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In the report, "Health 2.0 And Telecare For The Elderly", WirelessHealthcare sees the disappearance over the next decade of a number ofinhibitors that are currently holding back the market for remote care. In onecase study the report highlights the problems that elderly diabetes sufferersexperience when attempting use home telecare devices. "Elderly people withlimited experience of high technology struggle with the calibration and useof blood glucose monitors," explains Wireless Healthcare 's Peter Kruger."The next generation of users will be familiar with mobile phones, PDAs and awide range of high technology devices."
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Wireless Healthcare also points out that an increase in the number ofpeople familiar with online services will make it easier for telecare serviceproviders to roll out monitoring services that will transmit data to a GP'ssurgery and automatically add it to electronic patient records. While thereport finds that incumbent healthcare providers are being slow to deployelectronic patient records and make them accessible to patients, it sees thisproviding an opportunity for Health 2.0 vendors who can use advanced and openhealthcare services as a platform for a range of telecare services.
Kruger believes that the generation who drove social change in the 1960swill enter retirement with a new attitude to old age and healthcare. "Anyonedesigning an online system to help their parents 'age in place' should askthemselves 'Is this how I see myself spending my old age?'"
However the report warns that increased life expectancy means that thecurrent generation of elderly people will be with us for some time, and forthe next decade telecare vendors must serve customers who have a wide varietyof IT skills.
The report "Health 2.0 And Telecare For The Elderly." is available fromhttp://www.wirelesshealthcare.co.uk
About Wireless Healthcare
Wireless Healthcare are independent UK based analysts specialising in theapplication of mobile and wireless technology in the healthcare sector.http://www.wirelesshealthcare.co.ukFor further details contact: Toby Jackson Wireless Healthcare Tel: +44-1223-208926 [email protected]
SOURCE Wireless Healthcare
