The HealthPatch MD From Vital Connect is a wearable sensor patch that we’ve covered before at Health Tech Insider. It has FDA clearance and CE approval, and is able to monitor eight vital signs and biometric measurements: Single-Lead ECG, Heart Rate, RR Interval, Heart Rate Variability, Respiratory Rate, Skin Temperature, Body Posture, Fall Detection, and Activity including Steps. This is helpful data, but it needs to be put into context in order to be truly useful.
That’s why last week’s announcement of a partnership between Vital Connect and BePATIENT is so interesting. BePATIENT offers the BeVITAL platform that incorporates a wide range of services, including remote monitoring, screening, and patient health records. The BeVITAL system will be able to access and process the data generated by the HealthPatch MD. One of the initial projects for this collaboration will be the used of the system in monitoring heart failure patients after they have been discharged from the hospital. The study will be conducted at the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek and Concord, California. This is of particular interest because heart failure is one of the conditions targeted by the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. The system will also be used in a study run by Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego will monitor patients following outpatient surgery procedures at Hospital Infantile De Las Californias in Tijuana, Mexico.
Many people recognize the potential benefits of wearable Health Tech devices to provide early detection and more effective treatment, but the challenge is to transform the raw data into actionable information. Partnerships such as the one between Vital Connect and BePATIENT are the next step in generating useful knowledge from wearable data, and speed the adoption of innovation in healthcare practices.
