Putting Telehealth to the TestThe Lothian RandomisedControlled Trials

Brian McKinstry (lead), Martin Egan (NHS Lothian), Janet Hanley (Qualitative), Paul Padfield (HBP), Hilary Pinnock (COPD), John McKnight (diabetes), Cathie Sudlow (stroke) Sarah Wild (epidemiology), Steff Lewis (statistics), Marjon van der Pol (economics), Claudia Pagliari (e-health), Lucy McCloughan (programme manager), Aziz Sheikh (primary care), Bill MacNee (respiratory), Sandra Auld (telecare). Collaborators: Wisia Wedzicha (COPD), J Roca (telemetry), Martin Dennis (stroke), Martin Denvir (CCF), Colin Fischbacher (ISD), John Steyn (GP IT), Angela Lindsay (physiotherapy), Chris Burton.

• Brief exploration of the background to Telehealth

• Overview of our research programme

• What patients and clinicians think of telehealth

• Discussion about what is useful to measure and how to interpret such measures

Rapidly Aging Population

Expected growth in elderly population

Increasingly Unhealthy

Rise in Long Term Conditions

• 17.5 million UK adults are living with a chronic disease

• By 2030 the prevalence of chronic disease will double

So how do we cope?

•Policy drive towards self-monitoring and self-care

•Is self-monitoring effective?

Why does self-monitoring fail?

• Difficulty in maintaining motivation

• Infrequent feedback from clinical staff

• Therapeutic inertia

Telemetrically supported supervised self-monitoring

Remote server

Record of readings and symptom scores

Internet or SMS

Urgent referral if required

Constant monitoring of potentially unstable conditions (e.g. COPD)

Call centre

Relatively stable conditions (e.g. diabetes, BP) checked intermittently (normally by practice nurse

GP practicePatient takes readings and enters symptom score

Home

Call to check situation

Reminders to self monitorAutomated feedback

Links to online information

Models of telemetric supported self monitoring

Consultation arranged as appropriate

Telephone or videolink

Clinician View

Streaming Data

Does it work?

• Do patients and doctors like it?

• Are outcomes improved?

• Does it actually save time and resources?

TeleScot Randomised Controlled Trials

– Hypertension • A common largely asymptomatic condition (n=400)

– Stroke/HBP • Affecting older frailer group with challenging targets

(n=400)

– Diabetes • A condition requiring multiple measurements, blood

pressure, blood glucose and weight (n=270)

– COPD • A symptomatic potentially unstable progressive condition

(n=300)

Qualitative and Economic Evaluations

COPD pilot

•Complete questionnaire each day

•Physiological measures as needed

•Call centre monitors

COPD monitoring

Each day, please record any WORSENING of symptoms from your usual daily level.

I am more breathless than usual

My sputum has increased in colour

My sputum has increased in amount

I have a cold (such as runny or blocked nose)

I have increased wheeze or chest tightness

I have a fever

I have an increased cough

I have a sore throat

<3 is OK

3-4 watch next day

5+ take action

Do the patients like it?

“I’ve never felt so well looked after in my life. I think it’s a godsend like.” (Patient aged 58)

“I don’t worry about him the same as I used tae. It’s all taken care of before it can get tae that level. That machine can tell Alec he’s ill even before he kens it hisself” (Spouse of patient aged 75)

“There’s some times you phone them up for an appointment ye cannae get one. . . So I feel if I’ve got that (telehealth device) I’ve got a chance of a doctor anyway.” (Patient age 75)”

What do the clinicians think?

Some concerns about workload

Worries about medicalisation

Concerns about false positives

Worries about the utility of physiological measurements

Some medicolegal worries

Workload

• Doubling of prescriptions of antibiotics, prednisolone

• Doubling of the number of times the record is opened

• But• Probably reflects previously undiagnosed

exacerbations

• Partly reflects non-optimised care

• Important to have a good existing infrastructure for management of exacerbations

Making sense of the symptom and telemetry data

• Some patients have difficulty distinguishing ‘bad days’ from exacerbations

• How do physiological measures relate to symptoms and exacerbations?

• What types of measure are likely to be helpful

• Is individual variation too great to allow setting parameters

Variation in events and dataSymptom Score

days

0 20 40 60

02

46

8

FEV1

days

0 20 40 60

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

Variation in FEV1

days

0 20 40 60

0.0

00.0

40.0

8

Symptom Score

days

0 20 40 60

02

46

8

Pulse rate

days

0 20 40 60

40

60

80

100

120

Variation in Pulse rate

days

0 20 40 60

02

46

810

Symptom Score

FEV1

Pulse

A sensible relationship!

Symptom score according to whether taking antibiotics

0.112065 0.112066 0.112068 0.112073

02

46

8

Antibiotics vs Symptom Score by individual

Antibiotics

0 1

02

46

8

Antibiotics vs Symptom Score by individual

Antibiotics

Sym

pto

m s

core

---

---

No Yes

Currently taking antibiotics?

Clinician Concerns

• “Spirometry..which I can’t imagine anybody would do properly. I mean how can they do that properly (at home).”

• “Scores are only part of the picture. You need to see the person as well”

• “You really need a sort of second layer (VC) to make sense of the scores, and decide if they need a visit. M’s scores are OK but I know.because I spoke to her that she’s really bad. Others score high and they’re fine”

• “I think anything that gives better information more quickly is a good thing. But that’s the thing with information, if it’s not passed on to somebody then it’s NOT a good idea, so there have to be good procedures in place for making sure that the information goes to whoever needs it”

Conclusions

• Patients like Telehealth

• It encourages evidence based practice and quality care

• Telehealth systems need robust underpinning structures to observe and manage the data provided

• They may not save time/resources in primary care

• We need rigorous research to discover where and how the systems are best applied and which physiological measures are best employed