Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer

PARIS — Several personal health alert devices arrived on European markets recently, each targeting a mass market but with different business models and offering different features.

Based on inexpensive technologies and built on the uniformity of Europe’s GSM cell phone standards, these products run on easily scalable platforms, and through arrangements with telephone companies can be quickly distributed.

In the wake of the recent success of digital music players and now the popularity of streaming music to cell phones, it is tempting to predict a potential market for trusted personal medical devices, especially in Europe with its rapidly aging population of 450 million.

Telemedicine is one of the priorities for funding under the upcoming European Union Seventh Framework.

At a meeting in Berlin last month, Dr. David Brailer, national coordinator for healthcare IT for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , and his European Union counterpart, Frans de Bru ne, director of the European Commission Office for the Information Society (DG INFSO), shared the podium to address “The Role of Technology to Facilitate Accessible and Affordable Healthcare.”

Brailer and de Bruine quickly agreed on the economic urgency for shifting acute care for chronic disease from intervention to prevention and empowering patients through telemedicine to play a more active role in their healthcare.

According to a study conducted for DG INFSO, in Europe 5.5% of households with people older than 50 are currently connected to an in-home, fixed-line alarm service.

The number of people using alert services will increase dramatically over the decades to come, says the study.

A mobile medical alert system responds to demographic trends on both continents reflecting changes in lifestyles and habits among the 50-plus generation giving them increased independence, autonomy and overall quality of life while maintaining a connection to medical services if needed.

A product developed under the EU’s Sixth Framework called MobilAlarm was officially released this month by the program partners for mass marketing as the Vitaris Mobil from Vitaris GmbH (Ismaning, Germany).

The initial roll-out for the device will be in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK and Slovakia.

During the three-year development of the EU MobilAlarm project, Vitaris was known as Attendo . In late April the security and response divisions of Attendo were organized as Vitaris and merged with Tunstall (Whitley Bridge, UK), a manufacturer of in-home telephone assistance devices that operates a European-scale call center platform.

Tunstall says it is the world-leading specialist for tele-assistance with 2.5 million subscribers worldwide and operations in 30 countries.

Vitaris Mobile is a simplified GSM cell phone designed for ease of use by the elderly, the disabled or people with vision challenges, such as a diabetes patient in crisis.

By pushing a large button, a speech link connects the user with a response center which at the same moment receives from the phone the location coordinates, thanks to onboard Global Positioning Systems (GPS) features.

In the event of an emergency, the call center mobilizes the appropriate medical response team, but also designated neighbors and relatives.

Germany, Spain and the UK served as the consortium countries beginning in 2004 to test the EU’s MobilAlarm project that led to the final Vitaris device.

The program focused on a critical validation of the technical, organizational, and economic characteristics of a location-independent alert system, specifically measuring operating costs, the potential revenues and cost savings to determine the public benefits.

In May 2006 the project was cited as one of the best practices among EU technology innovation projects.

The leading field test for the project was in Spain starting in 2005, through the Andalusian Helpline Service that fields more than 225,000 emergency calls annually from 26,000 users with fixed telephone alert systems. Fifty users were provided with the MobilAlarm device.

In Germany the device was validated by the national Parkinson’s disease self-help group. “Parkinson’s patients abhor going out because of the risk of a life-threatening situation,” said Lothar Jennrich-Gugel, head of the association and one who is affected by Parkinson’s disease himself. “Based on this, a mobile alarm system is urgently required.”

Other populations expected to benefit from Vitaris Mobile include diabetes patients and women experiencing chronic domestic violence.

Start-up firm eHit (Kuopio, Finland), located in the cell phone innovation corridor surrounding Nokia (Espoo, Finland), envisions a wireless telemedicine hub in every home.

The company’s leading edge is called Health Gateway, a secure collecting point for multiple wireless-capable health monitors that may surround a patient with several chronic conditions. Glucose meters, cardiac monitors, blood pressure gauges, even weight scales can be linked to the hub by Bluetooth, infrared or old-fashioned wires.

Health Gateway connects by GSM/GPRS with the medical center, clinic or physician’s office to enter the collected data into the patient’s electronic medical record.

The caregivers or physician can send responses and recommendations to the patient by text message or through a web-based portal or messaging service.

“It is a very cost-effective way to provide health services remotely to patients in rural areas or medical systems with large coverage areas,” said Arto Holopainen, director of research and development at eHit.

“We are mainly a software company,” he said. “We work very closely with medical equipment manufacturers to design these devices.”

In April, eHit presented at the Med-etel meeting in Luxembourg a mobile electrocardiograph that measures heart activity through a mini ECG sensor and directly sends the data to the patient’s mobile phone. The phone then relays the data to appropriate healthcare providers.