News
Latest news items relating to assistive technology and telecare. These items are sources from various websites related to ATT. For further information, please click on the links in the News item.
Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, visited the Advanced Care Technologies (ACT) Programme at the University of Sheffield on July 31st. The ACT programme is part funded by European Regional Development Funds.
Nick Clegg met the team that has been developing two products that help vulnerable people and their carers: ‘Guardian' and ‘SIMWIN'. Both enable users to talk with carers and friends through a simple interface. People who are turned off by modern technology are comfortable using them.
‘Guardian' has been developed by BiBCOM Ltd, a Sheffield company. It links mobile phones with a camera to provide a video-telephone link between a vulnerable person and a relative or carer living elsewhere. The camera is switched on by a phone call from anywhere in the world. The vulnerable person has a pendant with a button that with one touch directly telephones the carer.
Easa Taheri, Managing Director of BiBCOM Ltd, demonstrated the system. Dr Steve Blackburn of ACT described the positive results from trials of the Guardian system with South Yorkshire families.
Kingkraft Ltd, an established Sheffield healthcare company, organised the trial of the Guardian system and is responsible for distributing the system in the UK. Nigel Harrison, the Managing Director, explained that his company sees strong growth in the market for personal communication systems.
The other product, SIMWIN, provides intuitive touch-screen access to pre-selected Internet sites and computer functions. It has been developed by Peter Cudd and colleagues in the ACT team.
Trials of SIMWIN are underway with residents and day-centre clients in Sheffcare Ltd's care homes. The most valued features are video-telephone calls with relatives, and access to family photographs, games, newspapers and local history videos.
Both SIMWIN and the Guardian system are proudly "Made in Sheffield". Nick Clegg was told that Sheffield has one of the largest concentrations of assistive technology researchers in the country.
Nick Clegg commented,
"I am very impressed with the work of ACT and the potential of these products to help people who feel vulnerable and their families and carers."
"There are clearly many opportunities for local companies to provide jobs by developing such useful products."
"The close collaboration between university researchers and BiBCOM and Kingkraft is admirable."
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a shoe insole that could detect balance problems before a fall occurs. The technology was first developed as part of a project for Astronauts at NASA, but is now being developed for the elderly to help prevent falls and therefore injuries from falls.
The current model is equipped to diagnose balance problems, but future versions could help correct such problems, by providing sensory stimulation to the feet when the wearer is unbalanced.
The iShoe insole is designed to measure and analyze the pressure distribution of the patient's foot and report back to their doctor. The device could also be outfitted with an alarm that would alert family members when a fall has occurred.
German telemedicine device specialist, Biotronik, has launched a new home monitoring device that will enable a continuous automatic daily data transmission of the patients cardiovascular status. This device is wirelessly conected to send information directly to the patient's doctor online. The system also works inconjunction with implantable defibrilators to ensure that life saving shock therepy can be delivered successfully, where nessessary.
An article on the device can be viewed in full by clicking here.
A network to help expand the use of telehealth and telecare has been funded by the Department of Health. This network is called the Whole System Demonstrators Action Network and will be run by the King's Fund and the Care Services Improvement Partnership. The programme was launch last May, providing £31 million funding for three piolets in Kent, Cornwall and Newham leading to the largest trial of telecare and telehealth techniques in the UK.
An article from eHealth Insider can be seen by clicking here.
The Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a new form of assistive technology, in which individuals can operate a computer, control a powered wheelchair and interact with their environments simply by moving their tongues. This thought that this technology could help people suffering from severe disabilities to return to rich, active, independent and productive lives.
The tounge operated technology is called Tounge Drive and was described on 29th June at the 2008 Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) Annual conference in Washington D.C.
A detailed article on this new innovation can be seen in full be clicking on the like below:
A wireless electrode patch that can be worn by a patient and tracked from any internet connection in the world is being developed by vital signs monitoring specialist ST + D technology, funded by the Wellcome Trust
Currently this development is being trialled at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital and is expected to go onto the market next year
An eHealth Insider article on this innovation can be viewed by clicking here
A BBC article has reported on a research project that is going to be undertaken at Edinburgh University to investigate the impact of using a mobile phone to monitor long term conditions such as lung disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Please follow the link below to read this article in full
Intel Corp has won clearence from the U.S. Food and Drug administration to sell a personal in home health monitoring system for patients with chronic conditions called The Health Guide.
The article can be viewed in full by clicking on the following link
Intel gets FDA OK for personal health system - reuters.com
Another article on The Health Guide can also be view below:
E-Health Insider - Intel gets approval for telecare device
The work being done by Kent, other local authorities and the NHS will help inform the future of assistive technology (telehealth and telecare) in the health and social care arena. They are demonstrating that assistive technology can help people retain independence and improve their quality of life. Funding of £80 million has been allocated to local authorities over the next two years as part of the Preventative Technologies Grant to support even more people in their own homes.
The Government's White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say, makes it clear that assistive technology is set to grow as health and social care services move to provide people with more independence, choice and control. The White Paper highlights the "exciting new possibilities opened up by assistive technologies" and makes a commitment to demonstrate how assistive technology can make a difference to people's lives through a series of pilot sites.
NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) is contributing to the debate by exploring how assistive technology might be provided on a bigger scale but in a sustainable way for the longer term. The alliance aims to develop technologies that work together to provide an opportunity to improve quality of life, help reduce unnecessary hospital use and enable more efficient use of resources. Universal standards will also help improve safety.
Regular readers of the site will remember the last AAATE exhibition took place in San Sebastian, Spain, at the beginning of October 2007. This was the 9th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology (AAATE).
Full details of the 2008 Conference / Exhibition held in Milan this September are shortly due to be announced. Information of the 2007 conference can be found on the AAATE Website.