Chubb® Care System announced

December 13, 2015 | by

Telehealth & Telecare Aware does not often find itself parroting big company press releases. However we are making an exception for Chubb which some have portrayed as the weakest of the ‘big three’ telecare equipment & service providers. It’s therefore nice to see the launch of their Chubb® Care System, announced on 11 December, described as “an enhanced assisted living solution that uses industry-leading, easy-to-use technology to protect individuals in the comfort of their home.”

The Chubb Care System is claimed to enable residents of sheltered and extra care housing to communicate quickly, clearly and securely with on-site and remote staff, as well as off-site monitoring centres.

The housing management portal included within the system is apparently accessible to estate and housing managers through a smartphone, PC or tablet. This enables them to view, add and edit resident call history, telecare and telehealth information, as well as video and speech capabilities.

One of the major benefits claimed (more…)

Next DHACA Members’ Day announced for 11th January 2016

December 9, 2015 | by

The next DHACA Members’ day will be on 11th January at the Digital Catapult Centre, 101 Euston Rd. NW1 2RA, Membership of DHACA continues to be free; members are welcome to arrive from 9.30, Proceedings will begin promptly at 10am and end at 4.30pm at the latest.

DHACA is still finalising the order of the agenda, however the following have kindly agreed to present:

Deborah El-Sayed, Head of multi-channel development for NHS 111, will talk about NIB Workstream 1.1 – Enable me to make the right health and care choices – an area of really key importance to DHACA members as this is where patients will increasingly interface with the NHS electronically. This will include a discussion when attendees can raise key issues with Deborah, and the Workstream more generally.

There will be a similar arrangement for Usama Edoo, a senior member of the Accelerated Access Review team who will (more…)

Tech Inspired Innovation Feasibility Studies Competition – start delayed

December 1, 2015 | by

Innovate UK’s Tech Inspired Innovation Feasibility Studies Competition originally planned for January has now been delayed

Their intention is to invest up to £2 million in technical feasibility studies to stimulate innovation across four enabling technology areas: advanced materials; biosciences; electronics, sensors and photonics; and information and communication technologies (ICT).

The aim of the competition is to ensure that small and micro businesses in the UK are equipped to respond to market opportunities across a range of economic sectors. They are seeking proposals that will kick-start the delivery of genuinely new products and services, with substantial and scalable commercial potential. Projects must be led by a small or micro company, working either alone or in collaboration with one other small or micro company. Companies could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs. Projects should last up to 4 months and not exceed total costs of £33,000.

The opening of this competition and related briefing event have been delayed so that Innovate UK can take account of the recent announcements in the Spending Review. Further information will be available in due course.

Briefing event registration is still open for you to register on the waitlist for when the briefings are rescheduled, for Manchester, Edinburgh, London and On line.

More information is available here

Calling all those interested in the Internet of things: draft PAS 212 awaits your review

November 22, 2015 | by

BSI is inviting comments on the draft for PAS 212 during its four week consultation period.

PAS 212 is entitled “Automatic resource discovery for the Internet of Things” so is clearly very relevant to the Telehealth & Telecare Aware community, particularly for those involved in deployment of sensors/wearables.

Go to the DHACA blog for more details; comments have to be in by January 8th.

Hat hit to Melvin Reynolds for drawing this to my attention.

‘Tis the season of mellow fruitfulness..and consultations

November 13, 2015 | by

Suddenly it seems there are consultations all over the place that are important to the digital health world. If you can spare some time, you will be doing society a great turn by responding to as many as possible. They include:

The Accelerated Access Review (disclosure, which is editor is very involved with) is holding a consultation on pricing & reimbursement schemes. This is important because in the area of digital health (one of three areas covered by the AAR, the other two being medicines and medtech), selling at scale almost always involves a competitive tender (either at the time or previously in establishing framework contracts, or sometimes at both stages). We therefore have much to learn from the pharma sector in particular who have established a wide range of price-setting, and thus tender-avoiding, mechanisms. We are very keen for the digital health and medical technology voices to be heard.

Deadline for submissions is Friday 20th November.

