Telecare Aware has moved – see below

Partners HealthCare has placed American TeleCare Monitoring Stations in hundreds of homes and cut hospital re-admissions for its heart-failure patients by 33 percent. In Brooklyn, N.Y., Coney Island Hospital gave similar devices to 69 asthmatic kids who had been hospitalized at least once a month during the previous winter, and during the next winter all but one avoided the hospital completely. Across the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been testing these appliances in the homes of patients with diabetes and lung diseases as well as heart failure; it has found a 35 percent reduction in re-admissions and a 60 percent drop in emergency visits. “Plus we get 90 percent patient satisfaction ratings,” says physician Adam Darkins, the VA’s chief consultant for care coordination. “That’s why we’ll have these devices in 12,500 homes by the end of this year.”

One of the best descriptions in a while of the benefits of telehealth devices at home.

Dementia-care oriented system. Press release.

“”I wasn’t too confident at first about the entire thing, but a 10-year-old could do this!” said MacDow. “I also like the fact that I can keep track myself of things like my blood pressure and know how I’m doing every day.” Descriptive article about telehealth monitoring in action.

Hawaiian researchers report faster infection recovery with lower resource usage thanks to telemedicine device. Read more.

Lifeline Systems, Inc., the leading provider of personal response services in the United States and Canada, announced it has acquired in a cash transaction substantially all the assets of privately held Care Technologies, Inc. Read more here.

Four of this week’s more interesting telehealth-related postings.

South American-European link-ups

Wide-ranging Australian report on South American-European links for telehealth initiatives. Click here to read.

“We have to come up with ways of using technology to simplify technology”

From virtual communities on the Web to remote medication monitoring, technology is something that can be used to empower the elderly. Pittsburgh conference report.

Telehealth a virtual success

Home computer monitoring of patients saves $1 million and cuts hospital visits in a pilot program. “Telemedicine” has shown such promise in curbing health costs that state lawmakers are crafting legislation to fund home telehealth programs statewide.
Reported in the Denver Post

Are your ankles more or less swollen today?

In Nebraska, patients questioned about the state of their health. Click here.

Brief summary of Home Telehealth’s Newham project. Read more.

Engineers at Loughborough University have devised a mobile phone that easily receive, collate and send a person’s ECG and other vital signs and send them directly to clinicians, eliminating the need for large, fixed, telecare systems in patients’ homes. Read on.