Steve Moran’s Senior Housing Forum is hosting a lively discussion on designing communities for what this Editor would term the cognitively impaired, euphemistically called ‘memory care’ here in the States, then often bluntly categorized as dementia care. This concentrates on one CEO’s journey in designing a new memory care community, The Cottages at Cedar Run (Wisconsin) and how he utilized ideas developed in the US (Eden Alternative, Green Houses — Bill Thomas’ work, TTA 30 July) as well as the Dutch Dementia Village [TA 22 Dec 12] The architect’s video still strikes this Editor as full of nice touches (the courtyard a la the Dutch, but not as spacious or a center of activity; the padded window seats) but still institutional feeling (the cottages have a nice look but need more individualization to aid resident identification; how a resident/family can personalize the cottage); all in the right direction. The comments expand upon many points, but what is really missing here is the integration of technology— (more…)
ABI Research surveys…telecare
It is refreshing to note a commercial research study that concentrates on straightforward home monitoring for the senior care market, a segment that doesn’t get the cocktail party chatter or anything resembling buzz. ABI Research looks at eight home monitoring companies–BeClose, Care Innovations, GrandCare Systems, Healthsense, independa, Philips, pomDevices (Sonamba) and Tunstall Healthcare–and judges them on several analyses. On the Competitive Assessment, measuring product innovation as well as implementation, the three leaders were (in rank order) Healthsense, pomdevices (Sonamba), and GrandCare Systems. Both Healthsense and GrandCare are prominent ‘grizzled pioneers’ evolving their model considerably over the years; Sonamba is a tablet-based relative newcomer so low profile that we haven’t heard about them since their 2011 debut at CES. Whither Philips and Tunstall? (more…)
Bosch Update (UK)
Further to our previous post on the topic, we have now heard from Bill Broderick, Acting Divisional Head of Bosch Healthcare in the UK, clarifying Bosch’s position re the UK market:
1. Bosch Healthcare is not exiting the UK market. Telecare is business as usual and we will continue to sell our entire line of telecare products in the foreseeable future. We have placed all new telehealth activities on hold for now as we spend the next few months re-evaluating the business strategy based on current market dynamics in the UK.
2. We are not exiting the Health Buddy device business. We will continue to offer Health Buddys to patients who need them. The Remedy partnership press release announced an expansion of our patient interface portfolio to more mobile and internet-based solutions, not a replacement of existing Health Buddy devices.
Another diagnostic for Alzheimers with impact on telehealth gains $2MM funding
Will a market of hundreds of millions be able to access these needed technologies?
Neurotrack, a computer-based cognitive program designed to pick up changes three to six years in advance of an official diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia, gained Series A funding led by Founders’ Fund (Peter Thiel) and joined by Social+Capital Partnership plus several angel investors. Developed initially at Emory University with the technology part of a five year National Institutes of Health (NIH) study, it tests subjects on preference for repeat images versus novel images; a preference for repeat images may indicate a disturbance in the hippocampus area of the brain in completely asymptomatic subjects. However, you will not find it at a doctor’s office or a pharmacy kiosk near you soon. Its initial use will be in clinical trials for pharma companies developing drugs targeting early-stage dementias. The meaning for telehealth and telecare (more…)
Telecare Soapbox: Predicting the telequake
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/earthquake.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Predicting earthquakes is notoriously unreliable but TTA’s ex-Editor in Chief Steve Hards says that one is on its way for the telecare and telehealth industry.
Earthquakes are hard to predict because, depending on the local geology and where you are in relation to the future epicentre, they vary in speed, intensity and effect. However, there are four generally recognised stages:
- a long period of between quakes when straining deep beneath the surface that goes unnoticed
- a build up of intense pressure along the fault which may be noticed as slippage
- the release of the pressure which causes the well-known effects of tremors, liquefaction and damage as the two sides of the fault realign
- the new resting position of the land each side of the fault
O2 and Bosch realising that systems which do not use smartphone-based technology are now dead in the water and therefore exiting from the UK telecare market was not the quake; they are just signs of stage two slippage. We will see more strains and cracks appear (more…)
Some ‘Lively’ness in telecare with $4.8 million in funding
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lively.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Our April profile of Lively (or Live!y)’s telecare system for monitoring ADLs in private homes ended with their (imminent, then actual) failure to acquire $100,000 in Kickstarter funding. Last week, they announced a reversal of fortune, with $4.8 million in Series A VC financing from Cambia Health Solutions including a contribution from their seed investor Maveron. Our earlier article discussed their setup, pricing, (more…)
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis test that could have profound telecare implications
Significant progress on early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is reported today by Fierce Diagnostics. The Cognoptix test involves a laser eye-scanning device and an ophthalmic ointment, according to their website, designed to spot telltale beta-amyloid proteins in the lens of the eye.
The excitement in the article is about the possibility of increasing drug sales; the ability to deploy drugs to delay progression of the disease would clearly be very important. However, whilst perhaps less commercially significant, there would be some huge benefits (more…)
Tynetec sale?
