The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 2 (Apr 2014) | Page 36

Telehealth Case Study: Airedale Telehealth Hub

Telehealth Case Study: Airedale
Telehealth Hub
Telehealth and telecare is a well proven
example of the potential that digital
health provision can provide. Despite
having been around, in principle, for
many years, it has only been in recent
years that the services have finally
begun to match the expectations for the
sector. Innovative changes to the way in
which care is delivered are finally beginning to emerge and deliver real results,
in a wide range of care situations.
The recent successes of telehealth
and telecare also signal the potential
for mHealth services in the future. By
adding the extra dimension of mobility to the already established protocols
of connected care services, it becomes
possible to truly begin to integrate care
into patient’s lives and deliver effective
treatment beyond traditional primary
and secondary care environments.
This personalisation of care, through
the creation of integrated connections
that deliver treatment, provide medical
advice, and enable condition monitoring wherever the patient may be, heralds new possibilities for the management of chronic conditions.
There are many successful deployments of telehealth and telecare services worldwide providing many innovative solutions for the management of
a whole variety of medical and health
needs. For this case study we take an indepth look at a scheme that has demonstrated a proven record for delivering practical benefits.
UK based Airedale Telehealth Hub
established and operated by the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in Yorkshire, England has been in operation
since 2011, and in that time has managed to deliver both quantitative and
qualitative results for patients across a
number of care situations.

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The Hub, which builds upon the Trust’s
long history of implementing pioneering digital health solutions via its
Digital Health Centre, has successfully
developed a range of digital solutions
to provide remote care, including: Telemedicine; Telecoaching; and, Telemonitoring. By partnering with a number of
strategic technology and solution providers the Hub has been able to deliver
a model that can be deployed across a
range of care pathways, as well as easily
commissioned by other institutions and
care providers.
Rather than use a typical call centre
approach, where call handlers are used
to triage cases to other, clinically qualified, team members, the Trust took
the view that it would be better for

patients and, ultimately, more effective
if the first person receiving the call was
a highly trained nurse with advanced
assessment skills and a broad clinical
experience. The nurses are able to deal
with all kinds of clinical issues, as well
as having the support of hospital consultants by day and the on-call resident
medical team overnight [1].
In order to meet the strategic requirements of this type of deployment,
the service uses a teleconsultation
approach to try to ensure that patients
are provided with the right care, by the
right person at the right time. It also
means that given the nature of teleconsultation large numbers of people
can be supported in a safe and clinically
effective way.