Nonin Medical Joins Leading Health and Technology Companies to Advance Interoperability Among Health and Medical Devices
Posted on: Thursday, 8 June 2006, 15:00 CDT
MINNEAPOLIS, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonin Medical, Inc. announced today that it has joined an alliance of technology, healthcare and fitness companies that will set guidelines aimed at enabling a diverse array of personal health and fitness technologies to interconnect and communicate health information.
Ultimately, guidelines established by the Continua Health Alliance are expected to enable health and fitness products to relay data from devices, such as weight scales and monitors that track vital signs, to individuals and their caregivers. The availability of up-to-the-minute information will enable them to better manage their health conditions. Interoperability among devices also promises to help improve quality of care and reduce health care costs.
In addition to Nonin Medical, founding members of the Continua Health Alliance include BodyMedia, Cisco Systems, GE Healthcare, IBM, Intel Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, Medtronic, Motorola, Omron Healthcare, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Partners HealthCare, Polar Electro, Royal Philips Electronics, RMD Networks, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, The Tunstall Group, Welch Allyn and Zensys.
People with chronic conditions, the elderly and individuals working to achieve fitness goals, will benefit from health and medical devices featuring easy, reliable connectivity and interoperability. For example, people with diabetes will be able to immediately share glucose levels taken at their homes or offices with health care providers. Heart patients will be able to instantly relay pulse and blood pressure readings taken at home or health club to caregivers. Adult children will be able to watch over their aging parents' health status from afar and better support their health management. Fitness buffs will be able to share their exercise data with coaches and trainers via the Internet.
"The creation of this alliance of companies marks a significant new milestone in efforts to use technology's power and potential to help improve quality of life and health care delivery," said Gary Tschautscher, president and chief executive officer of Nonin Medical. "Today's technologies and networking standards are capable of gathering and relaying health information. What has been needed is a willingness by manufacturers and health care providers to unite to create an infrastructure that will promote interoperability and the exchange of information. The formation of the Continua Health Alliance is the first step in creating such an infrastructure. Ultimately, when devices can be counted on to work together and share information reliably and securely, everyone, including patients, physicians and fitness coaches, will benefit -- and health care costs should decline."
The Continua Health Alliance also plans a logo signifying the promise of interoperability with other certified products. Applied to products made under Continua guidelines, the logo will provide consumers with increased assurance of interoperability, enabling them to choose products capable of sharing information with caregivers.
The Continua guidelines will not create new standards, but will instead be based on already proven standards. Bluetooth(R), USB, Wi-Fi(TM), Z-Wave(TM) and ZigBee(TM) are among those that will be considered. The group plans to deliver the guidelines within the next 18 months.
About Nonin Medical Inc. - http://www.nonin.com/
Minneapolis-based Nonin Medical designs, manufactures and distributes a broad spectrum of physiological monitoring devices used by health and medical professionals in more than 125 countries. A private-owned company, Nonin draws upon its industry-leading capabilities in signal processing and sensor design to develop innovative pulse oximeters, sensors, accessories and software with features not available in competing products.
To learn more about the Continua Health Alliance, visit http://www.continuaalliance.org/ .
Nonin Medical, Inc.
CONTACT: Gary Tschautscher of Nonin Medical, Inc., +1-763-553-9968, ornoninpr@nonin.com
Web site: http://www.nonin.com/http://www.continuaalliance.org/
Source: PRNewswire
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