Given the struggles that telecare and telehealth suppliers are having introducing new technologies in the UK, at least, Cisco’s continuing promotion of its high-cost, high-bandwidth telepresence system for remote medical consultations is a bold strategy in the ‘Yes, Minister’ sense of the word. The item recommended below is a thoughtful consideration of the pros and cons and is an update on the Scottish Centre for Telehealth story previously reported here.
Read both pages of this ZDnet article: How telepresence is targeting healthcare.
For a wider view of telepresence, including a timeline of its history, see the following: The problem with the telepresence picture.
‘Yes, Minister’ as you say! Who will want to go to a pod, when they could do it in the comfort of their own homes without having the hassle of getting involved with the central bureaucracy? It may be £150K for Cisco technology, but how much will it cost to build and staff the pod additionally? And just imagine what the rules and targets applied to the system will do for the service user. You could service many hundreds of clients in their own homes for much less cost and stress.