Dear Wireless Health group members,

I’m a firm believer that the best way to accelerate the digital health revolution – which encompasses wireless health, mHealth, telemedicine, healthcare information systems, imaging, genomics, etc. – is by creating awareness among all stakeholders.

As I pointed out in my recent announcement explaining the expansion of scope for the group (wireless health to digital health), the person whom I think articulates the most compelling, cogent, and comprehensive vision for the transformation taking place in medicine and consumer health is Dr. Eric Topol.

From his keynote addresses at the recent mHealth Summit in Washington D.C., the Digital Health Summit at CES in Las Vegas, and the WLSA Convergence Summit in San Diego, to his now-famous TEDMED Talk http://bit.ly/akbEmU and in his just-released book “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care”, Dr. Topol is the preeminent voice for the digital health revolution. (I’ve been reading his book and even bought a copy for my parents: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Destruction-Medicine-Digital-Revolution/dp/0465025501 )

In recognition of the critical role that Dr. Topol plays in driving awareness for the digital health/medicine revolution, he has been selected as a nominee for Modern Physician and Modern Healthcare’s annual “50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare”. This program recognizes physician executive leaders who possess “the skills needed to improve the healthcare delivery system in the post-healthcare reform era. It took power to make reform happen; now it will take influence to make reform work.”

I’d like to suggest that group members do as I’ve done and recognize Dr. Topol’s continuing contributions to medicine and consumer health by voting for him in this poll, thereby amplifying our own voices and collective efforts to effect positive change via digital technologies in the health realm. Please cast your vote by Feb 10:http://www.modernphysician.com/section/50mostinfluential-about

In related “awareness” news, my work in curating the Wireless Health group was featured in Medical Electronics Design. The article by Brian Buntz, “LinkedIn Group Helping Medicine and Digital World Converge” http://bit.ly/yZsOtk really took my breath away, as Brian illustrated a firm grasp of my mission for the group. Thanks again, Brian!

Moreover, I was also quoted – along with Dr. Topol and Dr. David Albert – in Scientific American’s annual “World-Changing Ideas” issue. See “The Forever Health Monitor”, which features Dr. Albert’s iPhone ECG and Dr. Topol’s elucidation on the relevance of genomics:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-changing-ideas-2011

A couple of final administrative notes:
- Please send me a connection request on LinkedIn if we’re not already connected
- Please follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1
- Tell your friends about the group!
- Attend events! Here’s a global list… hopefully there’s one or two in your region:https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/events.html

And lastly, for my friends who are celebrating it, Happy Chinese New Year!

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Founder, Wireless Health group on LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2181454&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Advisor, Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance: http://www.wirelesslifesciences.org/
Mentor, Blueprint Health: http://www.blueprinthealth.org/
Strategic Advisor, Popper & Company: http://popperandco.com/
Co-chair, Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego
Wireless Health Blog: http://wirelesshealth.wordpress.com
#DigitalHealth #mHealth PersonalMed Daily: http://paper.li/WirelessHealth1/1309203497
Recent Media: https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/Recent_Media.html

Wireless Health Group featured in MedCity News: “The Best LinkedIn Groups for Healthcare and Life Science Innovation”

Dear Wireless Health group members,

I am delighted that MedCity News has featured the Wireless Health group in “The Best LinkedIn Groups for Healthcare and Life Science Innovation”.  (My thanks to Stephanie Baum, Philadelphia Bureau Chief at MedCity News.)

This type of validation of my work and the contributions of group members is really nice, since it is not funded by anyone, but something I am passionate about and see as being of benefit to everyone. While the article includes a group description, I actually changed it last night to the following:

The Wireless Health group serves as an ethical, curated forum for advancing professional knowledge and relationships among individuals interested in the super-convergence taking place between the digital world and the “medical cocoon”, as Dr. Eric Topol has described it. This includes:

- Wireless Sensors
- Mobile Connectivity + Bandwidth
- Genomics
- Imaging
- Information Systems
- Internet
- Social Networking
- Computing Power + Data Universe

Since its inception in 2009, the group has expanded its scope to include the full digital transformation of consumer health, healthcare delivery, and medicine. The group’s raison d’être is both to capture the zeitgeist and catalyze what Dr. Topol describes as “the creative destruction of medicine”.

