BEAVERTON, Ore. - August 6, 2009 - Continua Health Alliance, the non-profit, open industry alliance of more than 200 leading healthcare and technology organizations, today announced the availability of three new Continua CertifiedTM devices from member companies. These certified products mark an important milestone in the group's mission to establish a system of interoperable personal connected health solutions. By extending these solutions into the home, Continua is driving a new model in healthcare, enabling truly personalized health and wellness management that empowers individuals and fosters independence, while improving healthcare outcomes and reducing costs.
The three connected health devices, developed by A&D Medical and Roche Diagnostics, recently completed rigorous testing to qualify for Continua certification, signifying interoperability with other specified Continua Certified solutions. A&D Medical now offers the first Continua Certified blood pressure cuff and weight scale, and Roche Diagnostics provides the first Continua Certified blood glucose meter device reader. These personal connected health devices enable convenient data sharing for consistent monitoring of individuals' health and care status. In addition to empowering individuals to maintain greater responsibility for their health, this also enables more informed treatment decisions by the care team for their patients.
"An innovative unification of healthcare technology, clinical information systems and home health devices is the need of the hour for telehealth systems across the world," said Janani Narasimham, a senior healthcare analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "Standardization of equipment will have a significant impact on the future roll-out of these systems, and Continua's design guidelines and certification program help achieve that."
Continua paved the way for the first generation of Continua Certified products by issuing its Version One Design Guidelines earlier this year (available for public download here). Drawing on the expertise of its member companies at the forefront of healthcare and technology, Continua developed these interoperability guidelines to specify how to use existing standards to build interoperable personal healthcare solutions.
"We are proud to announce the Continua Certified blood pressure cuff and weight scale from A&D Medical and blood glucose meter device reader from Roche Diagnostics," said Rick Cnossen, Continua president and chairman of the Board of Directors. "These products join Nonin Medical's pulse oximeters as the first Continua
Certified devices, marking significant progress toward the vision of an ecosystem of interoperable personal health solutions."
These latest additions to the Continua family of certified solutions bring new opportunities for "connected healthcare," such as the scenarios described below.
- For the millions of people worldwide coping with diabetes, personal connected health solutions such as the Continua compliant blood glucose meter device reader offer a convenient way to transmit vital information to their care teams. With easy access to accurate, ongoing trend data, care teams can make more informed treatment decisions and intervene more quickly to address potential problems.
- In much the same way, the Continua Certified blood pressure cuff can play a crucial role in chronic disease management and elderly care. By transmitting status information, these devices provide care teams with immediate trend data. This gives them continual feedback on a patient's health, rather than relying solely on data collected during periodic office visits.
- A Continua compliant weight scale could be an important part of a treatment plan for managing obesity, a serious health risk for millions of people worldwide that often brings on related chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Monitoring these conditions often requires numerous doctor visits and check-ups. A Continua Certified weight scale would empower patients to monitor their own health and fitness more closely while giving care teams easy access to data that can eliminate unnecessary clinical visits.
About Continua
Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry coalition of the finest health care and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal health care. With more than 200 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.
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