Medtech titan Covidien (NYSE:COV) is breaching new ground in home care with its ZephyrLIFE remote monitoring platform, agreeing to license the technology to healthcare solutions company Geneia.
Geneia’s @Home product provides patients with a self-managed monitoring system for logging vital signs such as blood pressure, weight, blood glucose, pulse and blood oxygen. The ZephyrLIFE platform, which Covidien admitted to acquiring earlier this year, is a remote monitoring system currently focused on hospitals settings.
"We are excited to extend our technology from the acute care, hospital environment into the home setting," Covidien patient monitoring market development vice president David Giarracco said in prepared remarks. "Together with Geneia, we’re deploying a solution that is aimed to help improve health outcomes and reduce cost of caring for patients with congestive heart failure, diabetes, and other chronic diseases, all while the patient is at home."
Keeping patients out of the hospital through home-based monitoring and management is crucial to lowering healthcare costs. Remote care platforms have been skyrocketing in recent years and the market is estimated at $20.9 billion.
The @Home system captures patient data and combines it with administrative and clinical data to prompt caregivers to intervene when the numbers seem awry. The system aims to keep patients in their homes longer and out of hospital beds or emergency rooms, help ensure proper medication use, boost patients’ preventative care regimens and improve coordination of patient care.
Geneia further announced that Capital BlueCross signed up to pilot the @Home system to monitor their congestive heart failure patients.
"Our members afflicted with congestive heart failure are among the sickest and costliest members we have," Capital BlueCross chief medical officer and senior vice president Dr. Jennifer Chambers said in prepared remarks. "We’re confident that @Home will improve the health outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions for these members."
