Telehealth Update

Peter Almond, of Liverpool 5G partners Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, who is also the Cheshire and Merseyside Remote Monitoring Programme Manager, has sent us an update on their telehealth work:

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Telehealth Team are working in partnership with the Liverpool 5G Create Project on two use cases to improve patients through enhancing the functionality of the technology used to support patients.

The first use case will see the introduction of photo technology that’ll allow images to be captured and shared with Telehealth nurses for triage via the Docobo doc@home system. Initially, this new capability will support heart failure patients to help identify new oedema and changes to existing oedema that may require additional input from other health care professionals such as District Nurses. By detecting and monitoring oedema it is envisaged that support can be brought in earlier to improve outcomes for patients.

The second use case is to explore the use of wearable and ambient sensor technology to improve the patient experience and enhance the information the Telehealth Nurses receive from patients to compliment decision making associated with the patients care. Wearable devices will passively monitor a range of patient vital signs and is expected to drive better compliance from patients. The sensor technology will be placed around the patients home and help build up a picture for ‘what is normal’ from the patient to help identify subtle changes in patients activity that could be early warning signs of deterioration thus leading to earlier intervention from the nursing hub.

Both use case are due to start in May and details on their success will be shared later in the year.

Thanks, Peter – look forward to hearing more!