Pathfinder Consortia Are Already Using Telehealth

Red House Group, Ealing Commissioning Consortium and more are using ‘telehealth’ to reduce costs, improve care and bring clinicians and patients closer together.

Telehealth is the use of computer or mobile technology to share health information, like a patient in the home using a small iPad-like device to send vital signs to a nurse.

Experts claim telehealth can reduce costs and improve service quality everywhere from general practice to community outreach screening.

Telehealth Solutions Ltd is a London-based firm that’s shaping telehealth to help every part of the NHS, in almost every aspect of care.

For example, their ‘HomePod’ can be used to reduce hospital admissions by monitoring long-term condition patients in the home.

Or their ‘SurgeryPod’, a self-service kiosk that patients can use to measure vital signs, take clinical questionnaires and send the results to their GP.

The core idea of eliminating barriers between service users and providers is being applied everywhere from occupational health to community outreach.

One study estimated that home telehealth saved some £180,000 in half a year, comparing users and non-users hospital costs over a 6 month period.

Another study argues a SurgeryPod can save some practices up to 37 hours a week by reducing the time required for routine measurements and questionnaires.

Telehealth Solutions’ Chairman, Jeremy Cummin wondered, ‘Are consortia more forward-thinking than PCTs? I don’t think anyone can say yet.

‘I do believe that the NHS and the public have been handed a very difficult situation, and we need to find creative ways of progressing, that don’t impinge on patient care.

‘Telehealth reduces costs and improves health outcomes, but most important are the lives it saves – and that’s why every smart GP consortium is already using telehealth’

Posted on Thursday, 09 December 2010 under Home Pod