Telehealth awareness week in SW Victoria (Australia)

March 6, 2014 | by

Barwon South West is one of five regions in the most densely populated state in Australia, Victoria. [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/THAW2014.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Starting on Monday 17th March Barwon South West is holding a week of telehealth awareness activities to coincide with the Australian Telehealth Conference 2014 (ATC2014).

Organised by Barwon Health, the Telehealth Awareness Week 2014 (THAW2014)  will consist of thirteen face-to-face and online events spread across the week, but excluding the two days of the ATC2014 conference.

Rebecca Eastgate, Regional Telehealth Program Manager for Barwon Health tells me that their week of activities including the webinars, “are probably too specific to our region and our local audience to be useful to those beyond Australian shores”. However if you are reading this in Australia, then you may want to look up the THAW2014 events list on Eventbrite and register for any of the meetings or Webinars that are of interest.

Inquiry into telehealth services in Queensland

February 28, 2014 | by

“A statewide healthcare system with new capacity, co-operation, transparent reporting systems, [grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Queenslqnd-goverment-logo.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]financial accountability and with patients the focus of attention—this is a vision all Queenslanders want to see.” So opened the message from Campbell Newman, Premier of Queensland, Australia, in Blueprint for better healthcare in Queensland in February last year. Turning to telehealth Mr Newman said “In remote communities, this government will work to provide 24-hour access to safe and sustainable care through a revised network of Telehealth facilities for the very first time. This is a 21st century solution to a problem long-regarded as impossible. Our plan will provide reliable health services in places where they were never previously available.”

A year on, the Health and Community Services Committee of the Queensland Parliament has opened an inquiry into telehealth services in the public sector health services in Queensland. The inquiry will consider the implementation of telehealth by the Department of Health and Hospital and Health Services, including the Rural Telehealth Service that was announced in the Blueprint for better healthcare in Queensland.

The committee will examine trials, pilots and other sites, consider the value for money of the delivery of telehealth services, examine the factors that support successful implementation of telehealth services, identify any barriers to successful implementation and consider strategies to address such barriers. The committee intends to visit some rural and regional telehealth sites and hold public hearings in Brisbane and other locations.

The committee will receive an initial public briefing from the Department of Health on Wednesday 5 March at 11.00am in Brisbane. The briefing program is available here. This public briefing will be broadcast live via the link http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-committees/broadcast-committee/live, and a transcript of the briefing will be published here when available.

It’s iAwards time again!

February 28, 2014 | by

As the US East Coast faces low temps (down to 12 degrees again tonight) and another dumping of snow Monday, a small sign of spring, like flash-frozen daffodils and crocuses (crocii?), is the annual application call for the Triple Tree iAwards for Connected Health to be presented at the Wireless-Life Sciences Association (WLSA) 9th Annual Convergence Summit 14-16 May at the Omni in San Diego, California. Twelve finalists will be selected from applicants based on

criteria including the uniqueness of their solution; marketplace traction; clinical, operational or consumer relevance; size of addressable market and international presence across three categories:

    • Operational Effectiveness: Solutions that address the financial, compliance or operational needs of a healthcare organization.
    • Clinical Effectiveness: Solutions that address the care delivery and clinical effectiveness for a patient.
    • Consumer Engagement: Solutions that empower consumers to make better healthcare decisions.

Finalists attend not only a dinner, but also for the first time this year a private business review session. Online applications can be accessed at the TripleTree and Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance websites along with a $195 fee. Registration for the conference is here. Hat tip to Editor Charles and reader Mike Short.

‘Grizzled pioneer’ VRI receives major investment from Pamlico Capital (US)

February 28, 2014 | by

US telehealth monitoring and medical alert provider VRI (Valued Relationships, Inc.) of Franklin, Ohio earlier this month received a majority investment/recapitalization from Pamlico Capital, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based private equity firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Current lead executives CEO Chris Hendriksen and President Andy Schoonover will remain in active management and retain significant ownership in VRI, which they founded in 1989. Regarding the investment, Mr. Schoonover to this Editor stated that the funds will be used for expansion purposes. “It is another vote of confidence (alongside the Cardiocom acquisition) that telehealth is getting great results and is here to stay. The capital will support VRI’s growth objectives, particularly in executing a couple of large projects with health plans that VRI has booked for 2014, and the hiring of additional sales talent.” 

