Technology Enabled Care Services (TECS) Online Resource for Commissioners published (UK)

January 13, 2015 | by

Long in development, the NHS Commissioning Assembly’s Technology Enabled Care Services (“TECS”) Online Resource for Commissioners has just been launched.

It was developed by NHS commissioners, with input from a wide number of organisations including DHACA and the TSA, to help maximise the value of technology enabled care services for patients, carers, commissioners and the whole health economy. Its purpose is to help raise awareness of how the wide range of TECS can support commissioning intentions and benefit patients, commissioners, families, health and social care professionals and provider managers. It also addresses the demand from commissioners for information on how to commission, procure, implement and evaluate these types of solutions effectively.  For more information visit the NHS Commissioning Assembly home page.

In view of its importance, this editor has elected to post this document without subjecting it to a full review – that will come in due course – however first impressions are positive: the style is short and to the point, and the pages very informative. The one additional thing this editor wanted to see, ideally in 72 font or bigger, is a clear statement at the beginning that, as the WSD proved beyond doubt, the benefits of TECS are only fully realised by changing the model of care: whilst there are comments that together make that point, my one concern is that it is not stressed sufficiently so we risk repeating history…or did I miss it in my haste?

Hat tip to Clive Flashman.

Two triennial reviews that need your URGENT attention please!

January 6, 2015 | by

We have just found out that the deadline for receiving responses to the NICE review we covered before Christmas has been extended to 6pm on 9th January. As we also understand that there have only been two submission so far to the DH expressing concern that NICE’s remit does not include medical apps (or indeed any wearables or point-of-care-testing devices etc.), can we please urge you to put in a response, even if it is only a few lines? Details are here (ignore the deadline on the website – we have been assured by the DH it is extended by a week). In addition, if you want to see the DHACA submission, it’s here.

We have just discovered that responses for an MHRA review also close at 6pm on 9th January as well, although we are hoping for an extension as happened for NICE (watch this space). Details are here. It looks altogether simpler to complete – again  I’m happy to share DHACA’s submission (when completed) if anyone wants to see it (email charles.lowe@dhaca.org.uk). For the MHRA, specifically for medical apps, the key issues you may wish to raise include: (more…)

Two free CES overview webinars on 7th & 8th January

January 5, 2015 | by

Courtesy of Futuresource Consulting:

Wearable Technology at International CES, 15.15 GMT on 7/1/15 – to register click here

  • The killer apps on show from smartwatches, head-mounted displays and other emerging categories.
  • Will health and fitness tracking remain the primary application in the short run?
  • What are the emerging new wearables categories?
  • Are smart garments becoming a competitive reality?
  • The latest headphones trends including health tracking, sports and wireless.
  • What competitive trends are on display – prestige brands from the worlds of jewellery and fashion?
  • Beyond GoPro – the roadmap for wearable cameras and imaging beyond sports and evidential.

(more…)

2015: a few predictions (UK-biased)

January 3, 2015 | by

As intimated in our review of last year’s predictions, we feel little need to change course significantly, however some are now done & dusted, whereas others have a way to go. The latter include a concern about doctors, especially those in hospitals, continuing to use high-risk uncertified apps where the chance of injury or death of a patient is high if there is an error in them. Uncertified dosage calculators are considered particularly concerning.

Of necessity this is an area where clinicians are unwilling to be quoted, and meetings impose Chatham House rules. Suffice to say therefore that the point has now been well taken, and the MHRA are well aware of general concerns. Our first prediction therefore is that:

One or more Royal College/College will advise or instruct its members only to use CE-certified or otherwise risk-assessed medical apps.

The challenge here of course is that a restriction to CE-certified apps-only would be a disaster as many, if not most, apps used by clinicians do not meet the definition of a Medical Device and so could not justifiably be CE-certified. And apps are now a major source of efficiencies in hospitals – (more…)

2014: a few quotes

January 2, 2015 | by

As a coda to yesterday’s review of our predictions for 2014, here are a few quotes that particularly struck this editor as of interest in 2014, sometimes because of what was said and sometimes because of who was saying it – it’s left to the reader to decide which.

