Real-world 'ecosystem' supporting telecare and telehealth (US)

Leaving behind the posh hotel ballrooms of the latest m/eHealth conference (as described in Dialing back the hype and Mind the gap), organizations like CAST (Center for Aging Services Technology) have been laboring, in absence of hype, to create an ‘ecosystem’ for telecare and telehealth in the home for the past decade or so. Here is a just printed article from them on CAST member Good Samaritan Society’s ecosystem, LivingWell@Home, which combines several technologies: WellAWARE (sensor-based telecare), Honeywell’s HomMed telehealth system and Philips’ PERS (‘plain’ Lifeline or AutoAlert with fall detection not specified). It also alludes to the ‘who pays’ of the Four Big Questions*, as they are reaching out to Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) to obtain Federal (Medicare) reimbursement for the use of these technologies in keeping older people living in their homes. Not a whisper of ‘saving the world’ or ‘Big Thing-iness’, but helping real people far from the glam in Sioux Falls, SD. Good Samaritan Society Impresses Sen. Thune with LivingWell@Home Technology

* Who pays, how much, who looks at the data, who actions the data