I’ve been following Dr. Topol for a couple of years and, obviously, his cogent description of the digital transformation of medicine that we’re witnessing (and creating) has inspired my revision of the group description, which now reaches beyond wireless technology converging with health, healthcare, research, and public safety. I’ve just started reading his new eBook, “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care“, which further clarifies the rapid transformation of “Old Medicine” to “New Medicine”.

In keeping with the theme of this brave new digital health world, I’ve helped organize a CommNexus San Diego event entitled “Personalized Medicine: How Genomics and Wireless Technologies are Making Healthcare More Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory”. Scheduled for Jan 24th, this panel will feature companies at the forefront of the genomics and wireless technology-enabled personalized medicine revolution:
- Nicholas Schork, PhD, CEO at Cypher Genomics (and a colleague of Dr. Topol at the Scripps Translational Science Institute)
- Samir Damani, MD, Co-Founder & Principal at MD Revolution
- Patrick Merel, PhD, CEO at Portable Genomics
- Ron Richard, Director of Business Development at Qualcomm Life

In addition to this event, I’ll be at the Digital Health Summit at CES, Jan 11-12, which will include keynotes by Dr. Topol and Greg Lucier from Life Technologies. I’ll also be at the Burrill Digital Health Meeting, Feb 7-8. I look forward to seeing many of you at these events, which are featured at the top of my global health innovation events list: https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/events.html

Happy New Year!

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Founder, Wireless Health group on LinkedIn
VP, Partner Development, Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA)
Mentor, Blueprint Health
Co-chair, Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1
Contact: https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/contact.html

Digital Meets Health

Last week I attended the 3^rd annual mHealth Summit in Washington, D.C. Organized by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), this multi-track conference attracted some 3,600 attendees and included representatives from across the health innovation spectrum, including industry, investors, entrepreneurs, policy makers, standards, NGOs, mobile operators, wireless technology producers, healthcare systems, insurers, pharma, regulators, researchers, and a multitude of others with an interest in the burgeoning space of ‘mHealth.’

While the lexicon for mHealth (an amalgam of “mobile” and “health”) is diverse and overlapping, a natural theme emerges if we look at the genesis of the term. The PC and ever-smaller, more powerful computer microprocessors spawned the digital revolution. Recently, we’ve seen the mobile revolution taking hold, wherein digital tools and wireless technologies have converged to allow us to be connected consumers, patients, and professionals. Now we are seeing a digital health revolution, wherein mobile, and the connectivity it provides for us, is enabling a new paradigm for health. Moreover, this phenomenon is spreading throughout the entire life sciences and health care ecosystem, including all strategics. To characterize all of this as simply being a combination of mobile and health is not only ambiguous (the term “mobile” has often been used interchangeably to mean a cell phone or mobility), but is somewhat disingenuous to the fundamentals that are driving this paradigm shift. Of course, mHealth is a very catchy and accessible term – and proponents have steadily broadened its meaning – so it’s often easier to make a concession in many modes of communication rather than fight a good-natured but losing battle!

In terms of how the overall ecosystem and, in particular, businesses are leveraging digital, wireless, and mobile, there are varying schools of thought and analyses – not surprisingly, the prism one views it through shapes the assessment.

For some analysts, like John Moore at Chilmark Research, the feeling is that “mHealth” is stuck in neutral. But this perspective is often colored by the framework of mHealth being mostly about health apps and mobile tools in healthcare settings and in population health management, and about smartphone health apps for consumers. The healthcare status quo is precisely what many are trying to disrupt, hence it will be those who can succeed at the peripheries, in novel ways, which may effect changes in the current business and reimbursement models. Necessarily, these innovations are going to see sporadic success, at least initially. Dr. Joe Kvedar, Director of the Center for Connected Health in Boston, echoes this same sentiment in his recent blog post “Is disruption of mainstream healthcare the answer to our crisis?”.

