11 April 2011

I am attending the Med-e-Tel conference in Luxembourg - probably three to four hundred delegates - and the main themes are eHealth and telemedicine - the latter being primarily about using technology to support clinician to clinician communication, but does have an overlap with Telehealth. Personally I think it lacks the real buzz and excitement that was evident at the TSA conference last November - but I am trying not to be biased!

TSA is a partner with Med-e-Tel for this conference and is a very good bridge in building contact with European and other international partners.

It is truly an international conference with speakers and delegates from around the world - from The Netherlands to Nepal; from Moldova to Malaysia.

Not many UK speakers though Malcolm Fisk (TSA Director) is here and speaking on 'Telehealth in the home'. Would be a good opportunity to spread the news about what is happening in the UK market given that we have much to tell!

Has been a good opportunity to push the TSA conference in November - for delegates and exhibitors. Also met with representative from the International Council of Nurses, who will publicise our conference on their website - over 150 nursing organisations across the world. So it should assist our efforts to reach across to the health sector.

Malcolm also led a presentation on the Telescope project to create a European Telehealth Code of Practice. TSA is a partner in this European Commission funded project and among the audience for this presentation was a manager of a monitoring centre in Luxembourg. They have around 5,000 connections and provide services raising from social alarms to assistive technology for a paraplegic patient. She is desperate to gain information on other telecare monitoring centre operations (there is only one other centre in Luxembourg) and to be able to benchmark the standards of service she has created. I was able to talk to her about the TSA Telecare Code of Practice and will see if we can open an overseas membership category for her so that information and ideas can be exchanged.

Regards

Trevor Single