Telecare Aware

Each year the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) surveys English councils which are obliged to report data on a wide variety of topics. The questions are agreed in consultation with the Department of Health. The CSCI’s 2008 report on 2007’s data has just been published. The headline, when it comes to numbers of new people receiving telecare during the years of the Preventative Technology Grant (PTG) is that the PTG ‘target’ of 160,000 new beneficiaries of telecare over the two years has, at 300,000, been exceeded by nearly 100%.

Whilst this is a hopeful and encouraging sign that telecare is making progress in the UK, these figures do not mean, of course, that councils have over-delivered on the PTG. They are self-reported and open to interpretation since new recipients of ‘traditional’ community alarm services were allowed to be counted, as were people in the council’s area receiving telecare services provided by other organisations (not in receipt of the PTG). Even the CSCI cautiously frames the good news with “Councils are reporting success in a number of key areas”.

In fact, the CSCI figures indicate that only 44% of the most recent provision was by councils alone with a further 26% jointly between the council and other agencies.

It is perhaps worth remembering the explanation in the previous year’s report:

The White Paper set a target for the number of older people supported by the provision of telecare equipment to increase by 160,000 by 2007-08 from the level at 31 March 2006. The average increase in 2006-07 of 998 (150,000 total) new users per council was above plan (130,000). Just over one-third (36%) of the more recent provision was by councils alone, with an increased proportion in the current year being provided jointly or solely by other agencies.

It could be that the rise in council-funded provision from 36% in 2006 to 44% in 2007 reflects the PTG kicking in. If that is so, the PTG is accounting for 8% - OK, let’s be generous - 16% of the figures. So, 16% - OK, let’s be even more generous and go for 20% of 300,000 - equals 60,000.

Criticise me for being cynical, but I’ve been on both sides of governmental data collection process and, allowing for an element of optimistic or enthusiastic counting on the councils’ part, and allowing for the easy threshold for inclusion in the data, and that some of this number growth could have been expected anyway without the PTG funding, and from what people have been telling me for the past three years has been happening on the ground, I suspect that the contribution of the PTG to these numbers is about a fifth: i.e. less than half of what it should have been.

Access both years’ reports from this CSCI web page.

It won’t come as a surprise to regular Telecare Aware readers, but the launch of Intel’s broadband-based telehealth monitoring device apparently based on the ‘old’ WebVMC device that Intel recalled, was launched last Monday. There has been fairly wide media coverage based on Intel’s press release, but this item (Intel Tries Its Hand at Home Health Care Market) by Business Week’s Cliff Edwards has better commentary (and following comments) than most.

Medical Intelligence Technologies, Canadian producer of the Vega GPS Bracelet, Columba Bracelet, PERSmobile GPS Emergency System and Urgentys GPS Lone Worker systems has, following its recent link up with Tunstall in the UK, also announced a German deal with Bjorn Steiger Stiftung Service (BSSS). BSSS is a for-profit division of Bjorn Steiger Stiftung, a private foundation in Germany dedicated to diminishing the response time of emergency services in Germany. BSSS will distribute all Medical Intelligence’s devices and will offer the accompanying tele-security services. Initial deployment is expected in first quarter of 2009. Press release.

What is it with doctors who seem to want to make mechanical copies of themselves? A search for ‘robot’ in the above search box will throw up a few examples. Here’s another, from the University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health.

These three items all happened to come in on the same day. Not telecare-related directly, but relevant to the main client group.

1. One third of older people in UK planning to live in one room in the winter. A survey by Help the Aged and British Gas.

2. Joan Bakewell (known in the 1960s as ‘the thinking man’s crumpet’) now 75, just appointed by the UK Government to represent the interests of older people. Her manifesto - get more of the little things right to make life easier. The Independent’s take on the story.

3. Moving account by a Canadian of a visit to Scandinavian care homes: “The ageism that is so much part of North American society didn’t really hit me until I saw the vitality and freedom of older people in Denmark and Sweden…” From the Toronto Star.

Item about Wales’ own demonstrator sites from WalesOnline Telecare helps patients to independence

Are telecare users – in the UK at least – at risk of being denied an emergency service response? I have put this together as a Telecare Soapbox item, but there is a time-limited component to this, so read it soon.

Tucked away on the sidebar of the Scottish Joint Improvement Team’s telecare webpage, is a link to a ‘benchmarking report’ published in February 2008. You can download the report here.

Thanks to Ali Rogan, Tunstall’s Marketing Director, for the heads-up on this one. She points out that the report highlights:

• £2.9 million estimated verifiable savings as a result of the telecare development programme, taken from the quarterly returns from 13 partnerships in Scotland
• savings for first 6 months of 2007/08
• 1800 hospital days saved, includes early supported discharge
• 66 avoided delayed discharges and 140 hospital admissions avoided
• 1,300 additional people maintained in their own homes with support
• 1,250 nights of sleepover care saved
• 107,000 home check visits saved
• 6,900 care home bed days saved
• telecare in Scotland will save £43m by 2010

Seeing a Just Checking stand at the DLF Telecare Made Easy launch the other week made me realise that it was a long time since I had seen what the company has been up to. Well, I’m pleased to report that it has been improving its kit and service over the past few years and, as a result, has been quietly been making headway in the UK market.

Focusing on the part of the telecare market where people have to manage people with dementia, they hit several sweet points:

• The wireless sensors are incredibly easy and quick to install.
• The base box does not need a physical connection to a phone line.
• The software builds an easy-to-interpret picture of the activity of the person being monitored.
• It’s as easy to uninstall - which means that it can be put in for just a few weeks to help comfirm developing problems, and then moved on to someone else if necessary.

There is an excellent demonstration of the system on this webpage: Just Checking - How it Works.

Invicta (the largest independent telecare call centre in the UK) invites you to its annual conference on 4th July in Sevenoaks, Kent. Download details here and book your place quickly for this ever-popular free event.

And a news item from Invicta concerning telecare and people with learning disabilities.

Here are five good items that present general perspectives. On other weeks each would rate a separate Telecare Aware entry. If you haven’t time to read them all, give the Quicksilva and Economist articles a whirl.

Phone health checks for patients BBC Scotland item about Edinburgh University project.

Future healthcare will rely on information sharing Quicksilva research report outlines data-driven vision of patient care by 2030.

UK Gov solves pensioner crisis by wiring them up to the net (Poking oldsters to check they’re still alive) Cynical item from The Register.

Is it Too Soon for Remote Patient Monitoring? Advance for Health Information Executives’ report on an industry survey.

Telemedicine comes home The Economist item.

It seems that everyone thinks the first half of June is a good time to launch product improvements. Here is a selection of recent press releases.

BodyTel Obtains CE Marking for the GlucoTel Blood Glucose Monitoring and Diabetes Management System

Quick Notes: New Feature of inLife/LifeView Telehealth System from American TeleCare

RTX Healthcare launches wireless telehealth monitor

Bosch-owned Health Hero has announced improvements to its system:

• ability to upload results and retrieve new surveys via Ethernet, in addition to the traditional telephone connectivity
• larger, brighter, higher contrast screen for enhanced readability
• wireless infrared support for medical devices

Details here.

Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault (in US at the moment) are starting to vie at being the repositories for personal health records, but MHV is the first to be able to import data from remote monitoring devices. HoMedics press release.

Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) whose videos I commended recently also has three useful reports on its website:
1. State of Technology in Aging Services
2. State of Technology in Aging Services According to Field Experts and Thought Leaders
3. State of Technology in Aging Services: Summary (executive summary and highlights of the two previous reports)