12 Jul 2010

Despite suffering from daily seizures, Angela Stark can live at home, monitored by carers. Pic: Stewart Attwood

Angela Stark never knows when she’s about to have an epileptic seizure.

“One minute I could be standing, the next I could be down on the floor,” she says. The 40-year-old from Cowdenbeath might be in her sitting room, surrounded by glass ornaments, or lying in bed, but a seizure is always risky. She is prone to tonic chlonic seizures, probably the most serious type, which first make the body go stiff and then cause the limbs to jerk. Angela has one every week. They can cause injury and difficulty breathing; sometimes, if they go on for more than five minutes, she needs medical help.

Yet Angela lives alone. How can she manage to do that? Because of telecare guardian angel gadgets throughout her home, which ensure she is watched over remotely 24 hours a day. They can detect when Angela is having a fit so that a carer can be sent to help her.

Angela, who was diagnosed six years ago, relies on two devices in particular. The first is a bed mat that detects sudden repeated bumps indicating that she is having a seizure. She’s lost count of the number of times it has been activated. Sometimes it takes five minutes for the carer to arrive, sometimes 15 minutes, but for Angela, the important thing is knowing that someone will come to her aid.

“It’s a lifesaver,” she says solemnly. “It’s so important because I might have fallen out of bed. Sometimes they have to get the paramedics out. If I just kept fitting, that could be it.”

She also has a fall trigger pendant, on a cord round her neck. If it is knocked horizontal, indicating she may have fallen, it sends a wireless signal to a detector unit, which alerts call handlers via a phone line. The emergency team immediately call to speak to Angela; if they get no response, they send someone straight round.

“The pendant and bed sensor have given me real peace of mind,” says Angela. “They’re brilliant. People wouldn’t be able to live on their own if this equipment didn’t exist.”

Click the link to read the full article on Telecare and Healthcare Technology at home

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The report – Lessons from the US: using technology and homecare to improve chronic disease management – is based on the observations of a US study tour of NHS and Healthcare at Home representatives who visited colleagues in Kaiser Permanente and HealthTech to look at how they use remote technology to manage chronic disease. Whilst they found there to be some exciting hi- and lo-tech innovations and lessons to glean, the group found that the US was not as far ahead in this field as expected.

Ruth Poole, Group Clinical Director, Healthcare at Home Ltd, says: “We were pleasantly surprised to find that the UK is in many ways better resourced and structured than the US to overcome the challenges related to increasing demand for services and chronic disease management. Specialist out-of-hospital care providers like Healthcare at Home Ltd are well established in the UK, and the NHS is already embracing innovation and major transformation in service design in certain areas, but we need to see this progress on a much wider scale if the NHS is to achieve the significant benefits that can be gained.

”The report found that in the “[US] healthcare follows the money, not the population’s health needs. The UK has an opportunity to look beyond this and concentrate on longer term benefits”.

One of the key recommendations is that the move to deliver more care closer to the home has to be underpinned by new models, technologies and systems: “If we simply transplant the same model of care used in hospitals to another setting we will not achieve the changes needed”.

Other reflections and recommendations from the report include:

• The UK must concentrate on longer-term benefits and consider the population’s health needs as much as the return on investment
• The NHS set-up allows it to look beyond immediate costs and benefits to start developing more innovative solutions that will lessen the cost of future services.
• Technologies delivered through everyday devices such as TVs and mobile phones will encourage greater compliance
• SHAs have access to innovation funds and should therefore take the lead in system development
• Transplanting the same model of care to another setting closer to home will not achieve the necessary changes
• Enabling an efficient flow of information between different health organisations is essential to effective disease management
• Capital investment should not just be about buildings
• Commissioners need to look beyond their usual providers and pathways and embrace more imaginative commissioning
• GPs and other primary care staff will play a key role in providing care closer to home
• The NHS must place more emphasis on managerial analytical competency

The overall purpose of the study tour was:

• to explore how diagnostics and care are delivered in the home
• to see how clinical interventions are managed using technology and support workers for increased value, and
• to glean any lessons for the UK from how the US is addressing these issues.

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HIE forum aims to put north at tele-healthcare forefront

By Iain Ramage

Published: 12/04/2010

Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise is to host a summit on the future of “telehealthcare” in a bid to put the region at the forefront of the potentially lucrative emerging sector.

It claims the challenges of an ageing population and a low-carbon economy are key to “delivering healthcare from a distance” through technological advances.

The gathering, at Aldourie Castle by Loch Ness on May 5, will consider how the region could take a lead.

