SEHTA contracted onto pan-Europe telehealth working group

Published: 5-Apr-2012

UK alliance to help accelerate adoption and creation of assisted living devices


The South East Health Technologies Alliance (SEHTA) has been awarded a three-year contract aimed at accelerating the adoption and creation of assisted living devices across Europe.

The deal has been awarded under the Interreg IVC programme to support CASA, a pan-Europe project involving 14 organisations who are jointly working on policy development for the acceleration of innovation around telehealth and telecare devices.

David Parry, chief executive of SEHTA, explained: “Many European countries are facing an unsustainable situation as citizens across the continent are living longer, resulting in demographic changes that are placing increasing pressure on health and social care.

“It is now widely recognised that technologies that support assisted living, including telecare and telehealth, can play an important role in achieving large efficiency gains as well as helping patients and people needing care.

”Such technologies need to be developed, tested and integrated as regional health and social care systems undergo redesign and move towards preventive as well as self-managed care.”

SEHTA’s contribution to the CASA project will be on the development of the telecare and telehealth sector. It has been focusing on the market for the past four and has a dynamic network of more than 1,500 contacts in companies, medicine and academia in the UK and internationally.

The alliance’s first task under the CASA project will be to host an international workshop to showcase the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) programme results to international partners. The programe was the largest randomised control trial of telehealth and telecare in the world, involving 6,191 patients and 238 GP practices in England. It was set up to look at cost effectiveness, clinical effectiveness, organisational issues, effect on carers and workforce issues. Findings showed a 45% reduction in mortality rates, 20% reduction in emergency admissions, 15% reduction in A&E visits, 14% reduction in elective admissions and 14% reduction in bed days.

Parry said: “Also as part of its CASA contract we will participate in other international workshops, imparting and sharing our own experiences of telecare and telehealth with industry, clinicians and academia.”

You may also like