Aerotel And Medicronic-Vodafone Launch Innovative Wireless Homecare System In Spain

Main Category: Caregivers / Homecare
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail;  Medical Devices
Article Date: 04 Apr 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Aerotel Medical Systems, one of the world's leading manufacturers of advanced telemedicine and remote monitoring solutions, announced today that Vodafone Spain in conjunction with Medicronic Salud have used Aerotel's e-CliniQ™ Wireless Home Monitoring System with successful results.

The e-CliniQ™ Wireless Home Monitoring System enables patients to keep track of their health, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Using Bluetooth technology, Aerotel's Tele-Modem™ Homecare Hub remotely monitors the patient's vital signs from various homecare sensors, transmitting the data to Medicronic's central receiving station via the Vodafone cellular network, where it is stored and analyzed by Aerotel's Medical Parameters Monitoring (MPM™) software.

The seamless technology is being used successfully by MEDICRONIC-VODAFONE SPAIN, a joint venture between Medicronic Salud and Vodaphone, to monitor, for example, patients' blood pressure and other vital signs. Easy to use, the e-CliniQ™ system is activated at the touch of a button. Blood pressure readings are encrypted and sent via a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to the receiving center where the patient or doctor can directly access the information via the internet, using Aerotel's MPM-Net™ technology. The system allows doctors to check that patients are adhering to their pharmaceutical treatments.

"Flexibility and adaptation to patient needs has been key to e-CliniQ's success," commented David Rubin, Aerotel Medical Systems President & CEO. "In the modern age of wireless telecommunications and anywhere connectivity via cellular and internet networks, there is no reason why we cannot provide our patients with full remote and non-intrusive monitoring care, saving time and money in unnecessary visits to doctors and hospitals."

Dr. José Antonio Amérigo, Medical Director of MEDICRONIC-VODAFONE SPAIN, says that new cell phone technology, allows to control and follow up of Chronic Illness patients in many different ways, giving them full mobility and using e-CliniQ's to check instantly their vital parameters no matter the time or the place they are.

In Spain where more and more old people use cell phones, it is easy for them to be connected instead of depending on a fixed place were the analogue lines exist like at home. Spain has the oldest rate of elder people at the European Union and with one of the higher number of Chronic Patients, most of them over 65 years old.

"The consistence of Aerotel´s technology," says Dr. Amérigo, "is a good example to use in Chronic Disease Management, where the patient takes their own control of the situation, supervised from a distance by a group of doctors and nurses, at the MEDICRONIC-VODAFONE Call Center."

Aerotel's innovative technology also enables patients to monitor other values such as weight, blood glucose, ECG (electrocardiogram), cholesterol, blood oxygen saturation level (SpO2) and Spirometry.

About Aerotel Medical Systems

Aerotel Medical Systems is a world leader in cost-effective, high quality, user-friendly, medical diagnostic systems and devices for home care, eHealth and telemedicine. The company provides a complete disease management package; including transtelephonic devices designed for a variety of remote diagnostic, emergency services and monitoring applications, hardware and software platforms for remote monitoring call centers, as well as phone and web-based monitoring software.

Aerotel enables patients to conduct tests comfortably while leading normal, mobile lives. With a client base in over 45 countries around the globe, Aerotel has been recently awarded the prestigious "Innovation and Growth Strategy Leadership of the Year Award 2007" by Frost & Sullivan.

For further information please visit Aerotel Medical Systems website at: http://www.aerotel.com or visit us at the following upcoming events:

- American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, 6-8 April, 2008 (booth 620).

- Med-e-Tel - The International Educational and Networking Forum for eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT, Luxemburg, 16-18 April, 2008 (booth IC29).

About Medicronic Salud

Medicronic Salud is a leading telemedicine service provider in Spain. Together with Vodafone the company has established MEDICRONIC-VODAFONE SPAIN, a Medical Call Center Service, using both fixed and cell phone technologies, combined with vital parameters measurements to be managed by patients at home or at the Retiring Homes (more than 5.000 all over Spain), with or without Medical Services.

http://www.medicronic.com