Following our earlier post about Bosch ending sales of their Health Buddy and (temporarily?) exiting the telehealth market in the UK, comes another unattributable suggestion that Tynetec have been purchased by Legrand whose website proclaims them to be “The world’s leading manufacturer of wiring devices and cable management systems.”
There’s some clear and fascinating synergy there which looks potentially very exciting for the world of remote monitoring…however as yet there is nothing confirmed in the media, so watch this space.
Bosch to can Health Buddy, withdraw from telehealth in UK – temporarily?
On September 6th, Bosch announced a tie up with Remedy Health Media [TTA 10 Sep] “to launch remote patient monitoring products designed for tablets and smartphones”, which suggested that it would not be long before they stopped selling their purpose-built telehealth hardware.
Now TTA has heard from a reliable source that they are telling their customer organisations that they are going to withdraw (more…)
Telehealth and Broadband in Australia
Australia appears to be in the midst of a debate on the cost of building a national broadband network. According to the NBN Co which is buildng the network, the aim is to provide broadband to every home, school and workplace by the end of the next ten years. Nick Ross writing in ABC’s website suggests that just the ability to deploy telehealth and telecare nationally over such a network would save Australia enough money to more than pay for the network.
The arguments for deploying telehealth in Australia are no different to those in other parts of the developed world. The Australian healthcare budget is 10% of GDP (9% in UK) and growing at twice the rate of GDP, according to the very comprehensive article.
With a $967 price tag for a single night’s hospital stay, the economic benefit identified for using telehealth to monitor patients at home after earlier release from hospital or to avoid hospital admission altogether are very familiar. Add to that the use of telecare to allow older people to stay in their own homes for longer and Nick Ross’s article has covered all the elements for supporting telehealth and telecare.
Read the full article here.
Ageing Well – how can technology help?
This year’s Telemedicine & eHealth conference, on 25th & 26th November, at the Royal Society of Medicine at 1 Wimpole St, London will focus on how technology can help people to age well. It will cover a wide palette of issues relating to technology and ageing, including both physical & mental conditions, and the importance of social & spiritual considerations too.
Keynote speakers include Jon Rouse (more…)
Doro 2.0 smartphone QSs with Withings (EU)
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Doro-Liberto-810.jpg” thumb_width=”100″ /]Doro’s unveiling of their second smartphone, the Doro Liberto 810, along with its ‘privileged access’ to two Withings devices–the Smart Body Analyzer (weight, body fat, heart rate) and Pulse Smart Activity Tracker–continues their moves into older adult-appealing mobile telecare/telehealth offerings, as tracked by founding Editor Steve since at least 2009. Doro’s assertive move into Quantified Selfing as part of what they call ‘the world’s most liberating smartphone’, is more fully featured and was predicted by David Doherty earlier this year [TTA 25 Feb]. It is also not Doro’s first big alliance; late last year, Bosch Healthcare announced that Doro would be the mobile platform for telecare offerings in Germany and Sweden [TTA 16 Nov 2012]. Both the release and Mobihealthnews indicate that this offering will roll out to select European markets initially, but the latter states that a similar offering will debut in the US by early 2014. (For US readers, Doro is equivalent to GreatCall’s Jitterbug line) According to Mobile, the Liberto will be available in the UK in October.
Risky Business 2 (Australia): ‘This time it’s personal….’
26-27 June 2014, Hilton Hotel, Sydney, Australia
This annual international conference on changing the care models around dementia, possibly the only one focused solely on this topic, discusses two questions which telehealth and telecare can answer at least in part: How do we support people with dementia to live their lives well? Are we really delivering care that is personal to the person with dementia and their carer? Call for papers closes 18 October 2013 (video on submitting here) and registration for the conference opens 2 December. Organized by The Dementia Centre, HammondCare-An Independent Christian Charity and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. More information.
Poll shows why we need to promote assistive technology
A survey of 2069 adults in the UK by YouGov, commissioned by charity Carers UK and supported by Tunstall Healthcare (UK), makes a strong case for the better promotion of telehealth & telecare, as we argued for in our recent post on the future of 3millionlives.
The Carers UK report, Potential for Change: Transforming public awareness and demand for health and care technology, draws an intriguing contrast between (more…)
When deciding which telemonitoring Code of Practice to adopt, do you use a TeleSCoPE?
As promised in our recent post, the European Code of Practice for Telehealth Services has now been published by the TeleSCoPE project. This directly responds to the European Commission COM2008:689 on telemedicine for the benefit of patients, healthcare systems and society. The particular definition of telehealth/telemedicine used here means that it covers both of what are often referred to separately as telecare and telehealth.
It therefore covers the same areas as the TSA Integrated Code of Practice. As explained in our previous post, TSA codes are (more…)
It’s that word again, and a new association (take your pick III) (UK)
First it was two cohort studies of the same project, then two reviews of reviews, and now two new organisations have recently emerged in the telemonitoring world.
So, to that word. London Telecare has just announced it is planning to change it’s name to UK Telehealthcare and go nationwide. No ®, no ™: true independence. This follows on from the recent emergence of (more…)
Most Recent Comments