WSDAN Progress
Nick Goodwin
This month in WSDAN Progress we reflect on a recent King’s Fund conference examining the issue of sustaining innovations in telehealth and telecare, and we report on the founding of the Whole System Demonstrator’s Evidence Review Group.
Sustaining innovations in telehealth and telecare: conference report
On 9 July 2009, as part of its series of seminars and workshops on the management of long-term conditions, The King’s Fund hosted a conference on ‘Sustaining innovations in telehealth and telecare’. The event was held at the offices of Microsoft in London and was co-sponsored by NHS Direct.
Professor James Barlow from Imperial College, London, provided the keynote address. His paper examined the current uptake of remote care in the UK. He showed that key problems – such as the lack of a reliable evidence base from which to make robust business models – had meant that few telecare applications had progressed beyond trial or pilot phases, leaving only small pockets of excellence. Professor Barlow concluded that there was no quick fix to this problem.
Other presentations at the conference focused on ways in which commissioners embrace new technologies and on how GPs and patients can be supported to utilise such technologies – for example, in enabling supported self-care. Stephen Davies, Head of Long Term Conditions at the Department of Health, provided an update on the lessons being learned from the WSD pilots.
The presentations from the event are now available in our past events archive.
Founding of Whole System Demonstrator’s evidence review group
Under the leadership of Professor Stan Newman, WSDAN has teamed up with the main WSD pilot evaluation team at the University College London to establish an ‘evidence review group’ dedicated to examining and reporting on the nature of the evidence base for telehealth and telecare.
This group brings together a range of existing studies examining mobile technologies; heart failure; diabetes; and the impact on carers – but also includes an update by James Barlow and colleagues examining the wider evidence base. WSDAN will seek to work with this group to publish a set of briefing papers on the evidence base – ‘translating’ the academic research into practical guidance for commissioners and practitioners and others seeking to build a business case for investments in new technologies.
Nick Goodwin is Senior Fellow, The King’s Fund and co-project lead for WSDAN