British Geriatrics Society
Special Interest

Telecare and Telehealth SIG
(formerly known as the New Technology in Elderly Care Medicine)

Chairman : Dr Frank Miskelly

What's new?
This SIG held a very interesting and successful parallel session at the Autumn BGS which was attended by over 100 delegates. The three speakers outlined how new methods of data communication were already influencing the practice of elderly care in the community along with specific examples.

For those new to the area some useful definitions:

Telecare is derived from: tele for distance and care, so it translates to ‘care at a distance’. A formal definition is ‘the delivery of health and social care to individuals within the home or wider community, with the support of devices enabled by information and communication technologies’.

Examples are divided into 3 categories

1. Safety at home eg, fire, flood, smoke etc alarms

2. Lifestyle monitoring eg, fall alarms, bed/chair monitors, wandering detection etc.

Telehealth enables remote interaction between clinicians and patients, through the use of information and communication technologies such as interactive video, digital imaging and electronic data transmission. This includes telemedicine application for diseases such as CHF, COPD, Diabetes and IHD.