Continua Health Alliance today announced the first end-to-end connected health solution based on the Continua architecture. Continua, the non-profit, open industry alliance of more than 220 leading healthcare and technology organizations, heralded the development as a significant milestone in the group’s mission to establish an ecosystem of interoperable personal connected health solutions. The new end-to-end connected health solution will be showcased at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 7-10 at Booth #2817 in the CES Digital Health Zone.
“Continua is having a significant impact on the future roll-out of these systems by expanding the ability of Continua members to deliver compelling products to consumers and healthcare providers.”
“One of Continua’s key goals has been to enable end-to-end interoperability for connected heath solutions. By providing a framework of standards-based interfaces, Continua is spurring innovation while removing barriers to global implementation and adoption,” said Rick Cnossen, President and Chairman of the Board for Continua Health Alliance. Chuck Parker, Continua’s Executive Director, added, “Continua is having a significant impact on the future roll-out of these systems by expanding the ability of Continua members to deliver compelling products to consumers and healthcare providers.”
Continua member companies IBM, Nonin Medical, and Vignet Inc. will demonstrate the end-to-end solution at CES in Booth #2817, and illustrate how data from consumer health devices can be transmitted to a variety of destinations, including hospitals, medical offices and patient information systems. In the demonstration, data from a Continua Certified™ Bluetooth-enabled wireless pulse oximeter from Nonin Medical will be sent to a PC manager running the Vignet Connected Health Services platform using the Continua device interface standard. The manager will upload the data to an IBM server using the Continua WAN interface standard (draft version currently under ballot). From there, the IBM server can send the data, using the Continua interface, to various service providers such as healthcare facilities, disease management services or personal health record services.
“IBM is committed to enabling connected home health solutions such as remote patient monitoring, which have great potential to improve patient outcomes and deliver more affordable healthcare,” said Katherine Holland, general manager, IBM Global Life Sciences. “Demonstrating an end-to-end implementation of the Continua architecture is an important milestone, and IBM is pleased to partner with Continua members to build an ecosystem of interoperable, personal connected health solutions.”
“Nonin Medical is working to develop cross-industry standards that can reduce the cost of healthcare delivery,” said Jayant Parthasarathy, Ph.D., eHealth Business Manager for Nonin Medical and Chair of Continua's Technical Working Group. “We’re proud the first demonstration of a Continua end-to-end solution will feature the Nonin Onyx® II Model 9560 Bluetooth® fingertip pulse oximeter, which is compliant to the Continua™ Version One Design Guidelines.”
“Vignet’s Connected Health Services platform addresses the need for streamlined data delivery solutions in the healthcare arena and accelerates time to market with reduced cost for our customers,” said Praduman Jain, Vignet CEO. "Solutions that empower both patients and providers to share and access medical information will play a critical role in accelerating the adoption of connected health devices, EMRs and PHRs. Vignet is pleased to partner with Continua members to build an ecosystem of interoperable, personal connected health solutions.”
The publication of the Continua Health Alliance Version One Design Guidelines last year paved the way for Continua members to develop compliant connected health products and services. The Continua interoperability guidelines specify how to use existing standards to build interoperable personal healthcare solutions. The group’s next design guidelines, expected in the first half of 2010, will include two wireless technology standards for low power radios and will enable new devices, additional use cases and extend the capabilities of devices in the Continua Health Alliance ecosystem.
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