Home Healthcare News & Products

A new report from Freedonia projects the world demand for home medical equipment will rise 7% annually to $28 billion by 2016, driven by patient needs in the U.S. and the “BRIC” nations: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. While the U.S. is expected to remain the biggest market, BRIC nations are experiencing greater prosperity, therefore, third-party and direct consumer payments for healthcare will grow, the report World Home Medical Equipment (January 2013) notes. Home therapeutic equipment sales will jump an estimated 7.5% annually to $17.3 billion in 2016 as increasing numbers of patients with chronic conditions, particularly cancer, respiratory disorders, and kidney failure, obtain care at home for longer periods of time, according to the report.Sales of dialysis products, intravenous (IV) equipment, ventilators, portable oxygen concentrators for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and continuous positive airway products for sleep apnea are expected to rise. In addition, members of the aging Baby Boom Generation will need patient support equipment, including wheelchairs and walkers. The report's authors anticipate that sales of this type of equipment will increase 5.5% annually to $5.7 billion.Although per capita home medical equipment sales in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea will remain comparatively high, overall growth will remain below the worldwide average as national health insurance plans impose tighter controls on coverage and reimbursement rates, according to the report.After being released from the hospital, patients suffering from a number of ailments—including congestive heart failure, hypertension, and mental health conditions—are being monitored remotely by their doctors to assess disease progression. As hospitals try to reduce the number of readmissions and cut costs, telehealth is becoming increasingly important. A new InMedica report, The World Market for Telehealth – An Analysis of Demand Dynamics – 2012, predicts the number of patients being monitored remotely will hit 1.8 million by 2017—up from 308,000 last year.While telehealth has made major inroads in post-acute patients, progress is needed for those diagnosed at an ambulatory care facility but not yet hospitalized. In the U.S., an estimated 140,000 post-acute patients have been monitored by telehealth in the past year compared to 80,000 ambulatory patients, according to an InMedica prepared statement.“A major challenge for telehealth is to reach the wider population of ambulatory care patients,” notes Theo Ahadome, senior analyst at InMedica, in the statement. “However, the clinical and economic outcomes for telehealth are more established for post-acute care patients. Indeed, even for post-acute care patients, telehealth is usually prescribed only in the most severe cases, and where patients have been hospitalized more than once in a year.”Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, taxing many healthcare systems that treat acute patients. However, the rapidly growing field of remote cardiac monitoring has the potential to cut down on these costs by helping physicians detect diseases before expensive acute care is required.Because Medicare has started reimbursements for remote monitoring technology, an increasing number of healthcare providers in the United States are using these systems. In fact, the U.S. market for remote cardiac monitoring devices and services is expected to jump more than 25% between 2011 and 2016—from $686 million to $867 million, according to a new IHS InMedica report titled “World Market for Diagnostic Cardiology Devices and Remote Cardiac Monitoring Services – 2012.”Medicare reimbursements are encouraging health service providers to use remote cardiac monitoring devices in the U.S. Elsewhere, the remote cardiac monitoring business is undeveloped, with only sporadic coverage, according to the report.A number of big names already have entered the market, including Biotronik, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and St. Jude Medical. Competition promises to be fierce, especially as doctors attempt to assess which patients require immediate treatment.“With limited physician resources to cover the ever-increasing number of cardiac patients, remote monitoring enables patients to be observed away from the hospital over longer periods of time, providing a much needed cost-saving initiative,” explains Nicola Goatman, market analyst at IHS, in a prepared statement.A group of students from Brigham Young University (BYU) have developed a new device that they say will reduce the number of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases each year.Jacob Colvin and his team have fashioned a baby monitor that looks like a sock, dubbing it the Owlet. It straps to an infant's foot and uses pulse oximetry to monitor heart rate and blood-oxygen levels. If the infant stops breathing or there is a marked change in heart rate, the monitor will warn the parents via smartphone.The Owlet took top honors at BYU's third annual Student Innovator of the Year competition, taking home a cash prize of $6,000. “The Owlet baby monitor has the potential to really benefit our society—and bring some peace of mind to new parents,” Justin Zsiros, faculty advisor to the completion, said in a BYU release.Skype, a web application, is widely known as a way to video-chat in real time and keep in touch with friends and relatives via computer. But a Swedish study has found that it can also be useful in monitoring premature infants who have recently