A randomised clinical trial of the effectiveness of home-based health care with telemonitoring in patients with COPD.

We studied the effect of telemonitoring in addition to usual care compared to usual care alone in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A total of 110 patients with moderate to severe COPD were recruited from a specialist respiratory service in Northern Ireland. Patients had at least two of: emergency department admissions, hospital admissions or emergency general practitioner (GP) contacts in the 12 months before the study.

Assessment of user perspectives of cardiac point of care technologies in chest pain diagnosis.

The assessment of the value of point of care technologies for cardiac marker testing in patients presenting with chest pain was carried out using an on-line survey tool to garner the views and opinions of healthcare professionals on point of care testing (POCT). The preliminary results of the survey are presented here. A total of 38 responses were received, from health care professionals within Northern Ireland Health Trusts.