually parent) would be notified via text messaging so they could intervene. Patients monthly blood work was checked for medication levels. Initial 6 month results show that compliance improved by more then double.

Final study results will be presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) conference in San Francisco (October 31 to November 4th).


[DOWNLOAD STUDY ABSTRACT]


CareSpeak Communications, Inc. is the developer of the MediM Adherence System which uses text messaging (SMS) to help patients, caregivers and health care professionals ensure proper compliance with complex medication regiments.

T+ (Think Positive) Diabetes

What they do… Think Positive Diabetes Wireless is a UK based company that has a put together what I think appears to be the most comprehensive solution for diabetes management in the convergence space.
How they do it… The think positive diabetes management system equipment includes a mobile phone, a OneTouch® Ultra® meter and depending on model of mobile phone, a BlueTooth TM cradle or a data cable. As soon as the reading is taken, your phone gives you immediate feedback on your recent measurements as a bar chart or a scatter graph. The color coded graphs easily show you whether or not your readings are falling within your personal blood glucose targets. Simultaneously, your latest reading is sent to the server for secure storage along with all your previous readings. As a subscriber to the think positive diabetes management system you will receive monthly printed reports as well as being able to access your own secure web page. The printed reports and your web page contain detailed graphs, similar to those you receive on your phone and will provide you with information on all your past readings and diary information.
How it’s different… T+ has done a few things right in my mind… Graphic reports appear to be easy to use and intuitive both on the phone and on-line (although it’s hard to know how user-friendly they are compared to others unless you can test drive them all). Direct access to a live person, health care professional (nurse in this case) who is specialized in diabetes management and education (I assume). Ability to give access to reports to caregiver(s), whether it’s healthcare professional or family member Ability to re-order supplies directly from the retail pharmacy provides an added benefit in terms of convenience, and could lead to other benefits such as loyalty point, etc.
Business model… It is not clear to me from their web site who pays for this service, i.e. if it’s the end user or insurance company or a combination of both.
Potential positives… Compared to some of the other services, T+ has two things that stand out for me: · First, the ability to talk to a live person is a huge benefit because technology will never be able to replace the ‘human touch’ assuming the customer service quality is outstanding. · Second, a direct tie-in with a retail pharmacy provides additional benefits in terms of convenience and through different innovative promotional vehicles it could also bring financial benefits to users in the form of loyalty points, discounts, etc.
Potential negatives… · I am still a bit concerned with the potential complexity of pairing a blue tooth device. I do not think that blue tooth has gotten to the point where it’s truly seamless. · As with other java based applications for cell phones I am concerned with the ability to scale the service given that the application has to be ported to each device. It takes time and it’s expensive. · Last but not least, I am concerned with GPRS applications because of lack of wide coverage. This however might be more of a problem in the US then in Europe.
Additional thoughts… · I noticed that the web site offers a Turkish and Arabic language version of the web site, which could potentially mean that this service is available in some Middle Easter countries. · The company seems to have a relationship with Johnson & Johnson’s Life Scan division which makes blood glucose meters.
Investors… No information available
Discussion…	Please tell us what you think in the comments section below

Body Tel [diabetes]

What they do… BodyTel Scientific is a publicly traded US company that develops and markets wireless health care products. Their flagship product is the GlucoTel, a diabetes monitoring & management system. GlucoTel is also working on blood pressure and weight management applications.

How they do it… · The GlucoTel system consisting of a Bluetooth enabled glucose meter that automatically transmits the results of a blood glucose test using a patient’s cell phone. From there the information gets transmitted to a secure website that can be accessed by the patient and/or health care provider/caregiver to analyze and recommend treatment. · The user can enter additional information (e.g., weight, meals, workouts, etc.) directly into the cell phone, which allows for multi-dimensional “picture” of how the user is managing their diabetes affected lifestyle. · It is my understanding that there are 3 parts to this system: Glucose meter Java based application on cell phone Web based reporting and feedback system · It appears that their web site has networking capabilities build into it which could lead to “virtual support groups”.

How it’s different… There are a few companies we can compare BodyTel to: · Compared to WellDoc, which has entered into a partnership with J&J’s LifeScan division (makes blood glucose meters) for the hardware, BodyTel has developed their own meter, making them both a hardware and software player. · Compared to HealthPia which has achieved full convergence by incorporating the glucose meter into the phone, the user needs 2 devices.

