2020health

What is it?

This centre right think tank campaigns to promote the use of 21st century information technology in healthcare and is running a summit on telehealth on 28 June.

The event, jointly hosted with the Royal College of General Practitioners, promises to set out how care can be successfully provided remotely from consulting rooms to patients’ homes.

Video conferencing between a patient and a case manager is among technologies that could be delivered by a nationally coordinated telehealth system, the group says (BMJ 2010;341:c5699, doi:10.1136/bmj.c5699).

It urges the use of patients’ televisions to send messages and consultation information, text messaging reminders to take drugs, and remote devices that could be used for blood and vital signs monitoring.

Such systems could easily save the NHS up to £1bn (€1.1bn; $1.6bn) a …