A University of Missouri professor working on a manufacturing plan for a low-cost wearable to track vital signs like blood pressure, heart activity and skin hydration received $500,000 from the National Science Foundation, said the school Tuesday. A device could wirelessly transmit vital signs to a healthcare provider -- providing critical information for early detection of issues such as COVID-19, said the university.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr toured Whitman-Walker Health in Washington Friday to promote telehealth, the FCC said. The clinic has conducted nearly 21,000 telehealth visits since beginning them in March, CEO Naseema Shafi said.

Some 52% of consumers in U.S. broadband households want a telehealth service that uses data from connected health devices, said Parks Associates Monday. The proportion rises to 71% for people who have experienced COVID-19 symptoms. "Many consumers are using telehealth out of necessity and for the first time," said analyst Jennifer Kent, citing a more consumer-centric experience unfolding for healthcare. “Providers must rise to meet the growing demand for services in independent living, chronic care management, remote access to care, and wellness and fitness.” she said. Parks plans a virtual connected health summit Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. EST.

Medical device company Fluo Labs showed at virtual CES 2021 a working prototype of a product designed to provide relief from seasonal allergies. The Flo uses light therapy to release histamines and reduce inflammation caused by allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever. It uses photobiomodulation to trigger physical and chemical reactions that can improve cells’ performance and health responses, said the company, which completed one clinical trial and has two more planned. It's pursuing Food and Drug Administration approval for Flo’s use as an over-the-counter device. Projected list price is under $100, with availability planned for early next year.

The FCC awarded $26.6 million of the $100 million Connected Care pilot to 14 projects Friday, serving 150 treatment sites in 11 states. The most, about $5.8 million, goes to Ochin, a consortium of 44 providers in Ohio, Oregon and Washington state. Temple University Hospital got $4 million for telehealth in the Philadelphia area. The University of Mississippi Medical Center will receive about $2.4 million to provide broadband access to patients to enable remote monitoring and telehealth. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement the funding "lays the groundwork for this connected care future as these projects will help us better understand how telehealth can reduce costs and increase the quality of care."

Teladoc, claimed to be the oldest U.S. telemedicine platform, with roots dating to 2002, was “thrown a million curve balls” after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, CEO Jason Gorevic told a prerecorded CES 2021 workshop. “Overnight, literally our volume doubled,” and the availability of telehealth services became ubiquitous, he said. “We always thought this was inevitable. This wasn’t a surprise to us. We just didn’t think it was going to happen overnight and that it was going to take a global pandemic to be the catalyst for that.” Gorevic estimated Teladoc did more than 10 million “virtual visits” in 2020. Consumers went from the “awareness-building phase” of telemedicine “straight through to the adoption phase, into the expectation phase" in just "a matter of months,” he said. “That almost never happens.” Gorevic predicts that a year from now, consumers will look to virtual-care visits as “the destination for all of their healthcare needs, not just for a slice of their healthcare needs, and we’re already seeing that.” He estimates 60% of Teladoc visits are for “noninfectious diseases.”

Flo Health, developer of a popular women’s fertility-tracking app, misled users and improperly shared users' sensitive health data with third-parties including Facebook and Google, the FTC alleged in a 5-0 settlement announced Wednesday. Despite promises to keep the data private, Flo “disclosed health data from millions of users of its Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker app to third parties that provided marketing and analytics services to the app, including Facebook’s analytics division, Google’s analytics division, Google’s Fabric service, AppsFlyer, and Flurry,” the FTC said. Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissented in part, saying the agency should have charged the company with violating the Health Breach Notification Rule, for which the agency has never brought action. Commissioner Noah Phillips disagreed with the Democrats: “We have never applied the Rule to a health app such as Flo in the past, in part because the language of the Rule is not so plain. And I do not support announcing such a novel interpretation of the Rule here, in the context of an enforcement action.” The company faces civil penalties of up to $43,792 for any future violations. Flo didn’t share usernames, addresses or birthdays, a spokesperson emailed, noting the settlement included no admission of wrongdoing: “We do not currently, and will not, share any information about our users’ health with any company unless we get their permission. We have a comprehensive privacy framework with a robust set of policies and procedures to safeguard our users’ data.” The consent order includes a company compliance review, the spokesperson added.

Nearly a third of U.S. consumers 65 and older are considering buying an independent living system, reported Parks Associates Tuesday, as 34% own a smart speaker or smart display and 76% use a smartphone. “High levels of interest in particular features, including safety and security functions, indicate demand for a solution designed specifically for senior comfort and control,” said analyst Kristen Hanich. COVID-19 presented new challenges, and senior telehealth usage nearly quadrupled year over year in May to 29%, led by phone calls and video chats; 11% used self-diagnosis apps. The bump in telehealth service usage was driven by changes in Medicare reimbursement and rollout of remote visit functionality among physicians, Hanich said. “Health insurers and telehealth services also quickly moved to support this cohort.” Telehealth companies advanced to support Medicare Part B, with Doctor on Demand rolling out a service soon after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expanded Medicare telehealth reimbursement, Hanich said.

The FCC was under the gun as soon as the omnibus COVID-19 legislation (HR-133) took effect, grappling with an unusually quick turnaround mandate for telehealth grants. President Donald Trump signed the relief bill Sunday after days of resisting it. The FCC demonstrated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act telehealth program in March that it's "capable of ramping up a grant program very quickly,” said John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition. “That program went fairly well, although it could have been more transparent,” he said: “Congress has given the FCC much more funding in this COVID relief bill, so it will be a significant challenge. The commission may have to delay some other proceedings to get this funding out the door, but nothing could be more important than helping Americans deal with this health crisis." For telehealth, the law requires the FCC to issue a public notice establishing a 10-day comment period, including on the metrics it should use to evaluate funding applications.

The FCC said it's selecting awardees for its $100 million Connected Care pilot program (see 2004290054). Commissioner Brendan Carr praised the initiative Monday, calling it the "healthcare equivalent of shifting from Blockbuster to Netflix."