BETTER BREATHING; ICT AS A TOOL TO ASSIST IN BETTER HEALTHCARE

Christina E. WanscherMedCom International

Dr. Peder Jest & Dr. Michael Hansen-Nord SHF Funen Hospital

MedCom International

• Project organisation and part of MedCom - aims at facilitating use of ICT in healthcare – Baltic eHealth, – PERSONA, – Health Optimum, – eHealth survey,– Better Breathing…

• Represents Region Syddanmark

Some Questions

• Is the population of Europe getting older?

• Can ICT solutions bring better healthcare?

• Can you breathe better with COPD?• Can cold technology replace warm

hands?

Is the population of Europe getting older?

ANSWER:• YES!• The older the population, the higher is the

frequency of chronic diseases. • At the age of 65, individuals have on

average one chronic condition; at the age of 68, on average that has risen to two.

• AND…This poses an increasing burden on health and social service delivery systems and affects the quality of life.

Can ICT solutions bring better healthcare?

ANSWER:• Well…• There is accumulating evidence that

ICT-based services can provide solutions to the societal and human problems of an Aging Europe.

• The project Better Breathing is one examples

Better Breathing?

The Project

• Better Breathing bridges the social, medical, research and ICT sectors to create a process and technological model that will assist in better healthcare by reducing expenditure on chronic patients and optimising healthcare

The services…

• eCARE: ICT tools will be make it possible to monitor the chronic patient at home (eCare).

• eREHABILITATION: train and rehabilitate the patient that will reduce the cost and inconvenience of transporting severely sick people from their home to the training facilities.

• eCOMMUNITY: for the patients by setting up an online facility where COPD patients can communicate with other COPD patients or for the health professionals where they can meet and exchange experiences.

• eLEARNING: creating an educational service for patients that will instruct them how to tackle their disease.

ICT solutions

• Each pilot site has own solution to assist in the care of the chronic patient

• Wales, home-rehabilitation device • Catalonia, call-centres & mobile

devices• Norway, My HealthService• And then Denmark….

Danish solution

• Developed in collaboration between IT partner and healthcare provider

• ICT solution consists of a patient briefcase with monitoring devices

We want to prevent this..

By replacing it with this..

The objective..

To discharge as many patients within 24 hours as possible.

During the 24 hours of admission, the patients are instructed in how to use the briefcase, which has been constructed to be very user-friendly.

Results so far..

• Patient briefcase currently being clinically validated.

• Technically and organisationally the solution is OK

• First test-results indicate that emergency admittance for two out of four patients were prevented

• Telemedicine can provide the same quality of clinical service to the patients

• The number of patients are larger - the initial aim was to cover 20 % of the CODP patients but up to 40 % can be included in the service.

What about Cold Technology vs. Warm Hands?

• Studies show that patients request telemedicine services once having tried it.

• Patients feel comfortable and secure• Even though the technology is

“cold” – they feel close to the “warm” healthcare provided by the health professionals

If the statistics say this –

• Out of 5.2 millon how many has COPD? >200,000

• How many smokers have COPD? 15 – 50 %

• How many are admitted? 23,000/year

• How many die from COPD? 2,300 /year

• How many outpatients with COPD? 32,000 /year

• How many admitted to ER? 5,000 /year

Then think of how much we can save by ICT solutions..

PPKKThe future

And the answer is..

• Is the population of Europe getting older? • YES• Can ICT solutions bring better healthcare? • YES• Can you breathe better with COPD? • Well…YES?• Can cold technology replace warm hands? • YES

Thank You!Any Questions?

cew@medcom.dkwww.medcom.dk

www.betterbreathing.org

Questions?

• How much does the patient briefcase cost?

• Did the health professionals accept the new service immediately?