Competitive health services in sparsely populated areas - eHealth applications in urban-rural dimension

The project aims to develop health services for the residents of the Northern Periphery, focus will be placed on eHealth services for primary care, chronic conditions and remote specialist services.

www.ehealthservices.eu

Project timescale: 01/01/08 - 31/03/11

Funder: European Union, Northern Periphery Programme

Project partners:

Lead partner - Northern Ostrobothania Hospital District

Vasterbotten County Council

Norwegian Centre for Telehealth

University of Aberdeen

National University of Ireland, Galway

Five different eHealth innovations have been exchanged between the northern sectors of Scotland, Sweden, Finland and Norway, with seven pilots completed across the region. These healthcare applications span the fields of both primary and secondary care – including renal, cardiology, dermatology, ophthalmology and speech therapy services.

NHS Highland has worked closely with the Centre for Rural Health to introduce two pilots, 'teledialysis' from Norway and remote speech therapy from Sweden. 'Teledialysis' comprises videoconferencing support for the satellite renal unit in Wick, connecting nurses and patients with the multidisciplinary team at Raigmore Renal Unit. This has been in place since March 2010, and has now become an established part of normal service delivery. "Virtual ward rounds" for Wick dialysis patients now take place via video link in alternate months, and nurses conduct twice weekly updates between sites. This enables seemless care of patients on admission to, and discharge from, Raigmore.

Teledialysis was extended to the satellite renal unit in Fort William from January 2011, based on the positive experience of the Wick pilot. Video links with the Stornoway renal unit are also being explored. Both these units are managed from Inverness.

The renal teledialysis team has recently been honoured in the NHS Highland Recognising Excellence Awards for 2010, for their collaboration in this project. In March 2011, the team featured in the UK-wide Innovation Awards of the British Journal of Renal Medicine.

Speech Therapy over video links began experimentally in the sparsely populated northern area of NHS Highland at the start of the project. The service has now exapanded to provide and assessments to an increasing number of patients. Therapists have developed theit skills in using videoconferencing as a medium for patient consultations. Technological improvements go hand in hand with thecommitment by speech and language therapists to offer an enhanced service to remote and rural patients. They are actively encouraging the uptake of video consultations by other allied health professionals.

The project has funded visits to Tromsø in Norway (December 2009) and Umeå in Sweden (September 2010) by the lead clinical staff in the renal and speech therapy services respectively, to give them practical experience of how these eHealth applications function in their original settings.

Scotland Project Team

(left to right)Fiona Smith (Secretary), Lee Dowie (Administrator), Mary Wakeling (Co-ordinator), Anne Roberts (Research Assistant), David Heaney (Project Lead)