The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 3 (June 2014) | Page 22

The Value of Video in Modern Health and Social Care

The Value of Video in Modern
Health and Social Care
Embedding video within health and social care provision has been
shown to produce significant health economic and quality benefits.
This report considers the implications of incorporating video in order
to underpin communication in modern clinical work flows.
The use of video in healthcare is nothing new, in fact the concept for teleconsultations has been around for decades.
Despite this, it is only really in recent
years that the use of video has become
more widely accepted among healthcare
professionals and providers as a viable
operational tool.
As part of our consideration, in this
issue, of the barriers and challenges that
can affect adoption of digital and mobile
health solutions, we have partnered with
UK based healthcare video provider
v-connect to consider the deployment,
use, benefits, and barriers to adoption of
video within modern health and social
care clinical work flows. Using deployment case-studies and user experiences,
we analyse how this type of system can
be best employed in order to integrate
effectively within everyday use scenarios.
Video is an extremely compelling
medium for healthcare, as it can provide
the means to remotely administer care
whilst maintaining the critical aspects
of human interaction, that foster trust
and rapport between patient and carer,
something that can often be lost when
using technology. In fact by increasing
the ability to connect with care providers in a wider range of circumstances,
often facilitating the interaction, video
can actually be used to underpin communication in care situations.

The Technology
The v-connect solution, developed by
UK based Red Embedded Systems, is a
dedicated secure and proven video communication service linking professionals
together to improve the quality of care.
Developed in partnership with the UK
National Health Service and local

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June 2014

authorities the system meets the highest levels of security whilst delivering
seamless communication. The service
has been deployed throughout the UK
to meet the needs of a number of different health and social care priorities.
By partnering with care organisations to
enable the delivery of services that focus
on outcomes, the system is creating new
possibilities for accessing health and
social care and associated services from
the home, and other remote locations.
‘v-connect’ provides a service led solution that incorporates a set-top box connected to a recipients television. The
hardware and system requirements are
easily installed resulting in an unobtrusive, secure, encrypted, teleconferencing
system. Recipients have access to a tailored carousel-style menu interface that
incorporates all of the relevant services
for their particular care requirements.
This allows care providers to deliver
multiple services at a single point of
access. As well as live video features, it is
also possible to upload learning or rehabilitation content specific to an individual recipient that can be easily accessed
when required. Access can also be monitored to help maintain adherence with
care plans, and the system easily integrates with other condition monitoring
services to link live video with real-time
bio-telemetry. With a small number of
users the system works with a simple
person-to-person approach. As the
number of users increases and the need
to integrate multiple services develops
v-connect offer communications hubs.
These are simple to use call-management panels enabling care providers to
easily manage, triage, filter, and re-route
all calls to ensure that they all receive the
attention they require. The system has
interfaces across all major IT platforms,

which means that video calls can easily
be re-routed to the PC, smartphone or
tablet of relevant consultants, doctors,
or carers.
The use of a dedicated video solution
delivers healthcare providers and the
end user patient with significant benefits
over other communication applications,
such as domestic consumer services like
Skype, and VoIP which is predominantly
business orientated, and therefore inappropriate for use in care situations. By
developing the system with direct input
from the NHS, the technical elements of
the service have been designed to ensure
that they integrate with existing IT provisions, meaning that care providers can
access H