Look Homeward…

With experts who tell us their views on the question: Is tele-obesity a workable option, particularly over the long term? We welcome health industry experts

• K. Randall Burt, who is President and CEO of the company, HealthEmonitoring.com and was a former senior executive at Alere Medical, Inc., responds to the questions:
  1. Do you think increased contact or opportunities for increased contact about nutrition or weight loss can help obese home care patients manage their weight?
  2. What sorts of communications tools do you think could be useful for this purpose (telephone, Internet, specialized or customized alerting or a range of educational tools)?

.... and in doing so, he of course provides perspective on what's really needed to make this contact work in the long term.
Click here for Burt's response

• Gary L. Glissman, RN, B.S., who has logged more than 25 years in the home care trenches and is currently a information systems manager of I-trax Health Management Solutions, Inc., a disease management firm, addresses the obesity and technology challenge before us...and touches on these questions:
  1. Do you think working with the obese population in usual home healthcare programs is do-able?
  2. What about if a home care agency already has started a tele-monitoring program-- do you think it's much of a stretch to use some of the same tools (weight scale, telephone, diet planners, etc.) for an obese or more likely co-morbid patient population?
  3. What types of patients do you think are more likely to succeed in losing weight (or otherwise doing more self management) with more frequent contact?

Click here for Glissman's response

• Vince Kuraitis, MBA, JD, Principal, Better Health Technologies, LLC
  1. How would you describe the state-of-the-art for technologies used to assist people with obesity?
  2. Can you elaborate on some of the technologies that are available in the market today?
  3. Are there any "killer applications" on the horizon for obesity management technology?
     Click here for Kuraitis's response

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