Remote Monitoring Device Receives FDA Clearance
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Home monitoring device has received FDA clearance, will act as a new home ‘hub’
“Will home health monitoring work if it's sold directly to consumers?” That’s the question mHealth News is asking after FDA approval of the Alere HomeLink cellular connectivity hub. This approval allows for the device to be sold in the United States and Europe.
HomeLink seeks to be a comprehensive solution for at-home monitoring. Kent Dicks, Alere Connect's CEO, said there are "many disparate solutions that solve single issues and not a comprehensive all-encompassing solution for patient care.
"Patients/consumers are not properly incented to use the health monitoring tools in order to manage their health and achieve better outcomes. In order to achieve effective results from the mHealth market, it must consolidate to a comprehensive solution that provides a total care solution for a patient/consumer."
HomeLink connects to blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, glucose meters, and weight scales via USB, Bluetooth, or BLE. The device also has a FitLinxx receiver in it which, according to MobiHealth News, points to future plans to integrate wellness devices, like smart pedometers. HomeLink will cost about $350 and is able to receive data from multiple devices at once on a 7-inch touchscreen. This touchscreen feature allows providers to survey patients right on the device.
“The biggest mistake we’ve seen with other traditional companies that are out there is to go right to the patient — and just exclude the physician from the equation — and try to get the patient compliant on their own,” Dicks told MobiHealth News. “With building the HIE, the analytics, and the programs that go around it, we want to be able to engage the physician too, and give them the right amount of information to engage their patients. Physicians get a lot of data already and they can’t be monitoring their patients all the time, so you need this hybrid call center approach in addition to other technology to keep the patient engaged between care visits along the way.”