If you have not heard of the West Wireless Health Institute, I have posted about some of their activity in the past. Also in the news this week about the institute, 
philanthropists Gary and Mary West will give $25 million to the West Wireless Health Institute, and this accounts for the 3rd donation. The West Wireless Health Institute has been give a total so far $90 million from the Wests and is only about a year old. Qualcomm, Scripps and General Electric are already in house as collaborators.
The institute has also caught he attention of Aneesh Chopra, who paid a visit this week. I think his visit will keep in the forefront where wireless technology is moving in healthcare, as back in February of this year I posted about how wireless is the somewhat forgotten element today with “meaningful use”, in other words it is not only a bit complicated, but is changing rapidly with new innovations and technologies merging together, thus it’s a tough one to keep track of.
If you look at the website for CareFusion you can see all types of new wireless technologies using smart clinical devices that report data.
Most of us are already pretty familiar with the other 2 partners, Medtronic and Cisco and I have a ton of posts here on both companies and their wireless technologies and the links show a couple sample articles recently posted at the Medical Quack.
Dr. Eric Topol spoke this year at the TED conference and I’ll include the same video that was posted at the link below a little later here. At the end of this post I have several links to wireless technologies articles posted here over the last couple of years. What is also interesting was to see Eric Topol speak about some of the devices that are out there today. The Fitbit portion is hysterical with talking Dr. Topol talking about putting in information about sex, watch the video, the device, how long did you do it? Dr. Topol is the Scripps Director of Translational Science and came here from the Cleveland Clinic, so he is working to integrate genomic research as well.
The Wireless Future of Medicine – The Forgotten Element of Meaningful Use -Eric Topol –TED 2010 (Video)
He left out one of my favorites as it is so exotic, the blue tooth inhaler, which once again was in the news working with Partners in Boston with their wireless Vena platform, as you can see Qualcomm is right in there, one of the first collaborators at the West Wireless Center.
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 to all this wireless technology, there are a couple studies in place to see how all of the integration with devices can be combined and utilized in a way that we are not disrupting and distracting, but rather using wireless in a “human” environment, as people still have jobs to do and lives to live.
Participatory Sensing – Medical Devices Reporting Data for Patient Compliance
The past article below goes into some of the stumbling blocks that are happening with some losing focus on the “human” side and this comes from the lack of combining a non disruptive environment and mostly from those who perhaps are not participants themselves with wireless technology and adequately evaluate their entrance into the healthcare market and this is an area of healthcare that I have coined “Magpie Healthcare” as most of the news that comes from this area is simply repeated from others and first hand value is not either found nor reported.
Meaningful Use Stipulations Are Creating Nightmares for All – Not Working By Using IT Exclusively as a Method to Change Business Models
Scripps is also using the handheld VScan device from GE and the cost for the unit is around $7000.00 and so far the reports are good with being able to carry the unit around in the doctor’s pocket.
Here’s the video with Dr. Topol speaking this year at the TED convention in Long Beach as mentioned above.
What is really funny is when he discusses the FitBit format for adding “sexual activity” how long and how hard? This is an excellent example of where the programming and clinical sides of technology experience a disconnect and this entry of information is not going to work (grin). I was not real high on the Fitbit when it came out as it was targeted with marketing towards health insurance companies. Many device companies do this as if they can get a larger sale with insurance companies pushing the product versus consumer attraction they can put more money on the books faster, and this is a big issue with some small companies relying on VC funds and need immediate money to stay in business.
With Medtronic entering the picture it will be interesting to see how their collaboration enters the picture here and to how perhaps some of the wireless technology developed here works with their implants and other cardio technologies. San Diego is the big center in the US for development of wireless healthcare.
Over 80 complex diseases have been cracked via genomics and the last 2 1/2 years have had more solutions than our entire life time of existence. The impact of wireless on healthcare will certainly be exciting to follow as huge leaps and bounds are moving so rapidly and who knows we may even see more big corporations join the West Center in the near future. BD
SAN DIEGO, June 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI) today announced CareFusion, Cisco and Medtronic have joined its roster of Technology and Education (T&E) partners. Each company plans to work closely with the Institute's clinical and engineering teams on a variety of research, technology and educational initiatives focused on accelerating wireless health solutions.
WWHI, founded in March 2009 with a $45 million gift from the Gary and Mary West Foundation, is one of the world's first medical research organizations dedicated to lowering health care costs by innovating, validating, advocating for, investing in and commercializing wireless health solutions. The nonprofit Institute is headquartered in San Diego, California, the global hub for wireless life science research and development.
"These companies clearly understand the power of wireless mobile devices and their potential to transform health care delivery," said Dr. Eric J. Topol, vice chairman of the board and chief innovation officer, West Wireless Health Institute. "While each partner is bringing unique expertise to the table, we know that our combined and shared efforts will generate creative solutions for improving care and lowering costs."
Related Reading:
The Heart Monitoring Patch – Wireless Connection to the Server for Reporting and Alerting the Doctor
Zeo's Personal Sleep Coach – A Device you Snuggle up with to help Understand Your Sleep Patterns
The VenaHub Medical Device Hub Wirelessly Reports Health Data Compliance and the Blue Tooth Inhaler
The Smart Inhaler with Blue Tooth and Wireless Capabilities
FDA approves HealthPal – Bluetooth Device that Collects from Other Reporting Devices and Sends Information to PHR – HealthVault or Google Health
Behavioral Underwriting With Biometric Employee Screenings – Red Brick Secures 3 More Clients
Wellpoint Enters Contract Agreement with Red Brick for Behavioral Underwriting
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