been released from the hospital.The study evaluated the monitoring of premature infants by Skype and standardized nurse visits. It found that parents were enthusiastic about using Skype, as it helped reduce the need for home visits by nurses. In the study, 34 families were randomly assigned to three groups who received either standardized home care only; standardized care supplemented by a web-based eHealth system; or standardized care complemented by video conferencing via Skype.The parents were very satisfied with the visits from neonatal nurses and also found the web app generally easy to use, allowing parents to answer questions about their child's health and exchange messages with nursing staff. “The webpage was another possibility of contacting the home care nurse. It was easy to use, a complement to the home visits,” noted one respondent.One frustration for the parents was the lack of response from some of the nurses. Four families indicated they had received no feedback about the information they had entered.Skype technology itself proved quite popular with parents. When asked whether they liked videoconferencing versus ordinary phone calls, seven out of eight, or 87.5%, said yes. In addition, 75% indicated that the video calls reduced their need for home visits. “I think Skype could have replaced every other or every third visit,” one respondent said.Even parents in the other two groups were enthusiastic about Skype: “If we had had Skype, we would have seen one another and you could show the child's equipment and get instructions on how to use it,” explained one respondent. “It could have replaced visits where the nurse did not have to do anything, such as weigh the baby.”Although the families were satisfied with the web application and video conferencing, the researchers noted some resistance from the nurses in the study, who tended to be older, with a median age of 50 versus 31 for the mothers. Of the six nurses, two were hopeful about the future use of web apps and Skype in home health, and three others had varying levels of enthusiasm. However, one nurse had a completely negative response, saying such technology threatened the personal relationship between the nurse and families.The study findings were published Feb. 9 in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.Eyeing the growing home healthcare market, Ohio-based Cardinal Health paid $2.07 billion to buy privately held AssuraMed, which had annual sales of roughly $1 billion last year. The companies expect to wrap up the acquisition in early April, according to a prepared statement.AssuraMed, which is based in Twinsburg, OH, has an at-home delivery service and a wholesale business and serves more than 1 million patients with its 30,000 products. The EdgePark home delivery service provides ostomy, diabetes, wound care, urological, incontinence, and respiratory products.During a conference call about the deal, George Barrett, Cardinal's chairman and CEO, noted the acquisition will help his company, particularly as more care is being delivered in the home—both for chronic and acute conditions.Barrett noted during the call that AssuraMed is experiencing above-market growth, and pointed to the company's broad product line and capacity to do complex billing.“AssuraMed is a natural extension of the Cardinal Health businesses and of our mission to be essential to care. The acquisition of this industry leader allows us to serve the growing number of Americans treated in home settings— particularly those patients recovering from acute episodes and those suffering with chronic diseases. This is a platform opportunity for Cardinal Health products and services that will be increasingly important as the delivery of care migrates to more cost-effective settings,” Barrett said in a prepared statement.Fitch Ratings affirmed Cardinal's ratings in the wake of the deal at BBB+. Fitch noted the acquisition will give Cardinal “immediate and significant exposure” to the home healthcare industry, something the company currently does not have.ECRI Institute and the Healthcare Technology Foundation have collaborated on a series of patient safety pamphlets on home medical devices. They include Home Ventilation: A Safety Guide for Caregivers; Home Hemodialysis Safety: A Patient Guide; Fire Safety & Oxygen: A Patient Guide; and Home Devices: Can I Bring My Own Medical Device with Me to the Hospital? The pamphlets are available in both English and Spanish as free downloads from the HTF website at http://thehtf.org/publications. asp and the ECRI Institute website at www.ecri.org/Patients/Pages/Patient_Resources.aspx. Limited numbers of printed copies are also available.Sweden has made a strong commitment to providing elder care. Government officials have noted that patients are increasingly starting to monitor mild to moderate illnesses at home or interacting with their healthcare providers over the phone. The number of elderly will continue to rise, making up roughly 25% of the population by 2050, according to government release.Giraff Technologies AB is already looking to help the elderly age in place with its robot Giraff. The remote monitoring system allows caregivers, family, and doctors to check in on elderly patients over the Internet. “Visitors” can move around the house freely by moving a mouse and interact with elderly residents as if they were actually there. The Giraff is part of two European projects that are testing the technology in patients' homes to see how the it can improve quality of life for those aging at home.

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