Adam Steventon, senior research analyst at the Nuffield Trust and the project lead on the Whole System Demonstrator (WSD) programme, said the studies published so far into UK telehealth do not support a national rollout. However, only two out of five studies into the area have so far been published, concentrating on areas including cost and telehealth’s impact on hospital admissions.

“Overall I think the results as published do not [support a national rollout] because they only relate to cost and emergency admissions where these decisions should be based on things like quality of life. The NHS is not just about saving costs it’s also about other things such as adding value,” said Steventon. The video interview was conducted with Pulse magazine.

The remaining studies, which have not yet been published, cover the type of areas such as quality of life mentioned by Steventon.

Elsewhere in the interview, Steventon said the WSD evaluation relates only to a telehealth as implemented in a particular trial in a specific part of the UK. It might have a different impact in another region of the country, he said.  Any further rollout of telehealth should be tracked to monitor its impact, he said.

Steventon also referred to “a very recent study” that produced opposite results to his own Nuffield Trust survey that showed a decrease in mortality through telehealth. He did not specify but presumably the study was conducted outside the UK. “A very recent study looks at patients with multiple chronic conditions and  found more death associated with the control group,” he said.