The Telehealth project, a partnership between Argyll and Bute Council and NHS Highland, was singled out at the eWell-Being Awards 2010 in Leeds.
Telehealth was one of five initiatives shortlisted in the ‘Independent Living’ category, which recognises Information Community Technology (ICT)based projects which enable elderly people or those with disabilities to have a better quality of life in their homes and/or avoid hospitalisation or involuntary changes of residence.
In the end, a project from the Isle of Wight was chosen as the winner, with Argyll and Bute a close second.
Telehealth is based around the ‘Home Pod’ device, which gathers information from a patient and then sends it either by wireless broadband or the telephone system to a server, where it can be monitored by a clinician.
Councillor Donald McIntosh, Argyll and Bute’s spokesperson for Social Service, was delighted by the project’s success.
“Telehealth recognises that people in some of Scotland’s more remote and rural areas face particular challenges in managing their long-term conditions and staying well in their homes for longer,” he said.
“It can obviously be a major upheaval, sometimes involving a helicopter, to get these people to hospital so it is imperative that we do everything we can to avoid any unnecessary admissions. Our solution is the Home Pod.”
The Pod enables remote monitoring of the patients’ vital signs and provides answers to some condition-specific questions, all of which are transferred in a secure way to a server which local nurses can access. In this way, it aims to empower patients to be part of their own condition management.
“Of those Pod users who were asked if the device had made a difference to how they looked after themselves, 86% said that it had,” Councillor McIntosh said.
“We are delighted that its success has now been recognised in such prestigious national awards. More than 120 projects demonstrating the innovative use of ICT for social improvement were entered, and only one other Scottish council was among the 43 organisations shortlisted. So it’s fantastic that we have featured so prominently, and we look forward to further partnership working with NHS Highland for the benefit of the people of Argyll and Bute.”
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Quelle/Source: Argyll Free Press, 05.07.2010
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