Telecare Aware

The Department of Health’s call last week for demonstrator sites to bring the benefits of whole systems to people with long term conditions should receive a warm welcome from the telecare community.

Read the DH webpage but don’t miss Annex A Likely key elements that will inform an application which includes the need to identify partner organisations and information sharing issues, but above all, requires applicants to provide a ‘description of the outcomes and benefits (including cost savings) that you envisage being delivered through the use of telecare/telehealth in an integrated health and social care service’. Read the importance of a credible business case on the old Telecare Alliance site.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) in its report Time to Care? (18 Oct 2006) highlights the good telecare work that has been undertaken in Sandwell for the past few years. Of particular note it says that “The data suggest that across 69 clients tracked over the past year, more than 2,500 home care visits have been saved. Telecare may also be helping people to remain at home for longer, and even preventing some hospital admissions. So, although telecare has required some investment, including investment in the training of assessment staff, Sandwell and its partners are committed to developing the approach further. Funding for telecare has been jointly supported by health and social services and is recognised as having a major role to play in enabling local health service reconfiguration plans over the next three years. The telecare initiative has also embraced other local agencies with responsibilities for community safety including police and fire services and local ‘third sector’ community and voluntary groups.” (Take a bow, Barry Downs, all that hard work is paying off! Link to 2004 presentation by Barry.)

Download the CSCI report (as pdf or MP3) from its Time to Care? webpage.

You can also read more general comment in the E-Health Insider Primary Care story on this item.

London Borough of Newham’s ambitious telecare plans, which put other councils’ Preventative Technology Grant-based strategies in the shade (see Telecare Aware report 19 July 2006), have had their official launch. Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, said: “NeAT is a great initiative that will transform the lives of many of Newham’s residents by helping them to continue to live an independent and enjoyable life. I am proud that our borough is leading the way in providing telecare.”  Quite right too! 

16 months ago, when Telecare Aware started tracking international stories about the Columba phone-bracelet for people with dementia, no one in the UK had heard of it.

Now, its developers, Medical Intelligence Technologies, have signed a ‘letter of intent’ to work with Tunstall to market it in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The bracelet aims to ‘prevent disappearance among Alzheimer’s patients’ and is billed as ‘a definitive solution to the problems of walking and straying often associated with Alzheimer’s disease. [It combines] handsfree portable telephone, GPS positioning system and an intelligent alert system that detects any straying outside of a safe zone.’ According to the press release, the Columba device ‘is able to quickly locate the person who has exited this pre-defined zone, thereby reducing the risks associated with Alzheimer’s patients’ walking habits.’

The article this item links to is on the ‘difficult to interpret’ side unless you are one of the techies it was written for. However, the notable point is that sensors included in a ZigBee network can be placed much more flexibly than the more well known RFID tags and receivers, and that they could be particularly useful for home monitoring because the technology uses very low amounts of power. Depending on the battery technology, devices could achieve up to 10 years of battery life. Zigbee networks are reassuringly ’self healing’ if one part of the network fails. Link to Zigbee article: Remote Caregivers Keep Tabs On Patients.

Whether or not telecare is at the forefront of the Department of Health’s thinking, at least it is currently in front of its offices… Telecare poster seen in bus shelter outside DH’s Skipton House building, 80 London Road, Elephant and Castle, London. The poster is one of a series commissioned by London Telecare (London boroughs’ telecare group). It was designed, and distribution is managed by, John Chambers Associates Design - see link in the sidebar to the right.

I need to have a brief chat with a community matron or two - sorry I can’t reveal what it is about yet, but there are no strings or commitments, I just need to chew over an idea. Are you one, or do you know one who would be willing to talk to me briefly by phone? Please let me know by email (steve.hards@telecareaware.com) or phone me on 020 7064 0883.

Thanks, Steve

Must-read article by professors Anthony P.Glascock and David Kutzik of Drexel University, Philadelphia, describing their experiences of trying to move telecare technology from the laboratory into real home environments. Paper delivered at the HCI Workshop, Reality Testing: HCI Challenges in Non-Traditional Environments in Montreal in 2006. To read it later, right-click and ‘Save Target As…’ to save it.

Here are two non-telecare stories of interest to people in the field:

By 2029, living to 100 will be the norm. An Interesting general article on aging and scientific interest in longevity. Read here. 

B-Vitamins Won’t Prevent Alzheimer’s - but the issue isn’t dead. Article concerning the debate on Alzheimer’s prevention. You may need to skip the introduction to the site to get to this story. 
 

1) Report on May’s Telecare Conference organised by the British Journal Of Healthcare Computing. Link.

2) Advance notice: Telecare Services Association conference in Cardiff, 7-9 November 2006

3) Advance notice: RAATE 2006 conference in Birmingham, 27-28 November 2006 (Also, call for papers)

Further details of 2 and 3 on the Telecare Events page