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Friday 1 June 2012, Royal Society of Medicine, London

The last this year of the three increasingly popular and reasonably priced one day telecare and telehealth seminars at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. This one is about how telehealth and telecare can help manage dementia and mental health conditions. Speakers include Professor June Andrews, Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre, Stirling University; Dr Frank Miskelly, Consultant in Elderly Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital, and Dr Stella Clark Clinical Lead for Mental Health Services, NHS 24. Details here.

Report from Holyrood Conference's 3rd Telehealthcare Summit in Glasgow this week gives a snapshot of the discussions and Scottish Government position. If readers who attended would like to submit other reports (or links to them) we will be happy to fill out the picture on this major Scottish event. Scotland seen as world leader in telehealth and telecare.

If you like cute doggie pictures (or even if you don't) editor Steve promises that you will love the one that accompanies the heart-warming telecare story, reported in the Telegraph and other UK papers. Mrs Shaw, the owner of Louis, a nine-year-old Yorkshire terrier, is registered with Wrexham Council's Telecare service and had previously put one of her alarm buttons on the floor and had trained Louis to press it. Then she fell getting out of the shower and lost consciousness. ChesterCare Telecare operative Sarah Mcloughlin heard Louis's barking when she asked Mrs Shaw if she was okay. Mrs Shaw said "She asked 'who raised the alarm?' and I said it must have been Louis. He must have thought 'this is not a game, this is for real', and hit the panic button. He was right beside me, right in my face - he wouldn't leave me."

There are two points here for the industry... First, it's a reminder that pendant alarms are no use if the owner is unconscious or they are out of reach - 'passive' alternatives must be offered, and second, it is a fantastic 3ML publicity opportunity for the TSA if, for example, it came forward with a 'Telecare Hero' award for the dog.

Nothing like having an ambitious conquest strategy, is there? Read IP&TV News's interview with Lyse Brillouet, Director of Strategy and Marketing at Orange Healthcare to see it they really have one. Orange Healthcare: "eHealth is a key pillar of Orange’s Conquest 2015 strategy".

A quick alert to two events (one next Friday) which will interest readers in the UK:

• Friday, 25 May, London Telecare Group's South of England Telehealth and Telecare MarketPlace, St Paul's Centre, Worthing. PDF flyer.
• Friday 14th September, International Centre of Excellence in Telecare's (ICE-T) Meet the Buyers event, Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury. For more info email pascale.waschnig@sehta.co.uk

There are some interesting telehealth monitoring facts, figures and conclusions lurking in a recently published report by the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School: Health for All, Care for You: Unlocking the value of Personalised Healthcare in Europe. (PDF download). It is a review of a number of studies and is worth adding to the 'evidence' file. Study Two (page 8) on the cost effectiveness of prevention, point-of-care monitoring and telemonitoring in cardiovascular disease, indicates that a combined approach using exercise, point-of-care [diagnostic tests], and telemonitoring for acute heart patients is both cost effective and has health benefits despite possible increasing GP workloads. However, of the three, telehealth monitoring had the largest individual return on investment (ROI) although the population it would benefit would be smaller. Apart from the 15% reduction in referrals to A&E; 59% fall in angioplasty; 17% reduction in bypass surgery; 14% drop in the use of medicines; and 13% reduction in the use of rehabilitation services from the combined approach, enabling patients to be responsible for monitoring their own vital signs (such as blood pressure and temperature) and sending them into a central nursing unit electronically, resulted in patient adherence to prescribed treatment increasing from 30% to 92%. Heads up thanks to Dr Lance Forbat, Independent Cardiologist.

Research led by HealthPartners Research Foundation of Bloomington, Minnesota on blood pressure monitoring programs was presented at the 2012 American Heart Association's Quality of Care Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions. The surprising finding was that pharmacist--not the usual care manager or nurse--monitoring of telehealth results may have been key to successful patient BP control. 228 of the 450 patients with uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) received primary care plus telemonitoring management from a pharmacist, versus an equally sized group in traditional care. Patients measured their BP at home; results went to a web portal accessed by the pharmacist, with phone consults every 2-4 weeks. 71.8% with the pharmacist/telemonitoring combination had reduced their blood pressure to healthy levels versus 45.2% of participants in the traditional care group. Moreover, the former group reduced their BP more than those in traditional care, and were more compliant in taking their medication. Could it be that perhaps we've overlooked the missing link to making telehealth programs work...the trusted pharmacist? Food for thought. Healthcare IT News

One of our last posts of 2011 noted insurance payer Aetna's acquisition of iTriage, a mobile app which enables an individual to check symptoms, research diseases and find a doctor or clinic. With Arizona-based Banner Health System, which is participating in the CMS Pioneer ACO Model, Aetna is combining iTriage (smartphone and online appointment setting and pre-registration services for patients) with Active CareTeam (physician decision support) and Medicity health information exchange to connect clinicians, doctors and patients. According to the article, Banner Health includes 50,000 patients in its ACO model. Non-US readers should note that there are many different models of ACOs, depending on relationships between hospitals and (usually owned) practice groups, and they include specialist as well as primary care. There are even non-hospital inclusive and Medicaid only ACOs. Release (WSJ MarketWatch)

Editor Donna thought we eHealth types were hip hepcats already, but Gov. John Kasich of Ohio has officially declared that we are cool, especially if we're in Ohio like VRI. With the incentive of state tax credits totaling $400,000, they plan to hire 125 workers in addition to the 42 already hired this year. VRI serves over 75,000 clients in the US and according to the article has sales of $20 - 30 million. ONN-TV Ohio's News Channel.

It's annual report season, and Bosch North America's dry, looooong release picked up by WSJ MarketWatch with their 2011 financials (all businesses up 11%) about halfway through ('New activities....') details certain interesting facts: their claim as the 'global market leader in telehealth' with 55,000 US patients, in December integrating Telehealth and Care Solutions (which wasn't really noticed), new VA contracts for Health Buddy and ViTelNet, and just before the end, the Personal Robot 2 Beta program including household robots. Bosch Continues to Grow in North America