Intel Announces Availability of Intel® Health Guide in Australia

Intel also unveiled early anecdotal feedback from a pilot study of the Intel Health Guide in regional New South Wales with Healthe and Hunter Nursing Agencies.

The Intel Health Guide combines an in-home patient device, the Intel® Health Guide PHS6000, with the Intel® Health Care Management Suite, an online interface that allows clinicians to securely monitor patients in their homes and manage care remotely. It was designed to help address the challenges of chronic conditions for patients, their family caregivers and the health care professionals responsible for their care.

"With more than 4 million Australians expected to be over the age of 70 by 2050², it is vital that we collaborate with clinicians and government on effective and viable technological solutions that enable new models of care," said Dr. George Margelis, health industry manager, Intel Australia. "The introduction of the Intel Health Guide, and our work with our first reseller, Healthe, will help seniors and the chronically ill while also taking a step forward in changing how health care is delivered in Australia."

A comprehensive personal health system
The Intel Health Guide offers interactive tools for personalized care management and includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content, and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and email notifications. It can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. Using a secure server, health care professionals can remotely review and act on this information.

As a result, clinicians have ongoing access to data so that they can better manage each patient's conditions. Patients benefit from customized care in the comfort of their home and can also monitor their health status and communicate with care teams.

The Intel Health Guide is the first of Intel's purpose-built products for health care and is informed by over a decade of research by the company.

Australian pilot announced -- early anecdotal feedback positive
Intel is collaborating with Hunter Nursing Agencies, based in Toronto, NSW on a pilot study that will involve 50 high-risk patients who have one or more chronic diseases, in particular, congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The objectives are to evaluate how deploying the Intel Health Guide leads to reduced hospitalizations, improved patient quality of life, higher clinician satisfaction and reduced in-person community care visits. Early feedback from the initial pilot deployment has been positive.

"The Intel Health Guide has provided our clinicians with exciting new options that are very realistic in their application of care for chronically ill patients," said Margaret Scott OAM, nursing director, Hunter Nursing. "For the first time, clinicians now have access to a remote monitoring device and an online patient management interface that very naturally fits in with our approach to the provision of care, while delivering evidence-based outcomes that better guide our decision making process."

"Through our pilot study, we've found the Intel Health Guide works very well in a community nursing setting by providing our clinicians with increased access to the patient's vital signs and responses, and enablement of video conferencing communication with our patients in their homes. The patients have found the device incredibly simple to use, and by identifying trends such as changes in body weight at an early stage, patients are engaging in their own care, reducing the need to visit GP practices and improving the patient's health and lifestyle."

First Australian reseller announced
The Intel Health Guide was accepted for supply in Australia by the Therapeutics Goods Administration of Australia last August; Healthe, a provider of health and wellness services, is the first local reseller to offer this product. "Healthe has been a pioneer in terms of embracing technology in the health and wellness space. We have also been very diligent to adhere to internationally recognized best practice standards for IT and evidence based medicine, privacy and security," said Anthony Fanning, Head of Business Development, Healthe. "The Intel Health Guide represents a significant evolution in the way that home-based patient care and management can be enhanced with technology and we're very pleased to have collaborated on this first pilot with Intel."

The Intel Health Guide is designed to be used by health care professionals to manage their patients at home and is not currently available for general consumer purchase. More information about the Intel Health Guide is available here.