This is the simplest, clearest explanation I have seen of how remote patient health monitoring is managed in the NHS, what patients do, and its benefits. The 3.21 minute video on YouTube does not hide its Docobo origin, but that fact is not ‘in-your-face’.
In this blog item the author rants most engagingly that many healthcare organisations are rushing into technological areas that they do not understand. He is responding (approvingly) to a recent US Joint Commission’s Sentinel Events Alert on HIT that challenges the dominant paradigm of health IT as an easy-to-accomplish panacea.
He raises thought-provoking matters that apply equally to the introduction of telehealth as any other healthcare technology. Read it here.
I missed this when it was published back in July, but it may be a fitting end-of-the-year item to mark the rise of what may be the next trend in telehealth monitoring technology, as briefly touched on in Telecare Aware a few times this year – the move to using the mobile phone as the ‘platform’ of choice for most people. This article, Open source calls the tune for phones, from the Guardian’s technology writer Victor Keegan draws out the potential of the mobile phone, starting with a mention of the 3G Doctor service, which is how I came across it. But it is more, much more…
The CommonWell project will support independent living and improve the quality of life for a total of 400 older people and people with long-term conditions in four locations in Europe.
However, when you read the press release, remember that the impression that this is an EU-inspired project is not all it seems. The part-EU funding comes from the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. This is actually a fund to which companies can apply for projects that support the EU’s Enterprise Policy aim of increasing the competitiveness of European-based companies. In this case, the company is Tunstall.
“Telehealth…is used as an ‘early warning system’, with the aim of quicker medical intervention and reduced hospital admissions…Woodside House Care Home in Norwich…is one of the first nursing homes to use the system in the county. It has been successfully tried with 26 residents, and will now be extended to 56 more as well as those in its specialised community for people with dementia”. A short item from the Eastern Daily Press but the taking on of this development by a private care home in the UK is a significant step.
A great-value posting (as always) in the e-CareManagement blog, advocating a phased strategy that concentrates on building doctor-patients connectedness.
Article abstract: “The number of home telehealth programs implemented both domestically [US] and abroad and the number of peer-reviewed publications detailing positive outcomes for chronic disease management, preventive care, and self-management have increased over the past 5 years. The most dramatic growth has been in populations with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and congestive heart failure. A review of home telehealth developments, current status, opportunities, and challenges provides a foundation for understanding why we need to mainstream what we already know works.”
Item from Mary Ann Liebert, publishers. Look for the link beneath the ‘To cite this article…’ to download the full article.
The use of computers to keep aging brains alert is a new project at IBM-Israel, which has announced a collaboration with European Union partners. The three-year HERMES Cognitive Care for Active Aging project will be based on audio and visual processing and reasoning. A combination of home-based and mobile device-based systems are planned to help older people combat the natural reduction in cognitive capabilities; special focus will be put on developing a comfortable interface for older people with little or no computer experience. More interesting details in this item from the Jerusalem post.
Adam Vincent, Caitlin M Cusack, Eric Pan, Julie M. Hook, David C. Kaelber and Blackford Middleton from Partners Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School produced a one-page conference poster for the AMIA 2007 Symposium suggesting a taxonomy for telehealth. This is an interesting and useful contribution to the debate about terminology. View/download ‘A New Taxonomy for Telehealth Technologies‘.
They suggest that four factors need to be taken into account and that they will “allow for the inclusion of future telehealth endeavors”. They are (and I have paraphrased for simplicity here): Type of Interaction; Location of Controlling Medical Authority; Real-time care, and whether the data is used in ’store and forward’ mode.
This would be fine if it were not for the medico-centric nature of the model. (Mind you, I quite like the Larsonesque idea of some of the doctors being on the ‘far side’.) The world is changing and, as this WSDAN article by Nick Goodwin points out, patients will start to take more control. I think that will be especially true when Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault take hold and home-based telehealth monitoring becomes as ubiquitous as mobile phones.
Thanks to Frank Wartena of Philips Research Europe for pointing out the poster.
Croydon has been using the Combined Predictive Model in its virtual wards project (see Telecare Aware item) whereby people identified by the model as having a very high risk of future hospitalisation are put on a ‘virtual ward’. They are provided with preventive care in their own homes by a multi-disciplinary team who use the systems, timetable and staffing of a hospital ward but without the physical building.
Admission to the virtual ward is determined solely by the output of the Combined Predictive Model. Patients’ risk scores are monitored over time and can be used to prompt the virtual ward staff to discharge patients when appropriate – and offer admission to a patient at higher risk.
Item from the Kings Fund site where you can download a Croydon case study.
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)
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.
In October a Freedom of Information Act request found that one in four Primary Care Trusts has closed or reduced dementia services in the past three years and less than half have early detection services in place. Read more in HealthcareRepublic.