Next we have an EC consultation with a characteristically long-winded title Public consultation on the preliminary opinion on ‘Disruptive Innovation. Considerations for health and health care in Europe’. For this, the EC is partnering with an organisation previously unknown to this editor: the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (EXPH). Having learned about disruptive innovation at the feet of the man himself, Clayton Christensen, this editor gets just a little uncomfortable when experts seek to impose order on the process (especially ‘taxonomies’), as by definition it is chaotic and opportunistic. However the four areas that the survey seeks views on are:

1. New models of person-centred community-based health delivery that allow a decentralisation from traditional health care venues like hospitals to integrated care models (e.g. transfer of records to patients);

2. New technologies that allow early diagnostics, personalised medicine, health promotion, community-based therapy and care and the empowerment of patients/citizens, as well as potential curative technologies (e.g. regenerative medicine, immunotherapy for cancer);

3. Person-oriented approaches for the treatment of patients with multiple chronic diseases, situations of frailty and/or of loss of functionalities in a multi-cultural context;

4. Education of the health workforce and transfer of skills and tasks from highly trained, high cost personnel to personnel that have less specialised trained and are more affordable; (e.g. from specialists to generalists, from generalists to nurses, from nurses to health care assistants and to other care providers such as pharmacists, and ultimately to citizens themselves.)

The preliminary opinion is just 95 pages long, and here. The consultation closes on 16th December.

Closer to home and potentially of more immediate significance is the consultation on the draft EU Code of Conduct on data privacy for medical apps which is now being opened up for general consultation prior to a meeting in Brussels of the group producing the Code (of which this editor is a member) on December 7th. Please send your comments directly to charles.lowe@DHACA.org.uk and I will pass them on.

Finally, London’s Southbank University is planning to establish a set of qualifications for digital health-related topics and is keen to understand the likely willingness to pay for them. They are currently in discussion with the Royal Society of Medicine regarding use of educational material. They have produced this short survey which they would appreciate as many TTA readers as possible completing.

Hat tip to Dee O’Sullivan for alerting me to the disruptive innovation consultation.

 

Fancy six months in Dubai becoming an entrepreneur all expenses paid, with no strings?

November 10, 2015 | by

Evangelia Balanou has drawn this editor’s attention to an extraordinarily attractive-looking offer. Dubai 100 is:

“an intensive six months cross-disciplinary pre-accelerator programme designed to develop the growth of young talent through industry awareness, entrepreneurship mentorship and business opportunities. The programme is free of charge and does not require any equity stake in graduating startups. We fully cover visas, flights, accommodation and office spaces for accepted applicants for the duration of the programme.”

The principal selection criteria are:

  • 15 international recent graduates in teams of up to 3 members. Between the ages of 20-30 years old
  • Teams should apply with an innovative early stage idea in the med-tech and digital health space
  • Teams that have 3 cofounders willing to spend the entire 6 months duration in Dubai and working with full commitment on their start-up will be given priority over others
  • Teams should not have participated in any accelerator programmes, received any investments or experienced significant traction yet.

Here is the full Dubai 100 programme overview, or email arshia.yadav@falconandassociates.ae if there is anything more you want to know. To apply click here.

NOTE: the application deadline is 15th November.

Good luck…and do let us know if you applied as a result of this blog, and were accepted!

Reaching the lemonade point with Jawbone

November 6, 2015 | by

This editor’s recent blogs on Jawbone’s UPs do not make pleasant reading so now I’ve reached my “lemonade point” – ie I am on my 7UP (or should that be seventh UP?) – it seemed only fair to advise readers that I have had my second UP3 for over a month and it still works! As I took my previous one in the shower – as is recommended – and it packed up very quickly, for this one I’m avoiding all water contact. Perhaps that’s the secret?

I was reminded of this by this recent piece in ZD-net grumbling about tracker data loss – Jawbone, alongside Misfit, were the two quoted. That is an experience I have yet to have, although at present if anything I have the reverse with my sleep times being doubled resulting in 14+ hour daily sleeps.

Apart from this relatively minor glitch (compared to previous rather more terminal ones), I am almost at the point of being impressed. The new software automatically detects sleep, so no need to remember to tell it when you are going to bed, and the heart rate monitor produces some very interesting results. Once you work out how to put it on so it doesn’t keep falling off, it’s much less obtrusive that the original UP open bracelet, too. If it keeps going like this for another eleven months, I fear I might even start recommending it!

Important dates for your diary – many free! (UK)

November 6, 2015 | by

The must-do free digital health event of the next few weeks has to be to go to one of the four final dallas events, in which attendees will get to hear of all the important things that the programme has learned over the past three years. Surely that’s unmissable, or as the flier says, “free but priceless”!