Despite being in a rather ‘non-buzzy’ area of telehealth, the investment attracted the interest of some major players. VRI was assisted in evaluating its options by well-known digital health financial advisor Triple Tree; legal counsels were McDermott Will & Emery for VRI and Alston & Bird LLP for Pamlico. Pamlico specializes in the ‘middle market’ and has previously invested selectively in mid-sized healthcare providers such as Greenway (EHR), Healthcare First (home health software) and Physicians Endoscopy (surgical centers). Overall, and interestingly, this appears to be a positive, long-term vote for telehealth and medication monitoring, as well as for the viability of traditional medical alerts and some of the patient engagement/hospital readmission reduction models VRI has been developing with major payers such as Humana. Pamlico Capital release, Triple Tree release.

Is *less* regulation the answer for mHealth? (US)

February 28, 2014 | by | 1 Comment

What if the solution to the mHealth/digital health logjam of approvals at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to take clinical and health software completely out of their approval purview–and hand it to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is not a regulatory body but a standards-development organization. That is the solution proposed by the PROTECT Act of 2014 (Preventing Regulatory Overreach to Enhance Care Technology), proposed by Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska). It’s put some of the better known organizations into a swivet, along with high profile attorney and mHealth legal expert Bradley Merrill Thompson with Epstein, Becker & Green. Possibly little to no regulation would be applied to EMRs, clinical support software and wearables/fitness apps–which is promptly being conflated by the usual suspects to heavy-duty equipment such as CT scanners.  FDA also finalized its guidance last September on telehealth and telemedicine applications, which this would render irrelevant. The Washington betting is that this Senate bill will go exactly nowhere, but it’s indicative of the jockeying for position this Editor is seeing within the present government and now with advocates/lobbyists [TTA 13 Feb]. MedCityNews, FierceMobileHealthcare

New paper in the Practical aspects of Telehealth series

February 24, 2014 | by

Establishing Telehealth in an institution, published this month in the Internal Medicine Journal, is the title of the fifth and latest in the Practical aspects of telehealth series of papers. According to the abstract the paper describes the development of a large teleoncology network over a vast geographical area in North Queensland, Australia.

The authors propose that the workforce, funding and infrastructure at rural sites, as well as the traditional mindset of healthcare professionals are key barriers to successful implementation of telehealth programmes. In the case of the Queensland teleoncology network, the rural hospital at Mt Isa, 900 km away from the central site, has been continually enhanced over a 5- to 6-year period. The success of the scheme is credited to these helping to overcome usual barriers.

Previous papers in this series are Practical aspects of telehealth: doctor patient relationship and communication, Practical aspects of telehealth: financial considerations (Journal in Internal Medicine), Practical aspects of telehealth: Are my patients suited to telehealth? and Practical aspects of telehealth: set-up and preparation for video consultations

 

National Health Summit Ireland–Special Report

February 21, 2014 | by

Reader Andrew Macfarlane, Commercialisation & Centre Manager, CASALA at The Netwell Centre of the Dundalk Institute of Technology, stepped forward to report on this past Wednesday’s Summit. (Please note the excellent cross-references for those who may not be familiar with Ireland-specific programs.) Many thanks Andrew from Editors Toni and Donna!

From an Industrial Age to Information Age Healthcare – National Health Summit, Ireland

The 10th National Health Summit, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, saw a good attendance and an impressive range of speakers. The event is primarily targeted at decision-makers involved in leading and managing the delivery of healthcare services in Ireland.

The morning session outlined the changing landscapes of healthcare delivery both in an Irish and International context. Next up, separate tracks covering Health Insurance (as the Irish government seeks to introduce Universal Health Insurance), Hospital Management & Digital Healthcare (the primary topic covered by this post). The final session covered helping patients stay healthy at home and an insightful panel discussion on reform of the health service.

