I've written extensively on telehealth and telemedicine initiatives being rolled out by hospitals and state governments across the country. With so much going into the implementation and funding of these projects, it's not surprising that the companies developing telemetry systems would also be making the news. Suffice it to say, the new year is off to a good start for telehealth's vendors.
Take, for example, Corventis, which just received FDA clearance to market its NUVANT Mobile Cardiac Telemetry (MCT) System for the detection of non-lethal arrhythmias. As I wrote in a separate blog post, it's worth noting that the developer of wireless cardiovascular systems' Monitoring Center has been approved by CMS as an Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF), and the company has received approval to bill for services provided to patients with Medicare and several commercial insurers, paving the way for the NUVANT MCT System to become available across the U.S.
Designed with a specific focus on ambulatory arrhythmia monitoring, the NUVANT MCT is the second product launched from the Corventis portfolio of wireless cardiovascular offerings. As TheMobileHealthCrowd.com reports, it leverages the low profile form factor, advanced algorithms and multi-sensor capabilities of the PiiX wearable platform to enable continuous monitoring for a broad set of arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, as well as patient falls that may be associated with arrhythmias.
Another company making headlines in the telehealth space this month is Spacelabs Healthcare. As TMCnet.com reports, the manufacturer of patient monitoring and connectivity solutions, as well as diagnostic cardiology and anesthesia devices, ranked highest in telemetry monitoring according to MD Buyline’s most recent User Satisfaction Composite Ratings. SpaceLabs also received top ranking for its Holter Monitoring in the latest independent MDBuyline User Satisfaction Composite Ratings.
In this independent survey, Spacelabs telemetry users delivered the highest overall ratings compared with scores from users of eight competing telemetry suppliers. Spacelabs telemetry also scored highest in System Reliability as well as Service Repair Quality.
And last week, InnerWireless, which provides end-to-end in-building wireless solutions for healthcare and other industries, made known its decision to expand compatibility between its Horizon Distributed Antenna System and Philips’ IntelliVue Telemetry System with Smart-hopping technology.
Horizon supports Philips’ IntelliVue Smart-hopping solutions advanced features, including a patented technology that maintains seamless connections between the central station and telemetry and bedside monitoring devices, to provide uninterrupted patient care, according to another TMCnet.com report.
For hospitals, expanded support for Philips’ Smart-hopping 2.4 GHz solution means additional choices for delivering cost-effective, hospital-wide medical telemetry. They should also be able to holistically manage their wireless environments and minimize the number of single purpose wireless networks by utilizing the InnerWireless converged wireless platform.
