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We are all generally aware of the competition among software, telecommunications and equipment companies to win the battle for the set-top box that serves as a portal for our home entertainment purchases. The numbers are impressive – IDC expects more than 42 million digital pay TV set-top boxes to ship in 2005. The competitors include all the cable and satellite TV companies but also telecommunications providers (due to IPTV), Microsoft and Sony and most recently, Oracle. The equipment market alone is worth billions of dollars per year but the larger opportunity rests in establishing a long term relationship with the residents of the wired home and acting as a portal for their research and purchases.

A similar battle for the “home health hub” will emerge with the aging of the baby boomers and proliferation of remote monitoring devices. The U.S. senior population is over 36,000,000 now and increasing by about 7,500 every day. The oldest baby boomers reach 65 in 2011 and that will accelerate the rate of growth of this cohort. Moreover, boomers’ disposable wealth (and that of their adult children who assist in their care), life expectancy and disposable income are greater than earlier generations. It is the combination of wealth, the desire to remain healthy and independent, and the availability of cost-effective monitors that work outside a clinic that creates the opportunity.

Wirelesshealth is central to this market since it enables the delivery of technology and services to consumers’ home and to their pockets and purses. Wireless sensors connecting to a wired or wireless communications hub in the home can collect relevant information and alert remote caregivers and family members when intervention is required.

This is a consumer-centric business opportunity that will stretch the capabilities of relevant incumbents. It is a solution that involves equipment, software, content and knowledge of both consumers and enterprise requirements. The market justifies the effort as companies that succeed will establish a long term relationship with their customers and that channel will be increasingly valuable to a variety of enterprises as the customers age and this require more prescribed and self-selected health solutions and information.

We believe that some key attributes of the solution include:

• Enterprise grade back-end technology, including confidentiality, connected with a consumer grade front end (simplicity and reliability).
• Scalable to support a range of services from health and fitness (scales and pedometers) to life critical (cardiac monitoring).
• Multiple connection alternatives including wireless and wired, to accommodate a range of monitors in a fast-changing technological environment.
• Work both passively in the collection of information and actively on demand by the consumer or to deliver messages from a remote monitoring center or system.
• Algorithm driven software to distinguish unimportant data from actionable information that requires intervention.
• The cost of goods must be commensurate with other consumer electronics equipment and entertainment services.
• Excellence in customer support, including a call center.

While there are hundreds of ambulatory monitors available on the market, some of which have wireless or wired connectivity, very few companies have developed platforms that approximate the home health hub. This short list would include AMD Telemedicine’s Care Companion, Health Hero Network’s Health Buddy, Tunstall’s Lifeline units and Honeywell’s HomMed system. While it does not yet have the equipment, the service or the business plan, this list should also include Philips due to its recent acquisition of Lifeline and broad experience in medical devices, consumers and home entertainment.

The music of the 60’s and 70’s helped define the boomer generation and success in this emerging market requires the integration of technologies driven by entertainment spending (broadband, wireless devices, power-efficient data and computing devices) with medical technologies and service infrastructure. Perhaps today’s 50-somethings will in the future use the X-Box for their music, videos and cardiac monitoring!

Rob McCray is a Managing Partner of Triple Tree, LLC. Rob and the firm are co-founders of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the convergence of wireless technologies and healthcare. Rob can be reached at rmccray@triple-tree.com.

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