Business model… · The company is still in a pre-revenue stage and it’s not entirely clear what their business model is going to be.

Potential positives… · I like the fact that the data transfer can be achieved by both GPRS and SMS. This gives a wider coverage especially in areas where GPRS is still not present, and also allows people who are not on a data plan for GPRS to use this with SMS. · I also like the fact that they are giving users the opportunity to track all the key behaviors around diabetes such as nutrition and exercise.

Potential negatives… · I would like to see them incorporate a medication management component to this solution as diabetics frequently are on other medication too (e.g. hypertension). · The company is still in it’s development stage so it’s unclear what their business model is going to be, however, one of the obstacles that I see is going to be the need to port their java application for every phone model they want it to work on.

Investors… · Over the Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) under Stock Symbol: BDYT

*Source: Company website

WellDoc [diabetes]

What they do… from the company web site… WellDoc Communications is an endocrinologist owned and operated diabetes management company. We are leading the development and implementation of innovative technology solutions for the management of diabetes and revolutionizing the way diabetes is treated to close currently existing quality of care gaps. WellDoc is closing the gaps by simplifying data collection and analysis, providing continual motivation and feedback, and improving patient-physician communication. Our solution gives patients more control over their health, provides physicians with time saving tools, and reduces systematic health care costs.* WellDoc is currently conducting a pilot study in the Baltimore area.

How they do it… · WellDoc has developed a software solution that runs on cell phones. It uses the cell phone’s wireless Bluetooth connectivity to exchange data with a Bluetooth enabled blood glucose meter.

How it’s different… · WellDoc’s application appears to be very comprehensive in that it not only record and track the blood glucose meter readings, but it has a suite of other tools (I assume things such as web based reporting, messaging, etc.) that enables the patient and the physician to manage it including motivational messages, and more.

Potential positives… · Strong R&D team, i.e. there is a whole team of endocrinologist who have experience dealing with all age groups of diabetics. Also, some of them have day-to-day patient care experience and should be able to understand the consumer needs and behaviors very well. · Unlike the other solutions I have seen, WellDoc talks about “providing continual motivation”. Just like with other chronic illnesses, helping the patient on the emotional level is one of the key variables to a successfully long-term treatment plan.

Potential negatives… · Unlike HelathPia where everything is contained within one device and true convergence has been achieved, a WellDoc solution requires two separate devices, i.e. lacking the elegance in the solution. · Wireless Bluetooth connectivity, also known as ‘pairing’ can be a very frustrating process, especially for people who are not tech savvy, especially seniors.

Business model… · Not sure at this point, but it appears that they are considering the direct-to-consumer model. It’s going to be interesting to see what business model and distribution channels they choose.

Additional thoughts… · The word is that WellDoc is working with Johnson & Johnson’s LifeScan division and AT&T/Cingular. LifeScan makes blood glucose meters, etc., and sells them over the counter in national retail chains. One of the options for WellDoc is to act as a re-seller of Cingular’s service and bundle the phone and LifeScan blood glucose device into one offer directly to consumers. The other option is to start partnerships with clinics. Given their background and current management team, I think they should stick to clinics. I don’t think the 2-device solution is user friendly enough for the mass market. · I am under the impression that they have management gaps in the business / marketing areas.

Investors… · It appears that to date they have been self-funded and probably some angel money. It is unclear if they have any financial support from J&J or AT&T/Cingular.

*Source: Company website

Mayo Clinic's "Mobile First Aid Kit"

The Mayo Clinic recently announced that it was launching "Mayo Clinic In Touch" software application for mobile phones. For a $2.99 monthly fee, wireless phone subscribers can use the service to get first-aid tips, self-care guidelines and advice on emergency care, as well as access to short health-news videos, health alerts and drug watches.

Enter your city or ZIP code to search for nearby emergency and urgent care facilities from a list of more than 3,800 providers. If your cell phone has a GPS (Global Positioning System) feature, it automatically finds the nearest facility. The information is then displayed in list format and shows the facility's name, address and estimated travel distance.


Following is a video clip of the demo....