Arthur L. Caplan, Director of Medical Ethics at the New York University Langone Medical Center at the end of an interesting piece in the New York Times on the finer points of genetic testing said:

If you want to spend wisely to protect your health and you have a few hundred dollars to spare, buy a scale, stand on it, and act accordingly.

Three months later, Anne Wojcicki, the founder of 23andme – one of the genetic testing organisations mentioned in the last clip – was quoted in this Medcity News piece as saying: (more…)

Looking back over Telehealth & Telecare Aware’s predictions for 2014

January 1, 2015 | by | 1 Comment

Looking back over our predictions made on 31st December last year, it’s hard to quibble with any, and worth hanging on to those that didn’t come good this year.

Our first was

Security and data privacy issues will become a serious mHealth issue in 2014; developers failing to take great care over security and privacy issues will risk very adverse publicity and worse.

Job done: that certainly proved correct, with many being exposed as either selling or potentially selling private information. Clinicians were not immune from privacy invasion either. Here is a US summary of the issues. Attention was drawn to an EU Article 29 data protection opinion (actually published in 2013) that sought to clarify the legal framework applicable to the processing of personal data in the development, distribution and usage of apps on smart devices, and the obligations to take adequate security measures.   Many apps got hacked too, including FDA-approved ones. There were also items, such as this one, demonstrating how complex the law is in this area in the US. In the EU, the arrival of the Data Protection Regulation in 2015 (now some say 2016) will undoubtedly improve data privacy significantly, though the failure to treat data used for health purposes differently from (more…)

Choose and book – so near yet so far (UK)

December 27, 2014 | by

Those readers for whom a hospital appointment is very much a rarity may find the recent experiences of this editor of interest. For the only previous hospital appointment experienced by me after Choose & Book (“C&B”) had begun in our area (North East London), a few years back, my GP assured me it was broken and said someone would call to fix an appointment irrespective of any ambitions I had to book online for the first time!

For this occasion – an appointment at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith – the appointment date offered did not work. However the electronic access details to change to a later date came quickly; getting online was a doddle. As it happens, as this was the peak of the pre-Christmas conference season, none of the appointments offered over a six day spread worked for me. Frustratingly, there was no option to put me on hold awaiting a later release of appointments, or to look further ahead than a few days so it was time to call the C&B helpline.

Unbelievably (more…)

Urgent NICE consultation: a great opportunity (UK)

December 21, 2014 | by

This is a plea for any reader interested in the future success of medical apps in the UK to take a few minutes over Christmas to respond to a consultation request from the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE), which this editor has just been made aware of. The triennial consultation on the role of NICE opened in early December and closes on 2nd January – a very short time-frame as it covers the Christmas period!

Details are here. There is a form to download so it is not a challenging task to respond.

Many readers will be aware of this editor’s campaign following extensive research, to widen the remit of NICE to include reviewing the efficacy of medical apps. This is so that doctors can confidently recommend and indeed prescribe (NICE approved) medical apps without fear of liability, in the same way that they currently do for drugs. In addition, when discussing treatments with patients, doctors can then compare the efficacy of apps and of drugs for those conditions – such as depression, anxiety and pain relief – where apps can likely do the job better, at lower cost, with no side-effects. At a stroke this would reduce the cost of drugs to the NHS and take the UK to the forefront of the mobile health revolution.

If you can spare the time over Christmas you would give one person a very Happy Christmas; many thanks in anticipation.

Early 2015 healthcare events & awards (UK)

December 18, 2014 | by

The call for abstracts for Sensors in Medicine 2015 closes on 31st December. The event will be held at the Royal Geographic Society, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2AR on 24 – 26 March 2015. More details here.

There is an event entitled Are Telehealth and Telecare the Answer for Older People with Assisted Living Needs? on Tuesday January 13th 2015, 1 to 2.15pm. The venue is Room C143, Tait Building (Accessible through main University Building, Northampton Square, EC1V 0HB). The speaker is Joe Wherton, Senior Research Fellow, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. To book a place please email Doria Pilling: d.s.pilling@city.ac.uk

Entries for the IET’s Healthcare Technologies Student & Early Career Awards close on 16th January. The event takes place on 25th February. More details here.

