Telemedicine: A viable Solution to NHS Staff Shortages? By Andrew Graley, Healthcare Director at Polycom EMEA Millions of pounds are currently being spent on agency doctors to help NHS hospitals comply with the European Working Time Directive, which limits the number of hours healthcare professionals can work. With new checks being introduced to ensure that medics from the EU have high proficiency in English, NHS staff shortages are likely to get even worse. As more and more pressure is being put on the NHS to meet waiting times targets and improve the quality of service, wider adoption of telemedicine offers a viable solution to the problem of limited resources. There are a number of particular benefits that video conferencing brings to the medical market.
The most important is of course improved patient experience. It also enables patients in hospital to have access to specialists who may not be based in that location. Meeting targets However, it’s not only about patients. User experience Case studies Cloud-based solutions Becoming the norm. News - Telehealth does not seem cost effective for patients with long-term conditions. Ingrid Torjesen Friday, 22 March 2013 Telehealth does not appear to be a cost effective addition to standard support and treatment for patients with long-term conditions, finds a study published on bmj.com today. The findings follow a BMJ study published last month showing that telehealth does not improve quality of life for patients with long-term conditions.
A team of UK researchers examined the costs and cost effectiveness of telehealth compared with usual care over 12 months in 965 patients with a long-term condition (heart failure, COPD or diabetes). Of the 965 patients, 534 received telehealth equipment and support, while 431 received usual care. The researchers found that the cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) of telehealth when added to usual care was £92,000. Even when the effects of equipment price reductions and increased working capacity of services were combined, the probability that telehealth is cost effective was only about 61%, at a threshold of £30 000 per QALY. Are benefits of telehealth care worth the cost? - Health News. Friday March 22 2013 Telehealth is often used for people with long-term conditions ‘NHS remote monitoring costs more’ BBC News reports after the publication of a new study looking at the cost-effectiveness of telehealth. Telehealth involves using technology to enable healthcare professionals to remotely monitor data on certain aspects of a patient’s health.
It may include sensors that can monitor the amount of oxygen in a person’s blood, or more straightforward examples, such as telephone check-ups. The news is based on a large randomised controlled trial which examined the costs of a range of telehealth services and their effect on the quality of life in patients with: It should be noted that telehealth systems are also used to monitor people with disabilities, as well as patients with a range of conditions, including dementia, and that this study only looked at a small range of the services available. Where did the story come from? The BBC News reporting of the study was accurate. Newham WSD Trial - Improving quality of life in Newham. NHS remote monitoring 'costs more' 21 March 2013Last updated at 19:57 ET Nurses can monitor a patient's health without having to visit Remotely monitoring patients with long-term conditions is less cost effective than usual care, a UK trial suggests.
The British Medical Journal study, involving almost 1,000 patients, indicated the total costs for those using "tele-health" were higher. It follows a recent study suggesting the use of such technology fails to improve patients' quality of life. But the Department of Health said it had already addressed problems raised by the research. Tele-health uses technology in patients' homes to monitor their condition and send data back to medical staff. The principle is that it reduces the need for hospital visits while allowing clinicians to keep an eye on a patient's condition.
But the researchers said most of the previous studies into the technology's use came from the US, used very small numbers of patients or were funded by industry. Counting the cost Continue reading the main story. UK mobile operator launches two health services. UK mobile operator O2, a subsidiary of Telefonica, recently announced two new mobile health programs: Help at Hand, an emergency response system sold directly to consumers, and Health at Home, a telehealth system marketed to providers. Help at Hand is a monthly subscription service for people who are self-sufficient and mobile, but have a condition where loved ones might worry about them falling, becoming immobilized, or becoming confused.
It provides the user with a specialized handset that has a number of safety features: it can call the support team at any time with the press of a button, alert them when the device is carried out of a preset “safe zone” area, detect falls and call for help, or automatically notify the support center when its battery is low. The call center than notifies a predetermined caregiver or family member if necessary. Users can choose between two handsets: One, a cellphone-sized device designed to fit in a bag or pocket, is made by Netherlands-based SafeLinQ. Are the benefits of telehealth a myth? 11 March 2013Last updated at 20:01 ET By Michael Cross Reporter Telehealth could ease the pressure on health services struggling with ageing populations It sounds like a no-brainer.
