Scotland’s procurement body for local authorities has set up a framework for telecare services. Scotland Excel has said that all 32 Scottish councils, plus two of the country’s largest housing associations, have confirmed they will use the contract until the
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Cartel: A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among competing firms. [An agreement that has the effect of 'fixing' the market. Cartels are illegal in most countries.] (Wikipedia)

Last week I (editor Steve) highlighted some concerns about the way the UK's fledgling 3millionlives (3ML) campaign is shaping up, particularly in the matter of the MOU the Working Group expects companies to sign and the initial £10,000 cost of entry - with an uncapped commitment after that. I asked for comments from people who could make a positive case for the initiative. The comments so far - thank you - have been lukewarm. If you have not yet read the earlier item, read it first.

I have had private comments from some companies who were understandably reluctant to comment publicly. In summary, the concerns they expressed were... [Read more...]
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The Financial Times reports that a wirelessly controlled implant delivering daily doses of drugs, developed by MIT spinoff MicroChips, has succeeded in its first clinical trial in Denmark. The results were announced at the start of the American Association for
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A medical alert device, for unknown reasons, summoned police to Kenneth Chamberlain’s apartment in White Plains, New York. The 68 year-old former US Marine with a heart condition became agitated, would not let the local police in, and after they
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Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission blogs about her meeting with Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Deputy First Minister responsible for Health and Wellbeing and congratulates Scotland for its “tremendous results”. However, the figures quoted in the article appear to
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I (editor Steve) may have missed this previously: is Walsall Council and NHS Walsall going down a big Tunstall procurement route? It’s great that a) they are working together and b) that telecare and telehealth is to become a standard
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The city of Tallinn would like to introduce TV-based videoconferencing telecare (remote monitoring) for its aging citizens but can only do so if foreign development funds foot the bill! Some one please tell them there are cheaper options! Tallinn Hopes
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The story of Bosch Healthcare suing MedApps, Waldo Networks and Express MD Solutions over alleged infringements of the Health Hero patent portfolio was broken by Neil Versel in mobihealthnews, but the most interesting take so far has been in Geoff
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In item 1 of this issue Mike Clark picks up on a couple of important matters for the UK’s telecare and telehealth industries. One is that even if the 3millionlives initiative includes the current 1.5-1.7 million telecare users [no one
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