In an effort to track some of the better known startups making progress, healthcare startup accelerator Rock Health has compiled an extensive list of Digital Health Startups which, not surprisingly, are not household names. In total numbers these are small, but they represent the first wave of the digital health revolution coming our way.

As a bit of confirmation from an investment perspective, Dr. Mohit Kaushal, co-manager at the $100M West Health Investment Fund, indicated that one payer was planning to acquire 30 companies (MobiHealthNews). Counter-balancing this, yet another investor, Lisa Suennen, a respected commentator on the health innovation business, takes the view that investments are mostly stalled.

If we change our perspective once more, and look at the world while focusing on wireless technologies converging with health and healthcare, one segment of that market – remote patient monitoring – has seen revenues double in the past four years and this is expected to double again in the next four, according to research firm Kalorama (news). Moreover, wireless technology companies like Qualcomm, which is known for its wireless technology, particularly cellular phone chipsets, announced a new wholly owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Life, at the Summit. The new entity has launched an enabling wireless health and medical device platform hub device plus cloud data management platform called “2net,” which many hope will help catalyze the efforts of the 40-plus current partners and many more companies hoping to more-efficiently deliver wireless health solutions. Moreover, Qualcomm Ventures has established a $100M investment fund, which includes one particularly exciting company, AliveCor, whose primary product is the iPhone ECG, invented by Dr. Dave Albert.

From a clinical research perspective, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has an mHealth Intra-Institute Interest Group, which tracks some 200+ research projects utilizing mHealth and wireless technologies. These tools are making monitoring and data gathering in clinical trials more efficient and powerful. Pharmaceutical companies and Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), like Quintiles, are also leveraging wireless tools in trials.

In summary, digital technology is everywhere and mobile connectivity – enabled by wireless – is one of the driving trends in health, healthcare, as well as the broader consumer markets. No less than CES, the annual consumer electronics show that highlights trends in all things digital that consumers love, will hold its second annual Digital Health Summit this year in Las Vegas (co-located with the main CES conference).

As Dr. Eric Topol, one of the keynote presenters at the mHealth Summit puts it: after having digitized everything else in our world, we are now digitizing man. (I highly recommend Dr. Topol’s 2009 TEDMED talk.) Not too long ago that would have been a very scary proposition (e.g., visions of robots taking over the world!), but the luddites are present in limited numbers these days. Quite simply, the imperatives for change – unsustainable healthcare costs, reduced access, an aging baby-boomer population, and marginal outcomes due to our “sick care” system – are being met head on by the new digital health technologies and concomitant emerging new business models. Ultimately, as digital meets health, resistance is futile. And that’s a good thing.

New European Connected Health Alliance Formed & WLSA’s Presence at mHealth Summit

Dear Wireless Health group members,

I wanted to alert you to some great mHealth/connected health association news out of Europe as well as enumerate activities that the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA) will feature at the mHealth Summit next week in Washington, D.C.

THE EUROPEAN CONNECTED HEALTH CAMPUS (ECHCAMPUS) AND THE EUROPEAN MHEALTH ALLIANCE (EUMHA) HAVE MERGED TO CREATE THE EUROPEAN CONNECTED HEALTH ALLIANCE (ECHALLIANCE).

With over 100 members throughout Europe, ECHAlliance will provide a solid foundation for further expansion in the rapidly growing MHealth and Connected Health markets.

Brian O’Connor, Chairman of EuMHA stated that ”The close working relationship we enjoy with the ECHCampus and indeed the similarities of our goals prompted the amalgamation discussions. This merger will create a larger, stronger single entity, capable of delivering real value to our members and stakeholders”.

