TSA Conference a great success (UK)

The two day 2014 TSA conference held at the Celtic Manor proved to be a great success for their new Chief Executive Alyson Bell who masterminded the event.

That this was to be a conference like no other was very apparent from the start when a solo performance from Gracie of the Zimmers opened the conference, followed by a performance by the whole group. Plenary sessions by luminaries in the digital health and care world followed, interspersed by refreshment breaks and a breakout session. Sir Bruce Keogh was sadly unable to attend in person though gave a hugely inspiring talk to camera encouraging all to use technology to deliver better care, more efficiently. (In a show of hands however, responding to a question from the conference chair, Nick Goodwin, the audience did not agree that Sir Bruce’s “fertile permissive environment for technology” was in place).

The other standout of the first afternoon was Esther Rantzen’s story of establishing the Silver Line to help older people to cope, especially with loneliness. The video of how Silver Line helped Bob overcome his wife’s dementia and subsequent death was particularly moving.

If we needed a further reminder that this conference was different, there was a brilliant performance by Strictly Wheels, wheelchair dancing, after the dinner.

On the second day, David Pearson, President of ADASS introduced this editor to the euphemism “non self-funders” (which reminded him of his days in BT when he incautiously objected to the term “non-managers” then in common use for the engineers and salespeople who sold and delivered the services that produced the revenue for BT). Bleddyn Rees, Head of Healthcare at Wragge’s and NED of ECHA pointed out that the there is much we can learn from the energy and shipping companies that of necessity had been practising remote patient management for a very long time.

Marc Lange Secretary general of EHTEL explained that the term ‘non-cashable savings’ meant that resource savings achieved by implementing an investment were immediately used up by an unmet need elsewhere. He also reworked Kevin Doughty’s epic chart, hopefully with permission, showing cost vs quality of life for everything from living at home to intensive care and demonstrating the obvious benefits, in terms of both cost and QoL, of helping people stay in their own homes.

Paul Shead gave two excellent examples of how his company’s UMO platform can simply, using a telephone, measure a person’s state of health autonomously, the first being to get a person to use the telephone key pad to time themselves over a distance, and the second to measure tremors in a person’s voice to establish the extent of Parkinson’s-induced tremors.

Many of the speakers, on both days suggested that the demand of remote monitoring technology was just about to surge, a comment that sadly this editor has heard at every such event since he started attending TSA conferences many years back. Certainly the evidence from the Supra time capsule opened on the first day was that little has changed in telecare practice in the past five years.

However there was one very positive sign of real coming change: an increasing number of companies with retail offerings, both new organisations and established organisations increasingly recognising the importance of making retail offerings. In no particular order these included Here and There, offering a very competitively priced retail alternative to the more institutionally-focused Just Checking, Cair’s range of really attractive pendants (with more stigma-free products on the way I’m told), protelhealth who can now provide telehealth or telecare, privately funded, anywhere in the UK using Orbis’s assisted living services, telmenow, offering “the widest range of technology-enabled health and care products and services available”, monitorGO a personal alarm service using ordinary smartphones, Amano technologies offering assistive technology for many situations, Pebbell personalised E-fobs aimed at children that parents want to keep track of and Navigil watches which combine mobile telephony with GPS tracking and an excellent battery life (disclosure: this editor assisted Navigil in the UK in previous years on the understanding that when the product was commercialised appropriate reward would be offered; to date none has been offered). To that in the past few days can also be added Dr Morton’s, a medical helpline, and doubtless many others – it seems that the much-anticipated arrival of retail products aimed drectly at the ned-user (or their carers) is arriving at last.

The location itself was interesting – the hotel is built on a hill, with the result that it was no simple matter to get from bedroom to exhibitor floor, even if you were lucky to catch one of the only three lifts in the hotel; what is conventionally the ground floor with Reception and breakfast etc, was actually halfway up the hotel, (which possibly generated more lift traffic for recent arrivals). Clearly though the hotel decided that TSA members must have special powers, as for example they only offered forks for the first day lunch involving tough-skinned sausages. Sadly the acoustics in the conference room did not help those such as this editor, whose hearing is not as it used to be, so much of what was said, especially in the first session when he was not sitting at the front, passed him by.