About 50 delegates have been invited to contribute ideas on the delivery of tele-healthcare in Scotland over the next decade.

Steven Dodsworth, HIE’s head of life sciences, said: “This region offers great potential to be a centre of excellence in this sector.

“We already have an encouraging number of companies developing expertise in this field who are working alongside healthcare professionals and communities to overcome the challenges of healthcare at a distance.”

Telehealthcare covers a range of services such as supporting elderly patients who wish to remain in their own homes, helping people to take control of long-term health conditions and enabling people in remote locations to consult health professionals with minimum inconvenience.

Harriet Dempster, Highland Council social work director, said: “This event will enable representatives from government, health and social care providers and patient groups to discuss ideas with Scottish companies and multinationals and to develop a shared vision.”

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Hi-tech help to keep older people at home

A total of £16m has been invested in telecare technology since 2006

Hi-tech devices to help older people remain independent in their own homes will be funded with a new grant from the Scottish government.

Public Health Minister Shona Robison announced £4m of funding for the “vital” telecare technology.

The devices include vibrating “rumble” pillows to alert people with hearing problems if there is a fire alarm, and electronic medication reminders.

Funding is available for all 32 council areas and could help 13,000 people.

Every local council and health board partnership is to be offered £120,000 to spend in 2010-11, but each authority has to provide match funding.

A total of £16m has been invested in telecare technology since 2006, with 25,800 older people having benefited.

We are firmly committed to free personal care but we need to change the ways we deliver care Shona Robison Public Health Minister

Ms Robison said: “Investing in telecare is vital if we are to remain ahead of the game in meeting the needs of our growing older population.

“Telecare can help older people remain independent in their own homes – something we must explore further if we are to rise to the challenges we face.”

Read more about this investment in telecare

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22nd and 23rd September 2010

Glasgow Science Centre www.glasgowsciencecentre.org

Giving you advance notice that our conference this year will be the biggest and brightest yet! We are staging this event at the prestigious Glasgow Science Centre where you not only have great views over the Clyde and City but complementary entrance to the fun science exhibits. The futuristic building mirrors BCS Health Scotland’s innovative and forward looking approach..

We have three themes this year which are quality, innovation, and efficiency.

Keynote speakers include:

Matthew Swindells, former CIO Connecting for Health, and chair BCS Health

Rikard Lovstrom from Sweden to talk about their National Patient Overview project and eHealth strategy

Dorothy Whittick from Canada talking about the Canadian Health Infoway national developments and a Wellness project in Alberta

Brian Robson from Scotland on the Quality theme and his experiences from the USA.

PRESENTATIONS INVITED – Do you have something interesting to present in one of our themes ?

To get in touch please use the contact form

Exhibitions confirmed include:

Exhibitors are staging a social networking evening after the first day events so look out for a fun time as well as stimulating and thought provoking discussions.

If you would like to Exhibit please contact Neil Campbell using the contact form

NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!

An exciting new departure will be the ‘NHS Scotland eHealth Awards!’.  These awards are given to winning NHS teams for three categories sponsored by BCS and Scottish Government, look out for an announcement in the next few weeks.

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By Tony Lodge

BY 2025 the number of people aged 85 or older in the UK is set to increase by 70 per cent to nearly two million. By 2020 there will be 50 per cent more people over 65.

In this former group more than a third of men and more than half of women live alone and most have a limiting long-term illness. By 2020 there will be 68 per cent more people with dementia than there are now.

New research from the Bow Group Telecare – a crucial opportunity to help save our health and social care system by Professor Sue Yeandle of Leeds University, who is also the co-author of the recent excellent Carers Scotland Report A weight off my mind, highlights that most of the care support needed by older sick and disabled people living at home is supplied by two specific groups of people.

The significantly larger is made up of unpaid carers, many of whom struggle to combine paid work and unpaid care, and some of whom have to give up their paid work in order to care. The others are workers in health and social care occupations such as nurses and nursing home workers.

With many people living longer and with illness or disability, the future scenario for care at home, which is where most people prefer to be supported during periods of illness, threatens to be increasingly costly.

The solution to many of these pressures is a policy which supports the large-scale rolling out of what has come to be known as telecare, and the UK is the world leader.

Telecare offers a win-win solution for the health and social care system by helping sick, disabled and older people remain at home for longer by supporting them 24/7 with alarms, alerts, health monitoring and communication. Telecare consists of a base unit and wireless sensors that link to a 24-hour response centre that monitor risks associated with, for example, falls, fire, dementia, poor health, gas leaks and security.

Importantly, Scotland is leading in this healthcare revolution.