The Digital Health & Care Alliance (DHACA) (of which this editor is Managing Director) is holding its third Members’ Day in London on 29th January. Members can attend for free. The day will be focused on developing the responses of the nine Special Interest Groups to  the recent NHS paper on Personalised Health & Care to 2020 and on how best to avoid duplicating innovations in the health & care sector (otherwise know as ‘reinventing wheels’). More details and how to book on the new DHACA website (existing members may need to refresh their passwords).

Finally the Royal Society of Medicine’s annual Recent Development in Digital Health 2015 event takes place on February 26th. For the past two years this event, showcasing upcoming healthcare technologies, has been a sellout so early booking here is recommended!

Biomedical Catalyst – Early stage awards (UK)

December 18, 2014 | by

Round 8 of the above was recently announced. The closing date is 28th January 2015.

In spite of what the name might suggest, these grants are available to fund innovative small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and researchers looking to work either individually or in collaboration to develop solutions to any healthcare challenges.

More details including how to apply are here.

Hat tip to Prof Mike Short.

Saneth Wijayaratna

December 18, 2014 | by | 8 Comments

We have to report the sad news that Saneth Wijayaratna died recently after a very short illness

Many readers will have encountered Saneth particularly in his roles leading TeleMedCare’s UK sales, as CEO of United Health in the UK and latterly as CEO, then Chief Scientific Officer, of InHealthcare. No-one can have failed to be struck by his dedication to improving the health & care of patients at home, or of his excellent understanding of the way his products worked. He will be greatly missed.

We are still awaiting news of his funeral arrangements which we will post here as soon as received.

Soapbox: Why an app isn’t like a book

November 30, 2014 | by

The suggestion has been made recently at a couple of events that this editor attended that there is an unnecessary fuss over regulation of medical apps because they are just like medical books; as there is no regulation of books, why the need to regulate medical apps? . In order to try to move to a consensus, this post puts the opposite point of view, to stimulate debate. In summary the arguments of why they are different are:

  • We are familiar with books and have worked out how to deal with them;
  • Books give formulae and leave users to compute; apps do it all, often without showing their working;
  • Tablets and, especially, smartphones have screens that are smaller than books so require a different design.

This issue of course only relates to serious medical apps – something like 99.5% of all health apps available are very unlikely to do serious harm, helping people as they do record things like their fitness and their weight, and so do not require such detailed scrutiny. It is the ones that get close to, or meet, the test of being a medical device that are of particular interest here. The goal is that once clinicians are comfortable prescribing medical apps, and patients are comfortable using them, the NHS will save substantial sums by, for example replacing drugs with apps for a range of diseases where both are effective and apps are far cheaper. There are also huge benefits for clinician-facing apps – properly certified medical apps like Mersey Burns and Mersey Micro are already massively improving patient outcomes and significantly reducing NHS costs.

In more detail, books have been with us for many centuries so we are familiar with their structure, with the processes for their removal from publication if they give dangerous advice, and with the idea of specialist publications accessible by appropriate experts only – the same is not true of apps. In the event that advice in a book was dangerously wrong, (more…)

TSA Conference a great success (UK)

November 29, 2014 | by | 5 Comments

The two day 2014 TSA conference held at the Celtic Manor proved to be a great success for their new Chief Executive Alyson Bell who masterminded the event.

That this was to be a conference like no other was very apparent from the start when a solo performance from Gracie of the Zimmers opened the conference, followed by a performance by the whole group. Plenary sessions by luminaries in the digital health and care world followed, interspersed by refreshment breaks and a breakout session. Sir Bruce Keogh was sadly unable to attend in person though gave a hugely inspiring talk to camera encouraging all to use technology to deliver better care, more efficiently. (In a show of hands however, responding to a question from the conference chair, Nick Goodwin, the audience did not agree that Sir Bruce’s “fertile permissive environment for technology” was in place).

The other standout of the first afternoon was (more…)