West Palm Beach firm pins hopes on devices to help doctors and patients
Charles Elmore @Elmorepbp
Not every sore throat, ache or sniffle needs antibiotics.
A West Palm Beach company wants to help patients and doctors quickly put a finger on which ones do.
A finger-prick test that takes three minutes is one way Interactive Medical Technologies Corp. hopes to grow from eight employees to more than 30 in the next year.
It's also working on a system than can help diabetics and others take more control of managing their health with their own computers, iPads and phones.
"Our mission is to educate people so they can better help themselves," said President and CEO Michael Laing. "And we want to help doctors and caregivers with real-time information."
The privately held company founded in 2007 says it has exclusive U.S. distribution rights from Orion Diagnotistica of Finland to sell the QuikRead 101, a device it says can provide useful information from a single drop of blood. The test measures C-reactive protein in the blood, and the idea is to help a doctor determine whether a bacterial rather than a viral infection is at work. An Orion spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
It's in use at some children's hospitals around the country, the company says, and it hopes to make it more common in doctor's offices.
In April, nine national doctor groups including the American Academy of Family Physicians released 45 recommendations to cut down on unnecessary medical procedures. Among them: Avoid antibiotics — and for that matter a sinus CT scan — for most cases of acute rhino sinusitis.
The overprescription of antibiotics can harm beneficial bacteria in the body as well as cause some bad strains to develop immunity.
Although many doctors agree with those recommendations, not all are sure a C-reactive test is the best way to go.
"A C-reactive test is not necessarily specific enough to tell whether it's bacterial or viral," said Daniel Kraft of Palm Beach Pediatrics in Boynton Beach. "I would base my judgment more on clinical presentation rather than lab value."
The pitch on Interactive Medical's website goes like this: "As CRP (C-reactive protein) is usually elevated in bacterial infections, but not viral infections, it can be used as a basic tool for distinguishing bacterial infections from viral ones. This is an important distinction for a physician to make as it helps to determine the most effective treatment."
The company's website offers a QuikRead device for processing C-reactive protein tests for $1,995. A kit with materials for 50 tests costs $300.
A host of other products for sale range from arm blood-pressure monitors to infrared ear thermometers.
One patient self-testing system in development is called PSTmed.com, Chief Operating Officer David Vaughan said.
The system is designed to help patients keep track of their own health in a way they can share easily with doctors and their insurance company — particularly people with diabetes, blood-coagulation disorders or other problems requiring frequent testing and monitoring.
Ashish Joshi, assistant professor at the Center for Global Health and Development at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said he has designed technology the company is licensing.
"People need to be more empowered and self-managed," Joshi said.
The idea is for patients to input their own data into a home computer, iPad or cell phone and, if they wish, share with others around the world who have the same condition. The firm hopes to introduce it in August.