TeleCare (mCare) and TeleHealth (mHealth)
The TeleCare/mCare and TeleHealth/mHealth sectors are a great example of where Virtus Technology can make a significant positive impact on the effectiveness and value of a growing and ever more innovative family of sensors and monitors.
Virtus IT’s core technology platform, the Virtus CEP, is able to process vast amounts of data from many different sources and from many different types of device in near real time.
This means that we can combine monitoring of TeleCare devices (e.g. a room temperature monitor, a fall detector, a geo boundary detector, pill usage detector) with monitoring of TeleHealth devices (e.g. blood pressure monitor, blood glucose monitor) to provide individuals and support organisations with a sophisticated personal monitoring system that provides detailed real time information about a person's health, their security and their surrounding environment.
The ability to take simultaneous readings from many different devices/monitors/sensors enables us to provide a comprehensive picture about a person's immediate state (their physiology, their location and their environment). In addition we provide equally comprehensive information about changes and trends in their physiology, their location and the frequency with which unwelcome events are occurring (e.g. falling down) over many months.
However, the special value that Virtus CEP brings to TeleCare and TeleHealth comes from the utilisation of the CEP’s Rules engine and Knowledge Base. With these doctors, clinicians and emergency services can supply information that defines the significance of data coming from one or any combination of sensors and monitoring devices associated with a person. Not only can the significance of data be defined but also the action that CEP should take under various circumstances.
The Virtus CEP takes on the role of a rapid first line response system. Using our TeleCare and TeleHealth knowledge base and rules engine, emergencies, risks and issues based on the data being supplied are identified in near real time, and the CEP then directs the specified type of alert and alarms to appropriate systems depending on the nature of the Event. As well as sending the alert/alarm, CEP will make comprehensive Event data readily available in one place from all the sources that are relevant to that Event, for inspection as required.
In addition to processing the data that is being supplied by TeleCare and TeleHealth sensors and monitors, Virtus CEP performs one other important function – it can monitor the sensors and monitoring devices to ensure that they are functioning as required and generates appropriate alerts when they are not. Hence CEP monitors "mission critical" data traffic and the associated Service Level Agreements.
This degree of automation reduces the cost of operating key services while improving the availability of key resources (Medical staff, Care Workers Emergency Services and first line call centre support staff) and addressing people’s needs as efficiently as possible
Virtus IT is totally agnostic when it comes to Spokes for the TeleCare and TeleHealth Solution Areas. There are many specialist device providers offering many different devices, sensors and monitors. Our value is that we are happy to take in data from any of these, correlating the data they provide into a comprehensive consolidated view of the ‘state’ of a person – past, current and in some cases potential future.
The fact that we are not limited to any particular Spoke manufacturer is important today, as great advances are being made with sensors and monitoring technologies for TeleHealth. Soon sensors embedded under the skin will be commonplace, providing a constant stream of data about an individual’s physiology. CEP is the ideal framework to accommodate new type of information from new types of sensor as they become available and to process ever larger volumes of data and cutting through that volume to identify the conditions that really matter in near real time.
The event information that CEP captures and stores can (optionally) be accessed by the “end user” - the patient, or the elderly. Hence they can see in a straightforward way what is happening in their body and any associated trends. This form of feedback can make a significant positive impact on how certain people take care of their health.
CEP allows the "end user" to be in total control of setting and changing Alert levels. Hence users of the system, together with their physician where relevant, can set alert levels that suit their personal circumstances, controlling how CEP can best support their health and wellbeing.
Additionally, our knowledge base can also be accessed by the “end user”, in context –when events are detected that result in the generation of an alert, the alert can be associated with an appropriate knowledge item (text, voice or video) from the knowledge base, providing instruction/help/support/information that is relevant to that alert.
Finally CEP also has the capability to both update patient databases maintained by health services with readings taken from a patient (giving doctors immediate access to the latest information about a patient’s health) and to link to Research and Patient Care services that supply information to about specific illnesses and diseases that can supplement the information on our knowledge base when a patient wants information.