Speaking at the King’s Fund’s three-day conference on the subject in London this week, care services minister Paul Burstow said results of a trial into the use of these assistive technologies were ‘staggering’.
They allow doctors to remotely monitor patients with long-term conditions via electronic equipment installed in patients’ homes.
Figures from the Department of Health-funded Whole Systems Demonstrator Project, which evaluates the role of assistive technologies in health and social care, were released in January.
Among them was a 45% difference in the mortality rate between those using telehealth and the control group, a figure that Burstow called “quite unexpected and truly extraordinary”.
Other headline results from the trial - which has taken place over the last three years, involving 6,000 patients and more than 200 GP practices in Cornwall, Kent and Newham - are:
- 20% fall in emergency admissions
- 15% fewer visits to A&E
- 14% fewer elective admissions
- 14% fewer bed days
- 8% reduction in tariff costs.
Research challenges government
But the government’s confidence was challenged by new analysis of its pilot scheme, which suggested that the cost per QALY gained was high at £88,000.
Pulse quotes Catherine Hendersen, research officer at the London School of Economics - who was speaking at the same conference – saying: “It is unlikely that telehealth is cost effective in terms of improving quality of life, in relation to a NICE threshold of £30,000.”
And even when research models reduced equipment cost by 80% or assumed full utilisation of the programme, there was still only a 40% chance the scheme would be cost effective at a threshold of £30,000.
“The widespread adoption of telehealth and telecare as part of an integrated care plan will mean better quality of care and greater independence for people with long-term conditions,” Burstow insisted.
“Delivered from the front line it could save the NHS up to £1.2 billion over five years,” he added.
However, he acknowledged it is expensive. “This stuff doesn’t come for free,” Burstow said. “Whatever the long term savings, there are some substantial initial costs.”
He admitted there were also technical issues to deal with, “such as a general lack of interoperability and confusion over incentives”.
Whatever the problems, the government is committed to extending telehealth and telecare over the next five years to reach three million patients.
Despite the Department of Health’s enthusiasm, utilisation is low at the moment, with only around 5,000 telehealth users and 1.5 million pieces of telecare technology in use in England.
The International Telehealth and Telecare Congress is organised by the King’s Fund and the University Medical Center Utrecht and aims to share best practice in this area.
Other speakers included Professor Stan Newman, principal investigator on the Whole Systems Demonstrator Project.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Adam Hill
Quelle/Source: InPharm, 09.03.2012
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
