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Med-e-tel Conference presentations

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:40:35 +0000

Organisers of the recent Med-e-tel Conference in Luxemburg have posted presentations and papers for your to browse. Med-e-tel website.

Vibrating insoles reduce chance of falling

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:54:01 +0000

A study published in the January issue of The Annals of Neurology reports that vibrating insoles allow diabetics with numb feet and stroke victims with uncertain balance to stand quietly without swaying and losing their balance. The random vibrations were so subtle that people did not have any conscious awareness of them. They provided their wearer’s wobbly balance system with missing information about how their stance was changing moment to moment. “Anything that decreases the risk of falling even by a few percent will have a tremendous impact on society” Professor Milton said.

News report.

PSA target on homecare, and European statistics on aging

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 17:58:01 +0000

1) Health and Social Care Information Centre publication provides information about the Public Service Agreement (PSA) on home care 2004/05. Data is provided at local authority level, to asses the progress being made towards the target. (The past three years have seen a steady increase in the proportion of older people receiving intensive help to live independently at home rather than in residential care.) More…

2) The trend toward ageing is most pronounced in Europe, which by 2025 will have eight of the 10 “oldest” populations—that is, percentage of people above age 60—among countries worldwide with at least 10 million people. Report on the statistics.

This is reportedly from a press release by the Alliance for Health and the Future although we cannot find it on its site. However, it’s a site that many of our readers will be interested to explore.

Chronic disability overestimated

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:11:18 +0000

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine report that the rates of chronic disability in older Americans have been substantially overestimated. Read more.

Two important publications reviewed

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:59:48 +0000

Review of two important publications of interest to people involved in both dementia care and in telecare implementation: The conference report Assistive Technology in Dementia Care and the evaluative report of the project Safe at Home.

Read the review (two pages, PDF).

Publisher’s website: www.careinfo.org/books/

E-health not reaching full potential, says study

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 10:28:22 +0000

Ian Jardine, independent consultant, member of TeHIP and co-author of the report The Impact of e-Health and Assistive Technologies on Healthcare said: “It’s important that the people understand the potential of e-health applications. They won’t do that until they start integrate that into their care pathways. [They] should not have to wait for infrastructure to be put in place by the National Programme for IT… There’s a lot of potential available now… We can do a lot in terms of home monitoring outside having a full electronic record.”

e-health-insider report

For the report itself (75 pages) follow the link at the bottom of the article.

Reliability of home monitoring device under question

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:22:24 +0000

Melissa J. Goalen, a nurse practitioner at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, tested more than 100 home-monitoring [blood pressure] devices and found that about 20 percent yielded measurements that were inaccurate. Read related article.

Fairer ways to share the cost of caring for older people needed

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 16:27:06 +0000

Joseph Rowntree Foundation report published 15 September calls for a national debate on how better to share the cost between the state and private individuals. It argues that the present system is unsustainable because it provides neither a clear-cut set of entitlements according to how much care people need, nor a well-accepted set of rules about how much they should contribute according to ability to pay. Find out more.

Home monitoring improves patients’ understanding of chronic conditions

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:35:31 +0000

A survey of 9,732 US patients using the Health Buddy appliance found that 86 percent say they better understand their medical condition and treatment and are better able to manage their chronic health conditions. Read more.

Distractions ‘hit ageing memory’

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:34:42 +0000

A team at the University of California, Berkeley, found that older people had no problems focusing on relevant information – but could not effectively shut out competing distractions. Read more.