businessEURO

PEAN

Interview with Norbert Niedworok, CEO of vitaphone GmbH

Innovative chronic patient careMost people try to avoid going to hospital and would prefer to be treated at home for chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the number of hospital ad-missions for these patients continues to rise, placing an intolerable strain on health services and leaving patients stuck in the very place they least want to be. German company vitaphone GmbH believes it has the answer in its telemedicine solutions. By monitoring patient vitals remotely, these solutions relieve the strain on hospitals and keep patients in the familiar and reassuring surroundings of their own home.

According to CEO Norbert Nied-

worok, the technical requirements

for telemedicine are fairly straight-

forward. The key to success lies

more in the proper understanding

of the medical processes involved

and communicating these to care-

givers and patients. “Telemedicine

solutions have been proposed

with varying degrees of success

by a number of companies, many

of which have since disappeared

from the market,” says Mr. Nied-

worok. “We base our solutions

on medical guidelines in the first

instance and have found this ap-

proach far more effective.”

vitaphone was founded in Mann-

heim by some innovative thinkers

and a group of doctors in 1999.

Its mission is to support medical

providers in diagnosis decisions

about treatments, raising patient

compliance and monitoring treat-

ment outcomes remotely. Various

studies have shown that there are

subjective and objective benefits

to keeping patients in a home care

setting for as much of the time

as possible. “CHF patients, for

example, need regular monitoring

of certain parameters in order to

ensure that their medications are

in tune with their needs,” explains

Mr. Niedworok. “Using our sys-

tem, the patient would take the

necessary measurements of blood

pressure, weight, temperature or

even an ECG and receive instant

feedback from the machine that

the data has been transmitted and

received. This gives the patient a

sense that he is being taken care

of, and this, in turn, increases

his confidence and can even

improve his symptoms.” This is

why patients are involved in the

development process of the equip-

ment that they will be expected to

use in their own homes. “We have

received a lot of positive feedback

from patients who feel that the

peace of mind that our solutions

give has improved their subjec-

tive sense of well-being,” adds Mr.

Niedworok.

Specialized machines such as ECG

monitors are developed internally

by vitaphone. Standard equipment

used to measure blood pressure

or scales for weighing patients are

sourced from partner companies.

The data they collect is transmitted

to a central server using a gate-

way that looks like and is as easy

to use as a mobile phone. From

the server, the data is transmit-

ted to the caregiver for immediate

evaluation. “We do not provide

emergency solutions; however, if

a result throws up a red flag, the

appropriate action can be taken,”

says Mr. Niedworok.

vitaphone’s remote patient moni-

toring systems offer healthcare

providers a cost-effective way to

manage chronic conditions without

clogging up emergency wards and

doctor’s surgeries. “Multiple stud-

ies have shown that remote patient

monitoring reduces admissions

and readmissions of congestive

heart failure patients,” says Mr.

Niedworok. “This not only reduces

pressure on health services and

the associated costs but gives pa-

tients back control over their own vitaphone’s headquarters in Mannheim

businessEURO

PEAN

vitaphone GmbHMarkircher Strasse 22 68229 Mannheim Germany

+49 621 178918100 +49 621 178918101

info@vitaphone.de www.vitaphone.de

lives and more choice over their

treatment options.” The success of

the company’s remote monitoring

solutions means they have been

extended to other areas such as

cardiac event monitoring, patient-

generated health data acquisition

and even clinical trial services.

vitaphone has grown steadily over

the past 15 years thanks to its pio-

neering solutions. In addition to its

domestic market, it has developed

export markets in Europe and the

US. A subsidiary company, vita-

phone USA, operates its own tel-

emedicine service center based in

Las Vegas from which it monitors

and engages approximately 8,000

patients a year. “Telemedicine is

well-established in the US and is

becoming more of an issue here

in Germany as many doctors in

rural practices retire without a suc-

cessor,” says Mr. Niedworok. “In

partnership with TeleArzt GmbH,

we have developed a specially

equipped rucksack with which a

trained care assistant can travel

to remote patients to collect data

which can be remotely evaluated

by their doctor. These are the kinds

of solutions which will increasingly

be needed in the future.” ❙

The home monitoring devices provided by vitaphone are compact and easy to use