swyMe – Expanding Telehealth, Mobile, Cloud

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reprinted with permission by Mobile Cloud Era


Photo: By Tim Evanson, [CC BY-SA 2.0], at Flickr

In a merger of telehealth, mobile and cloud, Massachusetts-based swyMe is pass4sure exams offering video conferencing in ambulances. The basic system includes three cameras in the vehicle: a standard “fish eye” 360º camera mounted high on the ambulance wall; a webcam attached to a touch screen monitor; and a handheld HDTV 720p IP camera.

The combination of the three affords a remote physician a view of the overall situation in the ambulance, the ability to communicate face-to-face with attending EMS workers and capability to zero in to close-up views of the patient. The system is HIPAA compliant and uses AES256 security.

swyMe COO Jeff Urdan explained that the system provides high quality video using public Internet with low bandwidth mobile, about 384 kbs for a quality video signal. It can accommodate p4soutlet multiple carriers. The software comes standard with a handheld examination camera, otoscope and stethoscope, but can include any USB or Bluetooth medical diagnostic device including ultrasound or EKG. The system is interactive.

Among the benefits of their system is the obvious fact that many emergency patients may be in locations that require long rides to hospitals and may need doctor’s care immediately. Urdan points out that EMS workers are regulated and have limited authority to treat. This also enables additional levels of care in the ambulance with a doctor in contact. It also does lead to additional stocking of supplies in the ambulance and added training. Of course, a doctor could be in telephone contact with an ambulance during its journey, however, the video adds greatly to the physician’s ability to diagnose and treat the patient.

The system was released in early May. Urdan states that the first client is conducting a technical evaluation until August. The test is not using an actual ambulance in the field. It is done with a suitcase with the system parts.

swyMe has partnered with Michigan-based MaxLife to produce the system. swyMe’s expertise is in software for video and communications. They sought out a supplier of video surveillance cameras for this app, which brought them to MaxLife , a Verizon M2M partner.

Pricing is $25,000 to outfit an ambulance, including software and Verizon service for the first two years.  Then annual renewals for software and Verizon are $3,000/year after that. swyMe is a Delaware C Corp, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of VeaMea BV, (Netherlands-based).  HitCast (Italy-based) has an ownership stake in VeaMea BV. The company deals primarily with healthcare clients, but also offers video and related solutions to financial services companies.

VeaMea and HitCast have extensive, software-centric solutions for unified conferencing, via the internet TCP/IP protocols and a wide range of standards: H.323, SIP, LAPD, as examples. This provides a magic sauce for swyMe to implement across a host of existing legacy systems. These solutions also are remote video signal processing oriented and specifically adapted for 3G/4G UMTS systems, thereby providing an unusual level of quality transmission. The collaboration brought by this joint venture is directed toward mobile telemedicine applications. One other interesting aspect of VeaMea’s products is the integration of a “cloud Console” for client administration of the service.

swyMe is apparently going to be the branding trademark of VeaMea in the US. The Ambulance product offering is apparently only the beginning of a broader marketing front in video conferencing via the mobile cloud.

There are about 15,000 ambulance companies in the U.S., with approximately 50,000 vehicles. The company is also looking to the European market for expansion.

Mobilecloudera.com is produced by two leading information industry experts, Al Boschulte and Victor Schnee, who have published four studies about the ‘Future of the Mobile Cloud.’

3 Takeaways from ATA 2014

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ATA takeaways

Yes, we’re perhaps a little late with this posting.  However, we think the key takeaways (for us) from this year’s ATA  (American Telemedicine Association) conference are important enough to immortalize anyway.

#1 We’re past the tipping point.

This was such a key point that the ATA itself made sure to quote a speaker mentioning it before the conference even started:

Speaker Joe Peterson, CEO of Specialists on Call, said: “In 2013 telemedicine started passing many ‘tipping points,’ in multiple industry segments, making it a true moment in time to found, scale …read more…

Mobile Bandwidth: A Consideration for Telemedicine and mHealth

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no network

An oddly under-scrutinized aspect of telehealth, telemedicine, and mHealth, is summed up by the last of those three terms: mHealth. The “m” stands for “mobile,” and mobility requires telehealth services to be rendered over the most broadly available data networks, which usually are not the fastest.

Although this is usually taken for granted with rural areas, this is also often true of heavily populated ones. For example, I live in a fairly populous suburb. However, due to geography, our coverage map for one of the main carriers in the area (mine!) looks like this:

3g v 4g nearby

The salmon and red areas are 4G coverage and the purple is 3G (the light purple is actually data roaming!).  I repeat, this is not a rural area, although it does border on an undeveloped area.  It has been heavily populated for several decades.

For any mHealth / telemedicine deployment to be useful, it will need to be fully functional at 3G network speeds.  This ensures the widest reach to potential patients as well as the most stability for any use while in motion.  I’ll provide an example of each:

First, imagine a household where one of the occupants has a chronic condition and has agreed to use videocalls for check-ins.  As of 2012, the United States has roughly 75 active mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 people.1  This could be as high as 84 this year (2014)2, indicating that even low-income families are potentially indicated as having access to mobile broadband.

The follow up question is, do they have access to higher speed 4G networks?  Do they live in neighborhoods with crowded capacity?  Do their devices have the capability to provide the quality of connection required to avoid a trip to the hospital? (Especially costly in the case of rural/distant patients, but applicable to urban/suburban life as well.)  Even if their usage plan includes 4G LTE/WiMax, do they actually have that reception?  Even I don’t have 4G access at home.

The second example may be illustrated by terrestrial ambulances or air medical services (helicopters, etc.).  If EMTs are in communication with a hospital, sharing potentially life-saving visuals and data, then keeping the call from dropping and maintaining the quality of the call can be extremely important–even when buildings and mountains and such block the towers of the speedier networks.

Hospitals, clinics, ambulance services, in fact, any organization looking to improve patient outcomes and streamline their ability to provide service by use of video communication, should keep in mind that the solution they try needs to have a track record of functioning on 3G.  It needs to be a truly mobile solution, that can perform on a number of devices in that network environment, and under any number of conditions within that environment.

ambulance in flood

  1.  “Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012”, Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, International Telecommunication Union. Retrieved on 29 June 2013.
  2. “ICT Facts and Figures 2014“, ITU ITC EYE, International Telecommunication Union.

 

VeaMea named “Best Practice” by SAMHSA

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River Edge resized 600  SAMHSA resized 600

River Edge Behavioral Health has been praised by SAMHSA for its forward-thinking, efficient and effective use of technology.

One critical component of their strategy is using VeaMea as a telehealth platform to:

  • Increase access
  • Reduce physician turnover
  • Improve productivity
River Edge transformed their delivery of service.  You can too.
Learn more about River Edge.
Contact Us to find out how you can join them in the ranks of innovators.

Top 5 Ways to Stop Echo on Your Video Conference

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With multiple sound sources and recording devices in a video call / video conference / video collaboration session, one of the big issues that can detract from the “like you are there” experience is the presence of audio echo echo echo echo echo.

Stop-Echo-On-Video-Calls

As big a fan as you might be of Martha and the Muffins, the last thing you want in your video call is echo.  But what can you do ?  First you have to know who is CAUSING the echo.  It is actually sort of easy.  If you hear yourself echo, you are not the problem.  The one person on the call who says “What echo are you all talking about?” is the source.

Now you can get to work fixing it with the top five ways to quash echo on your next video call:

1) Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) Software – The Windows operating system has echo cancellation technology built in and …read more…