New research out recently by IMS Research pegs the total number of wireless health devices shipped over the next five years at more than 50 million.  Interestingly, the firm suggests that consumers, not telehealth patients, will drive the most adoption of such devices.

According to the report, dubbed “Wireless Opportunities in Health and Wellness Monitoring – 2012 Edition,” medical devices bought by consumer to self-monitor their health will account for more than 80 percent of all wireless-enabled consumer medical devices in 2016.  The demand for self-monitoring one’s health, however, is growing much faster than that for telehealth implementation, according to the report.

Read the full story

Zephyr Technology, a provider of various remote monitoring solutions, announced today that it now supports Qualcomm’s recently introduced 2Net Hub and mHealth platform — a cloud-based connectivity solution for healthcare information.

Zephyr’s technology is a perfect fit for Qualcomm’s new connectivity platform, as it’s developed a central mobile health portal that receives aggregated bio-data from the company’s bluetooth-based “BioHarness” mobile medical device.  The device collects vital sign information and communicates by using Android Smartphones to send the data back to the Mobile Health Portal.

Read the full story

Two more healthcare organizations are weighing in on guidelines proposed by the FDA to regulate mobile medical apps, joining other groups such as the mHealth Regulatory Coalition and HIMSS to offer comments and concerns on the future of mHealth regulation.

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and the mHealth Initiative have both come out with questions it’s asking the FDA to answer, following a public comment period on the 30-page draft document that ended on October 19th.

Read the full story

It was announced today that Sensei, Inc. — a provider of wireless health and wellness solutions — has partnered with IDEAL LIFE — maker of mobile medical devices and other wireless health solutions — to offer wireless device monitoring and feedback through Sensei’s cloud-based mHealth platform, Sensei Connect, in addition to a suite of mobile health applications.

Integrated mHealth solutions stemming from the new partnership include things like integrated biometric devices such as blood glucose meters, blood pressure meters, scales, and pedometers, with all data being wirelessly and securely transmitted to IDEAL LIFE and pushed to Sensei’s secure platform.  From there it’s transmitted to the individual’s mobile phone, allowing real time tracking and feedback.  The result is seamless data tracking and provision of immediate feedback, education and guidance to “promote engagement, understanding and better health outcomes,” according to the companies.

Read the full story

In a new report published today from market research firm Kalorama Information, it was found that wireless patient monitoring devices are currently the fastest growing segment in the larger medical device industry in terms of revenue earned.

Revenues for these devices have more than doubled in the last four years, and are expected to double again over the next four years.  With a growth rate of 23% between 2008 and 2010, these devices saw greater growth than what Kalorama had estimated for minimally invasive surgical devices, specialty catheters and defibrillators — devices which have drawn attention in recent years.

Read the full story

According to a new report out from Jackson & Coker, some 80% of practicing physicians use smartphones, tablets, mobile apps and “various other mobile devices” in their medical practices.

The new report, entitled Apps, Doctors, and Digital Devices, used research from several supplemental studies that analyzed the use of smartphones, mobile computing devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and a wide variety of software apps by physicians in different specialties.  As with most digital and mobile technologies that enter the healthcare space, security is the number one concern and one of the largest barriers for most physicians.

Read the full story

Tablet devices have more than proven their place within the healthcare industry, and a company called Motion Computing hopes its new specialized tablet device can outweight the benefits of the reigning kind of tablets — the iPad.

The new tablet — dubbed the CL900 “SlateMate” — features specialized capabilities built specifically for the healthcare industry, such as bar code scanning and an integrated MagTek magnetic stripe reader.  Another benefit is the tablet’s durability, as it includes the MIL-STD-810G military specification on shock and vibration as well as Ingress Protection (IP) 52 on dust and dripping water.

Read the full story