The telehealth wave

Older people living with single or multiple long-term health conditions will now have more support to live independently at home, following the recent launch of a new telehealth system and its associated software by Tunstall Healthcare in Fremantle.

The two new products launched by the international company, mytelemedic and icp triagemanager software, are the upgrades of former Tunstall systems, developed to respond to ever-changing market demands.

Sales and marketing manager, Lisa Capamagian, said that the improved technology will support older people with chronic heart failure and obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and hypertension, to live independently in their own home for longer.

“In Australia, we are on the brink of the title wave of chronic disease,” said Ms Capamagian.

“If you look at the statistics, there are huge rates of diabetes, lung disease and obesity, and the pressure on the health care system to support the increasing ageing population is already stretched.

“So telehealth will become par for the course for people who have chronic disease.”

mytelemedic prompts users to take their vital signs and answer a series of customised health-related questions. The data is then transmitted to the monitoring centre, where it is collected by icp triagemanager clinical software for review and processing.

Once received, the triagemanager also prioritises the data, allowing people in need to be quickly identified, their data evaluated and where necessary, passed on to their care team for intervention.

Ms Capamagian explained that the triagemanager allows community nurses to prioritise patients, provides doctors with ongoing trend data, and alerts of potential episodes so that intervention can occur and emergency hospital admissions prevented.

“It’s a good thing for people to take responsibility for their [health], following the care advice of their general practitioner.

“Our end goal is for people who are living with chronic diseases to proactively manage their disease with their care provider in the comfort of their own home and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.”