Intel Corporation today announced the Intel® Health Guide, a care management tool designed for healthcare professionals who treat patients with chronic conditions, for the UK. The Intel Health Guide represents Intel's entry into a new category of personal health systems that go beyond the simple remote patient monitoring systems available today. The Intel Health Guide, a regulated device that carries the CE mark under the EU Medical Device Directive, is a comprehensive personal health system that combines an in-home patient device - the Intel Health Guide PHS6000 - as well as an online interface - the Intel® Health Care Management Suite - allowing clinicians to monitor patients in their homes and manage care remotely. Additional localised European language versions of the Intel Health Guide will be announced throughout 2009.
"The Intel Health Guide is a step forward in offering more personalised and effective management of chronic health conditions in the home," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of the Intel Digital Health Group. "Intel has spent years researching the needs of healthcare professionals, carers and patients, and we are now moving to launch a series of products that will help extend care from the hospital to the home. Our products will help address the challenges of an ageing population and rising rates of chronic disease."
The Intel Health Guide promotes greater patient engagement and more efficient care by enabling communication between patients and healthcare professionals and providing clinicians with access to the most current, actionable data. The solution offers interactive tools for personalised care management and includes vital sign collection, patient reminders, surveys, multimedia educational content, and feedback and communications tools, such as video conferencing and alerts. Clinicians have ongoing access to data so that they can better manage each patients condition while patients benefit from customised care in the comfort of their own home.
Intel is collaborating with healthcare industry leaders in Europe to demonstrate the clinical benefits of the Intel Health Guide for a wide range of chronic conditions. European pilots are under way with healthcare organisations such as NHS Lothian, UK, the Institute for Prevention and Telemedicine (IPT) and the Academic Medical Center (AMC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The objective is to assess how the Health Guide integrates with different care management models in the home. These first studies focus on the ability to demonstrate improved health outcomes for conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure.
Martin Egan, Director of eHealth, NHS Lothian said, "We are delighted to be at the heart of this pioneering work through our pilot programme. Initial findings show that patients experience additional reassurance from the telehealth system and the early indications around the reduction of hospital admissions look promising. We are now working toward the expansion of the programme across Lothian."
The pilot in The Netherlands is a cooperative effort between the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam, the Institute for Prevention and Telemedicine (IPT) and Intel. The project involves cardiologists and patients from the congestive heart failure (CHF) outpatient clinic of the AMC under the supervision of Professor Bas de Mol, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Intel is also working with leading organisations that have an understanding of healthcare delivery to develop unique patient care plans as well as multimedia educational content for chronic conditions. In the UK, Intel has worked with the Map of Medicine and using their existing pathways developed care plans for use on the Intel Health Guide that are based on best practice and evidence to help patients and their clinicians effectively manage their condition at home. Care plans were developed for a number of chronic conditions including diabetes, heart failure and COPD.
Tunstall Healthcare Group, a leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, is the first official market channel partner for the Intel Health Guide in the UK. James Buckley, Tunstall CEO said, "By adding the Intel Health Guide to our portfolio of healthcare offerings, Tunstall will be further equipped to provide its customers with the best in care management solutions." Intel is also currently working with other leading market channel partners in the UK to bring the Intel Health Guide to market.
The Intel Health Guide is designed to be used by healthcare professionals to manage their patients health at home and is not currently available for general consumer purchase. The Intel Health Guide received 510(k) market clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2008 and was announced on Nov. 10, 2008 in the U.S.
Additionally, Intel plans to use the core technology components of the solution to build products targeted for new areas such as independent living and programmes for health and wellbeing management, and to support new devices such as mobile phones and handhelds.
For more information on the Intel Health Guide, visit www.intel.com/healthcare/telehealth.
To learn more about Intel in healthcare, go to www.intel.com/healthcare.
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