Alice B. Borrelli, Director for Global Healthcare Policy at Intel Corporation www.intel.com appeared before the Senate Special Committee on Aging www.aging.senate.gov on September 16 during National HIT week to discuss the power of telehealth and how Intel has developed partnerships with other organizations.
One program called “Care Innovations” www.careinnovations.com a joint venture between Intel and GE, has developed an FDA cleared class II medical device called the “Guide”. The device provides video conferencing, touchscreen interface, device flexibility that can use a range of devices, capture and report on biometric data from patients to providers and EHRs, enable clinical triage monitoring, and provide patient education.
The Care Innovations Guide may improve patient health behaviors, adherence to care plans, reduce costly emergency room visits, keep patients out of the hospital, and improve patients’ sense of security and connectedness.
In another partnership venture, Taipei, one of the world’s oldest cities, has launched a telecare program called the “Citizen Telecare Service System” (CTCS) http://english/doh.taipei.gov to monitor the vital signs in elderly patients with chronic conditions as they go about their daily lives.
The program is a public-private partnership through the National Taiwan University, Yonglin Healthcare Foundation, Intel Corporation, ChungHwa Telecom, and International Integrated Systems.
Basically the system looks for early warning signs in blood pressure, blood glucose, and temperature to help patients avoid serious and costly health setbacks. Additionally, the CTCS system collects data on health consultations, medical and social welfare referrals, location-based living services. The CTCS platform is integrated with Citizen Health Records so that patient- generated health data is automatically captured in the clinical health records.
It is reported that from 2009-2011, the system reduced high systolic blood pressure among its elderly patients. Also, it was also noted that 84 percent of those patients who received care were satisfied with the care and 82 percent supported the continued use of CTCS.