Several Telemedicine and Remote-Patient Monitoring Solutions Cutting Through the COVID-19 Clutter

Somatix’s SafeBeing solution consists of four components that work together for remote patient monitoring and telehealth: an enterprise dashboard, caregiver app, user app, and a smartband.
“Data is collected and filtered at the level of the wearable device through proprietary mechanisms that enable the system to work in real-time and conserve battery power and is then transferred to the cloud and subsequently [to] the dashboard and SafeBeing Caretaker application,” Eran Ofir, CEO of Somatix told MD+DI. “SafeBeing currently supports BLE connection between the band and the patients’ phones. Later this year, the Somatix smartband will have the capability to directly connect to the cloud-based servers of Somatix through wireless internet.”
The cloud-based platform translates data in real-time from commercially available sensors installed in smartwatches or smartbands, Ofir said. “This data turns into clinical insights and predictive analytics that keep patients safe, monitor their health and wellbeing, and enable healthcare providers to observe the most at-risk patients.” SafeBeing also communicates with PointClickCare EHR platform through its marketplace API, allowing the exchange of a user’s health data between systems, he said. “The passive collection of data via a wearable band is automatically entered into the EHR via PointClickCare’s API without the need for human entry and providing real-time access,” he said. “Also, the patient’s specific data from the PointClickCare EHR platform is enabling better insights and predictive analytics for every patient being monitored, given special conditions, medication administered, history of treatment etc.”
Somatix offers its own low-cost smartband, which Ofir describes as a “a light, durable silicone band with a 4- to 6-day battery life, but it can work on several other commercially available wearables as well.” He pointed out that “the events and gestures that are captured have less to do with the device and more to do with the unique and patented gesture detection algorithms that we run on the device.”
SafeBeing could play a role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are working with nursing homes, sub-acute short-term care, and other facilities that are in lockdown and quarantined situations,” Ofir said. “Especially as these care organizations are short-staffed and following isolation protocols, technology plays a critical role in both simplifying the workflows of the staff and in providing valuable remote insights.” He shared a couple scenarios here:
“People (at all ages) who were identified as COVID-19 carriers and need to stay quarantined at home are currently unmonitored. Their health and wellbeing can be monitored with SafeBeing and those at-risk for decline can be identified earlier and at-scale,” he explained. “SafeBeing can also be integrated with Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuffs, pulse oximeters, thermometers, and blood glucose monitors to add even more value to the monitoring of patients’ health.
“We see every day now that other patients with non-COVID-19 related conditions are being sent home to free up the healthcare system (beds) to deal with the emergency COVID-19 response,” he continued. “However, these people (discharged patients) still need to be monitored. SafeBeing can monitor them at scale with no installations or complicated setup and it can identify those that need provider attention.”
Finally, “seniors are in need of monitoring now more than ever,” Ofir said. “To date, seniors have relied on healthcare professionals, family caregivers, and senior day care centers to oversee their health and wellbeing. Yet, both at home and at care facilities, seniors are left unprotected because of the isolation and social distancing protocols that are currently in place due to the coronavirus. In practice, families are keeping their distance from their loved elderlies to avoid risk of exposing them to the disease, healthcare professionals are unable to provide the same levels of care and seniors are staying home, missing both medical appointments and other day-to-day interactions that provided them a layer of protection. These seniors need a new, simple way of monitoring their health and wellbeing. SafeBeing remotely connect both caregivers and family members, identifying falls, emergencies, deviations from normal, risks for hospitalization and overall decline. Family members can be provided with SafeBeing’s family app to access to their loved one’s insights and alerts.”
Ofir said that SafeBeing is already live in the market and has met HIPAA, certification, and compliance requirements at several health systems and elder care facilities. “In the United States, the SafeBeing technology falls under the category of a Clinical Decision Support System, which is not subject to regulation under FDA,” he said.

Original Article: (https://www.mddionline.com/several-telemedicine-solutions-cutting-through-covid-19-clutter)