"Palming It… All the Way Through Home Care,"

June 11, 2001

Kensington, MD-The Home Telehealth Community of Care Web page, provides bi-monthly installments that are designed to meet the growing informational needs about today's rapidly emerging home telehealth industry.

"Palming It… All the Way Through Home Care," the newest installment, and online as of June 10, 2001, focuses on hand-held computing devices for home health service delivery. New product offerings and applications that can extend, and possibly improve the care rendered by nurses during conventional home care visits are identified, to start. For instance, features of new hand-held tools that have been designed specifically for home care use from companies such as ViTel Net, TRGpro, and Neopoint are described in the page segment titled News in the World of Telehealthcare. These products aim toward meeting home care nurses' and patients' specific care needs beyond just attempting to reproduce the visit by way of a home-health-care chart/report- in miniature. Anyway, by now, the complaints of too small and too cumbersome are wearing thin; read how a range of new products for the home have addressed these problems.

In The World Outside segment, learn much more about the progress and promise of "enhanced" hand-held computing devices in the rest of the universe outside of home care-no question, they're simplifying life and work for everyone else, according to all reports. That's not the whole story, though. Can these devices really "work" in the home? In the Keynote Interview segment, a panel of experts in home care delivery, including Brenda Ecken, RN, M.Ed, and VP of Business Development, ViTel Net, Inc. (Vienna, VA), Karen Rau, RN, MBA, Major Kenneth Curley, MD, Sylvia Suszka-Hildebrandt, MN, ARNP, and Jeneane A. Brian, BSN, MBA, address the question: What's the value of hand-held computing devices in home care? In doing so, each provides a more in-depth look at possible uses and cautionary tales for hand-held tracking devices in home care service delivery.

Hand-held computing devices such as the better known Palm Pilots and other personal digital assistants (PDAs) are growing in popularity in the "world outside" of home care, no question. Are they a "killer app" for home care? Maybe… not today, but perhaps soon. In the Coming Home segment, IS home automation expert Tim Rowan focuses on progress in adoption in the home care industry of hand-held devices, noting where the use is going and where it has been in home care. Tim also reviews industry and user expectations for hand-held technology in this decidedly high-touch care setting.

Home Telehealth Community of Care is developed by Information For Tomorrow, a telehealthcare research company that specializes in home telehealth tools and applications. According to research director, Audrey Kinsella, this new page provides the opportunity for busy viewers to get targeted information on selected topics in home telehealthcare. "People want to know what's out there, what it costs, and what works in home telehealthcare." The Home Telehealth Community of Care is aiming toward providing this single-source venue, through its bi-monthly presentations and targeted links to additional necessary resources on home telehealthcare.

 

 
 
 
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