`
`
`
`Editor: Leigh Ann Newman
`
`June 1999, Vol. 6, No.3
`
`Health Hero Improves Patient Care
`With Direct Provider Link
`he move from inpatient care to
`0 “Daily Health Quiz: What is the best
`way to avoid feeling thirsty? 1. Drink water
`constantly. 2. Save your fluids for mealtime
`and when you are feeling very thirsty. 3. Eat
`more salt."
`
`I home-based treatment and the rapid
`
`rise of the Internet as an everyday
`tool available to healthcare consumers have
`
`intersected in a product that one user says
`can lower costs and improve patient educa»
`tion. The key, he notes, is customizing com-
`munications with individual patients to
`better target treatment for high-cost Chronic
`conditions.
`
`The product is Mountain View, Calif.-
`based Health Hero Network Inc.’s Online
`
`Service, which is a broad-based, two-way
`communications link between healthcare
`
`providers and patients. It allows providers
`to access up-todate information about their
`patients' health status, while at the same
`time allowing them to provide personalized
`feedback and ongoing support to patients.
`That includes frequent reminders, feedback
`on their progress and lessons on effective
`selfcare practices.
`That‘s accomplished by installing HHN’s
`Health Buddy in patients‘ homes, explains
`Steve Brown, HHN's founder and CEO.
`Health Buddy is a laptop device with a
`brightly lit, high contrast screen disply and
`four large response buttons. Designed for
`use in a daily “dialogue“ between providers
`and their patients, it connects through a
`standard telephone line and toll-free number
`and includes messages such as these:
`0 “Hello, Joe. What is your weight today?”
`0 “Reminder: A weight gain may be a
`sign of fluid retention. Be sure to take your
`medicines and call Dr. Jones if your weight
`goes up more than 3 pounds.”
`
`In using the system, authorized caregiv-
`ers have access to a secure Web site that
`
`provides software tools and access to
`patient programs and data. The tools are
`available on the Caregiver Desktop, a Web
`site home page where caregivers can access
`the Care Composer, Care Director and Care
`Administrator applications, as well as online
`support materials.
`0 Care Composer allows the service’s
`users to design or modify protocols and
`assists them in defining patient health status
`data and designing disease-specific messages.
`0 Care Director allows authorized
`
`medical staff to view individual patient data
`— or information on‘groups of patients —
`through graphic reports and detailed data
`displays. Providers use that information to
`generate individual patient and population
`summary reports. The primary emphasis is
`on managing large numbers of patients by
`permitting care managers to identify
`patients who either are outside expected
`parameters or who appear to be at higher
`risk for complications.
`0 Care Administrator allows providers to
`create, edit and update patient records that
`include contact information; profiles that
`include height, weight, gender and age;
`primary care physician information; and
`payer information.
`
`1
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`Bosch Ex. 2020
`Bosch EX. 2020
`Cardiocom v. Bosch IPR2013-00468
`Cardiocom V. Bosch IPR2013—00468
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`

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`Health Hero Network '
`
`American Biodyne and Diasonics lnc.
`
`Health Hero Network received some of its venture capital —— close to $20 million of it,
`in fact — from a coalition of backers led by Psilos Group Managers LLC and Oracle
`Strategic Partners. As part of the transaction, Psilos founder and managing director Albert
`Waxman, PhD, also became chairman of the board at HHN. Waxman was a board
`member prior to the transaction; he replaces Steve Brown, HHN’s founder and chief
`executive officer, as chair. Waxman’s name has been associated with a number of
`managed care companies over the years, including Merit Behavioral Care Corp.,
`
`Restructuring the System
`The trend that the Online Service helps
`foster is nothing less than a restructuring of
`the healthcare system, says Robert Beardall,
`MD, medical director at Electronic Data
`Services Inc., the Plano, Texas-based
`
`company that manages its data infrastruc-
`ture. “The current acute care focus of our
`
`healthcare system tends to address the
`needs of the chronically ill after they
`become unstable,” he explains. “Combining
`the core competencies of HHN and EDS
`creates a solution that
`shifts this model to one
`
`Once approval is received, Brown notes, the
`device “will be able to send data from the
`
`meters to a patient’s care providers." Future
`application plans include connecting the
`Health Buddy device directly to peak flow
`meters, blood pressure cuffs and weight
`scales.
`
`One partner already is on board.
`“After a year of outsourcing on a per
`member per month basis, HHN’s system
`allows us to efficiently monitor our conges-
`tive heart failure patients using our own
`nurse case managers,” reports Calvin Chao,
`MD, associate medical director at Santa
`Clara County IPA, San Mateo, Calif. “The
`best feature of HHN‘s Online Service is the
`
`ability to customize communications
`between patients and a case manager. We’re
`able to probe certain health issues with
`individuals and develop insights into each
`patient’s educational needs, based on their
`responses to our questions. It’s the next
`best thing to a direct Internet link to our
`chronically ill patients.”
`He adds: “Even though the patients in our
`CHF program have the same disease, each
`has different associated conditions and
`
`needs different information to help manage
`his or her condition. With HHN, we can
`customize interventions and detect patterns
`of behavior that might not otherwise be
`noticed.”
`
`SCCIPA represents about 800 physicians
`and provides services for more than 125,000
`HMO patients. The group is the first to
`implement HHN's Online Service for CHF
`patients. Indeed, the product has been
`available commercially only since the end of
`March. It’s undergoing further customer
`field trials at 10 sites across the United
`
`States; together, they involve more than
`1,200 patients with CHF, diabetes and
`
`Resource Center
`
`@0000
`
`calchao@email.msn.com.
`
`For further information, contact Steve
`Brown, Health Hero Network, at
`650/949-3933, and Calvin Chao, Santa
`Clara County IPA, at 650/358-5807 or
`
`of proactive intervention
`prior to the occurrence
`of a crisis.”
`
`Patient responses and
`data from medical
`devices, Brown notes,
`“are automatically
`downloaded each night
`via the EDS infrastructure.” EDS, he points
`out, “integrates telecommunications,
`decision support services, Internet capabili-
`ties and its Electronic Commerce Manage-
`
`ment System to form the core HHN Online
`Service infrastructure. Information from
`
`patients travels via the ECMS to a central
`repository, where it can be viewed from
`multiple geographical locations by care
`providers and case managers using a secure
`Internet connection.”
`
`Developing Partnerships
`
`HHN also is “pursuing strategic alliances
`to co-develop and market its technology
`platform,”u Brown notes. I-II-IN filed a 501K
`submission with the Food and Drug Admin-
`istration in November for the Health Buddy
`
`appliance for use as a general communica—
`tions tool and as a specific communications
`tool for use with blood glucose monitors.
`
`2
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`

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`juvenile asthma. Previous trials looked at
`using the service with more than 250
`patients covering diabetes, pregnancy and
`women's health.
`
`Customization is possible by “creating
`custom HHN protocols," Brown explains.
`They are, he says, “collections of predeter-
`mined, disease-specific dialogues between a
`patient and healthcare provider intended to
`help assess, modify and monitor pivotal
`aspects of patient behavior, knowledge and
`patient-observed symptoms.”
`While no hard data is yet available,
`Brown expects that users will experience
`increased productivity and effectiveness
`of nurses and case managers monitoring
`high-risk patients and managing the cost of
`care. I
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