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Continua Health Alliance Advances Mission to Create Connected Personal Health Ecosystem

Thursday, October 23, 2008 General News
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PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 21 The Continua Health Alliance, anorganization dedicated to enabling interoperable healthcare products andsolutions worldwide, today announced the first demonstration of seamlesslyconnected Continua pre-certified products and solutions. In addition,illustrating strong momentum and support of the organization's mission toestablish an ecosystem of connected personal health products and services,Continua also announced the addition of Dossia and Google to its membershipand welcomed healthcare veteran Charles Parker as its new Executive Director.
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"With close to a quarter of the world's population overweight, more than600 million people with some form of chronic disease, and millions morereaching retirement age, the time for greater personal health management isnow," said Dave Whitlinger, Continua Health Alliance President. "Continuamember companies are working on real solutions that will empower consumers andhealthcare professionals to access and share information quickly and easilythrough connected products and solutions. Together, we can create a newmarketplace, improve health and quality of life and advance personaltelehealth worldwide."
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First Demonstration of Interoperable Products

Continua member companies will demonstrate interoperability amongpre-certified products and services on October 27, 2008 at the Partners Centerfor Connected Health 5th Annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston,Massachusetts. The demos will show how sharing data seamlessly -- across avariety of environments -- can help consumers and professionals better managepersonal health and wellness and drive business results.

A&D Medical, Cambridge Consultants, Cypak, FitLinxx, Google Health(TM),IBM, Intel, National Health Service (NHS), Nonin Medical, Oracle, Partners,Philips, Roche Diagnostics, and University Health Network will participate byproviding devices and software solutions that support Continua's upcomingVersion One guidelines and share a common interface. The devices andsolutions will be set in both home and professional settings. Audiencemembers will see the benefits of real-time information sharing, includingimproved data for diagnostics and treatment, time and cost savings, and animproved patient experience.

For more information about the Continua demonstrations or the PartnersCenter for Connected Health Symposium, please visit:http://www.connected-health.org or contact Gina Cella at [email protected] via telephone at: 781-334-4692.

Broadening Membership; Welcoming Dossia and Google

Since its launch in 2006, Continua has grown to include 170 of the world'smost successful technology companies, medical and fitness devicemanufacturers, and healthcare organizations working across three key markets:chronic disease management, independent aging, and proactive health andwellness.

Today, the Alliance is pleased to welcome Dossia, the non-profitconsortium focused on empowering consumers with personally-controlled healthrecords, and Google Inc., one of the world's leading search and informationmanagement companies.

Part of the growing Personal Health Record/Personal Health System market,both Dossia and Google (through its Google Health team), are focused oncreating richer consumer healthcare experiences using tools and applicationsthat allow secure information storage and retrieval. Each will bring a depthof knowledge, breadth of resources, and unique perspective to the Alliance andwill help Continua to ensure that current and future Personal HealthRecord/Personal Health System applications can be used across a wide array ofContinua-certified devices.

"Consumers are ready to adopt healthcare technology, such aspersonally-controlled health records and home health monitoring devices," saidColin Evans, President and CEO of Dossia. "Individuals with a more completepicture of their health have the opportunity to make smarter, more informedhealth decisions, to stay healthier and help lower out-of-control costs.Dossia is looking forward to working with Continua and its members to createopen healthcare solutions."

"Google ardently supports the concepts of interoperability, dataportability, and open standards, so it was a natural fit for us to join theContinua Alliance," said Jerry Lin, Product Manager for Google Health. "Ourwork with Continua will help us continue to develop integration with varioushome monitoring devices to ensure that data can be uploaded from these devicesand securely stored in Google Health."

A full list of Continua members can be found on the organization's websiteat: http://www.continuaalliance.org/about/roster.

Charles Parker Joins as new Executive Director

Continua is also pleased to welcome Charles 'Chuck' Parker as theAlliance's new Executive Director. A healthcare professional with more than20 years of experience in the industry, Charles was most recently the ChiefTechnology Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development andMarketing at Masspro, one of the United States' leading performanceimprovement organizations dedicated to advancing healthcare quality.

