Alliance Releases Standards, Road Map To Promote TelehealthAlliance Releases Standards, Road Map To Promote Telehealth

Continua Health Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of 133 medical technology companies, on Wednesday unveiled its first set of interoperability guidelines aimed at helping to connect patients' in-home health monitoring devices with remote caregivers and electronic personal health records.

Continua was launched in June 2006 to help establish a market for interoperable personal health systems "to empower people and organizations to better manage health and wellness," said Dave Whitlinger, president and chairman of Continua, and director of health care device interoperability at Intel, a Continua founding member.

With 860 million people dealing with a chronic disease and 600 million adults over the age of 60 worldwide today -- many who have chronic conditions -- the need for remote monitoring and intervention is growing, he said. It's also estimated that 75% to 85% of health care costs are spent on chronic diseases, he said.

"We're focused on bringing a better alignment of health care costs," he said. By allowing remote medical devices, such as glucose meters, blood pressure equipment, weight scales, and fitness gear, to send data to remote monitoring systems, caregivers -- including health professionals and family members -- can more quickly intervene when a chronically ill or elderly person is experiencing an abnormality "or subtle changes before an emergency" situation develops, he said.

Among the set of initial interoperability standards unveiled, called Version One Guidelines, are specifications for transporting data, including wirelessly, from remote medical devices -- like blood glucose meters -- to cell phones, PCs, personal health records systems, and TV set top boxes to systems that can be monitored for medical abnormalities by health care professionals or other caregivers.

Besides the interoperability standards, Continua also disclosed that it's conducting a research project with Abt Associates to collect all information regarding remote monitoring trial projects that have taken place in the U.S. and Europe in the last five years. The group plans to create a database for its members that can serve "as a baseline" for health care quality and outcomes, and provide "indication of cost effectiveness of remote monitoring" said Whitlinger.

Related to costs, Whitlinger also said Continua is "actively working" with physician organizations, insurance companies, and other payers on "reimbursement tactics and strategies" to help pay for chronically ill patients' remote monitoring health care services.