IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The 3millionlives campaign will roll out the initiative over the next five years.

Care services minister Paul Burstow also unveiled a concordat – designed as an enabling framework - between the Department and the telehealth and telecare sector at a Parliamentary reception.

In the debate, MSPs agreed that Scotland should establish national-scale telehealth services, and that Health Boards should be subject to targets that mainstream the use of telehealth in patient care. They also recognised that innovation through technology will be vital in delivering Scotland's 2020 Vision for health and social care.

The site will act as a new searchable resource for all those working in, or with interest in the field, of telehealth, say its creators – the Scottish Centre for Telehealth & Telecare – across geographic area, organisation, users and technology.

The database will grow over time and will help stakeholders review the uptake of technology used to enable the delivery of care, promises the Centre.

The Scottish government has announced that it will spend £10m on a four year scheme designed to help get telehealth systems, which aid treatment of health conditions within patients' homes, used more widely. The Scottish Assisted Living Demonstrator programme will involve about 10,000 people, both the elderly and those with disabilities.

Scottish doctors are assessing child patients via video link in a move designed to cut down on the rising number of over-anxious parents clogging up A&E departments with children who do not require emergency treatment.

Four NHS health boards have taken part in a pilot project that saw GPs and doctors in rural and community hospitals contacting an on-call paediatric consultant via video conferencing who then assessed a child.

NHS 24 is reminding people of the huge range of health advice and information available at their fingertips at www.nhsinform.co.uk The online resource includes an extensive online health library, packed with information about common illnesses, treatments and health services. Users can search alphabetically by health subject, age and gender or by accessing a ‘body map.’

As per experts, the proposed Telehealth system will probably safeguard in excess of £1,000 per patient annual expenditure. However, the watchdog claimed that the project was mainly overlooked by NHS boards.

The Telehealth system is fabricated to offer electronic healthcare in remote areas, especially those which are a bit too hard-to-reach.

A pilot project delivered significant improvements in attendance figures to outpatient clinics.

The initiative, in which NHS 24 staff called patients in advance to remind them of appointments, is now set to be extended and will involve patients being contacted eight days before the appointment to remind them of the details.

The eHealth team worked alongside clinical staff to create a programme that would allow a universal view of a patient’s record.

The system, which, is called the Clinical Portal System, allows all clinicians in Tayside, whether working in primary or secondary care, to securely access one virtual record for their patients.

Digital channels can be used “to safeguard precious face-to-face services” and drive up access and accessibility, Crooks said at the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare conference in Edinburgh last week.

“We are not about bringing about the death knell of face-toface care. Face-to-face care will always be important…but we need to plan how we deliver services in the future and exploit all channels of delivery,” he said.

The aim is to encourage 10,000 or more older adults living in the pilot areas to take part in the DALLAS (Delivering Assisted Lifestyles At Scale) initiative. The programme will examine the use of new technologies to support people in their own homes and find out which innovative products, systems and services work best.

Cabinet Secretary for Health Nicola Sturgeon said: “Supporting people to live independently at home is a key priority for the Scottish Government. It is what older people have consistently said they want and we know it is generally better for people’s health to remain at home wherever that’s possible.

Scotland Excel, the procurement body for Scottish councils, said authorities would use their new telecare framework to help disabled people, people with mental health problems, older people, and other vulnerable patients to live more independently.

A report from Audit Scotland has stated that using systems such as mobile phones, the internet, videoconferencing and self-monitoring tools could facilitate efficient delivery of care and create much-needed savings for the health service.

Around 70 small initiatives around Scotland have identified benefits to this new system, while the recent launch of a new e-health strategy - coupled with the merger of the Scottish Centre for Telehealth into NHS 24 - will aid the development of services.

The move, which is expected to cut costs and deliver care to prisoners held in remote parts of Scotland, is being rolled out by the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare.

Though only a few thousand patients benefit currently from telehealth services in the UK, this number is likely to rise quickly and substantially. A Department of Health announcement on Thursday suggested that telehealth could bring significant benefits, and advocated the use of health and social care technologies to enhance "three million lives" in the UK.

As the largest element of the healthcare workforce, nurses are at the frontline of any changes to the way in which care is delivered. The profession therefore needs to be aware of the impact it can have, and ensure that it plays a part in shaping the inevitable scaling-up of this approach to healthcare delivery.

The automated Telehealth system calls patients twice a week to ask them about their symptoms, and responses are sent to a team of doctors who can pay a home visit if they are concerned.

A joint Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust study found that using this system, on average, 25 admissions to hospital could be avoided every month, saving around 1,800 beds and £900,000 a year.

Airedale telemedicineAiredale NHS Foundation Trust in the Yorkshire Dales has won a contract to provide medial advice and diagnosis over a video link to the Isle of Wight prisons.

The telemedicine system enables officers in the prison to have direct access to doctors in A&E and other specialist area to discuss things such as break or a bad cut, or even for the prisoner to a doctor in Airedale the affected area.

Airedale Hospital will provide its groundbreaking video link facilities to Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight.

The jail once housed infamous killers including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Moors Murderer Ian Brady and the Kray twins.

The telehealth system was introduced in Swindon in 2008 and has allowed medical staff to care for people with chronic or complex conditions in their own homes.

The Trust introduced a telehealth programme to manage patients living with long-term conditions such as COPD, chronic heart failure (CHF) and diabetes. These accounted for 17% of emergency admission episodes in 2011-12, costing a total of £3.4m, with COPD noted as the most costly.