Evaluation of past and present implementation of Telemonitoring NI
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of past and present implementation of Telemonitoring NI
IRAS ID
167795
Contact name
James Charles McElnay
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 27 days
Research summary
An innovative scheme has been introduced in Northern Ireland over the past three years to support independent living and self-care in patients with a range of chronic medical conditions. It involves devices being placed in the patient’s home, which are connected by telephone or the internet to allow healthcare professionals to see readings of, for example, blood pressure measurements taken by the patient. This type of service is called telemonitoring. The equipment and technology are being delivered by a company called TF3. We wish to help evaluate how well the programme is working, from the perspective of patients, carers and those responsible for their health and social care provision. We will also assess whether it has succeeded in helping patients cope with their condition and reducing their need to go into hospital. We have brought together an expert team from Queen’s University and the Northern Ireland Clinical Trials Unit, with additional advice from an external panel of experts. We will use information that TF3 has been collecting throughout the programme and information held by the Health and Social Care Trusts. We also plan to ask patients who have experience of the service to complete questionnaires about their ability to take care of their illness and whether telehealth monitoring has helped. We will also hold meetings with groups of patients to get their views, or if patients are not able to come for a meeting, we will ask if we can visit them in their home and also speak with their carers. We will also talk with doctors and nurses about how the programme has helped their decision making. We will prepare a final report for the Health Boards and provide summaries of the results to let patients know what others think about the service.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SW/0015
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion