Chronic Disease Sufferers To Benefit From New ‘At Home’ Diagnostic Device

People who suffer from chronic diseases, including high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and heart problems 

should benefit from a new remote, home care monitoring system that could also bring an end to overcrowded 

waiting rooms.

With project partners in Estonia , Latvia and the UK facing research costs of over €2 million, the development 

of Doc@HOME^® was made possible with the help of a grant of €1.1 million from the Information Society 

Technology (IST) Programme of the European Union’s Framework Programme. It is now set to improve the 

quality of life of thousands of people, including the elderly and disabled, by freeing up time currently spent on 

octors and hospital visits. This in turn will help ease the pressure on the family doctor.

Low cost and easy to use, Doc@HOME^® gives the patient a sense of control over their condition and allows 

heir medical carers to stay ahead of the disease. It also provides education about the disease and its risk factors,

 and supports lifestyle modification strategies that need to be introduced to help manage the condition.

Adrian Flowerday, managing director of the UK partner Docobo UK, is confident the new system will be welcomed 

around the world, saying: "The World Health Organisation sees Chronic Disease as being the greatest challenge

 to the healthcare systems and populations of the world this century. The Doc@HOME^® service provides a low

 cost, home based chronic disease management solution to help the national healthcare organisations address 

these challenges. Patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 

(COPD) and diabetes will be enabled to monitor and control their own condition, confident in the knowledge 

that the healthcare systems are monitoring their progress."

Peter Walters, UK National Contact Point for IST within the EU’s 6^th Framework Programme, 

believes that the Doc@HOME^® project is a prime example of the major contribution EU funding has in the 

development of information and communications technology: to medical institutions

1.     A continuous and adequate overview of the health status of the patient in their actual living 

environment

2.      A reduction of the misplaced time and expenditures

Family members also benefit by having a better overview of the health status of their relative, and the pressure 

on hospitals will be eased thanks to a reduction of admissions of patients with chronic conditions for routine 

examination.

The system is built around a low-cost device (the projected end user cost is around 200 Euros) specially 

constructed for the purpose of long-term trouble free data collection, with design features considering the needs 

of the typical home care population (elderly people, disabled people etc).

For further information, please contact Adrian Flowerday on 01372 363747 or visit www.docobo.co.uk

Background information:

The Doc@HOME^® service operates through a hand held Data Collection and Interaction unit (DCI) which sits 

on a cradle connected to the patient's standard telephone line. With a single large screen and just a few large 

buttons, the DCI summons the patient to his or her next data collection session, usually by audible personalised 

one. The patient then simply provides answers to questions and if instructed by the unit to do so, records ECG 

and bioimpedance data simply by holding the unit for a short period and then returning it to its cradle. If additional

 sensors are being used such as blood glucose monitor, the patient may be instructed to take the appropriate 

measurement and enter it into the DCI, or it can be transferred automatically via wire connection or, increasingly

 in the future, by Bluetooth® wireless. Similarly, if the patient should for example be instructed to exercise or take 

medicine during a data collection session, the effect will be monitored. In this way, compliance with the treatment 

egime can be confirmed and since all measurements are time coded and encrypted, reliability of collected data is 

assured.

Collected data is sent to a secure database where it can be analysed for simple automated response to the patient, 

or, should collected data indicate say, an adverse trend, the clinician will be alerted. In any event, the authorised 

clinician has access to collected data at all times via his or her standard internet web browser.

  (29/7/04)