A New Year’s Resolution, ADLs and a new care option

January 7, 2014 | by

Here are three items that are each important and have hit my screen in the past couple of days – sadly, try as I may, I’m struggling with a common linking theme.

The first, that the 3G Doctor alerted me to, is a simply brilliant talk by Telcare‘s CEO Dr Jonathan Javitt at the Technion Social-Mobile-Cloud Meets Medicine Conference on the 17th December 2013. We’ve all made the arguments that technology enables the genuinely continuing care that long term conditions require, rather than the episodic care our health service is set up to provide, and that technology ensures that patients have clinical support 24/7 rather than in the brief period the doctor or nurse sees them.  However Dr Javitt brings all the arguments together to make such a powerful case that the only sensible way to treat long term conditions is to use technology to help the patient that anyone opposing it might as well try to argue that the earth is flat. As a result I have decided that my New Year’s resolution this year will be no longer to rise to the challenges of the naysayers. (I wonder how long I can keep it.)

The second item is a new take on monitoring activities of daily living (ADLs). For those new into telecare, continuous ADL monitoring looks a brilliant way of picking up an early decline in cognitive or physical decline, often well before symptoms show up in a change of vital signs or response to questions. The challenge though is whether the computer analysing the ADLs is smart enough to cope with activities such as the invasion of the grandchildren, or can cope with multiple occupancy. So it’ll be interesting to see how well CarePredict’s service is received. This uses a bracelet to track someone being cared for, rather than relying on PIRs or similar sensors as many other ADL systems do. Of course, like falls detectors, the problem with wearables is that people take them off, although the mHealth News item claims that ‘seniors’ like the bracelets.

The third item is a BBC item on the attractions of care homes in countries where the cost of living is lower, such as Thailand, which does feel a tad mercenary, although where there is genuine reverence for older people the quality of care can be excellent, and recent revelations suggest that care for older people in the UK is hardly without its problems. A combination of Skype and cheap flights certainly means that it is possible to keep in touch regularly. If it gets to be considered a viable option, it will certainly complicate the economics of technology to stay at home vs care home.

Hat tip to Prof Mike Short for alerting me to the BBC item.

Driving up medical app usage in the UK – part I

January 6, 2014 | by

Our recent post on ‘the last mile’ for medical apps in the US is a great introduction to some work I have been doing over the past three months: attempting to answer the question of how best to improve the perception by clinicians and patients of the efficacy of health-related apps. This work has been done for the i-Focus project, part of the Technology Strategy Board’s dallas programme.

As the research is quite detailed, and as I’m keen to get as much feedback as possible, I have split the work into three parts, to be delivered over the week – comments to this article or a direct email to me (on charles.lowe@btinternet.com) on errors, omissions or additions would be hugely gratefully received.

This post aims to answer the question of what regulations affect the development, sale and usage of health-related apps and, in particular, when an app is a medical device. (more…)

mHealth data privacy: a worrying finding

January 3, 2014 | by

We reported last August on a YouGov poll that found nine out of ten people not knowing what the term ‘telehealth’ meant.  Now they’ve been at it again, this time looking at mHealth, sponsored by Pinsent Masons.  From a poll of 2000 people, they found that:

“Prior to being given a definition of mHealth, the majority (73%) of respondents didn’t know what the term meant, and when explained 90% stated they never used mHealth services, despite the examples given including established applications such as fitness apps.”

Perhaps there’s a little encouragement (more…)

Mainly mHealth: a few predictions for 2014, and some speculation

December 31, 2013 | by

Editor Charles on what to watch for in 2014

As we have covered previously (and here), there’s no shortage of forecasts that the mHealth market will continue to grow faster, or of penetrating comments like that that won Research2guidance a What in the Blue Blazes award that smartphone user penetration will be the main driver for the mobile health (mHealth) uptake. mHealth apps continue to proliferate – there’s even shortly to be a Pebble apps store. There are a few straws in the wind that not is all well though – for example, as we covered recently, Happtique ceased, at least temporarily, its apps approval process, citing security concerns.  Elsewhere Fierce Mobile described serious data privacy issues with the iPharmacy app, and the ICO recently produced security guidelines for app developers in the UK.  The EU is also strengthening data privacy, moving from individual country directives to a pan-EU regulation. This leads us to our first prediction (more…)

Technology to support those at risk of falling: free resource

December 17, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

We have been contacted by Sue Williams, Project Development Manager, ADASS West Midlands, who is keen to promote a free information leaflet about technology to support people at risk of falling, how it can help and how people can obtain it, either through Local Authority Telecare services or self purchase. She is keen for Telehealth & Telecare Aware readers to use it to raise awareness of how technology can play a key role in the support available to people at risk of falling and their families and carers.

She explains that in 2012 it was estimated 800 people fell daily in the West Midlands where fall detectors were an under-used resource. By sending an alert so that someone knows a person has fallen, a fall detector does make a difference to living independently by restoring confidence. And of course if someone does fall, getting help quickly makes a real difference as there is a very strong direct correlation between recovery and how long people lie on the floor after a fall; the speedier the response, the lower the risk of hospital admission, and the shorter the length of hospital stay & subsequent support requirements on discharge. (more…)

“Ageing Well – how can technology help?” – RSM conference report

December 16, 2013 | by

The Royal Society of Medicine’s Telemedicine & eHealth Section held its annual conference at the end of November, on the topic of how technology can help people age well.  As the organiser I was not able to be in every session, so the following are the highlights of what I was present for.  Many people commented that the quality of presentations was extremely high; feedback was very good.

