Continua Developer Tools Now Available

Continua Health Alliance today announced it has published four primary components on Open Health Tools, the Open Source clearinghouse for health IT projects. Continua has also created a Developer Resources area on its website to promote public access to key development tools that support certification according to its Design Guidelines for personal connected health devices and systems. In addition to Continua's source code library, the Alliance is working with Open Health to publish Open Source code covering all Continua end-to-end interfaces. Continua is the leading organization convening global technology industry standards to develop end-to-end, plug-and-play connectivity for personal connected health. The Open Source Initiative promotes awareness, education and advocacy for non-proprietary software.

The following components are now available from Continua on Open Health Tools:
• WAN IEEE-20601 Encoder implementation, written in Java
• WAN Sender & Receiver implementation, written in Java
• Binary Object package of the core WAN implementation suitable for Mobile implementations, written in Java
• WAN Encoder and Sender Android Example , written in Java
Device profiles covered in the code include all IEEE -11073-104xx devices such as blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters and thermometers. A fifth component, Continua's PAN device interface, which enables collection of device data, is planned for publication in the second quarter of this year. The components are aggregated under the Personal Connected Health Project in Open Health and are available at: https://www.projects.openhealthtools.org/sf/projects/pch/.

"Continua encourages innovation and supports all developers in the personal connected health ecosystem, large and small. Providing demonstration code to the public will help to stimulate innovation and new products in the market, and support entrepreneurs and students interested in developing or certifying products in personal connected health," said Chuck Parker, executive director, Continua Health Alliance. "Continua's Design Guidelines are already available, free of charge. Now, the Open Health Personal Connected Health Project will become a hub for the software and tools used to build the eco-system for personal connected health."

Continua Launches Online Resources for Developers
To further public accessibility of Continua resources for developers, the Alliance has created a Developers Resources area on its website. Current resources include the Continua source code library, as well as projects from Continua members such as Open Health Assistant, offering a combination of remote and personalized customer service solutions for patients via Android mobile phones, and Stepstone, providing a reference implementation for device-driven health and wellness solutions using embedded technology, service-oriented architecture and open standards.

Other resources include a listing of available Certified Reference Systems that can be relabeled for market use; information about certification, available experts and Continua's certification process. The site also lists Continua testing and training opportunities as well as Continua Connects Technology Showcase and Networking events, which are open to all developers.

"Continua appreciates the importance of publishing resources in the public domain, and we encourage developers to certify their devices with Continua in the future to help ensure end-to-end, plug-and-play interoperability," added Parker.

Continua publishes Design Guidelines for end-to-end, plug-and-play connectivity in personal connected health. These Design Guidelines convene global industry standards for interoperability, and make the collection and sharing of personal health data convenient, scalable and secure for consumers and healthcare providers.

Open Source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.