Telecare Aware

CSIP’s March Telecare Newsletter has just been released and is available in pdf form here.

Of principal interest to Telecare Aware readers is the section that reports the Parliamentary question (number 202723) by the Liberal Democrat Shadow Health spokesperson Sandra Gidley which has eventually elicited a list of the three sites’ technology partners, which are:

• Kent: Viterion; Tunstall
• Newham: Philips; t+Medical; Tunstall; NHS Direct. [Also Serco. Serco? See website.]
• Cornwall: Home Telehealth Ltd/WebVMC; Tunstall

Why getting this information has been like getting blood from a stone, and why it took an Opposition question to get it it still a mystery!

There is also a link to a PowerPoint presentation about the project by Tim Ellis, DH’s WSD Programme Manager and Claire Whittington, DH’s Long Term Conditions lead. It starts to be informative from slide 7 (Selecting the WSD Sites) onwards.

CSIP Telecare newsletter index page.

I’ve been sitting on this press release from Imperial College about its involvement with the WSD Programme for a week to see if its appearance marked a relaxation of DH’s policy of keeping the lid on any national publicity about the programme. But no, there is no new information on the DH website and, except for Cornwall Council continuing to post its local project newsletters on its website, there has been no other news about the programme for months.

For new and non-UK readers, a note of explanation: the UK Department of Health’s ambitious Whole System Long Term Conditions Demonstrator (WSD) Programme has been 18 months under construction and is intended to produce solid evidence of the cost effectiveness of large scale deployment of telehealth and telecare on the whole health and social care system. The trials are supposed to be live and collecting data from this month but the Department of Health is, by all accounts and unusually for such a good-news-story-hungry organisation, keeping the participants ‘gagged’ from releasing any publicity about it.

So what’s the bad news the Department wants to hide?

You can review the history of the project, and see the few bits of information that have leaked out, by typing WSD into the Telecare Aware search box, above right.

Healthcare Republic (the somewhat alternative publication for GPs) examines a potential sore in the Northern Ireland good news. But the conclusion is spot-on. Read more.

Just following up on the previous Wii stories. Maybe it’s not so good for you, after all. ‘Wii-itus’ is a real condition.

The Medical Design Excellence Awards, now in its eleventh year, recognizes companies and individuals worldwide involved in the design, engineering, manufacture or distribution of finished medical devices or medical packaging. Press release.

The project uses fiberoptic technology to connect physicians at Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with physicians at Care Group of Hospitals in Hyderabad, India. So far, Ethiopian physicians have used the system more than 50 times to consult Indian doctors. Read more.

Useful resource of articles and podcasts concerning telehealth matters in Canada. Link posted in Telecare Aware Useful Sites > Information sites and blogs.

For anyone who wants a handy list of Tunstall publications, the Alzheimer’s Australia NSW Library & Information Service has one here.

It’s good to see from this local news item that, although we are now the post-Preventative Technology Grant era, the City of York Council intends to continue to invest £225,000 over the next three years on telecare equipment. At least a few more people will get some help, then. Newspaper item.