The Scottish Government’s national telecare development programme is a welcome initiative which aims to promote its use, train staff and roll out more units. It hopes that between 2010 and 2015 telecare will become an integral part of care services in Scotland.

Click here to read more about Telecare and the elderly

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In 2009, health hubs were the most widely used telehealth gateways, constituting about 80% of the total gateways market. InMedica believes that in the short to medium term, health hubs will remain the most practical solution for professional healthcare providers to supply to patients, as the infrastructure can then be standardised and simplified on a large scale. Even though the number of integrated cellular handsets used as telehealth gateways was estimated to be small in 2009, they are forecast to grow to over 350 thousand in 2014. According to Neha Khandelwal, market research analyst at InMedica, “The use of mobile phones as telehealth gateways has had a surge of interest over the last couple of years; with patients and device companies recognising the benefits of data transmission on the move. We anticipate that cellular service providers will play an increasingly important role in the long-term future of the telehealth market.”

InMedica forecasts that health hubs will increasingly be for managing disease conditions such as CHF and COPD. However, for disease conditions such as diabetes, cellular handsets will find an increasing acceptance. A number of device companies have launched diabetes management programs that use cellular handsets for transmitting blood-glucose readings to care professionals. Sufferers of diabetes are already used to regular self-monitoring with blood glucose meters. Progressing to a telehealth service will not be a massive lifestyle change for them, so compliance should not be a huge hurdle. Moreover, receiving regular feedback on their condition would be a great benefit.

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In the next 15 years, the number of over-65s in the UK is expected to increase by more than three million, and the number of dementia suffers is also predicted to rise.

A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Centre for Usable Home Technology at the University of York has recommended that to manage the pressure on services this rise will bring, councils could use various emerging technologies in order to provide at-home care.

In addition to such innovations as talking walking frames and dispensing coffee tables, the study suggests: the use of robo-pets that could offer companionship, and double up as fire, gas and intruder detectors; special exoskeleton suits that could be worn by the infirm to help them to keep mobile; and kitchen worktop and fridge screens to monitor larder contents, suggest recipes and produce automatic shopping lists.

Dr Kevin Doughty, of the JRF Centre for Usable Home Technology at the University of York, said councils are now faced with the challenge of planning to exploit emerging technologies.

Read more about emerging technologies for patient care here

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By Lucy Adams

Published on 18 Oct 2009

Older people will use care homes only for specialist services and respite and will instead be supported by technology at home rather than being institutionalised, new Government proposals envision.

Public Health Minister Shona Robison believes that housing will have to be redesigned to allow services to help those living in “clusters” and that care homes will have to specialise in dementia or end-of-life care.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald, she explained that demographic challenges will make such changes necessary.

Her comments follow a week-long campaign by our sister newspaper, The Herald, to raise awareness of elderly abuse in Scotland and will fuel the forthcoming Re-shaping Scotland debate on how to manage the country’s ageing population.

There is growing concern that care homes – which currently house 38,000 older people in Scotland – would not be affordable because of growing numbers and a perception that they tend to “­disable rather than re-able”.

The number of people in Scotland over 65 is projected to be 21% greater in 2016 than in 2006 – and 63% greater by 2031.

Government figures estimate yearly costs for health and social-care services for older people will increase by £1.1 billion by 2016, and £3.5bn by 2031, if care continues the way it is now.

Read more about new care for elderly strategy

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The pair were among the first to be given the new neck pendant alarm connected direct to support staff under a joint city council and NHS Lothian scheme.

In one case, a 90-year-old man from the east of the city landed on his kitchen floor last Wednesday, but within 15 minutes carers arrived to bring him to his feet.

The previous day, a woman, aged 92, from the north-west, fell on her living room floor, also activating a neck alarm, allowing staff to arrive quickly to check her over.

It comes as the Telecare Falls Project is being rolled out across the city, introducing electronic detectors in properties where residents are known to be at risk.

The £120,000 initiative will help around 300 people over the next year.

Councillor Paul Edie, health and social care convener, said: “A fall can shake people’s confidence and leave them isolated. They become worried about leaving their home for routine trips to the shops or even moving too far from the safety of a particular room.

“If we can rebuild their self-belief then they can literally rebuild their lives and grasp back their independence.”

The detectors are linked to a 24/7 mobile support team which will respond to a fall within minutes, potentially saving NHS Lothian £150,000 and 1,000 hospital bed days a year.

Every year across the UK, falls account for 10 per cent of acute hospital admissions, resulting in NHS spending of £1.7 billion and 70,000 fractured hips.

to read more of this article CLICK HERE

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