Things to know about Validic - Stel Integration
Stel Life offers a Vitals Hub that makes remote health monitoring easier. The hub connects wireless health devices to a secure cloud. Patients don't need smartphones, Wi-Fi, or complex technology.
The hub uses cellular networks and Bluetooth to send patient health data automatically. It works with devices like scales, blood pressure cuffs, and glucose meters. The data goes right to the systems that care teams use. This removes tech barriers so healthcare providers can monitor patients remotely in many settings, from general wellness to hospital-at-home programs and more.
The Validic Inform API supports the Stel hub, and select devices that work with the hub. All data is synced into Inform as measurements
, or point-in-time data.
The implementation of the Stel hub includes some things that are worth calling out to ensure that you are properly capturing all possible data for your patients.
Historical Data
Inform does not capture historical data from Stel. Any readings captured prior to Stel being connected in the patient’s marketplace will not be available in Inform.
Getting ongoing data from Stel
As noted on the Stel integration page, Inform is getting data from Stel in near-real time, up to 5 minutes after the data has synced to the secure Stel cloud. For speedy transmission, patients must leave the hub plugged in at all times. See Hub Lights for more details on how patients can confirm the hub is functioning properly.
Data Transmission Considerations
Hubs Close Together
If the hub will be used in a location where multiple hubs will be present in close proximity, such as a long-term care setting or a home with multiple patients, then we recommend kitting the health devices with a hub prior to sending them to a patient.
During kitting, which is boxing up the hub and health devices together and shipping them in one package, bind the health devices to the Stel hub using the Stel Hub Management Portal. Binding the devices will ensure that any readings will be associated with the correct hub for the patient.
Please reach out to the Validic Support team for assistance with this process.
Health Devices That Do Not Pair
Some health devices, usually glucose meters, weight scales, and blood pressure monitors, pair to a receiving device that they are transmitting to. This usually requires some special sequence of events on the health device to “put it into pairing mode”, such as pressing and holding a button and/or typing in a Bluetooth PIN on the receiving device. These devices work well with the Stel hub since they only communicate with the hub after pairing.
Other health devices, commonly pulse oximeters and thermometers, do not pair to communicate with a receiving device. These health devices simply “broadcast” readings, and whichever receiving device is closest and can understand and communicate with the health device will receive the broadcasted readings. This use case is important to consider if you want to use a device like a thermometer or pulse oximeter with the Stel hub.
Educate patients so that they know they should be close to the hub when taking readings. There are two advantages to this:
Eliminating the distance between the health device and the hub will reduce the chances that another nearby Bluetooth device will intercept data transmissions.
Patients can see the indicator lights on the hub and immediately confirm whether or not the reading they just took was successfully captured by the hub. If not, they can retake the reading closer to the hub.
Patient Education
For speedy transmission, patients must leave the hub plugged in at all times.
The health devices that are connected to the hub wirelessly should not be used by anyone else except the patient.
It’s always good practice to have the patient take readings with the hub in sight so they will know immediately if there is a problem. See Hub Lights for more details on how patients can confirm the hub is functioning properly.
Hub Lights and Indicators