Intel Introduces its First
Home Medical Device
Intel Health Guide is the
first product in its range to provide personalized care to patients with
chronic and age-related disease conditions. The company believes that
with this introduction, it has entered a new category of personal health
systems. The product has received 510(k) market clearance from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
It is a personal health
system that combines an in-home patient device - the Intel Health Guide
PHS6000 - as well as an online interface - the Intel Health Care
Management Suite - allowing clinicians to monitor patients in their
homes and manage care remotely.
"The Health Guide is a step
forward in offering more personalized and effective management of
chronic health conditions in the home," said Louis Burns, vice president
and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "Intel has spent
years researching the needs of both caregivers and patients, and we are
now moving to launch a series of products that will help extend care
from the hospital to the home. Our products will help address the
challenges of an aging population and rising rates of chronic disease."
Intel is collaborating with
health care industry leaders around the world to validate the clinical
benefits of the Health Guide for a wide range of chronic disease
conditions and health and wellness applications.
Pilot studies in the United
States are currently planned with health care organizations such as
Aetna, Erickson Retirement Communities, Providence Medical Group in
Oregon and SCAN Health Plan. The objective is to assess how the Health
Guide integrates with different care management models in the home.
These first studies focus on the ability to demonstrate improved health
outcomes for conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, hypertension,
and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Customers such as Advanced
Warning Systems, Inc., (AWS), a provider of health care discovery
products and web-based services, monitor people for acute cardiovascular
symptoms that can cause sudden death. AWS will use the Intel Heath Guide
to connect with a targeted class of users, including retired athletes
and post-war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
with the highest incidence of cardiovascular related illnesses.
The Health Guide promotes
greater patient engagement and more efficient care management by
enabling communication between patients and health care professionals
and providing clinicians with access to the most current, actionable
data.
This solution offers
interactive tools for personalized care management and includes vital
sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational
content, and feedback and communications tools, such as video
conferencing and alerts.
Clinicians have ongoing
access to data so that they can better manage each patient's conditions
while patients benefit from customized care in the comfort of their own
living room.
Intel is working with
leading health care organizations that have an understanding of health
care delivery to develop unique patient care plans as well as multimedia
educational content for chronic conditions.
Specifically, Intel is
working with the Mayo Clinic to have licensed educational content from
MayoClinic.com made available to customers using the Health Guide. In
addition, Intel is working with the American Heart Association to create
care plans based on the organization's treatment guidelines for a pilot
project for the ongoing management of patients with heart failure.
The intent is to help health
care professionals monitor patients and remotely manage their care in
accordance with science guidelines and also to provide patients with
ready access to credible and targeted education material. Intel has also
hired a team of clinical experts to provide a range of professional
services to enable health care organizations to successfully integrate
the personal health system into their current disease management
programs and models of care.
Additionally, Intel plans to
use the core technology components of the solution to build products
targeted for new areas such as independent living and programs for
health and wellness management and to support new devices such as mobile
phones and handhelds.
American Medical Alert
Corporation, a national provider of remote patient monitoring devices
and 24/7 health care communication services, will be the first U.S.
market channel partner for the Intel Health Guide. By adding the Intel
Health Guide to its portfolio of offerings, AMAC will be further
equipped to provide its customers with the care management technologies.
The Health Guide is designed
to be used by health care professionals to manage their patients at home
and is not currently available for general consumer purchase.
Photo courtesy: Intel
