Item 1 is a taster for the forthcoming WSDAN event at Stansted on 11 February. As the WSD programme data cannot be analysed until the last person recruited in the Autumn of 2009 has been in the programme for a year, the meeting will concentrate on matters such as those people who withdrew from the programme, and integrated working. I hope that the session by Michael Dillon from the NHS Technology Office which will cover “some of the work being carried out at Newham on capturing data from telehealth systems into GP records” will be reported on the WSDAN website in due course.
Item 2 is a request for information on the use of telecare/telehealth with carers [US: caregivers]
Item 3 is the most interesting item: a Google Map tracking primary care trusts’ (PCTs) reports on telehealth projects in the UK, based on publicly available information. The pins are colour-coded according to whether there is no information, an expressed intention or an actual project. It gives a snapshot of progress of interest in telehealth in the NHS and estimates that there are over 5000 telehealth remote units in active use covering heart failure, COPD and diabetes. (This includes WSD sites.)
Item 4 is low-key but potentially interesting link to individual telecare profiles for the 152 social care authorities in the UK based on the Care Quality Commission data from 2009 and the local authority performance reports published in December 2009.
Item 5 lists recent Department of Health (DH) documents with references to telecare. [Don’t hold your breath looking for anything of significance – apart from by its absence.]
Item 6 contains new links the Buying Solutions telecare framework. [This is the follow-up to the NHS PASA National Framework Telecare Agreement which had the unintended consequence of distorting the market in the days of the Preventative Technology Grant.]
Item 7 is 37 pages of raw links to telecare/telehealth news stories. [All the worthwhile ones will be familiar to regular Telecare Aware readers.]
Item 8 has information about DH Care Networks events.
Download the PDF version of the eNewsletter here. (2.54Mb)
[Mike Clark has done another invaluable job on this issue, particularly the Google telehealth map. We hope he survives the forthcoming DH funding cuts.]