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Informatics and Next Generation CPAPs
on the ResMed Q4 earnings call last week, the CEO of ResMed gave an interesting answer when asked where he sees the most opportunity for improving technology in CPAPs: informatics.
check it out:
"I will say as an industry overall, there is still a lot of innovation to be brought to bear in this marketplace as the technology continues to progress and some of that has to do with the use of informatics, and how these devices, these therapeutic devices fit in not only as a therapeutic device in and out of itself, but also as a node within a system of care. There is – and you can kind of get a feel for that with, for instance, the ResTracks data systems and the continued evolution that you would expect to see with those informatics systems."
-- excerpted from www.SeekingAlpha.com
check it out:
"I will say as an industry overall, there is still a lot of innovation to be brought to bear in this marketplace as the technology continues to progress and some of that has to do with the use of informatics, and how these devices, these therapeutic devices fit in not only as a therapeutic device in and out of itself, but also as a node within a system of care. There is – and you can kind of get a feel for that with, for instance, the ResTracks data systems and the continued evolution that you would expect to see with those informatics systems."
-- excerpted from www.SeekingAlpha.com
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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anyone have any idea where they see this going/what this means in concrete terms?
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That's a valid concern, j n k. I don't share it, though. The way I personally see this playing out is that the manufacturers will make noises about these informatics advancements being for the benefits of doctors/DMEs just until the point when they're ready to ditch doctors/DMEs as their most important customers... essentially, until the law concerning direct-to-consumer sales of CPAP changes. Once that happens, and I think we'll see it happen, then all of a sudden the informatics advancements will be marketed to the consumer.
Right now, the manufacturers don't have a choice: CPAPs are prescription only medical devices, per FDA regulations. So the manufacturers are "stuck" with doctors/DMEs as their most important customers. All it would take is a lifting of that regulation, and we'll be buying CPAPs at WalMart and K-Mart (which I personally favor). I'm sure the manufacturers will be lobbying legislators in D.C. to make that day come sooner rather than later.
j n k said:The automation, computerization, and standardization of the collection of information from our machines could, theoretically, make things better in some ways, if a system can be worked out to bring the medical industry into the information age in a way that keeps data available to patients and that keeps data from being used against them by the bean counters.
Some people similarly theorize that standardized data from a large number of patients could be used for making results-oriented protocols that could simplify or clarify the descision-making process for doctors. I don't know. That might be good or bad, depending on who is making what decisions. Medicine is an art, not just a science, when it comes to treatment of individual patients. Or so I hear.
Companies get excited about anything that might allow then to sell more machines. And if advances in data-collection can be used to make doctors' and DMEs' jobs easier, or if it can be used to prove to more doctors that the machines are good for the patients who are using them effectively, that could result in healthier patients and richer machine-makers all at the same time. Maybe. Maybe not.
In the short term, being able to hook a machine up to a phone line, or have a patient enter a code online, or the like, will at least simplify, or replace, the process of mailing cards around or having patients walk machines into DME offices and doctors.
The problem is that the push seems to me to be to make data use easier for doctors and DMEs more than it is to make good data available to patients. So my fear is that the push to automate data will turn into a sneaky way to begin hiding the data from the patient--the person who needs it most.
Or maybe I'm just really, really paranoid.
jeff
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