Rob McCray, President & CEO at WLSA, had this to say: “I am pleased to see the merger of these organizations. Having worked with these and other EU-based associations, this step will simplify WLSA’s efforts to build international pathways to commercial success for our wireless health community.”

This sentiment was echoed by Brian O’Connor, who stated that “The ECHAlliance looks forward to continuing its collaboration with WLSA and building stronger ties between Europe and the U.S. in the Connected Health and MHealth space.”

Full press release:

http://www.eumha.com/content/press-release-%E2%80%93-creation-european-connected-health-alliance

http://www.wirelesslifesciences.org/2011/12/european-connected-health-alliance/

WIRELESS-LIFE SCIENCES ALLIANCE (WLSA) AT MHEALTH SUMMIT – TWO SPECIAL BUSINESS TRACK SESSIONS (REVERSE CHRNOLOGICAL ORDER)

“MAKING WIRELESS HEALTH WORK FOR THE WHOLE WORLD: A FRIENDLY COMPETITION BY INNOVATORS”, 3:30–5:00 ON TUE, DEC 6 IN THE NATIONAL HARBOR CONFERENCE ROOM #3

WLSA believes that the highest purpose for the Wireless Health sector is to expand access to affordable high quality healthcare, globally, thus enhancing “Total Global Health.” This session will showcase some of the most innovative companies in the WLSA community in a “collaborative contest” to demonstrate to a panel of experts and the attendees — who can vote via SMS — how their innovation will address global healthcare needs, such as improving access to care, lowering costs, empowering individuals to manage their care, improving quality and ultimately affecting global markets. http://www.mhealthsummit.org/program_special_wlsa.php

“THE VENTURE CAPITAL PERSPECTIVE ON MHEALTH”, 2:15–3:15 ON TUE, DEC 6 IN THE NATIONAL HARBOR CONFERENCE ROOM #4
When it comes to mHealth, where are VCs investing their time and money? Four panelists from the venture world share their views on the current state of the industry, the direction seed investment is going, and what your business can do to capture the interests of investors. http://www.mhealthsummit.org/program_track_business_1.php

Note that if you’d like to connect with me at the Summit, I’ll be maintaining a center of gravity in the Qualcomm Wireless Health pavilion, where WLSA will have a booth, along with 32 wireless health exhibits and a lounge area to facilitate industry networking and meetings. http://www.mhealthsummit.org/exhibit_qualcomm.php

Also of particular interest to me is the StartUp Mobile Health Pavilion, which will showcase innovative seed and early stage startups and is a collaborative effort from Blueprint Health, Healthbox, Rock Health, and StartUp Health. http://www.mhealthsummit.org/exhibit_startup.php

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Founder, 8,000+ member Wireless Health group on LinkedIn
VP, Partner Development, Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA)
Mentor, Blueprint Health

Co-chair, Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego

Twitter

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“The Forever Health Monitor” in Scientific American “World-Changing Ideas” Issue and Frank Moss, Director, New Media Medicine at MIT Media Lab

Dear Wireless Health group members,

Scientific American just came out with their annual “World-Changing Ideas” issue, in which they feature “10 new technologies that will make a difference”. Quoted in the very first segment, “The Forever Health Monitor”, are Dr. Dave Albert, Dr. Eric Topol, and yours truly, Paul Sonnier. Also mentioned are wireless health companies AliveCor, Withings, and WellDoc.

“The Forever Health Monitor” by Elizabeth Svoboda http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-changing-ideas-2011

In keeping with the theme of personalized medicine – which includes wireless and nano technologies plus genomics – I came across a great quote of Frank Moss in a recent interview he gave to The Boston Globe. When asked what his vision is for the future of medicine, Frank had this to say:
“My vision begins with the fact that health care costs are such a major burden on us as individuals, our families, and our country. There’s tremendous opportunity to take advantage of dramatic advances that are happening right now in technology – all the way from social media and smartphones to personal genomics and nanotechnology – to create a consumer health revolution, to enable us to take control of our health, to cut down health care costs.”