Baroness Masham of Ilton opened the conference describing loneliness as one of the challenges of ageing well.

Jon Rouse, Director General for Social Care, Local Government & Care Partnerships, Dept. of Health, continued the theme explaining that older people will increasingly want to continue earning money and play a full role in society: the antidote to loneliness.   (more…)

1 in 6 over 65s may hide serious issues from their friends & family (UK survey)

November 28, 2013 | by | 2 Comments

After commissioning new research, Centra Pulse, formerly Invicta Telecare, found that one-in-six over 65s in the UK (around 1.5 million) may have hidden a serious injury, illness or accident from friends and family. Of these, 12% said they thought they would be seen as incapable of looking after themselves. More than two thirds didn’t want to worry friends and family.

Centra has therefore launched a new online “ten top tips” guide to help families tackle difficult conversations with their older relatives about their care.

The full results of the survey are now available online here.  Two statistics that particularly deserve a quote are:

“While 40% of over-65s Centra surveyed said they worry life may get more difficult as they age, two thirds (65%) haven’t seriously thought about the type of care they would prefer in the past five years. Less than one in three (28%) have had a conversation about what they would want to happen if they couldn’t look after themselves.

But nearly two thirds (62%) said their child would be someone they would turn to if they needed to talk about their care needs. More said they would turn to their son or daughter than go to their partner (59%), doctor (53%) or a friend (18%).”

The survey was carried out online by YouGov Plc for Centra.  Total sample size was 2,003 British adults aged 65 and over. Fieldwork was undertaken between 19th July 2013 – 23rd July 2013.

“Dad, can you print me a hand”, and future 3D printing developments

November 28, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

Evidence that 3D printing is becoming increasing relevant in the world of healthcare comes from this story of a father who printed a new hand for his son who was born with the fingers missing on his left hand.  Whilst the article focuses on the DIY cost saving, there is no mention of the capital cost of the printer.

Earlier this month, the CEO of 3D Systems, Avi Reichental,  (more…)

EU Accessibility Legislation: boring but very important

November 7, 2013 | by

According to the EC Workplan for 2014, item 21 is the European Accessibility Act.

“The initiative will improve the market of goods and services that are accessible for persons with disabilities and elderly persons, based on a “design for all” approach. This business friendly initiative will include binding measures to promote procurement and harmonisation of accessibility standards. The initiative is currently in a consultation process with industry and stakeholders.”

One such consultation covers electronic equipment.  It is being managed by the organisation with the acronym BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications). A workshop was led on 15/10/13 – details are here. There has been word of a further more significant meeting involving the EC in early December. (Note that leading the consultation are DG Enterprise and DG Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship (not DG Connect)).

Why are we flagging this up? Well there seems little evidence to date of much engagement from the eHealth and telemedicine-related activities in the UK, so this is a call to appropriate readers to get engaged with BEREC, before decisions are taken that without appropriate UK involvement.

IET Annual Healthcare Awards and Lecture

November 6, 2013 | by

The IET is kindly offering places at the above to all TTA readers.  The event is happening in London on the 21st November 2013. Mr Douglas Anderson OBE FRSE FRSA, Founder and VP of Global Advocacy, Optos Plc is the keynote speaker for the event, and his talk will focus on that company.  Optos’s ultra-widefield retinal imaging system products are apparently the world’s first capable of detecting a large range of sight and life threatening diseases. The talk will also discuss wider issues of technology development and the need to keep focused on the inherent value proposition.

Book here.

Free Medical Apps Event

November 3, 2013 | by

For the past few weeks I have been commissioned by the i3i project, part of the dallas programme, to examine what is necessary to improve clinical and patient confidence in the efficacy of medical apps.  I will shortly publicise my initial draft recommendations to seek reader feedback.

In the meantime, readers might be interested in a free event (more…)

Brief report on the European Telemedicine Conference, Edinburgh 29-30 October 2013

November 1, 2013 | by

The European Telemedicine Conference held in Edinburgh’s historic Assembly Rooms this week exceeded my expectations in many ways.

A vital requirement of all such events is good networking, which Edinburgh promoted most effectively. There was plenty of break time and lots of opportunity to see and meet people. There was a goodly number of stands too, where like-minded people could coalesce. For some there were personalised itineraries that helped as well. Then on the second day, a very deliberate effort was made (more…)

A real, beneficial, current use for 3D printing in medicine (Belgium)

October 31, 2013 | by

Following our recent Blue Blazes award, along now comes a practical use for 3D printing, to help surgeons reduce theatre time, which both reduces health risk when areas such as the brain are exposed and reduces theatre costs which apparently in round numbers are some $100/minute.   This interesting item from On 3D Printing explains how by making an exact model of a patient’s bone structure, surgeons can prepare beforehand precisely-shaped metal bone inserts that will fit perfectly, so avoiding time-consuming metal shaping when the patient is in theatre.

What the Blue Blazes and 3D printing apps

October 22, 2013 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/blue-blazes.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /] 3D printing and apps are both very topical just now, so surely a 3D printing app has to be the height of popular appeal? Well perhaps not when MakerBot launched their Thingiverse iPhone App for the 3D Printing Community.

Unless I’m missing something critical, it just seems to be a smartphone photo album for keeping (2D) pictures of your favourite 3D printout on. Oh and you can “browse Thingiverse and check out featured, noteworthy, and popular designs, all on your phone”.