eHealth updates - 11 October 2012

New policy, guidance and e-health initiatives from across the UK. For more information about the e-health theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: e-health.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

eGuidelines App: This free, and fully searchable Guidelines app contains concise clinical guideline summaries of all the major primary and shared care guidelines in the UK. With this iPad and iPhone compatible app, it is possible access all the content from the Guidelines handbook in just three taps.

“Get to know Telehealth” will explore the extent to which Scotland have embraced the concept of Telehealth to manage patients with Long Term Conditions. This free event takes place on Friday the 16th of November, 10.30am to 3.00pm at the Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling. For more information and to register, please contact ainggall@cardiocom.co.uk

Housing LIN (Learning and Improvement Network): Viewpoint no.34: Get with the programme? - A look at health and wellbeing boards through the lens of telehealth and telecare. One of a series of papers on the use of telecare and telehealth, this assesses the progress of health and wellbeing boards in making headway with the adoption of telecare and telehealth, and what this tells us about their readiness to live up to their new expectations as system leaders.

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR): Using noninferiority tests to evaluate telemedicine and e-health services: systematic review. "An increasing number of studies within the field of telemedicine and e-health are designed as noninferiority studies, aiming to show that the telemedicine/e-health solution is not inferior to the traditional way of treating patients". The objective of this study was to review and sum up the status of noninferiority studies within this field, describing advantages and pitfalls of this approach.

JMIR: Electronic symptom reporting between patient and provider for improved health care service quality: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Part 1: State of the art. The study aimed to give a comprehensive overview of the most mature part of this field of study - electronic symptom reporting, regarding (1) patient groups, (2) health service innovations, and (3) research targets relevant to electronic symptom reporting. 
Part 2: Methodological quality and effects. This part of the study aimed to assess the methodological quality of the RCTs, and summarize effects and benefits from the methodologically best studies.

JMIR: The smartphone in medicine: a review of current and potential use among physicians and students. This study, undertaken in the USA, aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date summary of the role of the smartphone in medicine by highlighting the ways in which it can enhance continuing medical education, patient care, and communication. The authors also examine the evidence base for this technology. 

JMIR: Issues in mHealth: findings from key informant interviews. "mHealth is enjoying considerable interest and private investment in the United States". The study aimed to determine the important issues facing the implementation of mHealth from the perspective of those within the US health system and those working in mHealth in the United States. 

JMIR: FluBreaks: early epidemic detection from Google flu trends. The Google Flu Trends service was launched in 2008 to track changes in the volume of online search queries related to flu-like symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate whether these trends can be used as a basis for an early warning system for epidemics. 

JMIR: Diabetes management using modern information and communication technologies and new care models. This paper presents the work performed in the context of the REACTION project focusing on the development of a health care service platform able to support diabetes management in different healthcare regimes, through clinical applications, such as monitoring of vital signs, feedback provision to the point of care, integrative risk assessment, and event and alarm handling. “The REACTION project proposes to create a service-oriented architectural platform based on numerous individual services and implementing novel care models that can be deployed in different settings to perform patient monitoring, distributed decision support, health care workflow management, and clinical feedback provision.” 

NHS CFH: NHSmail mini guide (PDF 2.5MB). NHSmail is the secure national email and directory service for the NHS. This guide gives information on how to get started in order to make the most of everything NHSmail has to offer.

NHS CFH: Yvonne Pettigrew 'talking heads' videos. Yvonne Pettigrew, a National Clinical Lead for allied health professionals, appears in four new videos, discussing the importance of health informatics to the allied health professions.

NHS CFH: A new Mental Health Discharge Summary. A new Mental Health Discharge Summary has been developed to help standardise the information that GPs receive when a patient is discharged from in-patient mental health care. Over the years GPs, patients and carers have expressed concerns that information received has been inconsistent or too detailed. This can lead to poor patient care. To meet this need, standards and summaries have been designed to provide useful, succinct information to help doctors improve the continuity of care.

NHS Wales Informatics Service: Low cost websites for Wales. Health organisations and government departments in Wales are using a home-grown content management system developed by internal information and technology staff for a fraction of the cost it takes to have one built externally. The award winning content management system known as Cascade has been developed over time and grown to provide Wales main health organisation’s with websites. In 2012, a total of 70 sites have been built for new campaigns, programmes and organisations.

NHS Wales Informatics Service: New system for x-rays, scans and images live. The first Health Board in Wales has gone live with the new Picture Archiving and Communications Service for Wales (PACS) which will provide a single service that allows digital x-rays, scans and images to be transferred quickly and easily between NHS hospitals.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme: The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of technologies used to visualise the seizure focus in people with refractory epilepsy being considered for surgery: a systematic review and decision-analytical model. This study finds that clinical research into imaging for the localisation of epileptic foci is abundant but not adequately informative. Future appropriately designed studies are needed to determine the added value of diagnostic regimens in terms of informing decisions on the appropriateness of surgery and in terms of clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Nuffield Trust: Evaluating the impact of telehealth: where next for research beyond the Whole System Demonstrator trial? Resources from a seminar held on 2 October 2012 which considered what can be learnt from the implementation of telehealth at scale and identified lessons to be learned from the WSD evaluation.
Blog: Should clinical commissioning groups invest in telehealth?

RCN: RCN asks how technology has an impact on your role. The Royal College of Nursing is asking members for feedback on the impact of information and communication technology in their professional roles. The RCN is keen to ensure that eHealth supports delivery of quality patient outcomes, and that the IT systems and equipment used are safe, fit for purpose and acceptable to clinicians and patients. The survey is open until 9 November 2012 and will take approximately 20 – 30 minutes to complete.

Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP): Social media highway code. The Code is "a practical and encouraging guide for doctors and other healthcare professionals who use social media and want to ensure they get the most out of their online communications, while ensuring they meet their professional obligations and protect their patients". The RCGP wants doctors and other healthcare professionals to go online and share their views on issues about the use of social media, as it finalises the code.

South Yorkshire Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC): Ready Steady Go telehealth implementation toolkit. Based on experience, and validated by national and international colleagues, the Ready Steady Go toolkit provides a framework that can be followed by organisations as they incorporate telehealth, and which should provide a supportive environment in which telehealth can flourish.