4 min reading time

Nersi Nazari, MDTX keynote speaker and CEO of VitalConnect, bet the fate of his company on the widespread adoption of continuous patient monitoring.

Sounds like a reasonable bet to me.

In his 40-minute keynote at https://medgroup.biz/Nazari (replay, slides, and transcript available), Nersi said patients and consumers are accepting the technology and clinical evidence supports its efficacy.

Continuous monitoring (CM) of vital signs is not new. In critical care, life depends on it.

So how to make CM portable, inexpensive, and effective?

Nersi: “Early warning signs can be extremely useful for saving lives and expenses.”

Supporting facts:
• 400,000 preventable adverse events (US only, annually)
• 50 percent of Medicare expenses are for preventable readmissions.
• 15 minutes = cardiac abnormalities can be identified before a life-threatening event.

In the hospital, Nersi says, if you have a solution that helps in any way with sepsis, you’ll get their immediate attention. CM may be that solution – versus spot checks every 4 to 8 hours.

“Sepsis is huge in terms of the damage it does to patients, to costs, and to the healthcare system. This is one of those conditions that early detection is extremely important.”

It was an excellent talk with a solid Q&A session afterward: https://medgroup.biz/Nazari.

He also covered results from a 100-patient study, what Mercy Hospital is doing in St. Louis, and told us how CM that may have saved a life.

So if you have any interest in medtech that’s riding all the major themes – miniaturization, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence – check out the talk. It will be worth your while.

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Recommendations for our October 2018 keynote?

A little crowdsourcing here: Who should be the next keynote for MDTX, the Medical Device Technology Exchange, in October?

https://medgroup.biz/MDTX • October 2-4, 2018 • Del Mar Fairgrounds (Northern San Diego)

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage 🍨
Medical Devices Group Leader

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Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Nersi emphasized the potential for patients transferred out of critical care as an excellent place to start. Patients in the general ward are spot checked, unattended for 96 percent of the time.

When released, the following days can make or break a patient’s complete recovery. And with time in hospital beds so expensive, earlier releases let patients recover in the comfort of their homes.

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Tangentially related infographic: Wearables, productivity, and health http://ow.ly/oLWL30jxJBe

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Just discovered this piece on our friend’s company: http://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/study-finds-wearable-heart-rate-monitors-feasible-early-detection-hypoglycemia?sthash.4ckKEySP.mjjo

Julie Omohundro
Principal Consultant at Class Three, LLC
I think the key question will be whether you can successfully identify at-risk patient populations and the parameters that are clinically useful to monitor for those populations. I don’t think the cost of monitoring everybody for everything is likely to prove cost effective.

For every person that has a legitimate “early warning sign” that might save lives and expenses, how many other people will have the same reading that is not an early warning sign of anything, but just an anomalous reading? Or even a normal reading, for that person?

Gabriel Adusei, MSc, PhD
Visionary, Author, Chief Evangelist, Thought Leader, Consultant, Medical Devices
In theory, Connected Health Devices and associated solutions are the future, however in practice, the infrastructure are with so many challenges. To mention a few, platforms and their compatibility, device connectivity, security and stability, data management, etc… are still with issues.
I am sure with the pace of the technological advancements and their transformation, every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

Lisa Coyne
Director of Business Development – Marketing
Hey Joe how are you? Our CEO has been talking about similar subjects.
Simplexity Product Development.
I appreciate the content you share.
See you at the next event.

Jessica Ching
Chief Marketing Officer, Disruptive Health Innovator & Speaker
Let’s hope it’s 2018! In 2006, CGMs (continuous glucose monitors) were brought to market for people with diabetes. The monitors let you see blood sugars every 5 minutes (288 reading per day), as opposed to 3-8x/day by doing finger sticks.

Revolutionary?
Yes, immediately life changing, for people with diabetes.
No, not really for most doctors… until a decade or so later. Still counting.
No, not at all for hospitals. Lots of reasons, but what matters is continuous monitoring, how ever you can get it.

I’ve learned that regular people/customers/consumers can make these technologies important. It can be more than just at-home monitoring too. People now have the ability to leapfrog, to the point where my anesthesiology used my (personal) device during my knee surgery! It was that or nothing, since the lab only draws blood before surgery and a couple of hours post-surgery.

The power of innovation is closer to home than you may think. It might actually be in your hands!

Lincoln Palmer
Healthcare & Medical Solutions
Very well presented, clearly this is the right pathway for a more efficient & patient focussed healthcare system. We’re getting there very slowly in Australia, the integration with existing EMR’s & hospital records systems is a massive challenge. If able to be configured so that clinicians can basically work with it on autopilot, they’ll get onboard. Driven by better outcomes & solutions.

Ryan Latterell
Physical Scientist
Ok who wants to go get chipped?

Randy Wagner
Opportunities just keep coming. West-mark sales, Classic Window washing, and now Livelife alarms. STAYING VITAL !!
I find it interesting , that in the comments so far no one has mentioned the prevention aspect of continuous monitoring. The at risk people in the community can understandably benefit from this. I represent a monitoring device Live Life alarms that continuously and inexpensively monitors those individuals. Using embedded cell phone technology this monitor connects at risk people directly with friends and family before alerting emergency services.

Dick Davis
National Account Manager at Zewa Medical Technology
Connectivity can be a life saver but how about patient acceptance? They may be good candidates for monitoring but like taking prescribed medications there has to be a patient buy-in.