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Technology Illumines Grey Areas
In the US, healthcare MR specialist DSS Research has launched a Senior Health Risk Assessment (SrHRA) tool, which provides health risk stratification measures for the over 65 age group. Meanwhile in the UK, two Yorkshire councils are using Digital Pen and Paper (DPP) technology to assess older residents' care needs.
 The DSS tool helps identify high-risk seniors who can benefit from participating in disease management programmes. It contains a number of validated question sets which seek response around areas relating to medical issues such as the Brody Frailty Index, BMI (body mass index), and a list of 17 chronic conditions; combined with demographics and data on health service usage.
SrHRA can be conducted by phone, mail, self-administered paper surveys, touch-screen kiosk, or Internet survey. The measures support predictive modeling, and DSS can also supply national norm data.
Back in the UK, North Yorkshire County and Selby District councils have introduced DPP technology from Swedish firm Anoto Group, which enables handwritten text in assessment forms to be transmitted from paper to digital media.
Council workers use the DPP to gather information on health and welfare from each individual. Once two nationally accredited assessment forms have been completed using the system, the information on the form is transferred securely via the DPP into a shared database via a mobile phone, and is then immediately available to other agencies, carers and family members. The time and cost savings to the Councils and their community services staff has already resulted in 150 pens being rolled out.
DSS employs more than 200 healthcare MR professionals, and is online at www.dssresearch.com. Anoto Group, which was founded as C Technologies in 1996, now has around 90 employees based in Lund, Boston and Tokyo, and is on the web at www.anoto.com.
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