the poster session presenters. There were 17 over two days, each constrained to a 3 minute presentation. They therefore made their main points concisely. I observed that having identified themselves in this way there were plenty of people following up with them after the sessions. I had the impression that the other presenters in the parallel breakout sessions, who had 20 minutes to present did slightly less well but that is based on the small sample I attended.
There must be a version of Parkinson’s Law that states that ‘Presentations expand to fill the time allotted to them (and then some)’.
Poster sessions that got a special mention from Nick Goodwin, the Congress Chair (who also gets a thumbs up for his hard work), were the session on the Israel-wide EHR system by Orit Jacobson, the ‘TalkMeHome’ service for people with early dementia (Netherlands) and ‘Memory and Memories’ (Digital PhotoFrame Therapy, UK).
Keeping the best for last kept most of the attendees at the conference to the end: Magdalene Rosenmöller from IESE Business School, Barcelona and Adam Darkins, from the UD Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA); the whole topped with a ringing speech from Jeremy Hughes of the UK’s Alzheimer’s Society.
Dr Rosenmöller gave a fast helicopter flight over much of the telehealth (in its broadest sense) landscape, while Dr Darkins showed why he has done so well since joining the VA: his style is visionary but clear, broad in scope but illustrated with relevant detail. Most refreshingly amongst the tidal wave of research data presented these past three days, his data are drawn from the VA’s management reports. Oh, the credibility that gives! It is a session to watch again if you missed it.
Telehealth and caregiving technology will be extremely cost effective when the world realizes that the patient and their caregivers are the most effective and lowest cost providers in the system. But what health care systems sees the patient as more than a disease delivery system, that is incapable or unwilling to help themselves. If the system would give them some respect, training, and the tools (telehealth and vitals sensing) it would soon realize what an asset they can be.
I agree with you completely John! There is tremendous power in using telehealth to teach and promote patient self-management skills and a vast body of telehealth research that supports the positive impact to both cost and quality.
The article and much of the discussion uses a bit of terminology that may be unfamiliar (as it was to me): QALY is Quality Adjusted Life Year ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year[/url]) When you use the numbers as stated, UK £88,000 per QALY does appear to be very high, but then you have to consider the reduction in mortality and expensive services (ED). The equipment used in the WSD may also have skewed results (as in how much it cost.)
Mike Clark’s comments at the end of the Pulse thread point elsewhere to other studies, including the (US) Veterans Administration.
Another article giving some more information regarding hospital admissions in the WSD participants: http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/acute-care/7602/wsd-results:-'complex'-not-compelling
Just one quick point regarding Donna’s comment in relation to equipment costs in the WSD. The figure quoted in the congress presentation was £455 per quarter (i.e. about £150 per month), which is pretty much in line with many other ‘traditional’ telemonitoring deployments.