Telehealthcare for COPD - bronchitis and emphysema

The smoking related diseases of bronchitis and emphysema are now considered under the umbrella term of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. This is because they are diseases which leave people breathless and often with a cough and increased phlegm. Such people often have times when their COPD worsens and they cannot "get their breath" and have to go into hospital for treatment. It is very expensive to look after people this way and often they do not want to spend time in hospital but there are few alternatives. Telehealthcare involves using technology such as telephones, video cameras and the Internet to allow people to stay at home and communicate with a nurse or doctor when they have a period of increased breathlessness. The professional can obtain information from the patient to allow them to prescribe treatments and monitor the patient closely without them having to go into hospital or to the emergency department. This study shows that people treated this way do manage to stay out of hospital longer than people treated by conventional systems of care. There are also some data showing that although these systems are expensive to start off with, if they are successful at keeping people out of hospital, then the cost saving from this means that they are cheaper in the long run.