DH invests £31m in testing e-health A MASSIVE DH INITIATIVE to test the effectiveness of telehealth and telecare with 6000 patients is under way, backed by funding of £31m. The Whole System Demonstrator Programme is being rolled out across Kent, Cornwall and Newham to test the potential of e-health technologies for supporting those with complex health and social care needs. Health Secretary Alan Johnson commented: “Improving care with new scientific advances and innovation is vital if the NHS is to continue to offer the very best services, but this innovation must be at the frontline of the NHS to help people manage their conditions better themselves.” The pilot scheme will make e-health facilities such as remote monitoring and automated safety devices available to patient groups including the elderly and frail and sufferers from diabetes, heart failure and COPD. The demonstrators will run for a minimum of two years, addressing the needs of 6000 patients (2000 in each site) – the biggest such project undertaken to date in England. The scheme is expected to deliver a reduction in emergency admissions, use of the acute hospital sector and dependence on care home settings. A Green Paper on the future of care and support services is planned in 2009. |
Endoscopy firm widens its scope THE UK OPERATION OF ENDOSCOPY DEVICE SPECIALIST KARL STORZ has expanded its occupancy at Slough Trading Estate. Karl Storz has taken further space on the trading estate for additional storage and archiving following recent corporate expansion, due in part to a new £120,000 contract to supply its Endoscopic Airway Kit to Worcester Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Neil Impiazzi, Inward Investment Manager at Slough Trading Estate, commented: “Probably the most important aspect of what we do at Slough Trading Estate is working with our occupiers to fulfil their changing property requirements as their businesses grow and develop. We have always believed that creating a supportive business environment can play a pivotal role in a company’s future growth and success, and so we are all the more delighted to be working with Karl Storz as it goes from strength to strength.” Slough Trading Estate is the largest business centre of its kind in Europe under single private ownership. Some of the world’s most successful companies operate there, including Ferrari, Fiat Auto (UK) Limited and Black & Decker. Headquartered in Germany, Karl Storz develops, sells and distributes specialist medical equipment. It has offices throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America and Africa. | Scottish eye laser inventor wins European award THE SCOTTISH INVENTOR OF A LASER SCANNER for the eye is among four innovators honoured with the European Inventor of the Year 2008 Award. The awards, selected by an international jury, went to leading inventors from the UK, Belgium, Germany and the USA. They were presented at a ceremony in Ljubljana by Slovenian President Danilo Türk, European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen and President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Alison Brimelow. The European Inventor of the Year Award, jointly instituted by the European Commission and the EPO, recognises inventors who have made a significant and lasting contribution to technical progress and helped to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. The prizes were awarded in four categories: industry, SMEs/research institutes, non-European countries and lifetime achievement. Douglas Anderson, a Scottish inventor and the winner in the SME category, has pioneered a powerful but pain-free eye laser treatment. In 1992, Anderson’s son, then five years old, went blind in one eye when a retinal detachment was detected too late. Anderson set out to develop a system that could give a complete and detailed wide-scan image of the retina. More than 13 million patients have since benefited from the non-invasive optical laser scans developed by Anderson’s team. |
