homecareONLINE provides seamless condition management support to sleep ventilation patients
LONDON, U.K. – 20th November 2014 – Based on its recent analysis of the homecare monitoring industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes the collaboration between Orange and Weinmann with the 2014 European Award for Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership.
The collaboration between Orange Business Services and Weinmann Geräte für Medizin GmbH + Co. KG is a result of the two companies’ common desire to provide value-added homecare monitoring services to sleep apnea patients and homecare providers. homecareONLINE, an integrated telemedicine solution borne out of this collaboration, collects clinical data on sleep patterns using Weinmann’s range of positive airway pressure (PAP) devices. In turn, data from these devices are transmitted via an integrated M2M module and hosted on Orange Business Services’ ‘Flexible Computing Healthcare,’ an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing solution specifically designed for the healthcare industry and that respects stringent regulatory requirements around healthcare data hosting.
homecareONLINE has two critical components, both integrated in a mobile station that is attached to the PAP device with a Velcro: a mobile terminal which communicates with the PAP device and a modem that sends information on the sleep patterns to the Orange cloud once a day.
The customer (home care providers) can either access this information through a patient web portal, or the data is sent directly to the homecare provider system from Orange’s Flexible Computing Healthcare cloud platform. A key advantage of the solution is that instead of logging in to the portals of several device manufacturers, end users can access all data from a single portal.
“The core value of homecareONLINE is that it is an open solution, while many other market participants employ proprietary solutions,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Shruthi Parakkal. “By enabling competitors to send data to its universal web portal so that all connected systems in the healthcare environment can be integrated, Orange/Weinmann collaboration delivers holistic infrastructure service to healthcare customers.”
Apart from assisting providers to remotely manage their patients, homecareONLINE helps manage the expenses of chronic disease management with its reimbursement engine. Though this feature is currently specific to the French market, it is flexible and scalable enough to be customized for any regional market within a short scale-up time.
In the next phase, Weinmann plans to add a ventilation device to the solution, as life support ventilation, along with remote monitoring, can be used to offer immediate breathing support to patients. In future, the Orange/Weinmann collaboration plans to extend homecareONLINE access from homecare providers to other stakeholders in the healthcare environment including government agencies and regulatory authorities.
By customising requirement gathering and work flow designs to the regional healthcare market, the Orange/Weinmann collaboration aims to build specific business models for its target markets. Already having established footprints in more than 50 countries, Orange-Weinmann collaboration’s large network of customer service checkpoints for product advice, order processing, and technical service helps it maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
Not surprisingly, Orange Business Services’ technology and provision of uniform eHealth services across the world were important attractions for Weinmann. The association with Orange Business Services also gave Weinmann the advantage of having a single solution provider for a plethora of tasks including SIM connection, application development and integration, hosting services, and service management. Orange, on the other hand, leveraged Weinmann’s innovative M2M solution using its infrastructure, and launched a scalable and agile cloud platform.
“Orange/Weinmann collaboration’s positioning stems from its conviction that developing an interoperable solution holds more value than building multiple solutions on its own platform,” noted Shruthi Parakkal. “By integrating various stakeholders and engaging them from a clinical as well as technical perspective, Orange-Weinmann collaboration has been able to utilize individual competencies to generate collective benefit.”
Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company whose competitive strategy has yielded significant gains in market share during the research period. Often, the recognized company has taken advantage of recent market changes that facilitate the introduction of novel methods of capturing and solidifying market presence. Alternatively, it may have executed an inventive strategy within the existing competitive landscape, empowering itself to overtake the competition. The company captures the attention of the competition, which quickly adjusts in order to protect its own market position. These innovations are expected to produce lasting, precedent-setting trends in the industry.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
About Orange
Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2013 and has 165,000 employees worldwide at 31 December 2013, including 102,000 employees in France. Present in 30 countries, the Group has a total customer base of more than 236 million customers at 31 December 2013, including 178 million mobile customers and 15 million fixed broadband customers worldwide. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. For more than a decade, Orange has gained substantial experience in providing integrated and customer-centered technology solutions for health professionals, health providers and patients. This has been done through close collaboration with health professionals and providers – ensuring that the technology brings improved quality and efficiency for all. In 2007 Orange signaled its commitment to the health sector with the creation of Orange Healthcare, its new Health Division. For more information, visit: www.orange.com/healthcare
About Weinmann
Weinmann Geräte für Medizin GmbH + Co. KG develops, produces and markets diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for sleep medicine and ventilation. Products from the Hamburg-based, family-owned company are tailored exactly to the needs of patients and experts. Before market launch, every product goes through a certified validation process in research and development, procure-ment, production and quality management. Weinmann, a Löwenstein Group company since 2013, is among the Top 3 in many of its demanding international markets, thanks to ideas, experience and innovation. Thanks too to the decades of trust that Weinmann‘s partners around the world have placed in our proven products Made in Germany. Learn more at weinmann-medical.com.
