Regular Telecare Aware readers may remember the pointer to a tender for consultancy services that NHS Direct put out through the European OJEU process in January. Now, with today’s press release, the reason for it starts to become clear. It looks like NHS Direct and its selected partners Pfizer Health Solutions and Humana Europe have their eyes set on pushing the NHS into the telehealth 21st century… or dominating the NHS telehealth services market. Or both!
The agreement lasts until 2012 and the press release indicates that now the selection process has been made the three partners will be finalising their plans over the coming months. But given that NHS Direct and Pfizer have worked together successfully since 2006 on Birmingham OwnHealth (see below), and that NHS Direct is also a partner in the Newham part of the Long Term Conditions Whole System Demonstrator Programme, and given the high profile of the organisations, I think we can expect something highly dynamic to come out of it.
View the NHS Direct press release here, and watch out for more information as it is comes through.
Birmingham OwnHealth (watch the 6 minute video), “the UK’s first large-scale telephone-based care management programme…enables people with diabetes, heart failure, COPD and other long-term conditions to receive regular telephone-based coaching from highly experienced care managers.”