Smart infant monitoring company Owlet partners with Wheel

Wheel clinicians will be able to prescribe Owlet's BabySat, which monitors oxygen and heart rate

When we think of remote patient monitoring or telehealth most likely we think of older people who are at risk of falling or a major health event, or maybe people who have had surgery and are now back home. They aren't the only types of patients who need this type of care, though: more than 450,000 babies transition home from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) every year and Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) affects 40,000 babies.

That's why smart infant monitoring company Owlet developed BabySat, a Smart Sock which allows caregivers to monitor their baby’s health and collaborate with healthcare providers. And now the company is launching a telehealth platform for caregivers of those infants through a partnership with end-to-end telehealth vendor Wheel, announced on Thursday.

Launched in 2020, Wheel's solutions include allowing doctors access to training in telehealth; helping with staffing, connecting physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs to telehealth companies; and a white-labeled service that allows companies to build virtual care services under their own brand.

For companies, Wheel acts as the clinical infrastructure, and clinical network, so they can deliver care across all 50 states.

For clinicians, the company provides them with the training and support so they can have a viable career in telehealth. It also helps place clinicians with telehealth companies, while also managing an entire network of clinicians, credentialing them, maintaining and monitoring their licensure.

Owlet's BabySat, which received FDA clearance last year, is pulse-oximetry device that can monitor a baby's heart rate and oxygen saturation level, alerting caregivers if it detects vital signs outside of prescribed ranges. 

Through this partnership with Owlet, Wheel will manage the BabySat virtual telehealth services platform, allowing its clinicians to provide caregivers of infants with prescriptions for BabySat via Wheel’s online portal and network of physicians.

With a prescription, caregivers will then be able to order BabySat at little to no cost with insurance reimbursement, as it also integrates with durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers who accept and can bill for the product through numerous insurance providers.

“We’re thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Owlet, a leader in smart infant monitoring. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our mission to expand healthcare access and simplify care delivery for all Americans — especially for growing families,” Wheel CEO Michelle Davey said in a statement.

“Wheel’s virtual care platform helps streamline access to home monitoring, making Owlet’s BabySat pulse oximeter more convenient for new parents than ever before.”

(Image source: owletcare.com)