Special Announcement - February 2008

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Announcement from the President

Greetings, Momentum continues to build for the Continua Health Alliance as we move "From Guidelines to Products in 2008" And in this newsletter, I have the privilege of relaying to you some of the new programs that the Alliance has put together to help the Continua membership companies succeed in this growing marketplace! But before I jump into our exciting new programs and membership benefits, let me take a few moments to try and convey some of the excitement that was felt in Ireland two weeks ago... The unique cooperation of Northern Ireland Health Minister Michael McGimpsey and Economy Minister Nigel Dodds led to their joint announcement of the establishment the European Centre for Connected Health. The center is intended to help test various technologies that allow people with chronic disease to manage their lives independently. Taking another significant stride forward, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey announced the allocation of $96 million to help bring 5,000 people suffering from chronic disease in Northern Ireland to a remote monitoring service by 2011. To kick off the official procurement process for this service, Continua will be working with Northern Ireland to host a special European Connected Health Expo Day. Held on May 7, 2008 in Belfast, this event will set the stage for the release of the official Request For Proposal (RFP) from the European Centre and will allow Continua member companies to showcase their products in a tradeshow setting. Northern Ireland government officials, healthcare professionals, and the leadership of the European Centre for Connected Health are expected to attend - with an obvious intent! More information on this unique opportunity will be provided in the coming weeks. Continua member companies save the date! And now, let me introduce to you several of our new Continua membership programs and benefits... "From Guidelines to Products in 2008" We want to make it as easy as we possibly can for our Member companies to deliver Continua Certified products to the market in 2008. This includes: FREE! Version One Guidelines FREE! Continua Version One Guideline reference source code to accelerate your product development and dramatically reduce your development costs FREE! Plugfests in 2008...show up with your Continua products and test with other Member companies for free! FREE! Certification Testing for Promoter companies! Additionally, Continua will be providing the following marketing and educational & industry research benefits: NEW Continua health provider matchmaking program! FREE Product Showcase Web site feature! NEW Critical Mass Consulting's research study for Business Model / Barriers! FREE CDM/RPM reports! NEW Release of the Continua Logo Certification brand book! FREE Educational Sessions for Promoter Members! FREE Speakership Placement! As always, please feel free to send us a note with any additional membership services you believe would be valuable. We are always looking for ways to help advance the personal telehealth marketplace and to make Continua a valuable asset for the success of your organization! Best of health! David L. Whitlinger President and Board Chairman The Continua Health Alliance

Spring summit 2008 - Luxembourg

Yes, it's already time to start thinking about our next Member Summit held in Luxembourg April 13-16, 2008. The Spring Summit promises to be as productive as Dublin and will also feature Continua's first official Plugfest, held on April 16 in conjunction with the Med-e-Tel 2008 event that week!

The Spring Summit will be held at the Hilton Luxembourg. Registration will open to our membership this Friday!

2008 new membership benefits

Reference Source Code (VASC): To help all Continua member companies get rolling on building certifiable products and services, Continua is creating a large library of reference source code that will be freely downloadable. Hundreds of modules and thousands of lines of code are already available (Vendor Assisted Source Code - VASC), and plans are in place to develop more reference source code throughout the year. This is a very exciting program that we hope you will take advantage of to get your product developed quicker!

Test and Certification: With the Test and Certification plan due out in 2008, Continua is helping our members jumpstart the transition to "Continua Certification" by making it easy to convert. First, both Promoters and Contributors will enjoy free Plugfests all year long. And...Promoter companies will also enjoy free Product Certification Testing in 2008 (Certification fees waived for Promoters, no more than 4 waived products per Promoter company in one year).

Speaker Opportunities: Just as Continua wants to help our members with certification, we also want to help them promote their telehealth products and services. Continua's new speakership services will place member companies' executives directly in industry speaking events while its new Product Showcase will allow members to demo their certified products at Continua Summit Opening Sessions, tradeshow booths and other Continua events. Members will also be able to highlight their certified products on the Continua Web site and the public newsletter.

Continua Certified Logo: Continua has recently developed guidelines for our Certified Logo. The logo brings new measures of product confidence and consumer empowerment through Continua's interoperability. Member companies can accelerate its recognition by supporting the precise reproduction, application and predictability of its appearance. The certified logo can be applied to a wide variety of member collateral, such as packaging, electronic media and software, substrates and products themselves.

Research and Reports: Continua members will be well informed in the coming year thanks to our recent research and training benefits. Continua has secured four research reports which deal with strategic analysis of European telemedicine markets, telemedicine in rural North America and remote patient monitoring services in the U.S. disease management and home health care markets, are available at no charge to Promoter members.

To further assist our member companies, Continua has engaged Critical Mass Consulting on a business model and barriers research project. The project will inventory and assess business models for products and services involving telehealth, patient self-management and remote disease management. It will also characterize the strengths and weaknesses of each model. Member companies will be able to utilize Critical Mass' results to better develop their strategies for generating, increasing and sustaining revenues from products in those areas.

And as a special bonus, we are also offering free educational sessions at every Member's Summit to Promoter members. Dealing with topics such as regulatory medical device criteria, reimbursement and Continua technologies, the sessions will help Promoter members continue to stay on the leading edge of the industry.

Personal Telehealth Matchmaking Program: Finally, Continua is bringing its membership together like never before with our new Personal Telehealth Matchmaking Program. Due out in early 2008, the program will facilitate communication between technology companies interested in piloting Continua-compliant technologies and provider companies interested in doing the same.

Through a Continua online database, audiocasts and industry events, health service providers will be able to showcase the trials they are interested in. Their RFPs will be advertised through a showcasing tool in the Members' area on the Web site, the public newsletter, keynotes and other Continua venues. Vendor companies can then identify the specific pilot programs they want to support in order to demonstrate the interoperability capabilities of their technology.