Barnsley telehealth service monitors heart failure patients in the home
28 March 2006
Barnsley, UK. Barnsley Hospital is trialling an innovative telehealth
service that will monitor the health of 40 chronic heart failure patients in
their homes over 12 months. It is part of an innovative drive to develop new
ways of helping people stay in their own homes and to respond to the growing
need for better management of patients with long term conditions. The trial
will evaluate whether the service is beneficial for both the patient and
service providers.
The
trial will use Docobo’s doc@HOME remote monitoring telehealth service.
Patients use a hand-held device in their own homes to answer a range of
pertinent health and quality of life questions. This is supplemented with
medical parameters including blood pressure and weight on a daily basis.
Analysis of this data is performed automatically by the system and the
website reviewed by the CHF team. Where issues of concern are apparent
patients are telephoned, advice given and medication changed where required.
Additionally, if the telephone intervention is not successful then a member
of the CHF team (joint hospital and PCT) will visit the patient in their
home.
Potentially this approach could reduce hospital re-admissions, enable
earlier hospital discharge, and provide improved personalised services to
patients. Initial findings have been promising with service user and
provider satisfaction high. Consultant Cardiologist Dr Basil Saeed states
that “this research is potentially very valuable and is a compliment to the
heart failure services which we have been working on for the last 3 years or
so."
Over the 12-month pilot study, in addition to the 40 systems in use, the
Barnsley research team have recruited a control group with 20 patients to
enable comparison with similar people who do not receive the doc@home
system. Analysis will then take place and the findings disseminated over the
next 18 months. If the research proves successful the aim is to bring this
method of care into mainstream use.
The research is led by the Medical Physics department at Barnsley
Hospital, Prof Mark Hawley says “we believe these systems could provide
improved ways of offering patient led services and are excited about their
potential. This study will enable us to understand any benefits to patients
and providers as we look to manage the increasing challenge of an ageing
population and subsequent rise in those with Long Term Conditions. doc@HOME
offered a practical and easy to use solution.”
Adrian Flowerday, CEO of Docobo comments: “The team at Barnsley are one
of the first in the UK to equip a significant number of patients with
telehealth, and their careful and practical approach to the project is both
innovative and bold. We look forward to dissemination of the results and
continuing to work with Barnsley over the coming months.”
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