BUSINESS NEWS
A consortium of information technology (IT) companies, medical equipment manufacturers, and healthcare providers brought IT and medical devices a step closer to convergence in June with the formation of the Continua Health Alliance (Beaverton, OR). The goal of the group is to use the latest advances in networking and electronic communications in order to develop a system of connected products and services to facilitate the delivery of healthcare services, particularly in lower-cost alternative-care centers, including homes.
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Company
|
Headquarters
Location
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| Avita | San-Chung, Taiwan |
| BodyMedia | Pittsburgh, PA |
| Cisco Systesms | San Jose, CA |
| GE Healthcare | Chalfont St. Giles, UK |
| IBM | Armonk, NY |
| Intel Corp. | Santa Clara, CA |
| Kaiser Permanente | Oakland, CA |
| Medtronic | Minneapolis, MN |
| Motorola | Schaumburg, IL |
| Nonin Medical | Plymouth, MN |
| Omron Healthcare | Bannockburn, IL |
| Panasonic–Matsushita Electric |
Osaka, Japan |
| Partners Telemedicine | Boston, MA |
| Philips Medical Systems | Andover, MA |
| Polar Electro | Kempele, Finland |
| Precor | Woodinville, WA |
| RMD Networks | Englewood, CO |
| Roche Diagnostics | Basel, Switzerland |
| Samsung Electronics | Seoul, South Korea |
| Sharp Electronics | Osaka, Japan |
| Texas Instruments | Dallas, TX |
| Tunstall Group | Yorkshire, UK |
| Welch Allyn | Skaneateles Falls, NY |
| Zensys | Fremont, CA |
| Founding members of the Continua Health Alliance, a consortium of medical equipment manufacturers and healthcare providers established to promote connectivity in healthcare environments. | |
"We are creating an organization in which several seemingly disparate industries can work together to combine their products and services through connectivity standards and provide millions of people with the tools they need to better manage their health and the health of their families," said David Whitlinger, chairman of the alliance and director of healthcare device standards for the digital health group at Intel.
Continua does not plan to get involved in standards development, but will instead promote an open architecture that uses common interfaces and communication protocols such as USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-wave, and others. "We will use the certification process to anoint different standards," Whitlinger said. The alliance is also expected to support the continuing development of Health Level 7 (HL7), a prominent healthcare data interchange standard with widespread application in administration, billing, and clinical messaging. Products developed in compliance with Continua guidelines will be permitted to display a logo signifying interoperability with other certified products.
The group's first interoperable medical device guidelines will be issued by Continua within the next 18 months. The first certified products are expected to appear in 2008.
