Kevin Doughty at IALC (Video)

April 30, 2010 | by

IALC: The Telecare and Telehealth Market. 10 minutes

Excerpt of Dr Kevin Doughty speaking at the Independent Assistive Living Conference. Thoughtful and thought-provoking, he reflects on timescales, the difficulty of using people to solve care delivery problems, and house design. “The window of opportunity is forever.”

Excellent telehealth video: Hebrides Telehealth

March 26, 2010 | by

16 minutes
“It would be a step backwards to work without telehealth now” says one of the nurses in this excellent overview of telehealth as it implemented now, in the Hebrides islands off the north west coast of Scotland. (Also has a passing reference to telehealth in Sheffield – not in the Hebrides) Nice work by the video’s maker, Ged Yeates.

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Video: Take healthcare off the mainframe Eric Dishman (Intel)

March 20, 2010 | by

17 minutes

Eric Dishman gave an impassioned presentation at TEDMED in November 2009 but the video has just been released. He focuses on the need to bring much of healthcare out of the hospital and into the home by illustrating the research that Intel has been doing for the past 10 years. The video is an informative – and possibly inspiring – 16 minutes, after which you might want to go to the TEDMED site and scroll down to read the comments. Some are pertinent, some miss the point and at least one is decidedly cranky. They are a useful reminder of what we are up against.

Seminar report: Telehealth, telecare and new technologies in UK healthcare

February 26, 2010 | by | 6 Comments

When we gave some free publicity to the Telehealth, telecare and new technologies in UK healthcare seminar organised by the Westminster Health Forum (supported by Bosch, but costing £190 to attend) I noted that “the most relevant of the web links appear to be broken”. It seems that this standard of organisation continued into the event itself. Despite the gift of a press pass, I’m sorry to say that the reporter who went on behalf of Telecare Aware came away frustrated by the event. Here are some comments for the organisers or anyone else intending to run such an event:

  • 15 speakers in 4 hours (5 mins speaking, 5 mins questions) turns into a ‘death-by-PowerPoint-fest’ with presenters racing through their slides
  • targeting publicity to avoid a mis-match between the speakers and the audience would not go amiss. In this case many in the audience knew as much as the speakers
  • a 20 minute break (squeezed down to 15) is not long enough and small things – like not providing biscuits with the coffee (tough on people who skip breakfast to arrive in time for the start) – matter
  • a post-event networking opportunity should be fully publicised in advance so that people do not plan to run off straight after the event

In sum, it was a manic morning where the few speakers with something new to say did not get long enough to expand on it.

Readers can download our reporter’s notes on the presentations (PDF 4 pages) here. These unofficial notes come with a ‘health warning’. He said “Trying to listen, understand, type and read what was on the screen was not easy!”

Does our navigation menu look like this?

February 17, 2010 | by

The fact that you are not experiencing our site as we intended means that you are using an internet browser that does not comply with World Wide Web standards.

More specifically, you are using Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) or older. We know, because amongst other problems with IE6, it does not display certain image files properly.

BUT THIS IS ONLY ONE MINOR PROBLEM WITH IE6

The list of problems is as long as your arm, but the most important is that it is insecure and makes your computer vulnerable to hacker attacks. This is why Microsoft recommends that you upgrade to the latest version (currently IE8) and why the German and French Governments recommend that you avoid Internet Explorer altogether! (Wikipedia article about IE6 for more information.)

If it is your own computer, there is no excuse for not upgrading from IE6 or switching to a better browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari (for PCs too). It is FREE to do any of these things!

If your IE6 browser use is determined by your company or organisation’s IT department (GE! Intel! O2! IBM! Bosch! and many UK councils), you may have a battle on your hands to get them to change it or to allow you to use another browser. However, they will have to change eventually, as many websites are starting to block people who use IE6 – so they may as well change sooner rather than later, and you can help them along that path by complaining and by pointing them to the following article on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Developers’ blog: Engineering POV: IE6 and/or the Microsoft recommends that you upgrade item.

UPDATE: New Internet Explorer 6 and 7 security weakness found. Forward this to your IT department if you are battling to get them to upgrade. IE zero-day flaw leaks out from zdnet.

Telecare Soapbox: NHS procurement – bad news and good news for suppliers

February 15, 2010 | by | 4 Comments

By Steve Hards, Editor, Telecare Aware.

Back in November, Telecare Aware dug around a little in the procurement practices of (mostly) local councils in the UK. (Dirty tactics in the telecare/telehealth market) The bad news for companies wanting to sell into the NHS is that there is emerging evidence that NHS organisations are not highly competent in commissioning innovative services and may also frequently flout good procurement practices. The good news is that this is increasingly being challenged and there may be new opportunities not just to challenge tenders, but for the NHS itself to seek redress from companies that misrepresent their capabilities and what they will provide. (more…)

Telecare Soapbox: Thousands of telecare users potentially at risk

January 21, 2010 | by | 3 Comments

Fred Reardon, an independent consultant writes about a life-threatening issue.

At the end of last week I received a letter from my broadband provider Sky [UK entertainment and communications services provider] to inform me of the new and improved network for Sky broadband and that they would be upgrading my service on the 2/2/2010 and that there would be a loss of service for a short time approx 25 minutes. I read through the letter to see what this would mean for me. At the very end of the letter the last paragraph was headed:

Social Alarm and Telecare service
If you have a remotely monitored social alarm service or Telecare services which uses your telephone line, you should contact us straight away. (more…)

Telecare Soapbox: Keeping the care going in adverse weather

January 14, 2010 | by | 1 Comment

Over the past four weeks people in the UK have been experiencing the worst snow and cold winter weather for 30 years and we have had one, now two, press releases from telecare monitoring services praising the dedication of staff in keeping the service monitored and clients safe.

While adversity (especially adverse weather) undoubtedly brings out the best British characteristics of determination and pitting yourself against the odds to keep going – especially where people in care-related jobs are concerned – one wonders what responsibility the managers of services have to put measures in place to ensure that staff are safe and, even, not unduly inconvenienced. For example, have they made arrangements with nearby hotels so that on duty staff can avoid hazardous trips home? Or have they arranged dispersed (home-based) monitoring?

If you have an example of an employer going that extra mile to support his or her staff in these difficult conditions, we’d like to hear it – leave a comment.

Video interview with James Ferguson, Scottish Centre for Telehealth

January 7, 2010 | by

Length: Unknown

LocalGovTV interviews James Ferguson, clinical lead at the SCT who, according to the publicity, “discusses how a nationwide hi-tech drive is enabling people to communicate with consultants remotely to prevent hospitalization and support carbon reduction targets…Scottish residents can now benefit from video-conferencing and photo assessments to streamline access to healthcare wherever they are located…Mr Ferguson also addresses how to overcome barriers to adopting this technology so that other trusts and local authoritites can realise the enormous benefits.”

The catch is that to view the video you have to give up contact information that will be used for marketing by the video’s unnamed sponsor – and there is no privacy policy on the site which spells out just what else LocalGovTV will or will not do with that information. http://www.localgov.tv/JamesFerguson

Fred Reardon Telecare Consultancy Ltd

December 16, 2009 | by

Download current CV: Click here

Specialising in the deployment of telecare systems for health and social care

Fred Reardon is specialist with a wealth of knowledge and experience in rolling out the implementation of telecare in both the health and social care sectors.

He is an excellent ‘people person’ able to motivate teams to achieve sales, installation or recruitment targets.

Has an excellent ‘black book’ of contacts within the industry.

Would be an asset to any public or private sector organisation wishing to implement telecare and telehealth technologies into their region.

Notable Achievements

  • Achieved recruitment and installation target for Whole Systems Demonstrator telecare trial in London Borough of
  • Newham under very difficult conditions and despite challenging eligibility criteria.
  • Successfully implemented telecare/telehealth at Medway Council.
  • Consistently achieved well over 100% of target as top Field Sales Manager for Orange Mobile and with Hutchison Personal Communications

Telecare Experience

  • Delivery of telecare solutions to vulnerable people in the community, working with support organisations, ie Alzheimer’s Society, MND, Age Concern, etc.
  • Development and delivery of telecare awareness programmes for social and health care managers, together with other carer organisations and support groups.
  • Creation, planning and delivery of telecare training courses for health and social care staff including call centre operators.
  • Increase of private pay revenue through development of business relationships with private residential homes, housing associations, and organisations that support vulnerable people in the community.
  • Management and Rollout of Preventative Technology Grant (PTG).

Sales & Business Management

  • Creation of sales strategies for business growth through direct mail, telecanvasing, and exhibitions.
  • Input into local national sales and marketing campaigns.
  • Initiation of more accurate forecasting and pipeline reporting systems, giving a 90 day expected business picture and more detailed activity reports.
  • Contributed to the creation of a business opportunity approval process to facilitate the understanding of sales staff of the profitability and revenue of the business won, or to be won.
  • Restructure, training and recruitment of sales staff to achieve all targets. Implementation of induction and reporting processes for same.
  • Location, purchase and management of databases allowing more targeted prospecting and individualised sales campaigns.

1 Hallwood Close
Rainham
Gillingham
Kent, ME9 9NT
Telephone: 01634 366957
Mobile: 07973 229624
Email: fred.reardon@orange.net

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