Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in July this year, Intel’s Health Guide PHS6000 is currently tested in a number of pilot programs the company has jointly developed with Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon. These programs enroll patients and physicians to assess the benefits and challenges of the telehealth system.

The new tool includes a small touch-screen PC running Windows XP and a web portal that helps connect patients and doctors. The device can also be connected to a number of the most commonly used medical devices which monitor a patient’s vital signs such as blood-pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. The information can be further relayed via the internet to caregivers who can monitor the patient’s state of health and provide education and management information as needed.

The device is expected to help patients as well as their doctors, according to Intel’s representatives.

“Health care is an area where getting and gathering the right information, and getting decisions made in a timely matter can make an enormous difference in patient care. We hope this technology helps with that,” Mariah Scott, head sales and marketing for Intel’s Digital Health Group, said.

The device could reduce the number of patient visits to a hospital, said Louis Burns, vice president of Intel's Digital Health Group at a press conference Thursday.

Similar to Johnson & Johnson’s online health care coach, Intel’s Health Guide can also be used to educate patients how to manage their health. For example, a person with high blood pressure can learn how to manage hypertension via video, a tool that can also allow patients to communicate with their health care providers. To provide such medical information to patients, Intel has licensed content from organizations including the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association. Intel is also working with other partners to develop content for other conditions, and hopes the device ultimately can be used to track multiple conditions.

“There’s a lot of pre-packaged content for hypertension, asthma, heart disease and diabetes--the classic issues people are dealing with,” said Eric Dishman, a social scientist and director of product research whose work in 2000 helped spearhead formation of Intel's Digital Health group.

Although the device has been cleared for sales in the US, Intel did not provide a price for it and said it will be available through medical service providers.

Scan Health Plan, a large Medicare administrator, is planning a test with 25 patients with chronic heart disease.

“If this works effectively by mid-2009, we hope to roll it out to several hundred patients, and within a year to our entire network 105,000 member,” said Hank Osowski, senior vice president of corporate development for Scan Health.

As the number of baby boomers entering the healthcare system is about to double or even triple over the next five years, Intel’s Health guide is expected to save millions of dollars otherwise spent on the traditional way of providing health care.