Tony O’Brien, Director General of the Health Services Executive (HSE) provided the opening address, entitled “Choices for our health service”. The HSE is a large organisation of over 100,000 people, whose job is to run all of the public health services in Ireland. He highlighted that like most health care systems, they are facing rising demand and costs (current budget €13.6bn), and that at the same time has endured significant health budget cuts, 26% since 2008, with €600+m planned savings in 2014. The annual National Service Plan sets out key priorities.

Key takeaway from a digital health point of view is the policy aim of A New Model of Care Treatment at the Lowest Level of Complexity that is Safe, Timely, Efficient and as Close to Home As Possible. The HSE envisages transforming from an industrial age healthcare to information age healthcare, with cost-effective use of ICT. Challenging perhaps with a historical under-investment in ICT at 0.85% of budget vs EU average of 2-3%, a number of speakers referenced the “Ghost of PPARS” as reason for under investment.

Professor Aidan Halligan, Director of Education, University College London & Principal, NHS Staff College, England in a lively storytelling highlighted that the Cathedrals to Disease  (more…)

The GET Project to grow EU startups/SMEs

February 21, 2014 | by

Associated with the international Health 2.0 organization, the GET Project provides four services to promote the growth of eHealth start-ups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in four different phases: opportunity identification, business model definition, fundraising and internationalization. Health 2.0 is managing the “GET Funded” service, which provides SMEs looking for Series B or follow up investment (between € 0.5-2M) with training, resources and networking opportunities with VCs and investors at the European level. (Perhaps a way around the Series B crunch?) More information. Contact Pascal Lardier, International Director at Pascal@health2con.com. Editor Donna notes that the focus here does not appear to be UK, though one of the five Advisory Board members listed is from Scotland (and interestingly, two are from the US): Jan Rutherford, Partner, Scottish Equity Partners (SEP); Sandra Bates, Founder and CEO Innovation Partners; Dave Whitlinger, Executive Director, New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC); Ron Michael Liebkind, Founder and CMO, Laastari Retail Clinics; Rajendre Khargi, Chair, OneWorld International Foundation.

Telefónica buys strategic stake in Saluspot

February 21, 2014 | by

Telefónica Digital today announced a strategic agreement with and a financial stake in information/medical community website Saluspot to extend the latter’s content and network in Spain and Latin America. Saluspot is an interesting cross between health information (WebMD) and physician locators (in the US, ZocDoc and Vitals) in that it provides free, anonymous contact with registered (on their site) physicians via the website to answer consumer questions in areas where healthcare access is limited; through this matching it also provides visibility for doctors as well as a professional exchange and purchasing collective. The benefit for Saluspot is to increase their coverage beyond Spain and Chile, and for Telefónica to add health tech services in major markets such as Brazil, where they acquired chronic care management company Axismed last year. Telefónica’s eHealth reach, according to the release, is over two million eHealth service customers in Latin America and its media networks include Eleven Paths, giffgaff, Media Networks Latin America and Terra.

Tunstall welcomes you to ‘my world’

February 21, 2014 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Tunstall-tab.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Tunstall unveiled its tablet-based integrated system for supported housing at this week’s Housing LIN Extra Care Housing Annual Conference in London. ‘my world’ groups applications for residents in an easy-to-use way for communication (email/messages), scheduling care visits, booking meals, home maintenance, finding out about community events, weather and the like. These features are all somewhat reminiscent of other systems such as GrandCare and the original concept behind Waldo Health. It appears to this Editor that Tunstall has designed my world/my clinic as Tunstall’s World–a fully proprietary ecosystem, as seen in their model installation with Herefordshire Housing. The release notes that it is integrated with Tunstall’s ‘my clinic‘ multi-user telehealth system and the Communicall Vi reporting system, as well as Contour Homes. Certainly when a system is complex, having it ‘closed’ is assurance that everything works together. But is a closed system the best quality, most economic and effective arrangement for individual, a community’s or a council’s needs? Press release, brochure

International Digital Health Congress (UK): call for papers

February 18, 2014 | by

Call for papers due 31 March

The King’s Fund’s International Digital Health and Care Congress has opened their call for speaker papers which showcase new ideas in telehealth and telecare. This year the Congress has widened its focus to include ehealth, mobile health and digital health innovations. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations should be targeted to one of the main topics below:

Sustaining independence as people age.
Preventing and managing chronic illness effectively.
Supporting people with mental health issues.
Digitally enabling service transformation.
Innovations in technology.