Frank, who is Director of New Media Medicine at the MIT Media Lab, was also featured in an article on GigaOm (I highly recommend the video interview with Jody Ranck) and wrote a widely-shared op-ed in the NY Times…

“The Time for Healthcare Tech Startups is Now” http://gigaom.com/2011/11/10/mit-roadmap-2011/
Two more great comments: “Don’t listen to the VCs, who say there’s no business model. They’ll change their tune very soon,” (already happening) and “I’ve been through this before. I attacked people who believed PCs would not be a part of enterprise environments. We’re at that point now where the naysayers, who say the healthcare reimbursement system will not work for this, that the incentives pay on the wrong metrics, or that Americans don’t care about healthcare — all that indicates fear that they’re wrong.”

“Our High-Tech Health-Care Future” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/opinion/our-high-tech-health-care-future.html
“The United States should commit to a “moon shot” for consumer health to make this imagined world a reality. In addition to the health benefits, we would gain revenue from exports of consumer health products to countries like China and India, which are likely to become enormous health care markets.”

(My thanks again to Marie Cloutier from Insight for sharing the Boston Globe interview with the group.)

I’m really looking forward to seeing many of you at mHealth Summit next month in Washington D.C. and the Digital Health Summit (at CES), this January in Las Vegas. Until then, for those of you in the United States – and Canada, as I just learned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving – I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving Day holiday!

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Founder, Wireless Health group on LinkedIn
VP, Partner Development, Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA)
Mentor, Blueprint Health
Co-chair, Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1
Contact: https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/contact.html

Quantified Medicine: Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Effort to Transform Healthcare in the United States

Dear Wireless Health group members,

After seeing a great article about Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong written by Zina Moukheiber in Forbes last week, I was fortunate to have another chance to hear him speak in person, this time at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA. I mentioned this upcoming opportunity to Zina and she suggested I share highlights of his talk with the group, which I’m happy to do. (For a more in-depth analysis of what Patrick is doing, please read Zina’s article via the link below.)

As Patrick recounted today about his professional beginnings in South Africa (where he had to take 50% of the salary of his peers in order to become the first Chinese doctor in the country), what struck me was that he has always maintained integrity to his vision. Patrick describes himself as an MD first – not a businessman or someone focused merely on building shareholder value. As he put it in regard to his many accomplishments (and setbacks), he holds a persistent and deep-held belief that the work he was doing was right, and by “right”, he means in the sense that it could help a lot of people. Ironically and refreshingly, this consistent thread seems to explain his great business success.

One example of this was when he was doing kidney and pancreas transplants at UCLA, and the outcomes had a high percentage of unsatisfactory outcomes (blood in the urine). While this was normal – and financially lucrative – he did not see it as good for patients, and shut down the program. What he learned, however, was that there could be a way to produce better outcomes by using cell transplantation. After researching his concepts for two years he did the first encapsulated transplant in a human patient.

It’s no surprise that, similar to Dr. Paul Terasaki (who was in attendance today and Patrick thanked for believing in him), Patrick self-identifies as a physician interested in science. He emphasized that the cross-disciplinary approach to scientific advancement is key. In looking at all that he is doing, it is apparent that his modus operandi is to bridge scientific disciplines and connect people for knowledge sharing and collaboration. He is also working to enable efficient and effective information distribution and analyses, all with an overarching vision to spur innovation and create tangible results that improve our health.

As I understand it, Patrick describes the overarching vision that he hopes to turn into a reality as “quantified medicine”. It’s not a simple thing and, while we can hear him talk at length as to what he is driving towards (see videos below), there are so many big, complex, and seemingly very disparate moving pieces that need to be aligned that the natural reaction is skepticism of all kinds. I don’t share the skepticism, however, as I’m confident that there is substance and altruism in his efforts. And as Patrick states, if we follow our passion, our science, and find people who believe in us, his vision – our shared vision – is certainly achievable.

