Telecare Aware

Telecare system provider Mediagrids has confirmed to Telecare Aware that it is subject of a winding up order from Inland Revenue. This is despite cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, during the past year. So, despite the UK Government’s policies of encouraging telecare and supporting businesses through the recession, a Government agency is pulling the plug on the only broadly-based, broadband, video conferencing telecare system with potential to link users with not just telecare and telehealth monitoring but with online services, family and other users with shared interests.

The provider of a similar system, Netherlands-based Impact Valley, also went bust in the summer of 2007 and, like Mediagrids, lack of cash was the immediate cause. However, the root cause seems to be that commissioners and service operators are reluctant to dip a toe into innovative waters, which is a huge shame.

A Mediagrids spokesperson said “I think we were 4-5 years ahead of the market. Selling to the public sector and NHS is a nightmare and, whilst they all loved what we showed them, nobody was prepared to take the slightest risk to commit to trying it or spend any money with us…[they] have no need or desire to save money by adopting innovative software.”

Sadly, this will ring a bell with many UK equipment and service providers. It is a very common experience that it takes two years for initial local interest to evolve into a trial order. If anyone can throw any light on the reasons for this ultra-conservative mindset, please leave a comment.

In a statement to Telecare Aware, a spokesperson for Philips in the US denied rumours that the replacement of equipment to Health Watch customers earlier in the year was a recall related to the FDA’s warning letter in February about insufficiently robust quality processes in the Health Watch facility in Boca Raton, which it had acquired the year before.

Andre Manning of the Philips Healthcare communications team said: “In April of last year, we announced the acquisition of Health Watch. Over the next 18 months, Philips Lifeline worked with Health Watch’s existing customer base to update the Health Watch units in their homes with new equipment from Philips Lifeline. The change in the equipment was done at no cost to the customer nor did it interrupt the monitoring service. For optimal operational support and monitoring service, it was necessary to have all customers using the Lifeline units. There was no “recall” of units produced by Health Watch. It was a swap of equipment so that we could best service each of our customers. There is no connection whatsoever between the FDA audit in the Boca Raton facility and the swap out.”

Interestingly, the Health Watch website is still live. On the page that announced its partnership with Tunstall in pre-Philips sale days, it says

Health Watch has continually pioneered advanced technologies and innovative services in Personal Response Monitoring…Working with Tunstall Group, Health Watch has initiated the most dynamic research and development effort in the industry, giving Subscribers and Providers open access to the world’s newest Telecare solutions. Our next generation monitoring technologies help to assure independent living and personal security for more people than ever before.

Hmm… is this a case of “Beware, your hype will always find you out”?

Update: 5 December 15:30

Richard Farrell Smith, Product Communications Manager, Tunstall Group sent the following comment for clarification:

I read with interest your article on HealthWatch however I am concerned that it implies a connection between the FDA letter and products supplied by Tunstall. The FDA letter does in fact refer to alarm units (HW3000 and HW6000) that were manufactured by HealthWatch prior to its relationship with Tunstall. These units are easily confused with the units that Tunstall did supply to HealthWatch (HW3000T and HW 6000T). Although the FDA letter does cover more than just the manufacturing of the units, I would appreciate it if you could clarify that none of the issues relate to Tunstall and the manufacturing issues relate specifically to units manufactured by HealthWatch.

Richard - Thanks for the further clarification. There have been a number of rumours going round about this which I’m pleased to lay to rest. Steve

Regular readers will recall that in May it was announced that Northern Ireland ’s Department of Health and Social Services was to issue a tender worth £46 million for the supply of telehealth services (the Remote Telemonitoring Northern Ireland (RTNI) Service) to cover 5,000 people by 2011. (Telecare Aware item)

Browsing, as one does, the website of Belfast’s European Centre for Connected Health, I was struck by the companies now long listed for this substantial, high-profile project. Count how many have real-world experience of delivering on-the-ground telehealth services. The mystery is, how did most of these companies get onto the long list?

Here’s the list:

• Bayer Healthcare LLC Diabetes Care (Viterion Telehealthcare)
• British Telecommunications plc (BT)
• Fujitsu Services Limited
• Hewlett Packard Limited
• Humana Europe Limited
• iSoft plc
• Philips Healthcare Company
• Robert Bosch GmbH
• Steria Limited
• Tunstall/Fold/S3 (TF3)

European Centre for Connected Health site.

And the lucky company is… … the American Medical Alert Corp (AMAC). Frederic Siegel, AMAC’s Executive Vice President is reported as saying: “We are pleased to be working with Intel as the first Market Channel Partner for the launch of the Intel Health Guide. AMAC has been a leading provider of health and safety monitoring solutions for over two decades. We believe this new collaboration with Intel will greatly enhance our suite of digital health and wellness solutions to connect patients and providers and further our market position in the remote patient monitoring sector.” Full press release.

A survey of TelaDoc Medical Services patients found that 80% of respondents rated its physician consultations and other services at the highest level, “outstanding” and 17% of the respondents rated TelaDoc physician consultations as “good”. TelaDoc’s press release.

Item for the techies - in case they haven’t read it already. Eliminating Medical Device RF Interference

One of the best moments from this astounding 12 minute video from CBS 60 Minutes. It’s not telehealth - yet - but definitely one for the Pointers to the Future category. (Plays after the advert.)

Video in original article (Harnessing The Power Of The Brain) context.

Home Telehealth Ltd (HTL) has won the Welsh healthcare association MediWAles’ Partnership with The NHS Award, presented last night in Cardiff. It was accepted by David Muxworthy, a director of HTL. MediWales press release.

CSIP’s October Telecare eNewsletter (PDF, 1.4Mb) was published a few days ago. Main items of interest are:

• Item 1: The position for telecare one year on from Putting People First (PPF) [i.e did PPF make a difference?]; a list of questions for service commissioners [looks much like what was being asked back in 2005] and a link to UK telecare services on Google Maps. [A useful list of offices, maybe, but what’s the point of pinpointing the offices of dispersed services?]
• Item 2: The latest position on charging and a charging survey for telecare. [This is fascinating reading and will be an eye-opener for people outside the UK who think that such a small country must have highly homogeneous services.]
• Item 7: List of CSIP events including a forthcoming WSDAN telecare event on 22 January 2009

This month there is also a ‘Telecare Supplement’ containing advertorial-type information from suppliers which you can download here. (Word, nearly 5Mb.)

My advice to suppliers is that the supplement is a good way to get out more information than a straight press release but, as what you submit is posted unedited, make sure that you get someone to thoroughly edit it thoroughly first. (See who wrote “to effectively and economically deliver”!)

Telecare Aware readers not attending the TSA conference can access press releases and other conference-related information provided by exhibitors by visiting this page.

Medic4you is a telemedicine service based on telecommunication technologies and services. Medical consultants are now available for Orange clients subscribing to the Medic4you service throughout Romania, whether they are at home, at the office or travelling abroad. Medic4you’s doctors can review the client’s medical information using any of 18 different languages, can prescribe drugs and offer a consultation or can send the patient to a specialist medical facility. Read more here.

As we all know, developments in San Diego are always world-leading; a view this article from the San Diego Union Tribune tries to reinforce. Some of the commenters take a different view of the technology. One says “Just what we need: another electronic nag”. And spot the outrageous inaccuracy attributed to Intel’s Eric Dishman, not to mention the rather odd double-think at the end.

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