In the past few weeks the road to the mobile health version of the NCAA basketball tourney has taken many twists and turns. It started as an exercise spurred by the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on mobile health regulation and the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It began with 16 mobile health apps and devices, some cleared as medical devices by the US Food and Drug Administration and others not. Some were firmly trounced by the opposition, but others were well matched and made for some very hard choices. Hopefully, for those of you playing from home, for you as well. And now they have been whittled down to two.
Mobisante’s MobiUS SP1 vs AirStrip Technologies’ AirStrip ONE
Both Mobisante and AirStrip have developed transformative technologies not only because they have increased the flexibility of technology that was restricted to a particular machine or room in a hospital, but also because they more easily share patient information. And it’s not been without some controversy, such as raising questions about whether the technology can be used without physicians. Both systems make medicine more mobile and can be used for a variety of conditions. AirStrip’s device can send patient information from hospital monitoring systems, bedside devices and electronic health records to a clinician’s mobile device.
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Mobisante’s MobiUS device, in addition to providing analysis and measurement of the fetus, can provide ultrasound imaging for as well as imaging for abdominal, cardiac, pelvic, pediatric, mucoskeletal, and peripheral vessels. It was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Sailesh Chutani and ultrasound designer and developer David Zar. The device has applications outside of the hospital for emergency medical technicians for trauma assessment. Next week, Mobisante’s device is being included in a TEDMED talk called the Smartphone Physical and will be used to check the carotid artery.
In addition to being able to take diagnostic scans at bedside and in the field, Mobisante’s device can connect directly to a cellular network or Wi-Fi, allowing the user to send images — something other ultrasound devices can’t do without a user first transferring them to a PC using a docking station or memory card. According to Mobile Health News, MobiUS only works on the Windows Mobile 6.5-based Toshiba TG01 smartphone and requires a USB 2.0 port for the probe. Because they lack support for USB 2.0, popular devices like Apple’s iPhone and devices running on Google’s Android OS cannot support MobiUS. But it has since added a tablet version that can.
AirStrip Technologies was co-founded by Dr. Cameron Powell, a San Antonio based obstetrician and Stephen Moore. In an interview with technology publication Silicon Hills, Powell stressed that the device provides flexibility, that instead of a nurse reporting the condition of the mother and baby verbally the platform shows what the baby’s heart is doing and the vital signs of the mother in real-time in varying stages of labor. And that has been expanded to include clinical data such as cardiology home healthcare and geriatrics. AirStrip One is helping to speed up clinical decisions by delivering patient data from medical devices, electronic medical records and patient monitors to clinicians– in a single view on their smartphone or iPad. That clinical data includes vital signs, allergies, medications, medical images and lab results with information generated from medical devices.
Winner: AirStrip One
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Why? This was a very tough match up and it reflects the sophistication and scope of the applications each device provides and the opportunities they stand to offer in mobile healthcare. But I simply think AirStrip One has a broader range of capabilities and can be used on iOS and Android supported devices, making the technology accessible to a wider audience. It’s still pretty darn close though.
