The United Kingdom's National Health Service plans to deploy telehealth systems in people's homes, CNET News reports. The devices likely would target the elderly and those who are seriously ill.
Richard Granger, NHS director general of IT, said that the telehealth systems probably will be based initially on proprietary systems and that they will require additional budgeting beyond the original costs approved for the NHS National Program for IT.
Testing the interoperability of the telehealth systems with the national database of electronic health records also will be expensive, Granger added.
Granger did not disclose details about the systems, although they could be equipped with sensors and cameras. Patients might be able to take their own blood pressure and upload the results onto the NHS systems, according to CNET News.
The security of the telehealth systems is uncertain, although Granger suggested that NHS was working with Microsoft to develop standards and user interfaces for the systems, CNET News reports (Meyer, CNET News, 1/25).