Not a summer sci-fi movie, but a US Department of Defense nine-day demonstration of robotics staged by TARDEC (US Army’s Tank Automotive Research Center) and JIEDDO (the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization). The emphasis was on battlefield situations (providing
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Two items that popped up this week nearly had editor Steve hopping back on his terminology hobbyhorse. The stable where he keeps it is a dark place where words like telecare, telehealth, telemedicine, telehealthcare, telemonitoring, and a host of other 'teles' interbreed in an apparent freelove fest. At the bidding of unwary writers they come galloping out in the colours of whichever meaning happened to be nearest the door at the time.

The two articles were:

What changes are needed to increase telecare uptake? (An Australian item about home telehealth monitoring)

Telehealth or Telehell? (A blog item, mostly about telemedicine, by a (retired?) doctor, Gary M Levin MD)

There is actually good, thoughtful content in them both, and they are worth reading. It's just their loose use of the terminology that had started Steve wondering how the heck are these words ever going to be reined in.

Then someone shone a ray of light into the stable... (If on the front page, read more using the link below)
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Someone please tell us these figures are wrong (“Two hundred seriously ill people in Blackburn with Darwen could soon receive new Telehealth Units…Blackburn with Darwen Council and NHS Blackburn with Darwen have invested £500,000 on technology which will promote self-management
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“Lives are being risked because of a poor practice in the booming but unregulated ‘red button’ personal alarm industry…Financial Mail is aware of several cases in the past year where the red buttons have been rendered useless after telephone connections
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Has an $18 million tool designed to gather information on combat traumatic brain injury and behavioral health failed in its mission? Starting in February 2009, Vangent (General Dynamics) won two successive contracts from the Military Health System for a TBI/BH assessment tool to fulfill a Department of Defense mandate "requiring neurocognitive readiness assessments for all service members within six months of deployment." TBI is especially insidious as there may not be visible head wounds, and assessment has been difficult. The Vangent system should have been in place by now, as announced at last year's HIMSS.

Editor Donna is exceedingly glad she qualified the LifeWatch V smartphone [TA 10 July] with medical monitoring sensors as ‘does what it claims to do.’ A discussion on the LinkedIn group Connected Health Community (Partners HealthCare, membership required) on a
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AT&T’s Mobile Share tariff, which allows a family to share one data allocation (including voice and text) across multiple devices, will launch at the end of August–and AT&T is explicitly including health care monitors in press contacts. This not only
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On 21st June the BMJ published a guest editorial by Car, Huckvale and Hermens (Josip Car is Drector, Global eHealth Unit, Imperial College). Telehealth for long term conditions is one of the best commentaries on the WSD results. "The uncertainties in defining terms like “telehealth” reflect broader difficulties in interpreting the complex interplay of technology, service designs, clinical input, and patient involvement...Telehealth does not just 'work' or 'not work'. Particular interventions may be successful, but this depends on many factors..." It is paywalled in the BMJ but the Lupus Support organisation apparently has permission to publish it in full. Or here is a link to an online Word document version.

If you are reading this on the home page, to read the BMJ's editor's acknowledgement of the frustration for the long wait for the publication, and a further report, click on the 'Read more...' link below the 'Share' buttons.
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