WSDAN Progress: WSDAN Roadshow February 2010

On 11 February, WSDAN hosted its sixth event in the current series at the Hilton Hotel, Stansted.

Tim Ellis (WSD Programme Manager) provided an update(2625 kb) on the WSD programme and answered some of the most frequently asked questions. The programme will continue through 2010, with each participant in the intervention and control groups being followed up after 12 months.

Professor Jane Gilliard gave a presentation on telecare and dementia (658 kb) to an audience of 85 people from healthcare organisations, local authorities, housing associations, suppliers, academics and third sector organisations. She highlighted some of the findings of a recent ‘Bridging the Gap’ workshop in London.

Professor Stan Newman revisited his previous presentation in Manchester on the hierarchy of evidence (342 kb) . He introduced his colleague, Anna Davies (also from University College London), who summarised some of the important aspects of evaluation quality. Anna reviewed a recent paper by TS Bergmo: ‘Can economic evaluation in telemedicine be trusted? A systematic review of the literature’ (www.resource-allocation.com/content/7/1/18). She also reviewed an unpublished thesis on a social care study looking at the impact of telemedicine on caregivers: Russ L (2006): ‘The effect of home-monitoring technology on reducing burden in caregivers of older adults with disabilities’.

David Ellis and Jennifer Francis from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) trailed the forthcoming publication on telecare and ethics(311 kb) in a breakout session and obtained some early feedback on the preparation of a telehealth report. In another breakout session, Michael Dillon, with support from Philips and Egton Medical Information Systems (EMIS), carried out a demonstration on capturing telehealth data in the GP's electronic care record(6790 kb) . Also, Rob Chesters presented some of the work being carried out in the West Midlands on telecare, telehealth and partnership working with stakeholders.

Representing NHS Norfolk and Norfolk County Council, Wendy Hardicker reported on the county’s extensive work on telecare, telehealth and integrated working (442 kb) . Heather Ballard, from the strategic health authority, placed telecare and telehealth in the context of providing support and services (1444 kb) for people with long-term conditions.

Slides from the Stansted event, and all previous Roadshows, can be downloaded from our past events pages.