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Showing results for tags 'Telehealth'.
Found 54 results
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News Article
Dentists warn of permanent damage from clear braces ordered online
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Dentists have told the BBC that demand for Instagram smiles has left people with damage from wearing clear braces or "aligners" ordered online. One man said aligners weakened his front teeth, leaving him unable to bite into an apple. Smile Direct Club, the largest company selling clear aligners remotely, says they straighten teeth faster and cheaper than traditional braces. Its aligners have been successful for the majority of users, it says. But some dentists and orthodontists believe customers of so-called remote dentistry are unaware of harm that can be caused by aligners if not fitted by a dentist in person. The General Dental Council (GDC), responsible for regulating UK dentists, says for some cases remote dentistry can be "provided safely". It urges consumers to consult its guidelines. However, Dr Crouch of the BDA believes such guidelines are insufficient compared with "rules and regulation to protect patients". Otherwise, dentists will be left picking up the pieces when "patients have undergone wholly inappropriate treatment". The UK's health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) announced last summer any company providing remote orthodontic services will have to register with it. Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 January 2023 -
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Content ArticleThe practice of video consulting was equivocal. Accounts of, and preferences for, video consulting varied as did the extent to which it was sustained after initial take-up. People made sense of video consulting in different ways, ranging from interpreting video as offering a new modality of healthcare for the future to a sub-optimal, temporary alternative to in-person care. Despite these variations, video consulting became a recognisable social phenomenon, albeit neither universally adopted nor consistently sustained. The nature of this social change offers new perspectives on processes of implementation and spread and scale-up. The findings have important implications for the future of video consulting. The authors emphasise the necessity for viable material arrangements and a continued shared interpretation of the meaning of video consulting for the practice to continue.
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Content ArticleThe involvement and understanding of the end user is pivotal to the success of any digital health solution, intervention and initiative. Healthcare companies and start ups can improve adoption by engaging members of the healthcare community and the public in creating better digital healthcare systems that will improve access to care, are more inclusive, augment existing systems and address the real immediate issues. Integrate technology into the overall patient journey, focus on improving the existing system and address the immediate challenges. Ensure relevance and suitability by co-designing the systems with the users, patients, care teams, and the other stakeholders if they will be involved in the care delivery process. Focus on the clinical specification of the disease while designing the tools. Develop an inclusive design with the help of the consumers to ensure all the pain points are addressed. Minimise selection bias by including marginalised community segments to ensure inclusivity. Implement comprehensive training and provide continuous technical support and improvement. Extend patient education beyond digital literacy to include health literacy to promote and encourage healthy behaviour in society. Incorporate training of caregivers and family members to promote better disease management. Include care teams and clinicians in the training and support programmes to ensure that key player understands how best to use the tools and data-driven systems. Ensure health data is stored and shared securely and ethically Include transparent data policies in the overall project guidelines that are available to the patients. Educate the patients so they understand when and how to give consent to information sharing. Develop comprehensive, transparent, and inclusive policies and guidelines promoting equal access. Encourage reimbursement schemes of digital tools and virtual care. Built-in flexible financial and payment models to reduce the cost of care.
