Feb 8 2013
Pepex Biomedical, Inc. announced today it will enter the mHealth arena by incorporating Machine-to-Machine (M2M) network capabilities in all of its diagnostic medical devices reflecting the company's confidence in the underlying proprietary technology. Pepex will begin with the Trio™ line of blood glucose devices and sees M2M as an ideal wireless diabetes care solution that can bridge the current generation of smartphone based health apps to become a true wireless monitoring solution for diabetes.
According to comments by Pepex's VP for Product Development, James Say, "... Incorporating M2M data capability with Pepex technology opens a new field of opportunity for the company. More flexible revenue models and a variety of new distribution channels mean more options for our products than ever before. Particularly exciting is the potential for Trio™ as a dynamic virtual assistant capable of orchestrating the care activities of diabetics who opt into Pepex's Success Based Treatments program. We believe the most remarkable aspect of the Trio™ mHealth system will come with the demonstration of meaningful improvements in the quality of care that also achieve substantial overall healthcare cost savings relative to traditional devices."
Pepex also said that to support its M2M strategy, it recently became a participant in the Verizon Wireless Innovation Program, which brings together collaborators to explore and develop wireless solutions leveraging the 4G LTE network. The announcement follows a meeting attended by Pepex Biomedical and Verizon representatives and hosted by Phoenix, Ariz.- based The Tech Group. The Tech Group is a leading medical device manufacturer and subsidiary of West Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:WST) active in the development of Pepex technology.
The wireless industry is rapidly bringing forward mobile health (mHealth) strategies to take advantage of network capabilities originally developed for industrial controls. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) as planned for Trio communications uses discrete sensors such as the single stepdisposable LS™ to acquire the daily test data of millions of diabetics in real time. This information will be directed to a cloud based Medical Data Device Management System (MDDS) to access Pepex proprietary point of care data base for diabetes and transmitted securely beneath the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) umbrella required for patient confidentiality.
The Trio™ product line including mTrio™, a glucose monitor configuration similar to the mobile hotspots offered by the wireless carriers. Pepex proprietary technology is ideally suited to wireless applications for glucose testing as well as for monitoring important biomarkers such as clinical glucose, lactate, PKU and alcohol.
The devices are being developed through the perspective of a rapidly changing health care system within the landscape of the Affordable Care Act where concepts such as mHealth are among the most effective tools available to meet the challenges of delivering higher quality health care at lower cost.