Excellent 13 page document from the Impress consultancy, which is a joint initiative between the two leading respiratory clinical societies in the UK: the General Practice Airways Group (GPIAG) and the British Thoracic Society. From this web page, find the link to download Commissioning a community COPD service: Lessons for the NHS based on a case study in Somerset PCT.
The Center for Connected Health’s forthcoming annual Symposium at The Conference Center, Harvard Medical, Boston, on 27 and 28 October 2008 is entitled: Who Provides, Who Decides, Who Pays: Consumers, Clinicians and Business Models in the Connected Care Era. Details here.
Quite different from the Philips sponsored ‘Learn not to fall’ site featured in Telecare aware a little while ago. You might like to compare them:
Worcestershire; Learn not to fall
The full title of this item is A Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology. (If you are not up to speed with what Second Life is, read this Wikipedia entry.)
The article (Gorini A, Gaggioli A, Vigna C, Riva G A Second Life for eHealth: Prospects for the Use of 3-D Virtual Worlds in Clinical Psychology J Med Internet Res 2008;10(3):e21) concludes that, owing to the anonymity such encounters offer people seeking help “…3-D virtual worlds, used as an adjunct to face-to-face settings, may represent a valid opportunity for the future developments in eHealth. Our hope is that the present paper will stimulate a discussion within the research community about the potential, the limitations, and the risks that this emerging medium offers for cybertherapy applications.”
Just because the consultation between client/patient and the health professional is entirely mediated by technology, I’m not at all sure whether it is appropriate to construe this as telecare, even in its broadest sense: hence the ‘terminology’ category tag.
This is one for when you have time to read and ponder.
This item brings together news of some technologies appropriate for older people. “The companies that are successfully marketing new technologies to older people are not those that have created high-tech ways for seniors to open jars. Rather, they are the ones that have learned to create products that span generations, providing style and utility to a range of age groups.” Food for thought from the NY Times.
Intellect is an organisation that ‘represents the UK technology industries’. Its Telehealth Group holds meetings and is chaired by Docobo’s Adrian Flowerday. Intellect Telehealth Group’s webpage.
FREE ALERTS SERVICE KEEPS YOU UP TO DATE ON DEVELOPMENTS
CSIP’s JuneTelecare Newsletter has been published and is available in pdf form here.
The main item of interest is about the launch last Wednesday of the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) Action Network. There’s going to be a private club ‘action research programme’ involving 10-12 partner groups, comprising people from PCTs, local authorities and third sector organisations who will share information from the pilots. “These specially invited partners are leaders in the use of high quality assistive technologies and their experiences will provide important insights.” [So, if you haven't been invited, you know you are not a leader.]
Fortunately, the rest of us can register on the new WSD Action Network website to receive email updates and access to whatever information the King’s Fund, which will be administering the site, chooses to make publicly available. I suggest that after you have signed up, you have a look at the frequently asked questions.
As this site is going to grow and become potentially very useful (especially after the CSIP networks and site ‘reposition’ in relation to it) it will be helpful if they add a site search facility.
CSIP Telecare newsletter index page.
Invicta’s annual Independence Day Conference held last Friday, 4 July, in the grounds of its HQ in Kent lived up to its paradoxical reputation for being both a relaxed and a lively event.
The morning sessions comprised presentations from consultant Dave Foster (implications of the 21CN changes); Chris Manthorp from the Epic Trust on ‘Creating a client focused Older Persons Strategy’; Jane Bleach who, as a social services care manager in Kent led the pre-WSD Programme telehealth project, and Sara Clarke, CE of the Jewish Community Housing Association. The latter gave an insight into how technology and cultural expectations sometimes collide.
During lunchtime attendees were able to take a tour of the Invicta call monitoring centre. It reinforced awareness of how organised such a centre has it be to handle the number of calls received. (Over 90,000 per month on average last year.)
As can be seen from the photo below, the afternoon got everyone off their seats and involved in advising a group of actors from Arc Theatre over the case of a woman admitted to A&E following a fall, and what her post-discharge options might be. Over the course of an hour the actors, playing family members and a doctor, developed the story which was stopped every five minutes or so for them to consult groups of audience members over their next move in the unfolding dilemma. Surprisingly, it felt very real. True-to-life, moreover – but surprising given the context of the day – it was quite a long time before anyone mentioned the provision of telecare as part of a possible way forward for the patient and her family!
Actor (woman on right) playing the patient’s daughter consults
group over what argument to deploy next
The day finished with a session on service user involvement by Tristan Hodson and Will Myers from the Porchlight charity.
Invicta’s Independence Day was supported by sponsors: Chubb; Cirrus; QuietCare; Supra; Tunstall and Tynetec.
On 26 June, the Taiwan News Online reported that a former Government Minister and Yin Cheng, the general manager of “Britain’s Tunstall Group Taiwan branch”, had been bailed in relation to contract procurement irregularities dating back to 2006 – an allegation subsequently denied by the ex-minister.
In a statement to Telecare Aware a Tunstall spokesperson said “Tunstall Taiwan didn’t open for business until July 2007. I can confirm that neither Tunstall Group nor Tunstall Taiwan are under investigation.”
Readers should be aware that there are confusions and inconsistencies in the report:
- I have not been able to determine by which organisation Yin Cheng was employed, so it is possible that the paper erroneously conflated Tunstall Taiwan and its reseller, Evercare (or Evermedical as it is later referred to). As far as I can make out, these are two separate entities.
- The news item refers to contract bidding in 2006. However, according to the Tunstall spokesperson, Evermedical did not become a Tunstall reseller until the end of 2007. Indeed, the appointment was reported in Telecare Aware on 2 August last year.
Moreover, even if the allegation proves to be true, this only reflects on the behaviour of one person and it would be wrong to infer anything from it about the way that anyone else connected with Tunstall conducts business. This is therefore a story you can ignore and you do not need to read Google’s cache of the Taiwan News Online item.
Whatever you think about belt-worn fall detectors, this is a great local article from Middlesbrough (UK), where the focus is on the couple and the technology is introduced quite naturally. GazetteLive story. There is a rating poll to the right of the story. I rated it 5.
The system, called Health Guide, integrates vital sign collection, patient reminders, multimedia educational content and feedback and communications tools such as video conferencing and e-mail. It can connect to specific models of wired and wireless medical devices, including blood pressure monitors, glucose meters, pulse oximeters, peak flow meters and weight scales. It also stores and displays the collected information on a touch screen and sends it to a secure host server, where healthcare professionals can review the information.
Intel expects the Health Guide to be available from healthcare providers in the United States and the United Kingdom later this year or early next. Press release from Reuters.
As telemedicine, telehealth and telecare providers get sucked along in the updraft of the digital trend in health care provision, the provocative conference report and the many comments that have become appended to this E-Health Insider Primary Care item may interest many Telecare Aware readers.
KEEP UP TO DATE ON DEVELOPMENTS
See them in session at this photo page. (Also, I note iTelecare was making them an introductory offer… would be surprised if they wouldn’t extend it to other councils or organisations.)
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