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Event
The Tipping Point of Virtual Care and Rise of Personal Health Data
Clive Flashman posted a calendar event in Community Calendar
untilThis webinar will explore virtual care and the use of patient health data through remote patient monitoring. In the UK and US alike, COVID-19 has accelerated the dramatic shift towards utilising digital health services and tools to virtually connect with and care for patients. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) offers providers the opportunity to remotely collect and utilise patients’ personal health data, such as data from their home-use medical devices and wearables, within care delivery efforts. These personal health data are providing deeper insight into patients’ physiologic health metrics, lifestyle decisions and behavioural trends while replacing the clinical data previously collected in-person. As health care organisations need to quickly scale virtual care to thousands of patients, clear best practices and lessons learned have emerged. This episode will deep-dive into the successful operations of the largest, centralised RPM programme, supporting over 3000 clinicians and more than 50,000 enrolled patients. We’ll delve into the most basic and complex challenges around patient-generated health data, patient consent, enrollment workflows, device logistics, patient and provider engagement, and more. This webinar will explore: Core operations and technologies to a holistic virtual care strategy The clinical outcomes, patient and provider satisfaction, and efficiencies created with RPM Best practices in digital health operations, data integration, analytics, and engagement A model and framework for scaling virtual care and RPM to thousands of patients quickly A CPD certificate with 1 CPD credit will be issued to those joining the webinar live as well as those who watch the recording afterwards. Certificates will be issued 7 days after the webinar to those who watch it live and after 30 days for those that watch the recording. Join in the conversation online using #RSMDigiHealthBook hereFollow us on Twitter: @RoySocMed Book here -
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Care home tele-triage reduces A&E attendances (October 2019)
Claire Cox posted an article in AHSNs
This page by the Academic Health Science Network includes a case study and a video demonstrating the triage in action -
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Telecare and telehealth - Age UK
Claire Cox posted an article in Telecare
What will I learn? What is telehealth? How could telehealth help me? What is telecare? How could telecare help me? How to get telecare products and services What do I need to consider when buying telecare products? What should I do next? -
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GP telephone first system 'here to stay' in Northern Ireland
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A phone first system adopted by most GP surgeries at the start of the pandemic is "here to stay", the Royal College of GPs (RCGPs) in Northern Ireland has said. However, the RCGP has also accepted patient access needs to improve. The system was introduced in spring 2020. According to GPs, the move, which came without either consultation or prior information, was necessary to minimise the risk of infection of Covid-19. Two years on, there is concern among some members of the public that the system is not working. Speaking to BBC News NI, Dr Ursula Mason accepted that the system wasn't working but said there were not enough GPs to see people. She added that the telephone system, which was being "refined" and "improved" was the best way to manage "growing demand" and to "prioritise the sickest patients to be seen first". "The telephone system allows us to see many more patients, to deal with demand in a better way so I think the telephone system is here to stay," added Dr Mason. "There will be some changes to upgrade it, but it will form a significant part of how we manage demand." -
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Government must allow at home early medical abortions, MPs warn
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government must stop treating women “like children” and permanently allow at home early medical abortions, MPs and health professionals have said. Abortion rules changed after Covid hit the UK in March 2020, with the government allowing abortion pills to be sent via post to be taken at home after a phone consultation. The new system - referred to as “telemedicine” - was due to run out on 25 March but the government declared a six-month extension for at home early medical abortions earlier in the month. MPs are now set to vote on whether to make telemedicine abortion services permanent on Wednesday. Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), told The Independent: “We welcome the vote. MPs have the opportunity to prevent the recriminalisation of women who use Stella Creasy, a Labour MP and campaigner for abortion rights, is one of many MPs calling for telemedicine abortion services to be made permanent. “Despite the best attempts to scare, telemedicine has been shown to be safe, secure and preferable for many patients for a variety of reasons - it’s time to trust women and ensure they can make the right choices for themselves when it comes to their own medical care”, she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 March 2022 -
News ArticleJust 1 in 10 patients preferred face-to-face GP appointments during the Covid pandemic, with most requesting telephone consultations instead, according to research carried out on behalf of NHS England. The Improvement Analytics Unit (IAU) – a partnership between NHS England and think-tank the Health Foundation – looked at data from 146 England GP practices using the askmyGP online consultation system between March 2019 and September 2021, examining over 7.5 million patient-initiated consultation requests. During the pandemic, GPs suffered a backlash from the media, Government and NHS England over accusations that general practice was closed and GPs were not seeing patients face-to-face. GP leaders suggested that NHS England needed to take the research into account and allow practices to decide their own way of working. The research found that: Before the pandemic, 30% of patients requests specified a face-to-face consultation, dropping to less than 4% at the beginning of the pandemic. But by the end of the study period in September 2021, only 10% of patients requests were for face-to-face GP appointments. Telephone consultations were the most popular option, making up over half (55%) of patient requests in 2020/21. However, less than 1% of patients preferred a video consultation, according to the data. IAU head at the Health Foundation Arne Wolters said: ‘Our analysis shows that patients often choose remote over face-to-face consultations and that GP practices can mitigate the risk of digital exclusion via a blended approach.’ He said that ‘traditional routes to accessing and delivering care’ had been ‘offered alongside an online option and, in planning care, practices were able to take account of factors such as patients’ age, frequency of use, clinical needs and preferences’, at the studied practices." And he added: ‘With patient demand at an all-time high due to the care backlog Read full story Source: Pulse, 18 March 2022
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Face-to-face GP appointments fall despite plea to ‘restore routine service’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Face-to-face GP appointments have continued to fall, despite a rallying cry for doctors to restore normal services. The proportion of GP appointments held in person fell for the third month in a row to 60.3% in January, latest data show. Data published by NHS Digital on Thursday show about 25.6 million appointments were carried out in January. Of these, some 15.4 million were face-to-face. The last time it fell below this level was August 2021, when just 57.6% of appointments were face-to-face. Pre-pandemic, the proportion of GP appointments held in person was about 80%. Dr Nikki Kanani, NHS England’s medical director of primary care, told doctors last month to “restore routine service” following the successful rollout of the booster jab campaign. Writing to GPs, she said: “It is now important that all services across the NHS, including in primary care, are able to restore routine services where these were paused in line with the Prime Minister’s request to focus all available resource on the omicron national mission.” But patient groups say the “situation hasn’t improved” and patients are still struggling to see their doctor in person. Dennis Reed, from patient group Silver Voices, said the figures were “worrying” but not surprising. “I'm still getting complaints on a daily basis that people are struggling to see their GP,” he said. Read full story Source: The Telegraph, 24 February 2022 -
News Article
NHS to treat 25,000 hospital patients at home in ‘virtual wards’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS plans to treat up to 25,000 hospital patients at home in “virtual wards” to help clear the backlog caused by the pandemic, the “living with Covid” plan has revealed. Patients will be offered acute clinical care at home, including remote monitoring and treatment, as an alternative to hospital stays. Consultants or GPs will review patients daily via digital platforms and phone calls. In some cases, patients will be provided with a wearable device to continuously monitor and report their vital signs. The NHS has set a national target of 40 to 50 virtual beds per 100,000 population, which equates to about 25,000 beds across England, according to the “living with Covid” plan published this week. The document said: “The use of ‘virtual wards’ and ‘hospital at home’ models of care have ensured that patients can be safely cared for in their own homes and that additional bed capacity can be freed up in hospitals.” Commenting on the initial rollout of virtual wards, Dr Tim Cooksley, the president of the Society for Acute Medicine, warned a “hasty” rollout could risk patient safety. He said: “Virtual wards do have the potential to be a model of the future. However, it is essential they are appropriately planned, resourced and staffed so they simply cannot be seen as a short-term mitigation measure which can be hastily rolled out mid-pandemic. Incorrect implementation could risk patient safety and significantly impact clinician and patient confidence.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Telegraph, 22 February 2022 -
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Content ArticleThe analysis found that: only a minority of patient requests for care stated a preference for a face-to-face consultation – falling from 30% of requests before the pandemic to less than 4% at the start of the pandemic. While requests for face-to-face consultations did increase after that, they only accounted for 10% of requests by the end of the study period in September 2021.the increasing use of online consultations systems cause concern about the risk of digital tools creating inequalities by making it difficult for some patients to access care.digital exclusion can be overcome if GP services use a blended approach to booking and consultations.
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ECRI: Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2022
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in International patient safety
ECRI's top 10 list of patient safety concerns: Staffing shortages. COVID-19 effects on healthcare workers’ mental health. Bias and racism in addressing patient safety. Vaccine coverage gaps and errors. Cognitive biases and diagnostic error. Nonventilator healthcare-associated pneumonia. Human factors in operationalizing telehealth. International supply chain disruptions. Products subject to emergency use authorisation. Telemetry monitoring. -
Content ArticleClick on video above or view here.
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Content ArticleThe dataset included interviews and focus groups with 121 participants from primary care (33 patients, 55 GPs, 11 other clinicians, nine managers, four support staff, four national policymakers, five technology industry). The results found, with few exceptions, video consultations were either never adopted or soon abandoned in general practice despite a strong policy push, short-term removal of regulatory and financial barriers, and advances in functionality, dependability, and usability of video technologies (though some products remained ‘fiddly’ and unreliable). The relative advantage of video was perceived as minimal for most of the caseload of general practice, since many presenting problems could be sorted adequately and safely by telephone and in-person assessment was considered necessary for the remainder. Some patients found video appointments convenient, appropriate, and reassuring but others found a therapeutic presence was only achieved in person. Video sometimes added value for out-of-hours and nursing home consultations and statutory functions (for example, death certification). The authors of the study concluded that efforts to introduce video consultations in general practice should focus on situations where this modality has a clear relative advantage (for example, strong patient or clinician preference, remote localities, out-of-hours services, nursing homes).
