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Feature
TELEHEALTH RESEARCH GOES COMMERCIAL FOR AGED CARE
A Queensland-based research team that has developed protocols to support geriatric care using telehealth has established a new commercial business called RES-e-CARE for residential aged care facilities. Taking a high-tech approach to telehealth in aged care is considered essential for frail and often immobile elderly people, many of whom often have cognitive impairments.
KATE MCDONALD Journalist: Pulse+IT kate.mcdonald@pulseitmagazine.com.au
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 “clinicalgrade” 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). The study will evaluate the impact of geriatrician-centred telehealth services on the health of residents, as well as other possible benefits such as staff engagement, skill transfer, appropriate medication use and transport costs.
Dedicated telehealth centre The COH is also closely involved in a $5.1 million Princess Alexandra Hospital Online Outreach Services (PAH Online) project, which was jointly funded by the federal and state governments under the Digital Regions Initiative program. Initially, it is delivering specialist services in the areas of cardiology, endocrinology, dermatology and geriatrics, with plans to extend these services into orthopaedics, infectious diseases and oncology. It has the capacity to conduct at least eight thousand assessments annually. The Princess Alexandra Hospital Telehealth Centre – a key ingredient of the PAH project – has been outfitted with high‑definition video conferencing technology to enable clinical telehealth provision. Studios are equipped with wall-