i3 - March/April 2021 - 8

Tech

By Cindy Loffler Stevens

I N N OVATO R

Transforming the
Heart Health Market

MRON Healthcare President and CEO Ranndy Kellogg has a
powerful vision for the company - to create a future free of heart
attack and stroke by changing how people connect with their heart
health. For over 40 years, the company has been a leading manufacturer and distributor of heart health and wellness products
including home blood pressure monitors and electrotherapy
devices, selling more than 200 million units. At the helm, Kellogg
leads the company's mission of Going for Zero. The effort seeks to eliminate heart
attack and stroke by developing heart health technologies, forming new partnerships to drive innovation, and a national education campaign to encourage healthier behavior change. Kellogg serves on many industry boards including AliveCor,
HealthCorps and CTA's Health Division. He also is a founding member of the
Healthcare Council of Chicago. Prior to joining OMRON, he held executive positions at Baxter International and CR Bard. He shared his insights with i3 regarding
the evolution of technology, data and services for greater patient-to-physician connection and improved outcomes.

Q How is telemedicine and remote patient

monitoring impacting healthcare in the context
of COVID-19?
A The COVID-19 pandemic has put health and
access to care and new technologies into focus.
The last year was an awakening among consumers to the role telemedicine can play in their health
care and condition management. It was also an
awakening for physicians to the benefits of more
communication with patients via telehealth. One
recent survey showed that two-thirds of consumers are now more willing to use telehealth tools to
manage their health conditions as a result of social
distancing measures, and with expanded Medicare
reimbursement, this technology is more accessible to physicians. Remote care tools are helping
healthcare providers enhance their quality of care
by giving patients the clinically accurate tools they
need to monitor their health at home.
This is critically important for managing
chronic health conditions during the pandemic.
One hundred and sixteen million U.S. adults are
hypertensive, and more than 37 million of them
have uncontrolled Stage 2 hypertension leading to
greater risk of heart attack and stroke. They need
more support to manage their condition. The risk
that these patients live with every day has become
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MARCH/APRIL 2021

i3_0321_08-09_Tech_Innovator.indd 8

OMRON FACTS
Market: Blood
pressure
innovation
Products:
110 countries
Headquarters:
Kyoto, Japan
North America:
Lake Forest, IL
Website:
Omronhealthcare.
com

even bigger during the pandemic. With the
health care system overwhelmed and with
patients missing their regular appointments,
their management of hypertension has been
jeopardized. Recent reports show that heart
attack death rates have more than doubled
during the COVID-19 pandemic with fewer
patients going to the hospital when experiencing chest pain or other symptoms.
In regard to remote patient monitoring,
OMRON just launched our first remote
patient care service, VitalSight™. Remote
patient monitoring services like VitalSight,
provide data from the patients' home, and
can truly save lives by providing physicians
with the health data they need to make
informed treatment decisions and improve
patient health outcomes.

Q What makes VitalSight unique?
A VitalSight represents the next step in our

mission of Going for Zero™, the elimination
of heart attack and stroke. OMRON is the
number one doctor and pharmacist recommended blood pressure monitor brand, and
we bring over 40 years of experience and
expertise to the remote patient monitoring
category. Our team designed VitalSight specifically for hypertension management and to
foster greater patient-to-physician communication and data sharing to improve treatment
engagement and health outcomes. When our
team was developing VitalSight, we knew that
this service needed to be easy to integrate
into clinician workflow and plug-and-play
for patients. Patients receive a VitalSight kit
delivered to their home, including a connected OMRON blood pressure monitor and
data hub that is pre-set to share data with their
physician. This data is integrated directly with
the clinician's electronic medical record (EMR)
system or the OMRON Doctor Dashboard.
Doctors can personalize data thresholds for
each patient and receive alerts for high readings through their EMR. OMRON has collaborated with the most forward-thinking hospital
systems and independent physicians in
the U.S., like Mount Sinai in New York and
Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. The early
feedback we've received from physicians
is encouraging and shows that VitalSight is
helping doctors improve engagement with
their patients on their treatment plans to
manage hypertension.

Q How secure is the data collected?
A Data security is a priority for OMRON. The
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

3/11/21 12:28 PM

https://omronhealthcare.com/ https://omronhealthcare.com/

i3 - March/April 2021

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