Current Newsletter - January 2010

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Continua Demonstrates End-to-End Connected Health Solution at CES, Digital Health Summit

Continua kicked off 2010 by making a splash at this year's CES in Las Vegas, offering industry representatives a wide variety of panel discussions, interviews and product demonstrations.

At the forefront of Continua's CES presence was its first end-to-end connected health solution. Member companies IBM, Nonin Medical and Vignet Inc. showed how data from consumer health devices can be transmitted to a variety of destinations, including hospitals, medical offices and patient information systems.

"One of Continua's key goals has been to enable end-to-end interoperability for connected heath solutions," said Rick Cnossen, President and Chairman of the Board for Continua Health Alliance. "By providing a framework of standards-based interfaces, Continua is spurring innovation while removing barriers to global implementation and adoption."

Continua also welcomed member companies A&D Medical, MedApps, Tunstall Healthcare, PDT and ZyXel to its booth in the Digital Health Summit.

Bolstered by this great member turnout, Continua led an aggressive messaging campaign, highlighted by half a dozen live interviews - including Fox Business News' Shibani Joshi - and an all-Continua panel at the Digital Health Summit that drew a standing room-only crowd. Promoter Member PWC also delivered a keynote address at the Summit.

Continua Executive Director Chuck Parker and Board Directors Dr. Deepak Ayyagari of Sharp, Dr. Hyung Kim of Ascension Health, Clint McClellan of Qualcomm and Horst Merkle of Roche Diagnostics shared their expertise and varied viewpoints at the panel "The Future of e-Health is Here: True Stories of Cooperation, Dedication and Occasional Misadventures."

Continua goes next to San Diego to jointly host the Mobile Healthcare Symposium with the Wireless Life-Sciences Association (WLSA). The alliance will also be present at HIMSS 2010 and the World of Health IT Conference, both held in March.

For more information about upcoming events, please click here.

Continua selected to participate in European Commission Support Action

Continua's European Union Policy Work Group (EUPWG) is proud to announce the alliance's selection by the European Commission to participate in a Support Action in its union-wide 7th Framework Program for R&D.

"In order to let Europe reap the full benefit of personal health systems, health stakeholders must understand and support the range of challenges in facilitating the interoperability of personal health systems, across technical to organisational and legal aspects," said Mario Romao, EUPWG Co-Chair.

"This initiative - Smart Personal Health - is an activity co-financed by the European Commission that will deliver a series of key awareness raising activities throughout Europe," he said.

Specifically promoting interoperability in personal health and other eHealth systems, Smart Personal Health will include regional stakeholder workshops, a pan-European interoperability conference, and a final report on the status of personal health.

The report's recommendations will be proposed to the European Commission, European national and regional authorities, stakeholder groups and industry.

Continua joins several organizations, such as ETSI, IHE, empirica and The Centre in receiving funding for the 12-month project. The first workshop is slated to be held in March 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

Upcoming Continua Events | Open to the Public!

Don't miss out on two great events in February 2010 hosted by Continua Health Alliance. Register below; space is limited.

1. Mobile Healthcare Symposium (in conjunction with WLSA)

Register Today!

Join speakers and industry experts from both groups for a day of insightful Mobile Health Solutions keynotes, panel discussions on the state of the environment, product demonstrations and networking opportunities with venture capital and development organizations. Current keynote speakers include:

Dr. Soon-Shiong is the Executive Chairman and CEO of Abraxis Health. He was recently appointed Executive Director of the UCLA Wireless Health Institute, and is Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Professor of Bioengineering at UCLA.

Mr. Glenn Lurie is President, Emerging Devices, Resale and Partnerships at AT&T Mobility, where he leads AT&T's strategic initiative to drive innovation that will bring wireless connectivity to new consumer electronics devices and applications.

Click here for the agenda.

An exclusive networking reception is scheduled immediately after the agenda. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact directly with mobile health leaders from both groups. Don't miss more than a dozen mobile healthcare product demonstrations from leading companies!

2. Continua Summit Public Day

Register Today!

Continua will be offering a "public day" for WLSA and non-members.

Join speakers and industry experts for a day of insightful keynotes and trainings on topics such as meaningful use/ARRA relevancy to Continua as well as regulatory implications for mobile products.

Current keynote speakers include:

Chris Wadsen, Managing Director, Health Industries Advisory Strategy, PricewaterhouseCooper

Eric J. Topol, M.D., Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute and Chief Academic Officers, Scripps Health; Chief Medical Officer, West Wireless Health Institute

Mohit Kaushal, Director of Health Care of the FCC Office of Policy and Strategic Planning

There will also be product demonstrations in conjunction with the Opening Session, including several mobile devices that show Continua V1 product interoperability.

Click here for the agenda.

Continua in the News

• Telco 2.0 Presentation:  Continua President Rick Cnossen
• Embedded Computing Design Connecting Health Care Devices

Upcoming Events

HIMSS 2010

March 1-4, 2010
Atlanta, GA, USA

Come see Continua in the IHE Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS 2010! Click here to register or receive more information about HIMSS.

World of Health IT Conference & Expo

March 15-18, 2010
Barcelona, Spain

The World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition is a leading platform for eHealth in Europe, convening major stakeholders from the Healthcare IT community to engage in knowledge sharing, networking with peers and learning about the latest healthcare IT trends, challenges and solutions.

As a partner of the World of Health IT (WoHIT), Continua is pleased to organize the Personal Health Village at WoHIT. Our members' unified presence and combined marketing efforts will help create a major exhibition attraction and draw attention to our progress as an organization and the leading solutions offered by our member companies.

Join us in March 2010 in Barcelona for a stimulating conference program and a cutting-edge exhibition, while government leaders will be shaping the future of eHealth policy in Europe!

The 7th Annual Health Care Congress

April 12-14, 2010
Washington, D.C.

The World Health Care Congress (WHCC) is the most prestigious meeting that convenes global thought leaders and key decision-makers to share global best practices in an elite networking forum resulting in an exchange of valuable strategies to improve quality and cost-effectiveness.

The 7th Annual World Health Care Congress held April 12-14, 2010 will convene more than 2,000 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from all sectors of health care including the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading government agencies. Through hard hitting keynotes and 10 targeted summits, WHCC delivers:

• Unparalleled speaker faculty of over 250 nationally recognized thought leaders
• Most critical and timely program agenda 
• Over 130 members of the press 
• Networking opportunities with leaders from all sectors including Health Plans, providers, employers government, pharma, biotech, medical devices and academia
• Best Practices from the World's Innovators including delegations from over 30 countries and growing!

Alliance Update

Continua's Certification Program is going strong with 12 Certified Products and many more on the way.

Continua's membership has reached more than 225 member companies and is still growing!

Most recently, Archinoetics, LLC, 7 Layers AG, Air Products, Attrezzature Medico Sanitarie SRL, Biocomfort Diagnostics GmbH & Co. KG, Brunel University, Burwood Group, Inc., BXI Health Systems, LLC, CEA - LETI, Flextronics Design SRL, ISOFT, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Marvell International Ltd., McLaren Applied Technologies, MindTree Limited, MTI Ltd., Nestle, North End Technologies, Polymap Wireless, RTEmd (Real Time Enterprises, Inc.), SINTEF, SK Telecom Americas, Stonestreet One, LLC, Sumitomo Electric Networks, Inc., Tesan SpA, University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Valentia Technologies, VigNet Inc., Vocollect Healthcare Systems, Yellow Digital Health Lab and ZeroG Wireless, Inc. joined at the Contributor level.

If you would like to read more about the Continua Health Alliance membership benefits please click here.