Tag Archives: heart disease

Millions of people suffer every year from a variety of Long Term Conditions (LTC) that could be remotely monitored using Telemedicine

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For millions of people every year the reality of living with a Long Term Condition, such as hypertension, diabetes, depression and COPD can mean frequent hospital visits and stays, time off work and in many cases a reduced life expectancy. 

An article that we recently read - Telehealth & Telemedicine: By the Numbers shows some very interesting statistics related to Telehealth & Telemedicine – such as – The average reduction in mortality rates in the U.S.A. due to the use of telehealth systems is a staggering 22%.

To put this in context for people suffering LTC in the U.K. which could be monitored and helped by Telehealth & Telemedicine -

  • At least 25,000 people die each year as a result of COPD and at least 6 in 10 of these people will suffer depression and/or anxiety.
  • At least 1 in 20 adults in UK have hypertension – rising to around 50% of people over 65 years, which equates to around 5 million people.
  • Around 2 in 3 adults will suffer from at least one episode of depression at some point in their lives.
  • There are 2.9 million people in the U.K. who have been diagnosed with diabetes.

 

Presentation from The King’s Fund on the Impact of Telehealth on the Management of Long Term Conditions

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The King's Fund healthcare charityWe’ve recently read a great presentation from The King’s Fund which looks at the impact of telehealth on the management of Long Term Conditions – unsurprisingly to us, this impact was found to be positive overall. 

The Kings Fund looked at 64 telehealth studies, which covered seven different long term health conditions.  The majority of studies were for patients suffering with diabetes or heart failure/stroke.

In one heart failure case study, the use of telehealth was able to reduce the hospitalisation rate of effected patient by a massive 47.5%.  In one diabetes case study the cost of giving care to the patients was reduced by €650 per patient versus traditional care methods.  Not only did the diabetes case study reduce the healthcare costs, but it also reduced patient’s work absences. 

If you would like to view the whole presentation click here.

Really interesting Telehealth article looking at what the NHS can learn from the largest implementation of telehealth in the world – The U.S. Veteran’s Health Association (VHA)

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The methods used to implement changes such as the use of telehealth are a crucial factor for its success.

In 2011 around 50,000 VHA patients received telehealth services and this number looks set to rise, making this the largest implementation of telehealth worldwide.  These telehealth services are for designated individuals and populations across the USA.  Initially this programme’s focus was on the active management of chronic conditions and post traumatic stress disorder, however following this success it is moving into other areas such as obesity management.

Currently in the UK there are more than 15 million people who suffer from conditions that cannot be cured, but can be managed through medication.  As part of the Life Sciences program, 3 million people will be given access to telehealth technology in their homes.  The recently published Department of Health’s Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) Programme headline findings document shows how these patients can benefit from telecare.  It has been acknowledged that with many telehealth pilot projects currently running within the NHS, the overall approach is somewhat disjointed. 

There are a number of similarities between the VHA and NHS and it is with these similarities in mind where it is felt that the NHS could learn from the VHA’s telehealth experiences.  The table below, showing the potential scale and cost saving within key disease groups across the NHS, has been taken from the full report – Telehealth – What can the NHS learn from experience at the US Veterans Health Administration?  There is a lot of very useful and interesting information in this report – definitely worth a read!

 

An event not to miss if the care and treatment of patients with long term conditions is your area of interest

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On the 1st February 2012 at the prestigious QEII Conference Centre, close to The Houses of Parliament in London, the Long – Term Conditions 2012 Conference gets underway.  Come and see us on Stand 3.

A “not to be missed” event if you are a senior health and social care professional wanting to gain a comprehensive insight into Government plans for Long Term Care Conditions.

Long Term Conditions Conference at QEII Conference Centre, London 1st February 2012

Long Term Conditions Conference at QEII Conference Centre, London 1st February 2012

With around 350 senior clinical and service managers attending this year’s event, it’s a great opportunity to mingle, share views and discuss with your peers, how care for patients with long term conditions is taking shape.

MultiSense Communications will be there supporting the conference and demonstrating our technologies that can really make a difference by further improving care and outcomes, reducing costs and helping to improve Consultant’s and Clinician’s productivity. Our high performance technology enables remote face to face consultations using specialist camera technologies.

For full details of the conference see – the conference website - we look forward to seeing you there!