On 5th December 2011 the Department of Health published the headline findings from the Whole Systems Demonstrator (WSD) programme, the world's largest randomised control trial of telehealth and telecare services. The potential for telehealth and telecare is enormous and Paul Burstow MP, Minister of State for Care Services, has made clear the government's commitment to work with industry to improve the lives of three million people.

The WSD programme was established by the Department of Health (DH) to evaluate the benefits and effectiveness of telehealth and telecare services. This was a large scale randomised control trial involving over 6,000 people across three sites with the aim of providing a fully evaluated evidence base for telehealth and telecare.

Headline findings have been released for telehealth and show that these services can substantially reduce mortality, reduce the need for admissions to hospital, lower the number of bed days spent in hospital and reduce the time spent in A&E. The findings for telecare will be available early 2012.

The Department of Health (DH) believes that at least three million people with long term conditions and/or social care needs could benefit from the use of telehealth and telecare services. Implemented effectively as part of a whole system redesign of care, telehealth and telecare can alleviate pressure on long term NHS costs and improve people's quality of life through better self-care in the home setting. On 19th January, Paul Burstow, Minister for Care Services committed to work with industry, to support the NHS, social care and professional partners in 3millionlives in order to achieve this level of change.
A Concordat supporting this commitment was also published.

3millionlives News Release

3millionlives Concordat

• For DH and industry to work together over the next 5 years to develop the market and remove barriers to delivery.
• For DH to create the right environment to support the uptake of telehealth and telecare including rewarding organisations for adopting and integrating these technologies in services by developing a tariff.
• For industry to work with the NHS, social care and other stakeholders to simplify procurement and commissioning processes for telehealth and telecare services at scale.
• To put the NHS and UK industry at the forefront of telehealth and telecare globally, developing significant opportunities for UK plc.
• To promote the benefits that telehealth and telecare services can provide people in managing their health and care.

To get involved fill in our Contact Form, or email: info@3millionlives.co.uk

3millionlives

3millionlives is about transformational change, building services for people with long term conditions, supporting with technology where needed and building a new business models.

The collaboration intends to increase co-operation between industry, government and other stakeholders to help make the widespread adoption of telehealth and telecare a reality.

Whilst we haven't got all the answers today, what we have achieved so far is:

• held a successful Ministerial launch for the 3millionlives Concordat between industry and DH
• developed a brand, information pack and web resource
• drafted a Memorandum of Understanding in order to lay down the foundations for what 3millionlives means for all stakeholders
• created a momentum for change

What we are doing next is to:

• hold an industry workshop on 29 February to explain the 3millionlives Concordat in more detail, including governance arrangements, workstreams and deliverables. At the end of the workshop, we will have a clear idea about which industry organisations want to play an active role in taking the 3millionlives campaign forward and the priority deliverables for the year ahead.
• hold a series of brainstorming workshops with stakeholders to understand how we can work together to make 3millionlives a success

Funding

As you would expect, this type of joint work needs financial backing to be successful. The four industry trade associations (The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI), The Telecare Services Association (TSA), Intellect and Medilink UK), who are partnering with the Department of Health, have already committed £10k of seed funding. This is on behalf of all of their members, large and small precisely to ensure as wide as possible cross section of the industry is represented in all the planning and work undertaken.

The Associations have already begun active engagement with their members to ensure there is the widest possible involvement. However, it is recognised that the initiative requires substantial additional funding to ensure it delivers on its work plan. A call to action has also been issued for individual funders to support 3millionlives, and a meeting for interested parties will take place on 29 February 2012.

Engagement

3millionlives is the biggest partnering opportunity between Government and industry to drive through real change in service delivery models.

The respective partners involved in the initiative bring agreement and commitment to work together to tackle the barriers to this large scale change.

Angela Single
Chair
3millionlives Working Group
 Email:angela.single@3millionlives.co.uk


Industry Event Update

The meeting on 29 February attracted a wide representative group of organisations and companies involved in the telecare and telehealth market. Over 50 companies were represented.

Stephen Johnson (DH) and Angela Single (chair of the industry group) jointly chaired the meeting. Stephen presented an outline of the reason for undertaking the 3millionlives campaign and the background to the development of a partnership between DH and industry.

The four trade associations (Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI), Intellect, Medilink and Telecare Services Association (TSA)) outlined their role in the campaign and the market representation that they brought to the work.

An outline of a work programme for the first six months and then longer term deliverables was presented to the industry group. This was followed by an opportunity for attendees to identify the areas of work that they saw as the greatest priority.

A lively Q and A session stimulated lots of debate on governance of the campaign, the financial commitment sought, and the outline business plan.

Early indications of support for 3millionlives were very positive with a number of companies making an immediate commitment to contribute to the ongoing industry response to 3millionlives and a number of others expressing their interest in committing.

The slides presented at the meeting are attached below. The views expressed during the voting element are being summarised and will be available shortly.

Slides from Industry Event - 29 February 2012

To get involved, or for more information, please contact: info@3millionlives.co.uk