Video Interview
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1285236880

Article by Zina Moukheiber, Contributing Editor at Forbes Media
http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2011/11/10/billionaire-patrick-soon-shiong-wants-to-remake-the-u-s-health-care-system/

California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
http://www1.cnsi.ucla.edu/staticpages/about-us

Patrick acknowledged Dr. Paul Terasaki for believing in him
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Terasaki

NantWorks (see video of Patrick’s keynote address at CTIA)
http://www.nantworks.com/

Pharmaceutical Companies Must Take Responsibility
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5441082&page=1#.TsH_28P7Qos

Pic from today’s event:
http://twitgoo.com/4v1ul5
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1

Global Health Innovation Event List from Wireless Health Strategies

Dear Wireless Health group members,

For about two years now I have been curating a list of global health innovation events as a service to group members. Broadly speaking, I consider “health innovation” as inclusive of wireless health, mHealth, telemedicine, healthcare IT, health informatics, healthcare delivery, management and policy, quantified self, gamification, user experience design, body computing, and mobile persuasion. I also include major non-health industry events when they have health tracks/sessions, e.g. digital consumer products and the wireless/telecom industry. This is sometimes subjective and by no means comprehensive.

Below is a list of these events, which I update based upon notifications from group members, event organizers, and events that I come across in the course of surveying the global ecosystem. For hyperlinks, please visit my Wireless Health Strategies website event list:

https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/events.html

———————————————————— 2011 —————————————————————

NOVEMBER 2011

AnDevCon II (Android Developer Conference)

Nov 6-9 in San Francisco, CA, USA

Organizer: BZ Media

BodyNets 2011 – Conference on Body Area Networks

Nov 7-10 in Beijing, China

Organizer: Tsinghua University

World Hospital Congress

Nov 8-10 in Dubai

Organizer: INDEX Conferences

Mobile Health Expo 2011 West

Nov 9-11 in Las Vegas, NV, USA

Organizer: Mobile Health Expo

IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference

Nov 10-12 in San Diego, CA, USA

Organizer: IEEE

Global Health Conference

Nov 13-15 in Montreal, Canada

Organizer:  Canadian Society for International Health

International Telecare & Telehealth Conference 2011

Nov 14-16 in London, UK

Organizer: Telecare Services Association

OCTANe Medical Device & Investor Forum

Nov 15-16 in Irvine, CA, USA

Organizer: OCTANe

MEDICA 2011

Nov 16-19 in Düsseldorf, Germany

Organizer: Messe Düsseldorf

The World Health Expo Shanghai China 2011

Nov 16-22 in Shanghai, China

Organizer: World Health Expo

CNS Summit

Nov 17-20 in Boca Raton, FL, USA

Organizer: CNS Summit

Wireless Health Global Seminar in Tokyo

Nov 22 in Tokyo, Japan

Organizer: Nikkei Electronics and medRF

Telecom & Digital Media Technology (TDMT 2011)

Nov 24-25 in Singapore

Organizer: Global Science and Technology Forum

First Quantified Self Europe Conference

Nov 26-27 in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Organizer: Quantified Self

Annual Congress of U-Home

Nov 27-29 in Hefei, China

Organizer: BIT Life Sciences

eHealth and TeleMed 2011: Raising the Standard – Improving Care, Cutting Costs

Nov 28-29 in London, UK

Organizer: Royal Society of Medicine

M3 Mobility Exchange

Nov 29 – Dec 1 in Del Mar, CA, USA

Organizer: Questex Media Group

Apps World London

Nov 29-30 in London, UK

Organizer: Application World

Pros and Cons of Launching a New Medical Innovation Outside of the U.S.

