Telehealth and Telecare

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Created on 26 March 2014

Written by RJA

Hits: 119

A briefing by the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology of the Houses of Parliament describes current use of telecare and telehealth in the UK and looks at likely future developments in technology.

Overview:

• Telehealth (remote monitoring) and telecare (remote collection of patient data) are increasingly used in the care of the older people and those with long-term health problems.
• The Government has supported initiatives to assess the benefits of integrated care supported by telehealth and telecare.
• The largest of these showed a potential reduction in deaths among patients, but found that telehealth and telecare did not reduce use of social or health care.
• Evidence to date suggests that to be cost effective, telehealth and telecare would need to be implemented at a large scale.
• The success of telehealth and telecare will depend on doctors, patients and workers across a wide range of sectors.