Telecare eNewsletter February 2015
Welcome to the February 2015 newsletter from Innovate UK (previously Technology Strategy Board), Knowledge Transfer Network and the Telecare Learning and Improvement Network.
Launched October 2005, our free monthly newsletter is now distributed to 48,000 subscribers in the UK and worldwide via e-mail and archived at www.telecarelin.org.uk. You can also find highlights on Rebelmouse (daily) or by following Mike Clark on Twitter (@clarkmike). With over 1500 news and event links over the last month, we hope that you find this newsletter useful.
It's time for the final health and care announcements before the election (eg dementia policy and plans to 2020) and commentators are starting to think about how health and care services will be led based on different possible government configurations from May 2015. Whatever happens at the national level, the Better Care Fund Plans, Care Act, new care model (vanguard) sites and various other initiatives will continue. These will now, undoubtedly, be influenced by the announcement in Manchester of a £6bn integrated health and care programme (10 local authorities and 12 CCGs covering 2.7m population). The extent to which technology and big data will support health and social care programmes over the next year is unclear - care.data has not got off the ground yet, Tech Fund 2 announcements are yet to be formally made (and much of the potential funding appears to have been lost), progress on integrated digital care records is patchy so is access to online patient records, use of Skype and e-mail by GP practices. There are only a limited number of examples of mHealth, digital health, telehealth and telemedicine at scale in the UK compared with other countries. Meanwhile, the technology moves on apace with more smartphones, tablets, sensors, smartwatches, implanted devices, 3d printed prosthetics, nanotechnologies, rapid diagnostic kits, apps and portals. The challenge of rapid evaluation and diffusion of technology into mainstream public health, care and housing services remains a big challenge as commissioners struggle to decommission poor services and replace them with more effective, less expensive alternatives. Meanwhile consumers wait to see how new offerings from Apples, Samsung, Google and Microsoft can be incorporated into their lifestyles.
The Spring/Summer conference season continues running through to the King's Fund Digital Health and Care Congress in June 2015. If you are interested in the Long Term Care Revolution, then there is an event scheduled for Cardiff in March prior to the national challenge launch in April/May 2015. For daily/weekly news, updates and information, you can register with Innovate UK's ALIP group and the dallas group. You can follow the dallas programme on Twitter at @dallas_connect. You can also follow the Long Term Care Revolution at #LTCRevolution or via Facebook.
Also available this month: