There’s Less Pie in the Sky as Wireless Health Gets Connected

use in corporate wellness programs, is a wearable wireless device that monitors physical activity and provides data to Web-based health information that can be customized to support, motivate, and guide each user. CEO Dave Monahan said FitLinxx has about 75 partners, including Healthrageous, National Jewish Health, and Sonic Boom.

—MC-10, founded in 2009 in Cambridge, MA, makes “wearable electronics”—soft, stretchable, and conformable microchips that can be applied like Band-Aids to monitor heart rate, body temperature, brain activity, and other biometrics. “The fundamental problem we’re solving is that electronics are hard and boxy, and humans are soft and curvy,” CEO David Icke said. With wireless connectivity and continuous data analysis, MC-10’s technology can be used to provide consumers and caregivers with what Icke called “seamless sensing.”

—Telcare, founded in 2008 in Bethesda, MD, developed a comprehensive system for managing diabetes that includes the first wireless glucose testing meter approved by the FDA, two-way messaging with an FDA-cleared care management center, and a suite of iPhone and Android apps that enable family members to monitor and help with the diabetes management. “We’ve probably spent $5 on FDA compliance for every $1 we spend on software development, and $3 on FDA compliance for every $1 we’ve spent on electronics and hardware development,” Telcare CEO Jonathan Javitt said.

In a related update today, TripleTree named the three winners of its 5th Annual iAwards for Connected Health. The winners were selected from 12 finalists that presented their technologies late yesterday afternoon. The categories and winners are:

—Clinical effectiveness: Healthsense, based in Mendota Heights, MN, provides monitoring services for aging seniors.

—Consumer engagement: AgaMatrix, of Salem, NH, provides wireless blood glucose testing, reminders, and data analysis.

—Operational effectiveness: CyraCom, based in Tucson, AZ, provides over-the-phone language interpretation, translation, and related services for healthcare providers.

TripleTree also named Asthmapolis as the recipient of its 2013 Horizon Award, recognizing their unique advancements in chronic disease management via connected health. Founded in 2010, the Madison, WI, startup using sensor-equipped inhalers, mobile applications, advanced analytics and feedback to help physicians identify patients who need more help controlling their asthma.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.