About us

The need for change

Both national and local policies continue to look at ways of improving the cost effectiveness of health and social care. The issues with demand and provision, and in particular caring for people with Long Term Conditions (LTC), are very familiar and there have been many efforts for change, frequently concentrating on structural or financial reforms. It is now widely recognised that such reforms by themselves are not sufficient, and that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way health and social care is delivered.

The recent guidance from the Department of Health regarding ‘NHS Support for Social Care: 2010/11 – 2012/13’ sets out the framework for a number of new funding streams for social care investment in support of health needs. The aim is to help individuals to regain and maintain their health and independence, thereby avoiding unnecessary use of costly services such as hospital admissions.

Some of the suggestions require an increase in the capacity of existing types of services such as residential care places. Others, however, such as reablement, crisis response, rehabilitation and prevention, require change in the design of services with an overall shift away from traditional institutions, such as hospitals and clinics, to a home-based care setting. The care is taken to the individual and not the individual to the care. Furthermore, care is not confined to traditional professional carers but also includes self-care and the wider support provided by family and informal carers.

At present the industry has tele-services that are often additional to existing provision rather than an alternative. Individuals end up receiving the same interventions as they previously received, such as home visits or admissions to hospital, and the technology has merely added another step and cost in to the process.

Unique end-to-end telehealth service

The Appello service will address this gap in the market and is targeted at monitoring Long Term Conditions including diabetes, asthma, heart disease, hypertension and COPD.

Appello centres on the service provided to empower an individual to live independently, rather than focussing on expensive technology.

The service provides one-to-one personalised advice and guidance over the telephone from qualified nurse advisors along with access to self-management tools for individuals via a web-based personalised assistive care record portal.

Our customers:

• Local Authorities
• Residential Care / Housing Associations
• Primary Care Trusts / GP Consortia
• Patient Associations
• Retail Organisations