The events are at:

  • Manchester – 12th November
  • Cardiff – 17th November
  • Belfast – 25th November
  • Glasgow – 8th December

Bookings for the first three of these can be made here, for Glasgow, here.

The Cardiff event is being run alongside the TSA International Technology Enabled Care Conference on 16th & 17th November, (and see our recent blog on this too), so you can combine the two.

The Glasgow event is part of the Scottish Digital Health & Care Week, that we also featured in a recent blog.

Another free-to-attend event with a particular focus on SMEs takes place on the evening of the 3rd December in City Hall, London: 21st Century London MedTech. Bookings, and more details, here.

Moving to paid events, albeit very cheaply priced because the Royal Society of Medicine is a charity, the Telemedicine Section of the RSM has four events now open to book:

Both the February and April events are now into their fourth years – and both are regular sellouts, so worth booking soon.

You might also want to hold the 19th May in your diaries for when the RSM & IET jointly run another conference that was previously a sellout: “the future of medicine; the doctor’s role in 2025”. This will be opened by George Freeman, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Life Sciences,and features a glittering array of experts who will be suggesting what we need to do now to deliver the health & care systems of the future. Bookings will open soon.

The 2nd UCL Festival for Digital Health is now set for 22 February to 4 March 2016 – more details here.

Planning ahead, the search for the best eHealth solution in 2016 developed by an EU SME has begun with the unveiling of the competition’s website and the ability to get mailed information as it emerges.

Good luck if you apply!

Still need some help with healthcare innovation? (UK)

October 14, 2015 | by

These days it seems you cannot get away from talk of innovation in the NHS – even the London Business School, this editor’s alma mater, is holding a conference on it, on 20th October. Then there’s the NHS Innovation Accelerator programme, the Accelerated Access Review (AAR), that this reviewer is involved with, the National Information Board (NIB), that this editor is also involved with, NHS Test Beds, the topic of a recent popular TTA blog, the NHS Vanguards, the NHS Pathfinders, the Integrated Care Pioneers and many others all seeking the holy grail of healthcare: improved patient outcomes, ideally at lower cost (or is that lower cost ideally with improved patient outcomes?).

If all this is too much and you have lost your way, the Royal Society of Medicine & NHS Innovations South West (NISW) have the solution: (more…)

European Assistance for Innovative Procurement (eafip) Conference Manchester, Nov 24th

October 2, 2015 | by

When this editor first saw European, Innovative and Procurement in the same title, he thought he’d misread it as one of the complaints that has been made at almost every recent meeting attended, especially those relating to the Accelerated Access Review, is how European procurement rules disadvantage small suppliers who are typically the principal source of innovation in the health & care sector.

So here’s your opportunity to hear from the experts and to make your concerns known to them, in this European Commission sponsored joint NHS England/eafip event on ICT solutions procurement.

Date is 24th November; more details here – booking for this free event will open soon apparently.

What’s caught my digital health interest recently

September 30, 2015 | by

At the Royal Society of Medicine we’ve just announced our next medical apps event on 7th April next year, Medical apps; mainstreaming innovation in which we feature for the first time a presentation by Pam Kato, a Professor of Serious Games, so it’s intriguing to see the iMedicalApps review of a clinician-facing serious game, iConcur, for anaesthetists.

We also have a powerful presentation on mental health apps from Ieso Digital Health which doubtless will make the same point as has been made in previous events that online mental health services typically are more effective than face:face. The abstract to the recent Lancet paper by Dr Lisa Marzano et al, examining this topic in great detail, suggests that the academics are now a long way to working out why this is the case and offers further potential improvements; aspiring mental health app developers unable to access the full paper may consider it worth paying $31.50 (or join the RSM to access it for free).

A regular at the RSM’s Appday is Dr Richard Brady’s presentation on Bad Apps, which next year will now doubtless include mention of the FTC’s recent fifth action against an app provider, UltimEyes, with deceptively claiming they their program was scientifically proven to improve the user’s eye sight.

Moving to good apps (more…)

TSA Annual Conference 16th & 17th November: reminder (UK)

September 29, 2015 | by

Logo - TSAWe have been asked to post a reminder for the TSA’s Technology-enabled Care Event of 2015. Taking place on the 16th and 17th November 2015 at the Celtic Manor Hotel, South Wales, this is a ‘must-attend’ annual event in the sector calendar.

This year’s conference is entitled Inspiring Change and Progress. It will carry three main themes throughout the two days:

  • Entrepreneurship: How to think differently to make things happen for you, your business and the sector.
  • Education: Preparing for the future of the sector, what do we need to know?
  • Evolution: What’s next for the future of technology-enabled care?