There were 37 exhibitors including both the main sponsors (Tunstall, Tynetec, Centra, Green Access, Elder Care, Verklizan, Appello) and other big names like Chubb, Bosch and Medvivo. This editor did not spot anyone from Safe Patient Systems or Docobo there, not did they have stands (mind you he missed Dr Who, too). More seriously, a few people commented on the absence of many commissioners, which was in spite of the TSA very cleverly offering free places for them. This is clearly an issue to work on for next year’s event.

Overall, it was a great two days, and very much a triumph for Alyson Bell, given the unexpected departure of the previous Chief Executive the week before.

Categories: Latest News.

Comments

  1. I’m delighted that the Conference appears to have been another success for the TSA! Bob tro mae Cynhaddleddau y CGT (TSA) yn llwyddianus yng Nghymru! Hopefully feedback from the event, together with the new leadership, will offer the way forward that is deserved by TSA members.

  2. Many thanks to Charles Lowe for the mention within this piece for Cair and our Onyx pendants. Unfortunately, the link doesn’t seem to be working, so for more information please visit http://www.we-cair.com

    [Thanks for pointing that out, Sharon – the in-item link is now corrected.]

  3. It was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces at the TSA Conference; it seems that Alyson Bell has, almost overnight, succeeded in reuniting many groups and people who had appeared disillusioned with the previous direction and priorities of the telecare industry. I’m flattered if invited speakers choose to build on UK delivery and policy models developed over the past decade – it must demonstrate that they consider that our telecare industry has many examples of best practice that can be adopted elsewhere. The challenge for all of us is now to work together to ensure that we can continue to drive forward an innovation and improvement agenda that will be needed to demonstrate to both governments and the public that remote monitoring and smart electronic assistive technologies are safe and cost-effective, and that they will deliver improvements in Quality of Life and well-being for everyone. Professionals will need good evidence; the public will want independent and impartial advice so that they are not exploited. The TSA and other membership organisations have an important role to play in ensuring that we all get it right.

  4. Thank you telecareaware for such a positive reflection on a fantastic 2 days, and thank you to everybody who came together to make the event a success: yes, I’m extremely proud of my TSA colleagues and the excitement and belief we’ve created together in the last year or so… but it’s the members, exhibitors, speakers and delegates who are the bedrock of our industry and what gives the conference its value and power. Thank you all.

    TSA is promising to be the voice of the whole TECS community and to lead, represent and promote the industry. That’s exactly what we’re going to do: the real challenges are just ahead – as Kevin Doughty points out, our industry has a lot of convincing to do and we’ve got to get it right, right now.

    TSA will get the collective voice of our industry heard in the right places… but that voice will be much stronger with everyone behind us singing from the same hymn sheet. My challenge to you all is to get involved, bring your local commissioners and clinicians into the mix, work with us in your area and add your voice: be part of our big push for a national marketing campaign and join us for local-level “think and do” tanks to decide HOW it’s all going to happen (we already know the “what” and the “why”). We need push AND pull.

    We’ve got loads of useful feedback about the conference and we’re already planning next year’s event – if our plans for the industry this year come off, there’ll be something big to unveil in 2015… keep those desirable, consumer-led solutions coming and this time next year we’ll be talking about it being the best conference ever!

  5. Hi All,

    Having just read the write-up for the 2014 event, I’d like to wish you all the best for 2015! I’m currently working on several events for AHPs across the UK and it is obvious that Telecare and Telerehabilitation are key drivers for them. I think it’s essential that platforms such as the TSA Conference and the Advancing Healthcare Awards exist to support them and the patients that need them!

    Have a great Christmas to all TSA members!

    Lee