Nov 30 in La Jolla, CA, USA

Organizer: BIOCOM

Introduction to Wireless Health Short Course

Nov 30 – Dec 2 in San Diego, CA, USA (Also available virtual)

Organizer: Case Western Reserve University, San Diego Programs

DECEMBER 2011

mHealthcon Mobile Health Conference

Dec 1 in New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Organizer: Sperling Greene Partners

NYeC Digital Health Conference

Dec 1-2 in New York, NY, USA

Organizer: New York eHealth Collaborative

Health 2.0 India

Dec 2 in New Delhi, India

Organizer: Health 2.0

mHealth Summit 2011

Dec 5-7 in Washington, D.C., USA

Organizer: FNIH

NIH Mobile Health (mHealth) Winter Institute

Dec 5-9 in Washington, D.C., USA

Organizer: OBSSR, NIH Institutes

For 2012-14 events, please visit Wireless Health Strategies: https://www.wirelesshealthstrategies.com/events.html

Wireless Health group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2181454&trk=anet_ug_grppro

What will it take to win the $10 million Tricorder X PRIZE?

Dear Wireless Health group members,

I had the good fortune to attend a TEDMED after party tonight that was sponsored by the great team at Scanadu, who are pursuing the Tricorder X PRIZE. As you may recall, the Tricorder X PRIZE was officially announced at WLSA’s Convergence Summit this past May. (I actually posted the press release in the group moments after it was announced by Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs on the first day of the conference.)

While the X PRIZE Foundation still categorizes the prize as “In Development”, I’ve been wondering what teams pursuing the prize are going to have to do to win it. I’m very interested in hearing what group members think a system will have to be comprised of to meet the general requirements already posted on the X PRIZE website:

“To inspire the creation of an aritificial intelligence that can diagnose patients better than board certified doctors.

Today in the developed world, preventable medical errors in hospitals result in tens of thousands of deaths per year; preventable medication errors occur at least 1.5 million times per year; and, on average, adults receive only half of recommended care. In the developing world, billions of people have no access to medical care. The Tricorder X PRIZE will award $10 million to the team that develops a mobile solution that can inexpensively diagnose patients by combining expert systems and medical point-of-care data—such as lab-on-a-chip or wireless sensors, provide a recommended course of treatment, and upload all relevant data to the cloud. The prize aims to incentivize consumer empowerment in healthcare by extending the reach of health information and services to more people. As a result, seven billion people around the world can have access to low-cost, reliable, medical diagnostics, which will ultimately prevent pandemics and save lives.”

Tricorder X PRIZE http://www.xprize.org/prize-development/life-sciences#artificial (Highly recommend viewing the short video.)
Scanadu: http://www.scanadu.com/

Addendum: I just noticed this pic taken at the last USC Body Computing Conference on the Scanadu blog: http://blog.scanadu.com/post/11289371116/joining-the-wireless-life-sciences-alliance-wlsa (Maybe Walter can share with me his secrets on hair preservation!)

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Founder, Wireless Health group on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2181454&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Vice President, Partner Development, Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA):http://www.wirelesslifesciences.org/

Mentor, Blueprint Health: http://www.blueprinthealth.org/

Co-chair, Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego:http://www.commnexus.org/programs/special-interest-groups/healthcare-communications-technology-sig.php

Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1

Wireless Health Blog: http://wirelesshealth.wordpress.com

Wireless Health Daily: http://paper.li/WirelessHealth1/1309203497

New Mentor at Blueprint Health and Lessons from Venture “Assistant”, Vinod Khosla

I founded the group to connect people, facilitate knowledge sharing, and accelerate health-related business innovations by entrepreneurs, startups, and established companies. Helping entrepreneurs is something that I’m particularly passionate about. In this context, I am excited to announce that I am now a mentor at Blueprint Health, the health and wellness-focused startup accelerator based in New York City.

In a recent interview, Vinod Khosla – who just closed a new $1B investment fund – stated that he is a “venture assistant”, not a venture capitalist. The hands-on assistance his firm provides to entrepreneurs is a core component of his investment success. A case in point is Jawbone, which was about to go under when Vinod invested in it. Vinod’s partner, David Weiden, made a key introduction to AT&T, whose distribution channel enabled a massive growth in sales, thus saving the company. (It’s noteworthy that UP, the company’s newest product is, you guessed it, a personal connected health solution. Another portfolio company is ZocDoc, the OpenTable-like application for making healthcare appointments.)

