Help keep Telecare Aware independent and free

May 28, 2010 | by

 

The knowledge I gained just by reading Telecare Aware would have cost me multiples of that in searching time
Chief executive of a small company explaining why he made a large donation

 

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If you value the independence of Telecare Aware and the time it saves you researching developments in the industry, please consider making a voluntary recurring subscription or an occasional donation.

Small subscriptions of £5-£10 ($7-$15), especially if made regularly, are as appreciated as the larger one-off donations we occasionally receive.

Contrary to popular belief, Telecare Aware does not receive grant funding and keeps afloat with a small revenue from sponsorship and other advertising. Your contribution will be used to keep Telecare Aware going, to keep it independent (and opinionated!) and to keep its content free to people who would be unable to access it if it were a fixed subscription-based service.

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Telecare Soapbox: Value creation–wireless health companies at the fore

May 25, 2010 | by | 1 Comment

Paul Sonnier, founder of the Wireless Health group on LinkedIn and co-chair of the Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego, has thoughts on the new definition of ‘value creation’.

During the annual Wireless-Life Science Alliance’s (WLSA) annual Investor’s Meeting held in La Jolla, California last week, I had the good fortune to hear a keynote presentation by Terrance Gregg, CEO at San Diego-based DexCom, which produces wearable continuous glucose monitoring devices. Mr Gregg alluded to challenges the company has faced over the course of its history in terms of maintaining its independence while other, more established companies eyed its technology for acquisition.

After hearing this part of the DexCom story, it occurred to me that independence and durability are the eternal challenges faced by most successful technology companies and entrepreneurs… (more…)

Telecare Soapbox: The Tina and Mick Test

May 17, 2010 | by | 2 Comments

Editor Steve Hards muses on matters of ageism in equipment and service design.

In another forum I recently gave some feedback to an internet-based service company that what they were producing, aimed at older people – both the images they were using and the words they were using – gave the impression to me that they were somewhat ageist. It got me thinking about the difficulty for companies of designing and marketing to people of an age that you, or your team members, are not.

We are all familiar with the concept that ‘old’ is a movable feast and that old age starts at about 15 years older than you are, so it’s 50 for 35 year olds, 75 for 50 year olds and 100 for 85 year olds. However, the differences between people at 50 and 100 may or may not be significant. There is an expectation that… (more…)

Video: Telecare – the ethical debate

May 14, 2010 | by

If there’s one thing I’d recommend all Telecare Aware readers to do this week it’s to set aside 13 minutes to watch a video from the UK’s Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE – pronounced ‘sky’). It’s not just because SCIE is one of those institutions set up by the previous Government which may not survive changes that will be brought in by the new one, but because the video, entitled Telecare – The ethical debate is excellent. [Note, it autoplays.]

There is an element of ‘looking at both sides’ to it, but the real value, as with the previously mentioned case studies from Newham, is in seeing how the telecare services are being used sensitively in the UK to support people who in previous generations would have been in institutions where everything was done for, and to, them.

If you have a further 10 minutes to watch another video, Telecare – providing more personalised care can be accessed from the Related Videos tab, to the bottom right of the above page. It puts telecare technologies into the general context of assistive technology for older and disabled people. (Readers from the USA will, no doubt, wince when they hear the technologies being referred to as AT&T.)

There is accompanying text and other materials on the SCIE video web page and, linked to the SCIE material, is an article in Community Care this week, Ethical issues in the use of telecare.