About the author: Andrea Swayne is a gerontologist who received her M.A. from Bethel University (Minnesota). She possesses 25 years of experience serving seniors at all levels of the care continuum. Starting with a B.A. in music therapy from Western Illinois University, Andrea worked with the intellectually disabled along with many other populations in need. She first became familiar with telehealth while piloting remote sensor-based behavioral monitoring in the early 2000’s for Volunteers of America. Currently, Andrea is a Director of Partner Services for WellAWARE Systems, which proactively identifies variations in key wellness indicators such as sleep quality, bathroom usage and activity level.

In our short history, telehealth has primarily concentrated efforts on individuals who are aged and who are attempting to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible in their least restrictive environments. Least restrictive environments for the aged include (but are not limited to) assisted living facilities, independent living apartments or the client’s primary residence with services provided by a home health agency.

I believe that another population could significantly benefit from telehealth: the intellectually disabled (ID). (more…)

Editor Steve frets about the lack of information on the accuracy of the Philips Lifeline AutoAlert and says it’s about time they published some data.

Back in March 2010, I welcomed the introduction of the Philips Lifeline with AutoAlert (for falls when the person cannot press the pendant button), particularly as a long-needed acknowledgement in the industry that traditional pendant alarms have considerable shortcomings. Philips puts nail in pendant alarm coffin. I also noted that, considering the notorious unreliability of fall detectors, Philips must be anticipating a large number of false positive alerts because there was a 30 second delay built in to enable users to cancel the autoalert.

In January this year Philips… (more…)

Editor Steve predicts the future…

When – if – the procurement process for the Northern Ireland Remote Monitoring Service that is being conducted by the European Centre for Connected Health (ECCH) is ever drawn to a conclusion, there will be no winners. Even if the contract is awarded.

Well, there will be one minor winner, the consultancy that was paid to produce a report on the short listed companies, way back at in the early days of the tender. That report will make interesting reading when it is eventually released.

As for the rest, there are no winners. When the contract is awarded to the TF3 consortium (comprising Tunstall, Fold Housing Association Limited and Silicon and Software Systems Limited), as it surely will be, given the (more…)

The reference to telehealth with prisoners in the Independent article [TA item] prompted editor Steve to search around for more information on this overlooked topic and this is the best of what he found. (Part of the reason it is overlooked may be that most of the available information is in documents and presentations, and not easily accessible on web pages.) (more…)

David Barrett, Lecturer in Telehealth at the University of Hull takes a hard look at how local trials are often evaluated and looks forward to a time when more rigorous approaches will provide solid evidence for the benefits of telehealth.

Regular readers of TelecareAware cannot fail to notice the frequency with which new evaluations of telehealth services are published. In recent months, we’ve seen documents from, amongst others, Kent, SE Essex and Argyll & Bute. These evaluations are almost always positive, suggesting that further deployments of technology can supply huge savings for health and social care organisations, whilst proving immensely popular with users, carers and practitioners.

This growing evidence base in favour of telehealth services strengthens the argument that technology can deliver substantial benefits for individuals and organisations. However… (more…)

Livia Bellina, Specialist, General Pathology, works for the Italian National Health Service on Lampedusa Island, which lies between Sicily and Tunisia. In this Soapbox she tells how, with colleague Eduardo Missoni, they are making a reality of their vision of spreading an ethical and low cost health technology everywhere.

Ugandan students

In April 2008, working as a pathologist on Lampedusa, I found myself in urgent need of confirming a diagnosis of malaria from a blood sample of an African immigrant. (more…)

What follows is editor Steve’s observation – BS has not commented – of the widespread perception, reflected in his recent Soapbox item and comments to it, that Buying Solutions (BS) initially required applicant companies to have at least three years’ track record and that it subsequently changed or ignored the requirement.

In the light of a private communication from a reader, I re-read the qualification requirements in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document (PDF). In the sections relating to Lot 2, Telecare services; Lot 4, Telehealth services; Lot 5, Telecoaching Products and Services and Lot 6, Managed Services, the wording in each of them is essentially the same: (more…)

There are some people (OK, a few, maybe, and not just my 85-year-old mother) who share my opinion that I [Ed. Steve] am a nice person. As a long time supporter of telecare and telehealth for everyone who needs it I do not relish the reputation I seem to be acquiring as the Grumpy Old Man of Telecare just because I call it as I see it, which frequently contrasts with the positive spin put out by other interested parties. Enough of me! I just wanted to put what follows into context.

Background

First, a little history of telecare procurement to explain why the UK now has its second ‘national framework agreement’. (more…)

Jeff Brandt is one of the founders of Communication Software, Inc. He has extensive experience in mobile telecomm, online banking, and healthcare information technology. Jeff has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma and is currently attending Oregon Health Sciences University’s school of Bio-Medical Informatics.

I wrote an article for KevinMD.com several months ago discussing the benefits of Android for the healthcare market. I also compared Android with the iPhone. I listed the iPhone’s technical shortcomings and really angered the “believers of all things Apple”. That was not my intent. Apple’s latest release of iPhone 4.0 and their new operating system (OS) 4.0 corrects many of the problems that I mentioned. The shortcomings or benefits of a device are not the focus of this article. I am going to speak to the general philosophies of the two OS and let you make up your mind on which OS is better for your healthcare facility or personal/business use. (more…)

When I [Editor Steve] began looking at the role of equity capital in companies, I started out feeling sympathy for company directors, like those of Tunstall, which run businesses saddled with large debts. However, I have learned a few things along the way and my sympathy has evaporated somewhat.

I’ve also concluded that I understand very little about the magical world of company finance, but I’ll do my best to explain how I came to this conclusion after looking through two sets of Tunstall accounts for October 2008-September 2009 which recently become publicly available. [Note for US readers – although Tunstall is privately owned, its accounts are in the public domain.]

The first set of accounts, for Tunstall UK, gives a rosy picture. Profits of £28.7million before tax on turnover of £86.4million. However, Tunstall UK is just one part of the UK-based Tunstall Group, which made the astonishing — to me — loss of £84.1million on a worldwide turnover of £141.7million.

How was this loss achieved? And — this is where my accountancy friends tell me my lack of company finance understanding kicks in — how come a company in this position can still be a going concern? (more…)

Paul Sonnier, founder of the Wireless Health group on LinkedIn and co-chair of the Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego, has thoughts on the new definition of ‘value creation’.

During the annual Wireless-Life Science Alliance’s (WLSA) annual Investor’s Meeting held in La Jolla, California last week, I had the good fortune to hear a keynote presentation by Terrance Gregg, CEO at San Diego-based DexCom, which produces wearable continuous glucose monitoring devices. Mr Gregg alluded to challenges the company has faced over the course of its history in terms of maintaining its independence while other, more established companies eyed its technology for acquisition.

After hearing this part of the DexCom story, it occurred to me that independence and durability are the eternal challenges faced by most successful technology companies and entrepreneurs… (more…)

Editor Steve Hards muses on matters of ageism in equipment and service design.

In another forum I recently gave some feedback to an internet-based service company that what they were producing, aimed at older people – both the images they were using and the words they were using – gave the impression to me that they were somewhat ageist. It got me thinking about the difficulty for companies of designing and marketing to people of an age that you, or your team members, are not.

We are all familiar with the concept that ‘old’ is a movable feast and that old age starts at about 15 years older than you are, so it’s 50 for 35 year olds, 75 for 50 year olds and 100 for 85 year olds. However, the differences between people at 50 and 100 may or may not be significant. There is an expectation that… (more…)

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…)

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…)

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.