What is telecare?
The word means, literally, 'care from afar', and it is the
use of information and communications technology (ICT),
often coupled with sensors, to enable carers in the
socialcare and healthcare services to 'keep an eye' on,
mainly, older people or the otherwise infirm from a
distance.
Telecare enables such people to live independently, in
control and able to care for themselves within the limits of
their abilities, for longer. It embraces the making of
physiological measurements in the home and their
transmission to a distant care centre, to a nurse or a
doctor; the automatic transmission of environmental data,
including preset alarms; community alarm systems; and the
use of videophones.
Examples of physiological monitoring in use today include
the capture and transmission of: fetal heart sounds in
pregnancy; respiratory function in people with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease; and the ECGs of people with
heart diseases.
An example of a simple environmental monitor is an alarm
fitted to outside doors, activated by opening the door, used
in the homes of dementia sufferers who are likely to wander
out unaccompanied. More comprehensive environmental
monitoring methods include a system of different types of
sensors — eg, temperature, light, pressure, movement —
placed in the home from which variations in normal patterns
of activity can be reported automatically and then acted on,
if necessary.
The use of a personal alarm/community help-call device, worn
around the neck or on the wrist, and connected to a call
centre is another aspect of telecare; as is the use of
videotelephony by community nurses and their clients for
consultations, televisits and check ups.
Telecare solutions employ:
- wired or wireless digital communications networks (local
area, wide area or Internet);
- measuring devices and sensors; and
- appropriate hardware and software.
BJHC Limited. February 2006
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