California Biomedical Industry - California Healthcare Institute

Emerging wellness health companies and productsDevices and productsin the wireless healthtechnology space include“end-to-end” systemssuch as wearable sensorsthat transmit personalhealth and activity datato physicians, caregivers,and fitness coaches. Otherbreakthroughs includetagging medications toensure proper dosageand patient complianceand coding and trackingsystems to preventmistakes in dispensingmedications.Here are a few of the manywireless innovations thatCalifornia companiesare developing towarddelivering better healthcareto more patients at a lowercost.Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals,which has manufacturing facilities inSunnyvale, Emeryville and Berkeley, inJune 2010 launched FactorTrack, thefirst customizable mobile application forpeople with hemophilia A. FactorTrackis a free, personal and interactive mobileapplication that helps make it easier totrack and record hemophilia factor VIIIinfusions.CareFusion Corporation, of San Diego,offers a line of medication managementservices designed to ensure thatmedications are stored, prepared,dispensed, prescribed and used safelyand efficiently. Through its bar-codingsystem and standardized practices,CareFusion provides large pharmacieswith medication dispensing practices,order management, and point of careverification, enhancing patient safetyacross the entire continuum of care.Corventis, Inc. is the San Josebaseddeveloper and manufacturer ofcardiovascular devices that combinemedical device, telecommunication andinformation technologies. The companymarkets two products that providecontinuous monitoring of key metrics.Both look like adhesive bandages,are waterproof and last for a week,transferring data back to the physician inreal time.The UVANT Mobile Cardiac TelemetrySystem, approved in January 2010,monitors symptomatic and asymptomaticcardiac abnormalities to help physiciansdiagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias.The AVIVO Mobile Patient ManagementSystem, launched in 2009, collectskey vital signs to help physicians trackpatients’ health status and detectpotential health risks or worseningconditions.iRhythm, which is headquartered in SanFrancisco and also has a HuntingtonBeach facility, has introduced a familyof products to gather and evaluate ECGdata in order to improve the diagnosisof cardiac arrhythmias. The company’sproduct line includes long-duration,single-lead, continuous recordingdiagnostic devices such as The ZioPatch. The prescription-only, singleuse,continuously recording ECGmonitor records the heart’s electricalactivity via a patch that can be wornfor up to 14 days. It was approvedin May 2009 for use on patients whomay be asymptomatic or who maysuffer from transient symptoms suchas pre-syncope, syncope, palpitations,shortness of breath, dizziness,lightheadedness, fatigue or anxiety.Philips Healthcare, which hasfacilities in Milpitas, Oxnard andBrisbane, provides home healthcaresolutions for sleep and respiratorydisorders, independent living, andremote monitoring. Maker of Lifeline,the emergency alert pendant, Philips’is the only such device that canautomatically call for help if the wearerfalls or is disoriented, immobilized orunconscious.Proteus Biomedical of Redwood Cityis developing an ingestible sensor smallenough to be imbedded in pills. Thesilicon and metal sensor is designed tobe activated by stomach acid and emita faint radio signal to a small receiverpatch worn on the patient’s skin. Thesystem can document that medicationis taken, while also recording vital signs.In addition to ensuring compliance withthe therapeutic regimen, the system willenable physicians to adjust dosagesand timing to customize their patients’treatments.ResMed Corp of San Diego develops,manufactures and markets products todiagnose and treat sleep disorders. Thecompany’s ResTraxx product providesphysicians with web-based monitoringof all of their patients with sleepdisorders. More specifically, the devicealerts doctors to which of their patientsare not using their CPAP machinesor whose machines are not providingsufficient relief from the sleep disorder.That enables the physicians to workmore efficiently and to provide addedcare to the patients who need it most.52 | California Biomedical Industry 2011 Report