Why does this matter? In the relatively chaotic and burgeoning digital health innovation space, the startups that succeed will most likely do so as a result of the hands-on assistance provided by mentors and investors, who partner with them and amplify their talents via strategic advice, key introductions, and the ability to foresee and help guide entrepreneurs through the inevitable pivot points that occur along the way.

In my evolution as a social and business entrepreneur, the Blueprint Health mentor role is a huge step forward and further validation of my efforts. I’m eager to focus my energy on helping entrepreneurs, starting with the inaugural class this January. This is not a full-time role and I’ll continue working with the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, serving as a co-chair of the Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego and, of course, curating and building the Wireless Health LinkedIn group.

A brief overview of Blueprint Health:

Blueprint Health is a TechStars affiliated startup accelerator program based in NYC that helps early stage healthcare companies get started. Surround yourself with nearly 100 mentors – healthcare entrepreneurs, VCs and innovators – that want to help you succeed!  Over the course of a 3 month program, we support entrepreneurs who are building innovative companies at the intersection of health and technology by providing capital, office space and, most critically, access to the most robust community of healthcare mentors of any accelerator program. We encourage you to learn more and to apply to our Winter program, which starts January 12th, by visiting http://www.blueprinthealth.org/

Mentor list: http://www.blueprinthealth.org/index.php?page=mentors

Recent media: NYC Startup Accelerator Blueprint Health Now Accepting Applications

Also, here’s a link to the fascinating interview with Vinod Khosla: What Cash Crunch? Khosla Ventures Closes Another $1 Billion Fund

Best regards,

Paul Sonnier

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Wireless Health, Genomic Sequencing, and Consumers = Personalized Medicine

Dear Wireless Health group members,

Last week I was interviewed by the San Diego Business Journal regarding wireless health and what I thought was currently happening in this space that was unique and of particular interest.

By way of background, I’ve heard Dr. Eric Topol speak on several occasions about the “creative destruction of medicine” and how wireless health and genomics are making this possible via “personalized medicine”. Also, I recently connected with Dr. Samir Damani at MD Revolution and have known Patrick Merel of Portable Genomics for quite some time. Given that the two of them are at the vanguard of delivering personalized medicine solutions to consumers and healthcare providers – and that we’ve seen the price points for genomic sequencing dropping rapidly and approaching the critical tipping point for scalable consumer adoption – it seemed to me that the commercial reality Dr. Topol envisioned is poised to take off in a big way. This triple-convergence of wireless, health, and genomics (or quad-convergence if you include consumers) seemed worth exploring, and I think Kelly Quigley did a superb job in her article.

While the SD Business Journal is subscription-based, you will be able to view the current edition for free this week only. Simply click on the big newspaper image here: http://www.sdbj.com/. The story will also be available to subscribers here: “Mobile Health: Wireless Technology a Key to Improving Care, Lowering Nation’s $2.5 Trillion in Medical Spending, Exec Says”.

I’m in WLSA’s Wireless Health 2011 Academic Industry Conference all this week. Today’s pre-conference industry tutorials were amazing. It’s all very technical, and I’m reminded of my engineering undergrad work, but this is a good thing! The conference itself will entail reviews of more than a dozen wireless health research papers. I’m really excited to see Ford demonstrate their in-car health and wellness apps and services, which they’ve developed in partnerships with Medtronic (glucose-monitoring), SDI Health (allergy alerts), and WellDoc (asthma and diabetes solutions). Note that you can follow the conference tweet conversation live on Twitter at #WH2011.

I look forward to seeing many of you this week plus at mHealth Summit, Dec 5-7 in Washington, D.C.

Best regards,

Paul Sonnier

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