Citizens’ well-being through mobile care / Efficient personal health services – the silent health revolution

September 9, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

This event will take place on 8 October 2013,  11:15 – 13:00 h at Thon Hotel EU, Rue de la Loi, 75, 1040 Brussels as part of the OPEN DAYS – 11th European Week of Regions and Cities event which runs from 7-10 October 2013 (Open Days Workshop Code 08C10).

It is co-organised by EHTEL and hosted by the Renewing Health Regional Partnership. The workshop will showcase outcomes and lessons learned from care provided to 7000 patients who are part of the Renewing Health pilots and is “intended to start a fruitful debate with all European stakeholders on the routine use of telemedicine services”.

Register for free here (capacity is limited so best to book early).

Conflicting telehealth signals – is the VA or E Riding of Yorkshire CCG on the money?

September 9, 2013 | by | 4 Comments

Can there be two greater contrasts than the recent decisions by the Dept of Veteran Affairs in the US (VA) to award a five year $28.8m telehealth contract to AMC Health and that of the E Riding of Yorkshire CCG to “axe” its telehealth service?

The sheer size of the VA deal makes every recent deal in Europe seem very small in comparison. AMC’s CEO said: “AMC Health’s outcomes-based approach to telehealth and ability to actively engage patients to proactively self-manage their chronic conditions perfectly aligns (more…)

Calling all doctorpreneurs (and anyone else who wants to see a brilliant app and meet its creators)

September 5, 2013 | by

Anyone who went to the Royal Society of Medicine’s sell-out event in April on medical apps will remember the brilliant presentation given by Andre Chow on TOUCHsurgery, the (iOS only) app that he and some colleagues created to help surgeons learn procedures, and practice before an operation.

Well Andre is now offering an evening of TOUCHsurgery, drinks and general merriment to anyone seriously interested in his app: ‘doctorpreneurs’ are especially welcome. The date is Friday 13th September, and you can book here.

PS the RSM is repeating the app event in 2014, on 10th April. Brief details are here so please put in your diaries. We are still very keen to include a UK-based health game presentation as none have yet been made known to me following our previous post.

Soapbox – what should a restructured 3millionlives do?

September 5, 2013 | by | 6 Comments

Times are tough for those who believe that technology can help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery to improve patient outcomes. As pointed out by Richard Vize in the Guardian recently, telehealth has become the weapon of choice in the battle between GPs and the NHS, with publications such as Pulse and, most recently the HSJ, continuing to remind readers of the historic, and wholly-unrepresentative-of-telehealth cost effectiveness comparisons for the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD).

At the same time, the national Telehealth Forum’s survey of potential users indicated (more…)

Medtronic’s telehealth strategy begins to emerge (UK & US)

September 3, 2013 | by

Hot on the heels of our two recent posts (12 August and 27 August) on Medtronic’s takeover of Cardiocom, maker of telehealth devices, came the news in the FT yesterday that Medtronic had won cardiology management contracts with NHS hospitals (University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Trust and Imperial College  Healthcare NHS Trust).  They will also develop local cardiac services.

Now in an article today, Fierce Medical Devices explains how the two fit together (more…)

3millionlives “axed”; long live 3millionlives

September 2, 2013 | by | 2 Comments

A report on the HSJ website headlined “Key telehealth group axed” appears to confirm what many have suspected: the ending of the 3millionlives programme. However reading down the article it transpires that actually all that is happening is a widening of the stakeholder grouping because of a perception that 3ML was too much about industry box-shifting and too little about improving patient outcomes, which should be welcomed greatly by many and should strengthen the programme.  As a result, industry will probably sell more too, so (more…)

When deciding which telemonitoring Code of Practice to adopt, do you use a TeleSCoPE?

September 2, 2013 | by

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…)

Are mHealth apps sharing your data with pharma and insurance companies?

September 1, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

As a further postscript to our recent post on mHealth apps, the Financial Times has just published an article offering a worrying new angle. According to the FT, the “top 20” health & wellness apps are sharing data on you with third parties that, the FT reckons, may include pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

They report that: “Regulations bar the tracking and selling of individuals’ specific medical and  prescription records. Yet some companies are figuring out ways around those  restrictions by building digital health profiles about people based on their use  of the web and mobile apps.”

Perhaps a case of reading those Ts & Cs carefully before pressing ‘accept’?

Substantial benefits from telemonitoring trial that avoids patient involvement

September 1, 2013 | by

In a possible pointer to a future of greater benefits from telemonitoring when vital signs information is transmitted to care-givers automatically, eg from smart clothing or subcutaneous probes, Heartwire reports on the successful Dutch IN-TIME RCT involving implant-based home monitoring for patients with advanced heart failure. For those in the intervention group, in-house monitoring significantly reduced the worsening of their condition, and significantly reduced mortality, compared with the control group.

Asked why his study succeeded where others have not, (more…)

3D bioprinting – you may already have benefited

September 1, 2013 | by | 1 Comment

In spite of 3D bioprinting being very far back on the 2013 Gartner Hype Cycle for emerging technologies (just in front of quantified self, and quantum computing), this excellent summary from On 3D Printing points out that 3D printing is already being used extensively to manufacture customised hearing aids, and dental items.  It seems there is much progress too in printing truly ‘bio’ materials too. Well worth a read.

Donna Cusano (aka ‘the Boss’) has kindly also suggested this article on Mashable and this on Inhabitat. She tells me there is a further, not-for-the-faint-hearted, video on Medcitynews although if you are in the UK access is blocked.

If you happen to be in the San Jose area in mid September, there’s also a prize draw on the home page for a ticket for the Inside 3D Printing conference.

 

GP-critical survey sort-of revealed – or is it? (UK)

August 30, 2013 | by

When publications like Pulse manage to insert the historic, and wholly-unrepresentative-of-telehealth, cost/QALY from the Whole System Demonstrator into an article twice in a week (here & here), and the Royal College of General Practitioners produces a vision of a GPs life in 2022 that essentially ignores technological progress, it is hard for a publication such as Telehealth & Telecare Aware to appear fair and unbiased, so it is great to have an opportunity to redress the balance.

The occasion is  (more…)

Ford and WellDoc give a new meaning to mobile health (US)

August 28, 2013 | by

As a postscript to yesterday’s post on mHealth apps, WellDoc Health have introduced BlueStar, a prescription-only, reimbursable app that majors on encouraging improved self-care by those with type II diabetes. Apart from being the first prescription-only app in the US, it is apparently also downloadable directly into a car (Ford).

Editor Donna comments 29 August: Aside from WellDoc being the only mHealthy company I can think of located in Baltimore, MD (for our ex-US readers, a city perched uneasily between Washington and Philadelphia), wasn’t the idea (or one of the ideas) originally behind Happtique a process to certify health apps, with a prescribing tool (along with patient ed) via their mRx platform? In June, they sought primary care physicians to beta test their catalogue, formularies and mRx prescribing tool [TTA 28 June]. With Happtique now firmly under the GNYHA Ventures wing [TTA 17 May] and a much lower profile, there may be plenty of room for a private competitor with an established name and its own FDA-cleared apps to establish a prescription app model.