Month: March 2006

Wanless Report: Unequivocal endorsement of telecare

Steve Hards

The King’s Fund review of social care in England, Securing Good Care for Older People, led by Sir Derek Wanless, referred to in the White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our say, was published today. TV, press and radio are giving most attention to the report’s recommendations on funding care but, importantly, it also gives an unequivocal endorsement of the need to include telecare in mainstream care services. The first recommendation in the Services and Service Re-configuration section says:

Docobo project at Barnsley

Steve Hards

Forty chronic heart failure patients in Barnsley are using Docobo’s doc@HOME remote monitoring telehealth service, answering health and quality of life questions, and taking physiological measurements. Adrian Flowerday, MD of Docobo commented: “The team at Barnsley are one of the first in the UK to equip a significant number of patients with telehealth, and their careful and practical approach to the project is both innovative and bold.”

End-of-life financial burdens for families

Steve Hards

This article starts with interesting statistics on the public’s response to a BBC programme on long-term care costs. More evidence that under the divisive English system (which the White Paper failed to tackle), service users and carers play piggy-in-the-middle between health and social care services, to their cost.

Residential home telehealth kiosks (US)

Steve Hards

Residents at Beverwyck assisted-living home in Albany get weekly checkups at an electronic kiosk in the lobby. “I want to make sure I’m alive every morning,” jokes 87-year-old Thomas DiFrancesco…Though there is little hard data tracking its growth, there is mounting evidence that more people are using telemedicine. The number of companies manufacturing home telecare devices in the last three years has tripled to 15, and the Veterans Administration plans to double the number of patients it puts on home telecare to 20,000 during the next year…