Don't force people with long-term health problems like diabetes or chronic lung disease to trek in to hospital for routine tests and repeat prescriptions - monitor their conditions remotely instead. That's the promise of "telehealth", where patients monitor their own conditions through home, or even wearable, devices hooked up to the internet. In theory, telehealth can cut the cost of care while at the same time improving its quality (for example, by letting doctors know about crucial changes when they happen, not at the patient's next appointment). That's a powerful argument for governments and health maintenance organisations grappling with the soaring cost of long-term care throughout the developed world.
In practice, however, proving telehealth's benefits is tricky. 'Unfounded' Continue reading the main story. Duma proposed to establish surveillance of doctors. Депутат от ЛДПР Валерий Селезнев внес в Госдуму законопроект, согласно которому все действия врачей будут записываться на видео. Соответствующие поправки в закон «Об основах охраны здоровья» опубликованы на сайте нижней палаты парламента. Видеозаписи, по мнению депутата, должны сократить количество врачебных ошибок. Как говорится в пояснительной записке, ежегодно в России из-за халатности медиков погибает 50 тысяч человек (правда, как оговаривается Селезнев, официальной статистики нет). Чаще всего, по словам депутата, пациенты страдают от несогласованных действий врачей, пренебрежения санитарными нормами и при использовании медицинского оборудования. Во время расследования уголовных дел, связанных с врачебной ошибкой, очень сложно получить необходимые доказательства, отмечает Селезнев. Включать видоакамеры депутат предлагает только с согласия пациента.
Из текста законопроекта не понятно, за чей счет больницы будут оснащать видеокамерами. Telehealth to benefit 100,000 people with long-term conditions | Allied Health Professionals Bulletin. 100,000 to get 'doctor by broadband' in 2013. Telemedicine and plastic surge... [J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg. 2012. Benefits and legal pitfalls of telemedicine plastic surgery. mHealth Research Digest with Anupam Kumar Telemedicine has seen exponential growth in application in recent years. This includes anything from consultations conducted by telephone to image transfers for the purposes of diagnosis at a distance. The medical specialties perceived to benefit most from this expansion of communications technology applications are those that rely heavily on visual inspection for diagnosis and are in high demand for consultation such as plastic surgery, radiology, dermatology.
Plastic surgery, in particular, lends itself to initial patient assessment and management via 2D visual inspection. While it has been accepted that telemedicine consultations in plastic surgery are indeed feasible with current communications technology, data on the potential benefit to the patient and protection of patient health information remains scant. Methods Results misdiagnosis (4)time consumption (3)training (4)technical issues (3)dissatisfied users (2)cost (2) Next Steps. 5 Ways to Instantly Connect With Doctors. Discovering a new food allergy or waking up with the shakes is scary.
But, being able to call or text doctors at night, on weekends and remotely, changes everything. New mobile health apps are springing up to save the day — connecting doctors on standby with patients who need them the most. We've rounded up five medical apps and websites that connect users directly to doctors. With tele-health apps, patients can call, text or privately message licensed physicians online for immediate help. The benefits are immense. These on-demand resources are leveraging the fact that more doctors, 80%, use smartphones — compared to 50% of the general population. SEE ALSO: Doctors Believe Using Health Apps Will Cut Down on Visits [INFOGRAPHIC] On-demand doctor apps are a large part of the booming medical apps industry.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Alex E. Had to happen: now you can get therapy as a digital service, too... Telemedicine market to reach $2.5B by 2018. The thriving telemedicine market hasn't shown signs of abating any time soon, according to a new report by Companies & Markets. The report shows that in 2011, the global telemedicine monitoring market reached a value of $736 million and, according to officials, is poised to increase to $2.5 billion by 2018.
This significant growth in the global market can be attributed to numerous factors as telemedicine monitoring provides ways to improve clinical care delivery to patients while also reducing the need for hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room. [See also: Telemedicine burgeoning in BRIC countries.] Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical healthcare at a distance. It helps to eliminate barriers and improve access to medical services that would often not be readily available in rural communities. The technology can also be utilized in critical care and emergency environments. News - Telehealth cuts hospital visits and deaths. Louise Prime Friday, 22 June 2012 Telehealth can reduce deaths as well as patients’ use of emergency hospital care, but might not save enough money to offset the initial cost of the necessary equipment, report researchers today on bmj.com.
Their study also found reductions in admission rates and length of hospital stay in patients who used telehealth. Nuffield Trust researchers randomised 3230 patients with long-term conditions – diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure – to either usual care or telehealth, and followed them for one year. Those in the telehealth group were taught to use appropriate monitoring equipment, which electronically transmitted their readings to healthcare professionals. Over the one-year study, 43% of patients in the telehealth group were admitted to hospital, compared with 48% in the control group.
