TalkIT

January 12, 2010

How ironic.

Millions of Americans are waiting to see if Congress introduces sweeping health-care reforms that would give them what we humbly consider Canadian-style benefits and security. Meanwhile, companies right here in Nova Scotia are seizing a piece of one of the largest emerging fields in technology: e-health.

An aging population, a need for information on some of the most crippling diseases plaguing our seniors today and the ease of technology. It’s a perfect match. The data is out there – the hitch has been in how to deliver it.

Meet two Nova Scotia businesses that have not only cleared the hurdle but have pole-vaulted straight over it.

Kanayo Software, whose "little black box" device monitors patients’ symptoms for a variety of conditions such as diabetes and asthma from the comfort of their own homes, recently partnered with Tunstall, the world’s largest distributor of telehealth products.

That little black box is big business, aside from being a potential life-saver. The device sits in the patient’s home and transmits vital signs to a care centre, where real-time doctors and nurses assess the data and direct the proper treatment.

Kanayo Software CEO Michael Heller says the technology reduces the cost of health care and keeps people out of hospitals, potentially preventing catastrophic events before they happen.

Think of the implications. The arrangement with Tunstall gives Kanayo, which also produces a chronic-disease management tool used by doctors, access to hundreds of thousands of chronic-disease files around the globe. Home-care agencies, assisted-living centres and nursing homes are all part of the mix.

Heller is mum on the details of the deal, saying cheekily that "I would like to say we expect hundreds of millions…but I can’t" before describing it as a "wonderful" transaction.

In a similar vein, DementiaGuide (www.dementiaguide.com) has made significant inroads into the multi-million-dollar field of telehealth.

The subscriber-based website, containing more than 800 pages, helps track symptoms for diseases like Alzheimers. With more than 35 million people in the world today living with dementia, early diagnosis is critical. Cathy MacNutt, vice-president of development for

DementiaGuide, says many patients have it for three or four years before it’s recognized for what it is.

"Usually it does come to a point where people do have to accept that no, this is not just forgetting my keys once in a while. This is Mom is not getting her hair done or it’s a week since she’s changed her housecoat."

Building on the research of Doctor Kenneth Rockwood, DementiaGuide started off in 2005 and went beta a year later. The site uses search-engine optimization (SEO) to canvass a wide number of visitors to change them into subscribers and has seen a healthy increase in business-to-business or B2B growth.

Lately it’s been entering into relationships with long-term-care facilities since symptom profiles are an easy way for caregivers to keep track of a particular patient’s symptoms.

But the biggest coup so far is the relationships it has cultivated with Big Pharma, particularly the ones producing drugs for dementia and especially Alzheimers. MacNutt says they’ve embraced this small Nova Scotia company of just six full-time employees as a strong research and development partner.

This summer, DementiaGuide took part in a very successful trade show in Vienna during an international conference on Alzheimers. Their booth was buzzing, says MacNutt. "For us, it was a great signal of success and of coming of age for our company."

DementiaGuide also uses data mining to analyze the connection between symptoms and come up with new signals that clinicians or drug companies can use as their base point when developing new compounds to treat dementia.

So far, the company’s focus has been on understanding the disease and its progression among individuals. DementiaGuide would like to be able to integrate that know-how with care planning for patients, particularly in nursing homes.

Ultimately, the goal is for the symptom profile and tracker to become the gold standard used in clinical trials by all pharmaceutical companies exploring new options for dementia.

Let this be a lesson to IT newcomers: the building blocks for success can be basic, even mundane.

MacNutt credits her company’s website and online tool as robust, user-friendly and most importantly, up to date. Several decades after he started, Rockwood continues to research new developments on dementia so he can offer subscribers the latest information about their condition.

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