Formats for presentations (including PDF) are available at the Congress’ page. More information for the Congress on 10-12 September is available here.

Pulse of Telehealth 2013

February 16, 2014 | by

A study analysing survey data taken at the 2013 American Telemedicine Association conference has been published this month by the market research company Frost & Sullivan. Pulse of Telehealth 2013 presents drivers and restraints, 5 and 10 year areas of opportunity, environmental points (e.g., gamification), accountable care organisations (ACOs), and predictions.

The surveyed markets include home and disease management monitoring, personal emergency response systems (PERS), video diagnostic consultation, remote doctor/specialist services, tele-imaging, activity monitoring, wellness programs, remote cardiac ECG, and tele-mental health.

The report is available for purchase at the Frost and Sullivan website (link above).

$1.2 million in digital health funding from Aetna Foundation

February 14, 2014 | by

The Aetna Foundation has earmarked $1.2 million to fund digital health, including mobile health, specifically to support public health in “vulnerable and minority populations.” The grants will go to 23 organizations in 13 states, including regional hospitals and grassroots efforts. Cited in the release (reprinted in HITECH Answers) as an example was the Institute for eHealth Equity (IEHE) and Text4Wellness. The $1.2 million grant is part of a three-year, $4 million commitment to technology innovation in public health. Aetna is also supporting a call for papers to be published in the American Journal of Public Health. Deadline is 1 March, so get your skates on!

Inexpensive reusable portable sensors for diabetes, UTI

February 13, 2014 | by

Responsive holograms that change colour in the presence of certain compounds are being developed into portable medical tests and devices, which could be used to monitor conditions such as diabetes, cardiac function, infections, electrolyte or hormone imbalance easily and inexpensively, according to the University of Cambridge. It is claimed that the technique can be used to test blood, breath, urine, saliva or tears for glucose, alcohol, drugs, bacteria or hormones. Clinical trials are said to be underway to test glucose and urinary tract infections (UTI) in diabetics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

It is estimated that the reusable sensors could cost as little as UK £ 0.1 (about US 15 cents) to produce, making them affordable for use in developing countries. A prototype smartphone-based test suitable for both clinical and home testing of diabetes and clinically relevant conditions is under development.

If this is a commercial success this could form the basis of a multi-purpose portable tester suitable for telehealth use.

A research paper, Light-Directed Writing of Chemically Tunable Narrow-Band Holographic Sensors, has been published in Advanced Optical Materials.

CUHTec courses in March–updated (UK)

February 13, 2014 | by

CUHTec has announced two additional telecare strategy courses for March, adding two at Coventry University in addition to the two previously scheduled at University of Newcastle. Topics are Learning Disability Services, Fall Prevention and Digital and Mobile Telecare. These strategy courses are for commissioners, service development managers, trainers and others with responsibility for telecare and AT service planning and delivery.

CUHTec telecare strategy course: Learning Disability Services, HDTI, Coventry University, Thursday, 6 March 2014

CUHTec telecare strategy course: Learning Disability Services. Culture Lab, University of Newcastle, Thursday 20 March 2014

CUHTec telecare strategy course: Moving to digital and mobile telecare. Culture Lab, University of Newcastle, Friday 21 March 2014

CUHTec telecare strategy course: Fall Prevention and Management, HDTI, Coventry University, Tuesday 25 March 2014

To find out more and to book a place, please visit CUHTec’s website. Thanks to reader Prof. Andrew Monk, director of The Centre for Usable Home Technology (CUHTec), for the update.