Presentation held by Vicente Traver in Old Dominion University,Norfolk (VA) - USA during the USA-EU p-health workshop in September 2008

1. Intelligent, Manageable and Adaptive
pHealth Platform. Are We There?
Dr. Vicente Traver
Includes some contributions of Session 6: A global market: analysis and future
trends from pHealth 08, that took place in Valencia (May 08)
Valencia, Spain
2008, April 20th 1
http://www.phealth2008.com

2. 2
Intelligent, manageable and adaptive pHealth
platform. Where are we?
R&D Industry Market
Tech
Transference
Innovation

3. 3
Chronic Disease Management and Shared Care
case
management
disease/care
management
self care
support/
management
level 3
high complexity
level 2
high risk
level 1
70-80% of
CDM
population

4. Increasing personalisation of medicine –
supported by eHealth
4

5. Needs for a pHealth market
5
Demographic and lifestyle factors
Consumerism trends
Chronic conditions
Healthy lifestyle is “in”
New paradigm for health promotion and care
delivery
Increase in citizen awareness
Technology is not the limiting
factor. There are powerful
technologies existing and still
evolving

6. Barriers for pHealth market
6
Technology Barriers — Interfacing with existing legacy systems
Regulatory/Policy Barriers — Lack of data standards; data security
Market Barriers — Fragmentation of end-user market
Financial Barriers — Shrinking operating margins in healthcare
Cultural Barriers — Physicians slow to adopt new technology
Organizational Barriers — Protect the status quo

7. Open questions within the pHealth
market
7
Professional stakeholders:
• What is the medical impact? Who will benefit or lose by
changing to using personal healthcare systems (PHS)?
• Who will pay for pHealth?
Patients/customers:
• What does it bring to me? Is this really necessary /
helpful?

8. Open questions within the pHealth
market
8
pHealth services provider
• How to keep a solid business model independently from
the place where the solution is to be implemented?
(Differences in health system of the EU member states
make holistic solution approaches a problem )
• How to integrate pHealth into existing or new healthcare
delivery models?

9. Where to find answers …
9
by clinical,
social,
technological
and economical
validation
by co-operation
on international
level bringing
together all
involved
stakeholders
by
standardization
efforts
by creation of a
law and ethics
framework

10. Answers by …. validation
10
Clinical and economic validation of pHealth technologies and
services for reimbursement is a must
Acceptance by medical stakeholders requires statistical evidence
Economic studies on cost / benefit analysis are required
pHealth solutions for consumers need medical endorsement and
therefore also medical proof

11. Answers by …. cooperation in
international projects
11
Bridging the gap between research and the market
Patient studies force the project to achieve a certain maturity level of hard- and
software (CE marking, usability pre-studies, etc.)
Mature solutions lower threshold for exploitation of project results
lnteroperability, user-friendliness, reliability and dependability need to be properly
addressed before pHealth receive support and commitment from all stakeholders
Support to develop regulatory, legal and reimbursement infrastructure to support
new models of healthcare delivery via pHealth

12. 12
MyHeart
IST-2002-507816
Aim: Fighting cardiovascular diseases
by prevention and early diagnosis
Technologies: Smart clothes, sensors,
on-body electronics, software,
user devices, professional platform
EU IST e-health (6th framework)
• Start: 31.12.2003
• Duration: 60 months
• Partners: 30 (10 countries)
• Total manpower: 75
• Total budget: ~33 M€
• EC-funding: ~16 M€

13. 13
FP7 Project
• Start: 1. March 2008
• Duration: 4 years
• Partners: 18 (9 countries)
• Announced EC-funding: ~14.1 M€
– Largest FP7 project in “ICT for Health”
• Coordinator: Philips
Patient Compliance is a major problem in healthcare today.
• Aim: Closed-loop management of medication and lifestyle compliance
• Applications: Heart Failure & Coronary Heart Disease
• Solution:
– Multi-parametric monitoring of vital signs and other variables
– Physiological and statistical modelling of medication and lifestyle effects
– Motivating patients to adhere to treatment regime
– Decision support system for physicians and patients
Patient study in last project year will
assess improvement in patient health
outcome and compliance against control
group.
FP7 – 216695

14. Answers by …. standardization
14
• Non-profit, open industry alliance of the finest
healthcare and technology companies in the world
joining together in collaboration to improve the quality
of personal healthcare
150 Member Companies (founders: Centre for Connected Health, Cisco, Intel, Kaiser Permanente,
Medtronic, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Welch Allyn)
– personal telehealth eco-system
– system of interoperable personal telehealth solutions that empower
people and organizations to better manage health and wellness
• Other organisations, forums and standards: eHSCG, x73

15. Answers by …. law and ethics framework
15
• … the weakest point
• Work is being done
• Continua – work with regulatory agencies
• WHO resolution on eHealth - 58th World Health
Assembly in Geneva, on May 23, 2005
• Several ethic codes
• HON

16. To discuss and conclude
16
pHealth will happen – there is no other way. The question is the
date.
R&D projects, standardization activities, and law & ethics work are
still needed to provide medical evidence and assure 100%
interoperability in a common stablished framework.
More technology implies more investments, and so will be driven by
clinical and care need with professional involvement and analysis of
reimbursement schemes.
Do not forget e-health 2.0 and the ‘citizens’ with contributions from
individuals with similar interests (‘self guided’)
The solution relies on the services (access to personal data
whenever and wherever, disease management programs,
continuous health monitoring, risk assessment services,…), not in
the tones of information.

17. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Instituto ITACA – Edif. 8G
Camino de Vera, s/n 46022 Valencia Spain
Tel: +34 963 877 606
Thanks for your attention
Vicente Traver
vtraver@itaca.upv.es