Philips applauds telehealth study findings

London, UK, June 25, 2012—Royal Philips Electronics welcomes the conclusions of the recently published British Medical Journal paper on the findings from the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) cluster randomized trial. The peer reviewed paper assesses the effect of telehealth on mortality in secondary care and found that for people with long-term conditions, remote patient monitoring can reduce deaths and help patients avoid the need for emergency hospital care.

As a pioneer in home health-care solutions, Philips is pleased to have contributed to the Department of Health funded two-year research program on telecare and telehealth, with its remote patient management system called Motiva. This system has been used with patients with heart failure, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and diabetes.

Malcolm Hart, director of Philips’ UK Home Monitoring activities, said: “Philips vision is to contribute to making a significant impact on patient care in the longer term by looking at how telehealth solutions can be tailored to a disease state and individual patient needs, with the benefit of delaying or avoiding the need for hospitalization. The findings published highlight the need to continue to study the value of telehealth and telecare to ensure the promise of better quality and more appropriate care for patients is fulfilled.”

Telehealth uses technology such as remote patient monitoring equipment that can send details of the vital statistics of at-risk patients at home directly to clinicians, allowing people to live more independently at home and reduce hospital visits. Learn more at www.philips.com/newscenter.