Skip to content

Surprising Science — December 17, 2011

Tele-Health Trial Proves its Usefulness

A recent two-year trial of telehealth technology for monitoring people who are chronically ill found it works particularly well for people with conditions like diabetes and heart failure.

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

What’s the Latest Development?

A recent two-year trial of telehealth technology for monitoring people who are chronically ill found it works particularly well for people with conditions like diabetes and heart failure, COPD, arthritis and depression. The idea is that this removes the need for the patient to attend a clinic or hospital appointment, saving everyone time and money. A TV is not essential, some people used small hand-held devices.

What’s the Big Idea?

According to the results of the trial, telehealth can reduce mortality, reduce the need for admissions to hospital, lower the number of days spent in a hospital bed and cut the time spent in accident and emergency units. The technology means that patients in remote communities can be monitored closely without having to travel long distances to see their family doctor.

Photo credit: shutterstock.com

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related

Telemedicine: The future of health care is already here

Technology that enables telemedicine is set to change the medical field for patients, doctors, and investors.

Getting mental health care makes the body healthier — especially for the elderly

Taking care of our minds is an often neglected aspect of aging. What are we going to do about it?

Surprising Science

World Health Organization Demands Pharmaceutical Companies Stop Withholding Clinical Trials as Study Finds Over Half of Registered Clinical Trials Are Never Published

In the United States, the FDA has the power to fine drug companies $10,000 a day for failing to publish clinical trials, yet most clinical trials still never see the light of day.

Person sitting at a dimly lit table with a laptop, using a smartphone. Another person is visible in the background. There are buildings and lights visible through the window.

Are you a workaholic? How to spot the signs

In a major shift, psychologists now view an out-of-control compulsion to work as an addiction with its own set of risk factors and consequences.

A close-up view of a computer graphics card featuring an array of components, including capacitors, resistors, and a central processing chip, all mounted on a black circuit board.

The AI chip startup that could take down Nvidia

Just eight of Etched’s Sohu chips could replace 160 Nvidia GPUs.

Up Next

Surprising Science

The fear of cancer can do more harm than actual cancer

There is no question that in many cases, we are cancer phobic, more afraid of the disease than the medical evidence says we need to be, and that fear alone can be bad for our health.