Ventura firm's LifeShirt has 24-7 health monitoring

Allison Bruce

Apr. 10, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Advances in technology don't always result in more complex products -- sometimes the goal is simplification.

At VivoMetrics Inc. in Ventura, the past decade has been spent building a company around the use of lightweight vests that patients wear in clinical studies or animals wear in pre-clinical research to record vital signs and analyze the collected information.

But now the company is making moves to seize on the latest trend in healthcare: remote patient monitoring.

"The area we're touching on now is really evolving with us," said CEO Howard Baker.

Remote patient monitoring is expected to exceed $8 billion globally by 2012, according to a 2008 report. Baker said the market could easily surpass that estimate.

Remote patient monitoring allows medical staff to observe or diagnose patients in their home or work environments. The information can be used to intervene earlier, reduce costs and maintain a high quality of care, Baker said. With an aging baby boomer population, more facilities releasing patients earlier to recover at home and a long list of chronic diseases that require long-term care, there are plenty of opportunities for LifeShirt, he said.

The next generation LifeShirt will be more comfortable and easy to wear, going from a zipped-on vest to something that more resembles an undershirt. But all that simplicity belies new technology built into the garment.

Wireless technology will allow constant updates of a patient's condition; metallized fabric patches will monitor vital signs without the discomfort of sticky electrodes. Advances in computer, battery and sensor technology mean those components will be less intrusive. The electronic components can be detached and the shirt sent through the wash.

The idea is to have something the user can put on and wear with little thought of how it works or whether it's working.

The heavy lifting will be done by those monitoring the information the shirt reports.

Toward that end, VivoMetrics recently entered into a partnership with OBS Medical, a company that provides software that helps hospital staff determine what actions to take based on a patient's technical readings. The companies will work together to create software that will help caregivers interpret the information coming from the LifeShirt.

It was time for an update for the LifeShirt, said Alex Derchak, principal scientist and vice president of clinical development.

"From the scientific standpoint, we've been extremely successful," he said.

But this next step moves the business into a big market, he said. One segment of the market by itself -- monitoring the healthy elderly -- holds a lot of growth opportunities.

Baker said VivoMetrics has its share of competitors stepping into the realm of remote patient monitoring, but the company is well-positioned with its history and experience in the clinical and research areas.

Marketing Manager Gretchen Garnett said the company is in a good position to compete with companies that offer discrete devices by offering a single, integrated system for monitoring.

Telemedicine started out using satellites to connect doctors to remote areas, said Ronald Rice, communication professor at UC Santa Barbara. But there's so much more going on with technology and care: from baby monitors and emergency call buttons for elderly patients with heart problems, to online health sites and discussion groups, to programs that send out text messages when it's time to take a pill, he said.

People are becoming more used to technology in their lives and on their bodies. But there are two issues in play with wearable monitoring devices: whether people want something tracking their vital signs; and how they want that information recorded, used and protected.

People like the idea of a personal digital record as long as they can control it, Rice said.

With any of this monitoring and record-keeping, there is a trade-off between useful medical information and privacy, he said.

Baker said VivoMetrics has been careful in its design to build in necessary encryption capabilities and make sure everything is compliant with health information privacy law in how data is transferred and recognized.

A private company with employees numbering somewhere in the 20s, VivoMetrics has taken a good share of the research market and, in some cases, is the only company for certain applications, Baker said.

As the company grows into patient monitoring, it will boost staff where needed and continue to form partnerships.

The new LifeShirts will most likely be sold through managed care networks. As traction is gained in healthcare, the new LifeShirt design will be backed into the research arena, Derchak said.

"We're very excited with the direction we're going," Derchak said.

On the Net:

http://www.vivometrics.com

Newstex ID: KRTB-0210-34055115