Some of the latest telehealth technology and services were on display at the recent ATA2022 Conference and Expo, the American Telemedicine Association‘s annual gathering that welcomes top telehealth professionals from across the globe. This year’s event, which was held in Boston, featured an inaugural Telehealth Innovators Challenge to bestow honors on leading edge digital health innovations. Let’s look at the winners.
The Philadelphia-based medtech startup Stel Life took home two honors — The Patient Experience win and the Judge’s Choice Award — for its Stel Vitals Hub. The device addresses the common issue of having to rely on the sometimes complex configurations of smartphones, apps, and WiFi connections to transfer health data to and from the homes of users. This can be a challenge for people who aren’t all that tech-savvy. And so the hub uses a Bluetooth connection and cellular networks to connect the user’s devices, such as blood pressure monitors and pulse oximeters, with their electronic health records and caretakers. And if there were an award for an acronym, it also would have gone to Stel — which stands for “Simple Tech Everyone Loves”.
Pulsenmore also garnered two awards: In-patient Care Solutions and the People’s Choice Award. The Israeli medical equipment company received the double accolades for an ultrasound cradle that attaches to a smartphone to create a handheld device that’s capable of performing at-home fetal ultrasounds. A mobile app guides users through self-scans, sends the scans to healthcare providers, facilitates online consultations with clinicians, and integrates with electronic health records.
Biobeat Technologies, another honoree from Israel, was the winner in the Tools That Deliver Care category. Biobeat’s wrist and chest monitors measure 13 vital signs, including respiratory rate, pulse rate, mean arterial pressure, cardiac output, and stroke volume. The data that’s collected is wirelessly transmitted to a cloud-based application and the user’s electronic medical records. But Biobeat isn’t just about collecting data; they analyze the information and generate an Early Warning Score to alert users to possible health risks.
While emerging technology was in the spotlight, inclusion was at the forefront of the event. ATA CEO Ann Mond Johnson said, “Telehealth innovation, more than ever, is critical to helping advance virtual care solutions, to expand our ability to deliver quality care to more patients, including those in rural and underserved communities [and] help eliminate gaps in access to care.”
