Toumaz Technology (Milton Park, UK) reported that it has signed a licensing and product development agreement in early December with an unnamed U.S.-based “strategic partner” — described only as a “leading global medical device business” — for proprietary signal-processing technology for handheld and body worn wireless diagnostic and monitoring products.

Company sources told Medical Device Daily that additional information, including the partner’s identity, will be reported sometime next month.

MDD learned that product development teams for the unnamed strategic partner and Toumaz are currently joined up in California, planning next-generation monitoring products that will be disposable, non-invasive and capable of providing real time critical vital sign information.

The joint announcement with the partner organization said the intention of the strategic alliance is to create new markets worldwide with the objective of becoming the global leader for personal health-monitoring products that “provide highly functional, robust, low cost, disposable and non-intrusive monitors for a wide range of healthcare and lifestyle management applications.”

Toumaz’s proprietary AMx processing technology for ultra-low-power signaling between the personal monitoring device and a receiving device, such as a telephone, laptop computers or wall-mounted detectors, uses neither Bluetooth nor conventional radio-frequency identification technologies (Medical Device Daily, Nov. 2, 2007).

Under the agreement, the strategic partner will immediately provide Toumaz with funding and then continue to provide funding and resources to advance product development. The partner also agreed to fund any necessary regulatory approvals. In exchange, the partner firm secures exclusive worldwide rights to manufacturing, product marketing, sales and distribution.

Toumaz will retain all the background intellectual property relating to its Sensium platform that integrates system-on-chip vital sign data processing with the AMx technology and will be entitled to explore further revenue streams for the technology outside of the applications used by the strategic alliance.

The UK firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanoscience (Geneva, Switzerland), an investment group that for seven years has funded the research and development of the technology.

Nanoscience said in the announcement that the vital sign-monitoring market currently exceeds $1.5 billion and will see vigorous growth. Nanoscience also notes the point of care diagnostics market worldwide is estimated at $10 billion and growing.

The Sensium technology platform draws from 10 to 100 times less power than conventional digital processing based on software, depending on the sensor being used, whether for heart, motion or temperature. The Sensium signal can be detected up to 30 feet. An onboard memory chip can store vital signs data for short periods when the patient moves out of range.

In mid-November in London, Toumaz demonstrated a prototype product for its system-on-chip called Connected Freedom, a series of bandage-mounted sensors, called “plasters” in the UK, that continuously and remotely sends multiple vital signs including heart rate, body temperature and respiration.

Ultra-low-power consumption creates a competitive advantage in the market as battery size is substantially reduced, and thus the weight, and the autonomy of the medical device is extended.

In a demonstration at the World of Health IT in Vienna in early November, Toumaz showed a temperature-monitoring device powered by a slip of black paper, called PowerPaper, which is capable of transmitting body temperature readings every 10 minutes for one year.

More power-intensive applications, such as continuous ECG monitoring, requires a commercially available hearing-aid battery.

The Sensium signal platform is bi-directional, continuously sending acknowledgements for data packets, which “creates a significant advantage for generating validated data that is very robust and reliable,” according to Richard McPartland, a product manager for Toumaz who spoke with MDD at the Vienna demonstration.

France says spending for in-home devices doubles

The Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie (CNAM), France’s national health insurance plan, reported last week that spending for in-home medical devices and equipment increased from €800 million in 2000 to €1.6 billion in 2006, or $2 billion adjusted for currency rates that year.

For 2006, France reported total reimbursements of €4.2 billion ($5.25 billion) for medical devices and equipment with almost two-thirds of the devices now being prescribed by general practitioners. As of July 2007, the trend was continuing with a 13% increase year-to-year.

France counts more than 3,000 different devices in this category, ranging from bandages to wheelchairs and including devices such as protheses and tests for diabetics. Medications are not included.

Patients considered handicapped and those receiving implantable devices, such as hip replacements and cardiac valves, accounted for €1.4 billion ($1.75 billion) of the spending.

Self-treatment devices used by diabetics, including glucose meters and syringes, accounted for € 385 million ($482 million) according to the agency, which during a press conference criticized the absence of generic test strips in France, which it said could significantly reduce the reimbursement expense to the state for daily monitoring by diabetics.

France faces a record deficit for the national health plan of € 12 billion ($18 billion at 2007 exchange rates) and CNAM said that with the country’s aging population and the increased use of treatments, the deficit will increase another 1 2 billion this year.