More evidence needed on telehealth costs
More evidence on the cost-effectiveness of telehealth and telecare innovations is needed to encourage their wider adoption, according to a review of use of assistive technologies in health and social care.
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Philips launches automatic fall detector
Dutch company, Philips, has launched a medical alert service that automatically detects if a person has fallen and then calls the emergency services for help. AutoAlert builds on Philips’ Lifeline, which allows users to press a button and sends for help, by combining automatic fall detection capabilities in the same pendant. It uses multiple sensors to […]
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Councils urged to take up telecare
Local authorities are ill-prepared to cope with the demands of an ageing population and must look to telecare as one of a raft of measures to help them tackle those challenges, according to the Audit Commission. The watchdog’s local government report, Under Pressure, concluded that councils will struggle to cope with the financial challenge posed […]
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£130m for telecare and home help
The government has pledged to invest £130m in initiatives such as telecare and home adaptations as part of its free personal care measures outlined in the Queen’s Speech.
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NHS24 absorbs Scottish telehealth body
The Scottish Centre for Telehealth will become part of NHS24, the special health board that runs Scotland’s national health helpline and website, from 1 April 2010. The move follows an in-depth review of the SCT by Scotland’s e-health Directorate. This said the centre had considerable support and that it had achieved significant success. However, it […]
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IBM Italy launches telemedicine project
IBM is to launch a telemedicine project in Bolzano, Italy, designed to improve elderly patients’ independence and quality of life, while reducing health care costs.
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LAs split on telecare funding plans
Almost half of local authorities expect to increase their spending on telecare in this financial year, but a further third predict that they will cut telecare funding, according to latest figures. Provisional data from the Care Quality Commission’s performance information on telecare in England shows a divide in local authority plans to invest in telecare […]
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3,000 members for Birmingham OwnHealth
Birmingham OwnHealth has just seen its active membership top 3,000 for the first time. The telephone help service is a partnership between NHS Birmingham North and East, Pfizer Health Solutions and NHS Direct. It offers one to one support for people living with long term medical conditions, such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and lung […]
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Birmingham OwnHealth expands
A pioneering telephone-based care management programme is expanding to cover patients with a wider range of conditions. Birmingham OwnHealth, which is run by NHS Birmingham East and North together with NHS Direct and Pfizer Health Solutions, offers telephone support to patients with long-term conditions in areas with health inequalities and high levels of deprivation. The project […]
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Info underpins National Care Service
The government has identified telecare and online information services as two of the foundations of its proposed National Care Service. A much anticipated green paper on the future of adult social care says that support to help people remain independent and information to help them navigate the care support system are two of the six […]
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