Microsoft Joins Continua as the Alliance Increases Momentum and Continues to Drive the Creation of an Ecosystem of Interoperable Personal Connected Healthcare Products
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.
The 2010 release of the Guidelines is a milestone in Continua’s mission to establish an ecosystem of interoperable personal connected healthcare products that empower individuals and organizations to better manage their health and wellness. The updated design guidelines outline industry standards and specifications selected by the Alliance for devices, services and communication standards to ensure interoperability, elaborate on Continua-specific implementations and seek to advance interoperability by clarifying options in underlying standards or specifications. They are available to members, allowing them first-hand access to the international technology standards that the Alliance is founded upon.
“We joined Continua because of Ascension Health’s dedication to providing spiritually centered, holistic care that sustains and improves the health of individuals and communities in part by enabling clinicians and consumers to make informed decisions about their health,” said Scott Lambert, managing partner, Transformational Development, Ascension Health.“The interoperable connected healthcare products that Continua certifies allow continual access to accurate information that is needed to do so. Continua’s updated design guidelines will increase interoperability, expanding access to this necessary data to further assist us in continuing to serve all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.”
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.
Microsoft Joins Continua
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.”
HealthVault offers a privacy- and security-enhanced foundation on which Continua’s broad ecosystem of medical providers, health and wellness device manufactures and health associations can build innovative applications that enable better personal health management. In addition, Continua’s standard compliant interface will support the seamless integration of many devices into HealthVault.
“Since developing HealthVault, Microsoft has grown a robust ecosystem of health and wellness applications, devices and services on the platform that help individuals engage with their personal health data in meaningful ways. Our growth has been driven by HealthVault’s commitment to interoperability and to industry standards wherever they exist,” said David Cerino, general manager, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “Our membership with Continua extends our commitment to providing organizations with options for building on - and connecting to - HealthVault, which we believe encourages continued innovation across the industry in support of consumer health and wellness.”
About Continua Health Alliance
Continua Health Alliance is an open industry coalition of healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal health care. With more than 230 member companies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal health solutions with the knowledge that extending those solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals and provides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management. For more information visit http://continuaalliance.org/index.html.
CONTACT:
Nereus for Continua Health Alliance
Karen Riley Sawyer, +1-503-619-0860
[email protected]
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