We're rolling out our slate of eHealth Innovators. RTX is the 4th of 10; see the whole list in coming weeks on our blog, to the right.
Our eHealth Trend #10 is:
HomeSpital: Wireless Medical Devices in your Residence.
RTX is one of our eHealth Innovators of 2008, because they've got an array of wireless devices that allow patients with chronic conditions to connect in real-time to the health system ... from their homes.
Here we interview Bjarne Flou, Managing Director of the Denmark-based firm.THEIR DESCRIPTION: RTX Healthcare specializes in the Development and Manufacturing of Wireless Medical Devices for Remote Monitoring of Patients suffering from Chronic Diseases. Our customers are Disease Management companies and Medical Device Manufacturers who are in need of dedicated and tailored products to address the special requirements of successful and cost effective telehealth monitoring of a rapid growing population of elderly people around the globe, suffering from a wide range of chronic diseases including CHF, CAD, Diabetes, COPD and many other diseases.
1) Many in the USA don't know of RTX-- before talking about RTX Healthcare, can you tell us about the parent firm?
ANSWER: Our parent firm is RTX Telecom. This company is a wireless product and engineering firm specialized in wireless products such as cordless phones, headsets, etc. With 250 employees this company is serving a range of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world such as Panasonic, Microsoft and many others.
2) What is the strategy, at a high level, for RTX Healthcare?
ANSWER: Our mission is to design and manufacture the most cost effective and appropriate
products for home monitoring of elderly people suffering from chronic diseases. Our vision is to become a market leader as the preferred supplier of interactive telehealth monitors.
3) Telehealth has been slow to take off to date-- do you see a confluence of drivers that indicate now it's ready for super-normal growth?
ANSWER: Hard to tell. Many before me has been wrong here. I expect a tipping point to occur "soon" - my guess is 0 to 3 years. A tipping point triggered by pull from overloaded healthcare systems and push from increasing evidence of positive outcomes of telehealth and general knowledge to the possibility of doing so.
4) You launched the RTX3370 Telehealth Monitor in February 2008, in the USA. What problem does this device line solve, especially regarding RoI?
shall be calculated on the overall cost of ownership of the ANSWER: The RTX Telehealth Monitor enables systems integrators and disease management companies to collect vital signs and symptoms successfully from elderly patients while at home. A core differentiator between RTX Healthcare and most other providers in the industry is that RTX Healthcare offers an open architecture that allow our customers to be 100% in control of the patient data, as this is transmitted directly to their own servers.
Also, the flexibility of the RTX Telehealth Monitor allows our customers to use the same device to monitor several disease groups such as CHF, COPD and Diabetes with customized questionnaires, language, etc. The RoI is a function of overall outcomes and cost savings on the patients monitored, compared to patients not monitored.
5) How will your telehealth products be sold in the USA; that is, direct and/or through channels? And at what kind of end-user price points?
ANSWER: RTX Healthcare operates in the US market through our own sales, support and distribution center in San Jose, California.
6) What 2-3 firms do you see as your principle competitors, and why?
ANSWER: RTX Healthcare's largest "direct competitor" is "consumer electronics" such as
mobile phones, etc. Another "large competitor" is customers who decide to use
very different technology solutions to solve the same basic task.
As an example IVR (Interactive Voice Response system), web interface, etc. After this group of products we do not see a single company as our largest competitor. Most other providers of
interactive telehealth solutions do not offer a 1:1 comparable value proposition; they offer servers and infrastructure as part of their offering. However, we expect competition to surface at some point....
Read more in our 150-page SPOTLIGHT REPORT, updated each month. We carve out four discrete segments in eHealth, and tell you what's happening, how and why, including detailed revenue projections:
a. News/Search/Community
b. EMR
c. PHR
d. Digital Home Health.
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