Microsoft Joins Continua Wireless Alliance and Issues New Guidelines for Certification For Interoperability

Continua is mentioned here as this is the alliance that works together to make sure all the wireless healthcare devices work the way they are supposed to and have standards so we don’t end up with all different types of connectivity whether it be hardware or software. If you venture down the the link below you can read up on what I call a pretty exotic device that works with blue tooth and creates a data report. Here lately in the news we had the GPS inhaler so these two I think would do well to work with each other and get all the fancy stuff in one device.

Qualcomm and Cambridge Consultants Collaborate on Vena Platform – The Blue Tooth Inhaler Gets Closer with Continua Health Alliance With Launch At The Center for Connected Care A Division of Partners HealthCare

In addition, the Continua Health Alliance was well represented this year at CES with some of the blue tooth devices that use the standards to connect.

Blue Tooth Healthcare Device Being Shown at CES in Las Vegas – Oximeter for Pulse And Blood Oxygen Information

This is big having Microsoft in the loop here too now with HealthVault as both sides can certainly benefit with sharing technologies and creating more new items, and we know it will all work and not be competing for proprietary connectivity. Those days are pretty much gone with today’s mobile technology, we just want it work. I use a few tools and this is what my account shows and there’s quite a few choices and one is not going to sign up for all, but choose what works for you. For my own use, I’m not in here every day updating by all means, but it’s there when I have information to add.

I might also mention the site as a new look and was just updated recently. The nice new dashboard make it easy to get around.

If you have Aetna health insurance, take the claim information they have on file and run <grin> and dump it in to HealthVault so you have what they have.

What’s a day without mentioning bar codes on the Medical Quack, get set up with RazCodes and Health Jibes to set up an encrypted gateway to enter information with your phone.

Here’s a couple more of interest….

And your dog can be connected and his/her records can be stored too…

At the website, you can see all who can connect and the list seems to be growing. BD

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Continua Health Alliance, the non-profit, open industry coalition of leading healthcare and technology companies, today announced the release of its 2010 Design Guidelines. The new Guidelines now complete the pathway for full end-to-end solutions based on Continua-certified products and services. The recently updated certification program ensures products are interoperable and communicate effectively to provide the best user experience possible.

In addition to the currently released Guidelines, the Continua 2010 Guidelines incorporate the following:

Addition of the Wide Area Network (WAN) interface, which takes data from an aggregation or hub device, such as a PC, mobile phone or health appliance, and sends it on through a standardized model for remote monitoring servers or electronic health records. This service was developed in collaboration with the Integrating for Healthcare Enterprise (IHE).

Support for two new Personal Area Network (PAN) and Sensor-LAN device types: Peak Flow Meters and Adherence Monitors for use in medication monitoring.

Updates and enhancements to the ISO/IEEE Base Framework Specification which defines a common transmission protocol of Continua device data regardless of the device or application.

Addition of ZigBee® support into the Sensor-Local Area Network (Sensor-LAN) interface, which was selected for its efficiency in working with multiple sensors in the home.

Addition of email support to the Health Record Network (HRN) interface, which is the interface between a remote monitoring server and an electronic health record.

Continua Health Alliance continues to add industry‐leading technology companies to its member roster. New member Microsoft Corp. has developed HealthVault, a Web-based platform designed to allow individuals to manage their own health data. HealthVault helps users collect, store and share health information with family members and participating health and wellness services. It also offers a choice between third-party applications and devices to assist users in managing their fitness, diet and overall health.

“We are very pleased that Microsoft has joined Continua to assist us in further increasing an ecosystem of user-friendly interoperable personal connected healthcare products that will ultimately empower consumers and improve health outcomes,” said Chuck Parker, executive director, Continua Health Alliance. “We look forward to having Microsoft participate in the Alliance to help foster the Continua vision of personal connected health.”