The conference will feature a host of high profile speakers who will be tasked with giving attendees the ‘need to know’ sector picture, including ministers, sector leaders, innovators, business motivators, technology gurus, and the people who benefit from using technology-enabled care.

The two day programme will be packed with stimulating presentations, challenging debates, and informative parallel sessions that will include masterclasses & interactive workshops.

The complete programme is . A limited number of Early Bird booking rates are now available; .

Online Masters and Modular Learning in eHealth – last chance to enrol

September 18, 2015 | by

Build your skills and study while you work!

The University of Edinburgh has a few places left on their Masters programme in Global eHealth. This is studied part time, via interactive online learning, supported by a network of international experts in the field (disclosure, of which this editor is one), and is designed for working professionals with some experience in healthcare, IT or eHealth, who are looking to grow and consolidate their knowledge and skills.  Courses are available as individual 10-week modules, or accumulated for a certificate (6 courses over 1 year), diploma (12 courses over 2 years) or MSc (the latter plus a supervised research project).

Readers may be particularly interested in the courses on ‘mHealth’, ‘Telemedicine & Telehealth, ‘The Business of eHealth’ (summer term), ‘User-Centred Design in eHealth’ and ‘Consumer Health Informatics’.

Applications for the new academic year close on Monday 21st September, so don’t delay applying!

For more information, please visit their website  or contact the programme team on Global.eHealth@ed.ac.uk or the programme director claudia.pagliari@ed.ac.uk

A day in the life of a blind business man (guest blog)

September 16, 2015 | by

Chris Lewis, the world-renowned telecoms expert and regular presenter on disability issues has kindly offered to share some thoughts with readers prior to his presentation at the Royal Society of Medicine event on the Medical Benefits of Wearables on 23rd November. This is the second of two he has written specially for TTA.

You’re blind: How do you ‘read’, join in social media and find your way around, let alone run a business?

Picture the scene: a blind man walking down the street moving white stick to and fro. He is muttering to himself while clicking a small black thing in his left hand. What is he doing? Actually, he is running his business, doing email, messaging, reading documents, checking-in for his flight and working out the best route using bus and tube to get to the airport. The black device is a mini keyboard, controlling the iPhone in his pocket and it is talking to him via his in-ear Bluetooth device….

Having been registered blind for over 30 years, I am accustomed to the regular question about how the hell do you run a business? I thought it worth while to put this down in writing both as a record of how things stand in 2015, but also as evidence of how my world has changed since the days of cumbersome magnifiers, papers being sent off to be recorded, and very clunky interfaces with early PCs.

Equipment & technology

(more…)

Want to update your mobile technology knowledge?

September 16, 2015 | by

Hatching a new business idea? Interested in mobile and IoT innovation? Need to bring mobile technology and business know-how in to your organisation?

Or perhaps you just want to move your career on…

Stuart Revell has kindly drawn TTA’s attention to the Mobile Academy which sets up shop at UCL’s innovation hub in Shoreditch, London. This year’s CPD-certified annual course will run from the 1st October to 3rd December 2015 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Tutors (including Stuart) are extremely high quality, and give their time for free.

Looks to be a great opportunity. Registration is here.

Accessibility arriving at the Top Table (guest blog)

September 10, 2015 | by | 1 Comment

Chris Lewis, a world-renowned telecoms expert and regular presenter on disability issues has kindly offered to share some thoughts with readers prior to his presentation at the Royal Society of Medicine event on the Medical Benefits of Wearables on 23rd November. This is the first of two he has written specially for TTA.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona accessibility I took to one of the main stages for the first time. IBM, Microsoft, Google and the Mobile Manufacturers Forum (MMF) joined me to present perspectives on how accessibility is going mainstream.

I introduced the session with some of the key findings from the second Telefonica accessibility report “Digitising the Billion Disabled: Accessibility Gets Personal“. In summary, the billion disabled people represent a major spending group, combining earnings of some $2.3 Trillion and state support of $1.3 Trillion. Disabled people on average earn only 60% of their able-bodied peers and, of course, many disabled people don’t get the opportunity to work at all. 4% of children and 10% of the working population are disabled, but perhaps most striking, over three quarters of the elderly. Combine this dynamic with Douglas Adams’s theory of adopting technology getting harder as we get older and you can see the ticking time bomb of disability and age. (more…)