NHS Tameside and Glossop trust, Tunstall Healthcare deploy telehealth service The U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) Tameside and Glossop primary care trust has joined with Tunstall Healthcare (Nørresundby, Denmark, and San Jose, CA) to deploy a fully managed telehealth service that is designed to provide care for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The service, introduced in February, is also designed to help the trust meet quality, innovation, productivity, and prevention (QIPP) service targets. The trust serves a population of about 240,000 people. During 2009-2010, heart failure and COPD resulted in 1,024 emergency hospital admissions for Tameside and Glossop — at a cost estimated by NHS at about £2.7 million ($4.4 million), a figure projected to rise to £3.5 million ($5.7 million) annually over the next 10 years, in part since the number of COPD patients is expected to increase by 16% over the period 2008-2020. Following the initial deployment, the trust will evaluate the pilot and could expand telehealth service to patients with heart failure. CONTACT: NHS Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust; Tunstall Healthcare Ford's in-car health monitoring effort includes a heart-monitoring seat No sooner has Ford Motor Company (Dearborn, MI) heralded the arrival of technology in its cars allowing people with diabetes to enter their health data [News Alert, May 24] than the auto giant's Ford European Research and Innovation Centre (Aachen, Germany) announced it has joined with Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University to develop a new car seat capable of measuring a driver's heart rate. The seat uses six special embedded sensors on the surface of the seat backrest to detect electrical impulses generated by the heart, with the electrodes specially designed to detect a driver's heartbeat through clothing. Data collected by the sensors can be analyzed by medical experts or on-board computer software. Dr. Achim Lindner, Ford European Research and Innovation Centre medical officer, said in a statement that possibilities for the heart monitoring system range from linking to remote medical services and to Ford vehicle safety systems; to providing real-time health information and alerts of imminent cardiovascular issues, such as a heart attack. CONTACT: Ford Motor Company; (video demonstration) STIC via telemedicine 'promising,' but not for exclusive use in pregnancy decisions Spatio-temporal image correlation (STIC) using telemedicine "is a promising modality, although not accurate enough for exclusive use, in clinical decision making regarding treatment, prognosis or termination of pregnancy," a research team concluded. The team from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at VU University Medical Center (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) sent 10 second trimester STIC volumes to three tertiary care centers with expertise in 4D echocardiography, with the goal of obtaining detailed prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease. Observers were asked to provide the diagnosis, the post-processing modalities used, the time spent on examination and to give a rating of the confidence for the diagnosis on a 5-point Likert scale. Results were compared to neonatal echocardiography or post-mortem findings. In two cases, all observers correctly diagnosed all details of the volume datasets. The observer with the best performance reached perfect agreement in six cases and nearly perfect agreement in three other cases. CONTACT: B.M. Adriaanse, VU University Medical Center, +31 (20) 44 44444 AMAC division wins $3M, three-year pharmaceutical communications contract The Telephony Based Communication Services division of American Medical Alert Corp. or AMAC (Oceanside, NY) won a three-year, $3 million pharmaceutical brand support and clinical contact communications contract for an undisclosed, Fortune 500 "internationally recognized, top 10 pharmaceutical manufacturer." AMAC said the award will entail end-to-end brand support communications for four brands. TBCS offers call center solutions designed to enhance the experience of patient-and-provider contact — part of AMAC's call center product portfolio, which includes traditional after hours-services, customized solutions based on a particular need, and clinical trial and recruitment programs. CONTACT: AMAC Austria's largest e-health provider joins EU-funded "Renewing Health" pilot project Telekom Austria Group (Vienna) said it will participate in the EU-funded pilot project "Renewing Health," which encompasses nine of Europe's most advanced regions in implementing information and communication technologies (ICT). The project is designed to improve the treatment and the quality of life of chronic patients suffering from diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) or cardiovascular diseases based on the implementation of telemedicine services. As ICT partner, Telekom Austria Group will provide broadband network infrastructure and monitoring equipment. Based on the company's DaMe telemedicine data network, patient data such as blood sugar level, blood pressure, and weight will be sent from home to the hospital in real-time, allowing