New Zealand dips its toe into telehealth remote patient monitoring with a trial of 10 patients with, and 10 without equipment, at a cost of NZD 100,000 (GBP 46,000; USD 73,000). Now what are they going to learn from that? nzDoctor item.
2 thoughts on “New Zealand’s first telehealth pilot begins”
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NZ’s first telehealth
What can they learn? – That their sample size is insufficient.
NZ’s first telehealth
Healthcare of New Zealand and its partners are aware that a small sample size (n=20) will not be able to achieve statistically significant results.
However, international research of much larger trials has identified statistically significant improvements on at least one measure. In our pilot, trends are likely to be apparent and this will usefully show whether telehealth monitoring works in a given community context.
Particularly, the acceptability and usefulness of Telehealth technology for Maori (indigenous New Zealanders who are particularly vulnerable to congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other users in a rural environment. For this community we will look at the impact of telehealth intervention from a staff and patient perspective; and the effect on clinical outcomes including acute admissions and acute exacerbations of COPD and CHF.