Thumbs up for Tower Hamlets council! Read story here.
Apparently only in Word format this month, July’s CSIP Telecare Newsletter looks forward, as we all do, to September’s publication of the CSCI performance figures for 2008 and a major report on the Preventative Technology Grant which “brings together information from 2006 through to 2008″. It also flags up the changes to the CSIP Networks telecare programme which will become part of Independent Living Choices and Care Closer to Home. The CSIP Telecare Newsletter will continue but it will not be duplicating Whole System Demonstrators Action Network (WSDAN) materials.
As you skim through the long section of links to other materials, don’t miss the extract from the House of Lords questions on 21 July which begins on page 7 (or 8, depending on how your Word displays) where Baroness Greengross asks the Minister Baroness Thornton to explain why it has taken quite so long to implement the whole system demonstrators and how the Government intends to ensure that their targets are met. [What? You expect a real answer?]
Telecare Newsletters index.
North of England-based Tynetec [a Telecare Aware sponsor] has announced another year of spectacular growth. The pattern established in the previous financial year, when turnover grew by more than 25%, has been matched in the year to June 2008. Details in this press release.
Tynetec’s telehealth package
The London Telecare Group (of councils) has commissioned the poster below from the JCA Design agency. Thanks to generous support from the Adshel and ClearChannel agencies which manage advertising in London’s bus shelters, 409 posters are currently getting the message out to the general public. Lewisham Linkline will initially be handling all enquiries on behalf of the other councils.
The attention of lone workers, care home managers and end users is being drawn to the advantages of the GSM and GPS person location systems from UK-based company Verify & Locate. Instead of the user being restricted to home he or she can go where they like, “safe in the knowledge that their whereabouts could be located by their loved ones or professionals in a central control centre.”
Verify & Locate makes full use of current web technologies on its site to get its message across. For examples, (see the demos here) and take a look at the ‘cool’ way it presents its product brochure.
It’s come a long way since its launch, reported in Telecare Aware two years ago.
Distressed family seeks answers as to why their mother was given a panic alarm system, apparently inappropriately. Website.
Consider in the light of the Verify & Locate story above.
The US-based Guardian Alert 911 takes the panic alarm principle and cuts out the call centre, connecting owners directly to the emergency services. Taking this approach there’s an immediate saving for users as there are no monthly fees.
View this 7 minute Guardian Alert 911 video on the company’s website.
LogicMark homepage.
BBC News report from West Bromwich, UK, on an ordinary Victorian house that has been converted to accommodate almost every electronically controlled device you can think of, linked to a system that responds to the owner’s movements. This does deserve to be called a ’smart home’ unlike those that are just ‘telecare enabled’. (See Soapbox item: Telecare ‘Smart Homes’ Nowhere Near Smart Enough.)
Watch the 1½ minute ‘iHouse’ video here. Sharp-eyed viewers may spot Telemedcare’s equipment in one scene.
The new standard will define a common signalling protocol for social alarm and telecare systems. People wishing to review and comment on the draft standard have until 30 September 2008. More information on HPS Consulting website.
Bed blocking in NHS hospitals got worse last year and was responsible for an estimated million lost hospital days, according to a recent survey reported in the Telegraph. There is still obviously huge scope for telehealth/telecare providers to effect cost reductions, despite the possibility that the Preventative Technology Grant could have been used for the past two years to help tackle this problem.
Hmm… did I hear someone suggest that perhaps we should have a national study to see if telehealth technologies can demonstrate a positive effect on the whole health and social care system?
Telegraph article: A million days lost to bed-blockers.
A reminder that in addition to promoting independence, telecare can also reduce heartache and, in some cases, horror. Read here.
US WiFiMed Holdings Company, Inc. whose holdings are providers of ‘physician workflow solutions’ has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase UK-based Integrated Telecare Ltd (iTelecare). The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with iTelecare becoming the fourth wholly owned subsidiary of WiFiMed Holdings. Press release for more detail.
Tim Craig, for iTelecare, told Telecare Aware “This is a good development that will lead to many improvements for our customers and their telecare users. It demonstrates an understanding of the great potential of broadband-based systems and the extra value of working with iTelecare.” iTelecare home page.
25 English councils are to be given another £80 million between now and 2010 for additional Extra Care Housing developments. At an amazingly low average capital cost of £39,312 per dwelling, we shouldn’t complain, but it doesn’t quite square with the statement in the press release notes that the new accommodation will “demonstrate commitment to ensuring the dignity of their residents offering choice and putting personalisation high on their agenda making use of Telecare [sic], telehealth and other assistive technology to support residents to live independently in their own homes”. DH press release.
Even at these costs, are these bricks-and-mortar ’solutions’ to a few people’s problems the right way to go? If you want to delve deeper, read the scheme’s bidding criteria.
For contrast, think what could be done if the funds identified in this item from the Daily Express - about the £3.6 billion a year in pension top-up tax credits that older people fail to claim each year - were actually being spent by those people to help themselves stay independent.
By the way, I can guess what the “successful Barnsley extra care housing scheme” is going to do with its cheque for £3.8 million, but what is it going to do with the 73 year-old Sir Michael Parkinson who, according to the sloppily written first paragraph of the DH press release, comes with it?
The Silver Life Institute, based in Paris, is a research organisation that aims (amongst other things) to:
- encourage consideration of ideas and questions in relation to society and old age
- diffuse knowledge from research into technology, economics, medical and social sciences
- propagate ideas or initiatives in the arena of public opinion
- stir up the widest possible debate
It is telecare/telehealth oriented and has an active membership, newsletter and programme of meetings in France. It also has a London-based UK representative, Mona Vandame. She tells me that UK meetings are held in English.
Silver Life Institute website. (Has an English ‘translate’ button top right.)
Following the recent deal with the Catalonian Reial Automobil Club, Canadian Medical Intelligence Technologies (producer of the Columba bracelet and Urgentsys) has signed a licensing agreement to grant exclusive commercialization rights for its products and services to LUXGSM, one of the largest wireless operators in Luxembourg. Press release.
Medical Intelligence Technologies website.
