Promising findings may help boost the global telehealth market

With an ever ageing population the prevalence of chronic disease worldwide is increasing. In the UK alone at least 15 million people are thought to be living with at least one long term condition. Telehealth, defined as “the remote exchange of data between a patient and healthcare professional as part of the patient’s diagnosis and healthcare management” has been earmarked as one potential approach to the treatment of these patients.

Telehealth utilises technology to help patients self-manage their condition and live more independently, therefore improving quality of life for the patient and potentially reducing costs of secondary healthcare. However, historically, a lack of economical and long term clinical data has meant many have been reluctant to invest.

The Department of Health has estimated that in the UK at least 3 million people with long term conditions could benefit from telehealth services, and hence initiated the “Three Million Lives” campaign. Preliminary findings from their Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) programme, the largest global randomised control trial of telehealth and telecare, demonstrate that successful delivery of telehealth can significantly reduce mortality rates and emergency admissions, which just could be the justification the market is waiting for.

The WSD trial involved a total of 3,230 patients in the UK with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure and diabetes; all chronic conditions associated with high prevalence and high healthcare costs. Half of patients acted as a control group receiving treatment through traditional methods, and the other half were delivered telehealth.

Patients receiving telehealth were taught how to monitor their condition at home and transmitted data to their health care professional. Although the specific telehealth device used by patients varied, all chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients used a pulse oximeter, all diabetic patients used a glucometer, and all heart failure patients used weighing scales.

Results from the trial indicate when compared to the control group, telehealth patients experienced:

·         a 45% reduction in mortality

·         a 21% reduction in emergency admissions

·         a 15% reduction in A&E visits

·         a 14% reduction in elective admissions

·         14% fewer bed days

·         an 11% reduction in hospital admissions

Small differences in hospital costs (£188 per head lower for telehealth patients) were noted, however given that the actual cost of the telehealth treatments were not taken into account, this reduction is not considered significant enough to conclude that telehealth can reduce secondary care costs over 12 months. Cost-effectiveness will be assessed as a separate part of the WSD trial.

Despite this, these findings from the WSD programme provide the strongest evidence yet that telehealth can be linked to improved patient outcomes and the reduction of reliance on (costly) secondary care. According to InMedica forecasts, the impact of the 3 million lives campaign could potentially push the UK ahead in the global telehealth market, accounting for 74% of worldwide telehealth patient numbers by 2016, compared to 4% in 2010. These initial clinical results, and hopefully the impending economic benefits could provide the evidence base that many have been waiting for, and become a tipping point for wider adoption of telehealth worldwide.

Find the full BMJ article on the WSD findings at http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3874

Find the InMedica article at http://in-medica.com/news-events/press-template.php?pr_id=2463&from=all_pr