medical staff to respond to changes in patients. The company will also provide the entire telemonitoring system, which encompasses blood sugar and blood pressure measuring devices, as well as electronic scales for people with diabetes, and an interactive voice response (IVR) platform for COPD patients. CONTACT: Telekom Austria Group; Renewing Health SHL Telemedicine gears up to launch 'smartheart' personal ECG SHL Telemedicine (Tel Aviv, Israel, and Zurich, Switzerland) later this year will roll out its "smartheart" lighter-than-iPhone personal electrocardiogram (ECG), along with an accompanying free app that connects to the wireless device. The smartheart will allow users to transmit hospital-grade ECG data through their smartphones to their doctor or cardiologist, then upload their images to an electronic health record (EHR) or hospital for a real-time diagnosis. The smartheart device, priced at $500, can be used with iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry smartphones. "We are planning to introduce smartheart to the market by the upcoming fall," Erez Alroy, co-CEO of SHL, said in a statement. CONTACT: SHL Telemedicine Australian general practitioners group wins A$567K for telehealth standards, training The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners will receive A$567,000 ($599,748.35) from Australia's national government to develop telehealth standards and training, ahead of the July 1 launch of new rebates for online consultations via the country's Medicare system. The college said a new set of clinical and technological standards will be needed to define at least the minimum requirements for establishing and operating telehealth facilities. Those standards should include general practitioners (GPs) and practice staff learning how to set up, operate and maintain the technologies, and how to effectively achieve the best patient outcomes, according to the GP group. Australia has projected it could save more than A$3 billion (about $3.2 billion) annually through widespread adoption of telemedicine — if Medicare reimbursements were expanded beyond face-to-face videoconferencing. Also being funded by the national government is the Health Informatics Society of Australia, which obtained A$38,500 ($40,960.17) toward a telehealth conference. CONTACT: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Aetna launches self-management texting program for people with diabetes Aetna (Hartford, CT) has launched a texting program to help members diagnosed with diabetes control their condition and avoid complications more easily and successfully. Members who agree to participate in the short message service (SMS) program, developed with Silverlink Communications (Burlington, MA), will receive educational text messages and reminders about diabetes screenings and tests, medications, tips on healthy eating and exercising and general health information. The diabetes texting program is available initially to a limited number of members who have Aetna medical, pharmacy and disease management benefits. Members who sign-up will receive short text-based messages on their mobile devices over three months. Members will be evaluated on how well they follow four best-practice measures of diabetes management: Receive regular A1C screenings which measures blood glucose levels; Receive an annual LDL screening which shows the level of bad cholesterol and cardiovascular risk; Follow instructions for taking medications; and Enroll in a disease management, nurse and health coaching program. CONTACT: Aetna; Silverlink Communications
Joel E. Barthelemy, Founder and Managing Director of GlobalMedia Group (Scottsdale, AZ), has been appointed as the new Chair of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Industry Council…Tommy G. Thompson, J.D., former governor of Wisconsin and secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has been appointed chairman of the board of Stayhealthy…Jeff Wasserman has been named VP of strategy and executive leadership services at Culbert Healthcare Solutions (Woburn, MA)…Awarepoint (San Diego, CA) expanded its senior management team, naming Ralph Keiser, former senior VP at MedeAnalytics (Emeryville, CA), as executive VP of sales and Jaime Ojeda, M.SE., former VP of sales and business development at Patient Care Technology Systems (Charlotte, NC), as executive VP of marketing and business development…Nav Ranaje has been named director of healthcare markets at CoreLink Data Centers (Mount Prospect, IL)…Brendan Hannigan, former president and COO of Q1 Labs (Waltham, MA), has been named CEO of the company…Bill Scarnato, former executive VP of West Hudson (Dallas, TX), has been named managing director of business development at MedSynergies (Irving, TX)…John K. Gillberry, M.B.A., one of the board of directors of WiLAN (Ottawa, ON), has been appointed CFO and executive VP of QHR Technologies (Kelowna, BC)…Thomas A. Bologna, M.B.A., president and CEO of Orchid Cellmark (Dayton, OH), has been named to the Board of Directors of Aperio (Vista, CA).
June 21, 2011 - Boston MA More Info July 11-12, 2011 – San Diego, CA More Info To showcase your event here, please email us at events@telemedicinealerts.com
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