Telehealth research goes commercial for aged care
This story first appeared in the February 2014 issue of Pulse+IT Magazine.
The University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health (COH) had been researching and developing a number of programs in the fields of telemedicine, telehealth and eHealth since 1999, and through Brisbane’s Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) has run a telepaediatrics service for the last 13 years.
It also has a particular in interest in telehealth for aged care, and in association with the Centre for Research in Geriatric Medicine (CRGM) has developed a web-based clinical decision support system that is used in hospital care for older people. The system uses a structured assessment overlaid with a number of processes to help interpret clinical observations.
That system is also being used as part of a project that delivers healthcare to residential aged care through high-definition video conferencing. In 2012, the research groups received a grant for almost $1 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council to conduct the project, which involves a four-year study of the clinical support system as well as what it calls “clinical-grade” video conferencing technology into residential aged care facilities.
The randomised control trial will see video conferencing technology deployed as a mobile wireless device at the resident’s bedside and operated by a geriatrician from a remote telehealth studio, situated in a dedicated centre at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH).
To read the full story, click here for the February 2014 issue of Pulse+IT Magazine.
Posted in Australian eHealth
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