Preventing hospital visits through telemedicine.

The article discusses so-called supported self-care for patients with chronic conditions in Great Britain. It describes a telemedicine programme that assists patients in making decisions about seeing or asking questions of their general practitioners. The system is designed to help patients with illnesses including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. It notes assistance given to patient Beryl Keating and it cites Pfizer Health Solutions division head John Proctor regarding care management provided by Birmingham OwnHealth.