Beginning in January, Chuck will work with Continua's Board of Directorsto develop a vision and strategic plan for guiding new initiatives for growth,financial stability, and services to membership. Chuck will drive Continua'sstrategic plan through participation in various committees and work groupswhile becoming the face of the Alliance to the industry and marketplace.

"Continua is at the forefront of a revolution in personal healthcare,"said Chuck Parker, new Continua Health Alliance Executive Director. "Byfocusing on the creation of a new market of connected health and wellnessdevices and solutions, Continua is empowering healthcare professionals,individuals and their families to better manage health and wellness at everystage of life. I'm proud to join Continua and look forward to helping theorganization achieve its goal of better health, through connectivity."

About Continua Health Alliance

Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry coalition of thefinest healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaborationto improve the quality of personal healthcare. With more than 170 membercompanies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system ofinteroperable personal health solutions with the knowledge that extendingthose solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals andprovides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management

Promoter and Originating Promoter members include: A&D Medical,ActiveHealth Management, Aetna, Ascension Health, Bayer Healthcare, CA, Centerfor Connected Health, Cisco, Clinic Barcelona, European Center for ConnectedHealth, GE Healthcare, Homedics, IBM, iMetrikus, Intel Corporation, KaiserPermanente, LifeSync, Medtronic, NHS, Nokia, Nonin Medical, Novartis, Omron,Panasonic, Philips, Polar, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Qualcomm, Roche, Samsung,Sharp, Siemens, Sprint, St. Jude Medical, Texas Instruments, Tunstall,Viterion, and Welch Allyn.

To learn more about the Continua Health Alliance, its mission, membercompanies, and how to join, please visit http://www.continuaalliance.org.

Continua Members Share Their Thoughts

"Telemedicine is essential to increasing the quality and availability ofhealthcare worldwide. Continua and its member companies recognize the need forinteroperability between systems and products to reduce barriers to entry andincrease the supply of telemedicine solutions," said Ed Siemens, Director ofSales and Marketing, A&D Medical. (http://www.andmedical.com).

"Medication monitoring is the first step to solving 'the other drugproblem' -- 50 percent of people do not take medication as prescribed. Withover 40 percent of clients taking more than one drug, standardization is key.Continua leads the way by launching standard solutions for medicationmonitoring," said Per Nathanaelson, CEO, Cypak. (http://www.cypak.com).

"FitLinxx develops technology and products that motivate people to livemore active and healthy lifestyles," said Tom Blackadar, Chief ScienceOfficer, FitLinxx. "We deliver a platform of connected devices that captureand apply activity & health data to improve quality of life and lowerhealthcare costs. We believe in the interoperability of Continua and that thisinteroperability will enable consumers to have a choice of product, providerand services at the right cost." (http://www.fitlinxx.com).

"Continua's ground breaking demonstration applies the power of SOA andstandards to important work in the healthcare industry, and IBM is pleased tobe playing a pivotal role," said Karla Norsworthy, vice president, IBMSoftware Standards. "These critical remote monitoring solutions combine thepower of devices and services from other Continua Alliance members withindustry leading event processing and information management services fromIBM, creating real value for the healthcare industry. We are delighted to haveworked alongside Continua to develop this important architecture."(http://www.ibm.com).

"Nonin Medical is redefining how pulse oximetry is used to enhance patientcare both for the clinician and the patient in the home. The increasedinteroperability between medical devices and personal devices will increasethe ease of secure data communication between clinician and patient - allowingfor greater patient freedom and independence from chronic conditions such asCOPD and a piece of mind for the clinician that the oxygen therapy program isfollowed appropriately," said, Jayant Parthasarthy, Ph.D., Program Manager,Nonin Medical. (http://www.noninmedical.com).

"Our health and social care services need to develop new models of careusing telehealth and telecare services to cope with an ageing population,"said Dr. Mike Bainbridge, Clinical Architect for NHS Connecting for Health."We welcome Continua's work on interoperability, which helps to ensure we cangive people greater control over the care they receive and genuine choice inthe tools they can use to lead healthier lives. We look forward to thesestandards being adopted by the NHS and used in personal health records."(http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk).

SOURCE Continua Health Alliance
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