The broadband-based video system heralds the next generation of telecare provision and is already disrupting older architectures, according to the Mediagrids company. CareMATE Online, previously known as "broadcare" advances the telecare industry beyond panic buttons and voice-only call centres to enable hospitals and care centres to provide intelligent and discreet visual monitoring of individuals in their own environments. The innovative CareMATE Online system is already in use in The Netherlands where 40 'care hubs' have successfully used it for the last 6 months. Mediagrids attributes its success to date to strategic partnerships with specialist healthcare resellers such as iTelecare in the UK, and TeleZorg Support in The Netherlands and Benelux.
"Take up of our systems is gaining rapid momentum and we're experiencing significant growth," said Rob Bijkerk, CEO of Mediagrids. "So far this year we've doubled the size of our development team and expanded our sales team with the appointment of a sales manager, an administrator and a VP for European Business Development. The technology is attracting the attention of the industry. We have signed a software integration alliance with Vivotec, become a Microsoft Partner, and joined the IBM and HP partner programmes."
Not only does CareMATE Online allow patients to have a longer independent lifestyle, but it also enables hospitals to free up valuable bed spaces. The system replaces todays telephone-only solutions by providing a permission-based, interactive audio-visual experience, between care centres and client's homes using standard broadband internet connections. It is positioned to provide enormous savings in healthcare spending, whilst at the same time improving levels of remote care for a number of groups including children, the elderly, psychiatric patients and those suffering with diabetes or dementia.
The CareMATE Online home health hubs, known as CareHUB's, when used with a camera and biometric devices; such as blood pressure and heart monitors; convert a standard television set or computer into a high quality videoconferencing and biometric workstation. Using this next generation of telecare systems, call centres can also become more proactive by scheduling regular calls into clients working with the advantage of live, visual contact which makes carers better placed to call for emergency assistance immediately if required. Statistics show that 40% of all accidents involving the elderly are falls which, in some cases, can go undetected for days.
For further information about CareMATE Online, visit www.caremateonline.co.uk.
About Mediagrids
Mediagrids is a UK company that provides a software platform that addresses the profitable distribution of applications, ranging from intelligent and affordable healthcare to distributed video conferencing. CareMATE Online is a next generation telecare solution based on Mediagrids technology. It will become an open platform for a range of social and health care devices from todays equipment providers. It extends todays telephone dial-up solutions to provide an interactive audio-visual experience with carers from each client's home through the use of the public broadband Internet. Mediagrids' software platform delivers multi-media, environmental and biometric content on a massive scale running to tens of thousands of clients. For further information, including a demonstration see www.caremateonline.co.uk and www.Mediagrids.com.