The rate of emergency hospital admissions was lower in the telehealth group, at 0.54 per head, than in the control group, at 0.68 per head. E-Care, Telecare and Telehealth news: Read Telecare Aware daily updates. Could telehealth save Town Halls £730m of elderly care cost? New research claims local government could save up to £730m in elderly care costs if technology and remote monitoring-based solutions were deployed to extend the time an elderly person can live in their own home, as opposed to requiring council-funded residential care. The surprisingly high figure comes from estimates along these lines: the authors looked at 153 councils with social services responsibility, worked out a possible average spend of £4.8m each, extrapolated across all of England. » Register now to read the full story and sign-up for our weekly email bulletins.
HealthGo: a solution for healthcare monitoring companies. By: Mohamed Elawad HealthGO, a Remote Patient Monitoring technology platform based on Freescale Semiconductor’s Home Health Hub (HHH), has recently been released by eDevice. It has been designed for medical device and healthcare monitoring companies seeking to quickly release an end-to-end customized and reliable solution. Companies will be able to brand and market the HealthGO for themselves.
According to Berg Insight, only 2.2million patients worldwide were using home monitoring systems based on equipment with integrated connectivity while there are 200 million in the EU and US who suffer from one or several diseases where home monitoring can be used as a treatment option. The platform aims to increase the patient quality of life and quality of care through accurate and focused medical home-based monitoring. Both the firmware and the hardware of the HealthGO are customizable by the client. Press Release. Recent report on tele-health suggests it may soon become part of day-to-day practice. A recent report by BCC Research has made some projections about telehealth that should catch the eye of physicians and allied health professionals. Telehealth, as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services, is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.
While still an emerging market, with the advent of reliable and cheap video conferencing technologies the global telemedicine market grew from $9.8 billion in 2010 to $11.6 billion in 2011 and will almost triple to $27.3 billion in 2016. That means that healthcare professionals can expect that telehealth will become an increasing part of their practice. Telehealth technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications. In a recent guest post, Dr. 11 Telemedicine Tools Transforming Healthcare -- InformationWeek.
We haven't figured out how to teleport patients into medical offices. But telemedicine technologies link patients and clinicians in ways Ray Bradbury would admire. 1 of 12 What's fueling the healthcare industry's interest in telemedicine? Better mobile technologies and more mature electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support (CDS) systems lead the list. This interest in telemedicine, which Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, defines as "the delivery of any healthcare service or transmission of wellness information using telecommunications technology," has the potential to transform the way medical care is provided in many areas of the country.
Telemedicine isn't a separate medical specialty, but can be deployed by a variety of medical providers and specialties. The National Institute of Health reports that 25.8 million Americans--more than 8% of the U.S. population--have diabetes. More Insights. Telemedicine improves medication management, patient care. Global telemedicine market pegged to more than double by 2016. Be wary of signing deals for telehealth technologies, conference hears. Telemedicine solutions by Polycom creating new healthcare business models. IT-Enhanced Medical Homes Aren't A Quick Fix - Healthcare - Clinical Information Systems. More than 2 millions patients are being treated with remote patient monitoring. Sonographers perform remote lung ultrasounds using Skype & iPhone. Doctors Slow To Embrace Telemedicine, Cloud Computing - Healthcare - Mobile & Wireless.
mHealth: Remote Patient Monitoring Is On The Rise, With Smartphones Leading The Way. Remote monitoring system gets important upgrade in the UK, including physician notifications. Telehealth to help the elderly, patients tap into health care - National News - National. 5 must-haves for successful telehealth initiatives. Researchers describe smartphone platform to monitor elderly patients with chronic conditions. Key factors influencing the implementation success of a home telecare application. Remote Patient Monitoring Shows Strong Growth - Healthcare - Mobile & Wireless. Telehealth goes retail with launch of Care4 physician kiosks by HealthSpot. Abstract | Adoption of telemedicine: from pilot stage to routine delivery.
Home monitoring may help manage and reduce costs for heart failure. Telemonitoring to boost ICU care for South Carolina hospital. ICMCC Website. Even limited telemedicine could improve developing health. German internet clinic based in London angers German doctors. Health care by TV and remote control. Methodologies for assessing telemedicine: A systematic review of reviews. Poots launches £18m Telemonitoring NI service. Three million patients to be cared for 'remotely' and perform own DIY check-ups.