Up to now, home health monitoring technology has generally targeted the elderly and critically ill patients. As such, it misses a lot of people who could also benefit.
Enter Seymour.
The new platform comes courtesy of Honeywell's Life Care Solutions business, which is bringing a beta of Seymour (think "see more") to show at HIMSS15.
John Bojanowski, president of Honeywell Life Care Solutions, said the typical home health monitoring platform doesn't scale well because it focuses on select patient populations. "We really needed to look at it differently," he said. And so the idea was brought up to open that platform to less-acute patients.
"We wanted to make it broad, not specific," he said. As an example, he added, a health system might have 2,000 patients in remote monitoring programs, "but 200,000 more out there who could need some form of remote monitoring care."
In other words, practically anyone who stays at a hospital for a period of time might need some post-care monitoring at home.
"The idea is to move from healthcare to self care," said Sara Russell Rodriguez, Honeywell LCS' vice president of clinical services. By marketing to providers who then offer it to their patients, she said, Honeywell LCS keeps the clinician at the forefront of the conversation "and puts it in context" for patients.
Bojanowski said providers are looking for this type of platform, especially in an environment where they're being reimbursed for care outcomes. "Once patients are beyond that critical state, they're asking what can we do for them," he said. "They want to continue the conversation."
He said Honeywell LCS (the company rebranded from Honeywell HomMed in January) toyed with the idea of delivering this as a consumer-facing product, but the idea of a platform supported by doctors fit into the company's philosophy that consumers will be more apt to embrace mHealth if it's supported by a doctor.
"It's not just an interesting device that can sit in someone's home," he said. "And we can't just throw another platform into people's homes. This needs to be wrapped up into the bigger picture" of provider-patient engagement.
To that end, Seymour will tie together not only patient-provider communications, but health and wellness devices that range from blood glucose monitors and blood pressure cuffs to the latest in fitness trackers.
Bojanowski said the concept of incorporating healthcare into the so-called Internet of Things "is still an undefined marketplace." There's the smart home, and also the smart car, and while consumers are embracing these platforms, healthcare providers are on the sidelines, cautious about how this technology can help them.
He's hoping Seymour is that bridge between providers and the patient's home.
Bojanowski and Rodriguez will be presenting the session "Enabling the move from healthcare to self care," during HIMSS15 in Chicago on Monday, April 13 at the Connected Patient Gallery, Booth 8127.
