In the most recent episode of Impetus Digital‘s Fireside Chat, I talked to Leon Eisen, Chief Executive Officer of Oxitone, about “remote continuous care” and the role of AI-powered predictive analytics and alerts in providing this type of care. We also explored how Oxitone is being used to remotely supervise quarantined residents amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel, the barriers to all high-risk chronic disease patients accessing “remote continuous care,” and how this type of technology differs from traditional sensor measurements.
Here is a sneak peek of our conversation:
Q: Can you tell us about Oxitone’s product what differentiates your hardware from a Fitbit or an Apple watch, or anything else that is sensorial and passive in nature?
A: This is a very important question because all these, Fitbit and Apple, they created huge confusion, trying to position their devices like medical devices. It’s wrong, they have not made them clearer, and they were not built like medical devices; they were not built for these types of patients. Just imagine a patient, 90 years old with an Apple watch on the wrist, what can she do with it? This is what happens today and we have to educate people.
The difference is very simple. It is like the difference between a Philips monitor in the hospital and trying to replace it with an Apple watch. Based on a medical device, the physician can make treatment decisions, prescribe drugs, and make a care plan. If the physician does that based on a Fitbit and something happens, they can go to jail, even the insurance will not help. That is the first.
Second, I’m not talking about wearables, people think [our product] looks like a watch and they immediately confuse it with Apple and Fitbit. It’s not a wearable, it’s a medical device. We take all medical devices in the hospital from the hospital shelf and put them on the wrist. Almost all continue to add more and more vital signs. So it’s not a wearable, it’s a medical device, but it happens to be a wearable medical device, so it enables patients to wear it 24/7. I do not know any other approach to manage patients and take their vital signs. Maybe the next stage will be implantable, but today that doesn’t exist…
For more of our discussion, you can watch the whole Fireside Chat with Leon Eisen, or listen to the podcast version, below.
To check out previous Fireside Chats and to make sure that you don’t miss any future updates, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or our podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, kindly leave a review on iTunes.
About Impetus Digital
Impetus Digital is the spark behind sustained healthcare stakeholder communication, collaboration, education, and insight synthesis. Our best-in-class technology and professional services ensure that life science organizations around the world can easily and cost-effectively grow and prosper—from brand or idea discovery to development, commercialization, execution, and beyond—in collaboration with colleagues, customers, healthcare providers, payers, and patients.