Prospective benefits of the BioMeter technology for the health insurance industry


By Vaclav Kirsner, Ph.D.
BioSense Corporation
(970) 282-1715

First and foremost: Better diagnosis means better medicine.

Consequently, the BioMeter technology will help the insurance industry to save significant amounts of money. Let us outline the benefits systematically, by the planned market segments. Perhaps a general comment could be that if the insurer were to have the BioMeter data on a prospective female client, the data would provide a basis for the assessment of insurance risk. In the following I am addressing the subsequently arising healthcare issues.

Infertility - clinical

Once accepted as a tool for the timing of the various "heroic" procedures of ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies), the notoriously poor success rate of these procedures will improve because of the improvement in their timing, which is a crucial aspect of these procedures. Significant savings will result since these are extremely expensive procedures and they are often repeated in quest of successful conception. (Not all insurers cover infertility but those that do will benefit from increased efficiency.)

Reduced fertility - patients not using the ARTs

Success rate of "self-help" will go up, again reducing the costs. This segment of the market is currently probably not covered by insurance, although indirect costs must arise and these should again be reduced with more effective management of the problem.

Birth control

The BioMeter-assisted birth control falls under either the FAM (Fertility Awareness Method) or the NFP (Natural Family Planning). Either approach is considerably less expensive because the recurrent monthly costs of the oral contraceptives are avoided. A trend away from the chemical contraception would save the insurance industry large amounts of money. Alternatively, there is the trend toward contraceptives that are not ingested chronically but only at certain time of the menstrual cycle, and here again the BioMeter is essential for correct utilization of the new type of oral contraceptives.

The birth control market in the U.S. means approximately 60 million reproductive-age women. Of these, 35 million already practice some form of birth control and another 5 million are at risk of unintended pregnancy. Unplanned pregnancy represents large public health risks and large expenditures for the payer. It is important to note that the contraceptive pill is most popular only in the youngest group, peaking with 38% at ages 20 to 24, while only 5% of women in their thirties and forties use chemical contraception. About 20 million of American women are in their thirties, and many have postponed pregnancy until late in life.

The medically recognized consequence is that the need for reversible birth control (as opposed to surgical sterilization) is growing among women over 30 years of age. Contraceptive sterilization has been the leading method for US women in the last two decades or so, with 24% of birth-control users in the late 1980s. These mature women will be the most important user group of the Company's BioMeter. They will use the BioMeter as a friendly companion and healthcare tool. They will use it as an aid for difficult conception and/or as a birth control aid, as well as for the additional diagnostic purposes indicated below.

Additional applications

Examples of additional prospective applications are early pregnancy detection, birth-date pre-determination, the management of premenstrual syndrome, the timing of breast self-examinations, management of hormone replacement therapy, timing of medication intake in general - in addition to the already mentioned new type of oral contraceptives. Further potential applications are prospectively as a parturition (birth) alarm, and speculatively as a pre-screen for early warning of cervical cancer development and of pelvic inflammatory disease (salpingitis). The BioMeter could also be useful in the determination of bio-equivalence of certain steroid compounds.

All these uses pertain to the costs of healthcare. Birth-date pre-determination should help reduce premature trips to the delivery ward, which represents a significant saving. Future development of the parturition alarm should make this even more effective. The cervical cancer pre-screen should help save lives because the cancer is curable if diagnosed early - again saving costs of treatment. The pelvic inflammatory disease is on the rise and early diagnosis is important for effective treatment.

The prospective diagnostic uses of the BioMeter technology are important to medicine in general and to the insurance industry in particular. As the chemicalization and stressfulness of our life increases, proper management of drug prescribing becomes more and more difficult but also more and more critical. For example, the management of PMS versus depression is a big issue because the prevalence of depression is as high as one out of three women. It is only likely to increase as severe depression is expected to be the second greatest cause of disability within two decades. The premenstrual syndrome afflicts an estimated 45 million American women, of which about 5 million women seek clinical help with the severe (PMDD) form of the syndrome.

In addition, there is the potential for use of the BioMeter by those approaching menopause, with the associated problems such as osteoporosis. This growing group of aging baby-boomers needs help with the timing of hormone uptake in personalized hormone replacement therapy, to reduce the side effects and the cost of medication. This application comprises over 20 million potential American customers.

Breast self-examination for cancer prevention is another useful application because the self-examination should be performed at the time of ovulation.

The Interface Unit will provide a means for adding information to the menstrual cyclic data. Such patient information is currently entered into one or more questionnaires on paper, and the sheets eventually end up in the physician's office being transcribed into computer data.

The reason for this product concept is that the TV is everywhere whereas the home PC is not - which is even more the case outside of the US.

The primary North American use of this fecundographic utility will be by the many women who suffer with depression or with premenstrual syndrome, and whose doctors need to diagnose whether the case is PMS or clinical depression.

Click on the BioMeter - conventional TV Interface link to read more about the product concept.