Press Releases & News

July 7 2010 – Today, over 100 of England’s top primary care respiratory healthcare specialists are meeting to discuss the way forward in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) management, a condition that kills more people every year in the UK than bowel, breast and prostate cancer.[1],[2] Discussions about the immediate changes needed to improve patient care are in light of the recently published updated National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) COPD guideline and anticipated National Strategy for COPD, expected to be made available later this year.

“When published, the National Strategy for COPD will provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the current gaps in COPD service delivery and standards in patient care,” stated Dr. Iain Small, Executive Chair of the Primary Care Respiratory Society UK (PCRS-UK). “At this time of change and uncertainty, PCRS-UK is dedicated to driving optimal care for all by improving COPD management. Engaging primary care health professionals in the implementation of the National Strategy will be critical to its success, and we welcome this exciting opportunity to help improve the lives of patients with chronic respiratory disease.”

The London-held meeting, entitled Leading Change in COPD Care, led by PCRS-UK, provides the foundation for a new educational programme funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and developed in partnership with PCRS-UK called Paper to Patient.

Developed to complement education provided by the NHS, Paper to Patient aims to bring to life the updated NICE COPD guideline and anticipated National Strategy for COPD by providing practical tools to healthcare professionals, enabling them to make an immediate impact on patient quality of life.

“Managing COPD has become an important health priority in England in line with the forthcoming National Strategy for COPD” said Dr. Kevin Gruffydd-Jones, General Practitioner in Box, Wiltshire and Member of the NICE COPD Guideline Development Group.” The newly updated NICE COPD guideline provides a timely and comprehensive guide in helping health professionals manage this distressing condition.”

Meetings will be run throughout England between September and December this year offering all healthcare professionals a chance to share best practice management techniques and access free materials to help improve the care of patients with COPD.

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Note to editors:

What is COPD?

COPD is an umbrella term used to describe a number of conditions including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. COPD leads to damaged airways in the lungs, which causes them to become narrower making it harder for air to get in and out of the lungs.[3] It is estimated that COPD affects up to three million people in the U.K. alone,[4] with only around 900,000 being correctly diagnosed.[5]

What is Paper to Patient?

Paper to Patient is an educational programme funded by GSK and developed in partnership with PCRS-UK, which translates the anticipated National Strategy for COPD and updated NICE COPD guideline into a package of meetings and training for healthcare professionals. The content is concise and relevant, with simple, practical resources to help healthcare professionals implement this guidance and to provide support in making changes within their practices to improve the care and services for people living with COPD.

Regional meetings will be held:

- 15th September 2010, Newcastle

- 28th September 2010, Manchester

- 30th September 2010, Birmingham

- 7th October 2010, London

To find out more about Paper to Patient and for meeting registration, go to www.papertopatient.co.uk

The Primary Care Respiratory Society UK – is the UK-wide professional society committed to improving respiratory care in primary care. Registered as a charity and led by members through a range of committees and faculties dedicated to meeting the vision of optimal respiratory care for all. For further information please visit www.pcrs-uk.org

GlaxoSmithKline – one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For further information please visit www.gsk.com

[1] Office of National Statistics; Health Statistics Quarterly No.43. (2009)

[2] Cancer Research UK; Trends in Cancer Morality – UK Statistics. (2010). Accessed May 2010. http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/mortality/timetrends/index.htm#Bowel

[3] British Lung Foundation; COPD. Accessed May 2010.

http://www.lunguk.org/you-and-your-lungs/conditions-and-diseases/copd.htm

[4] Stang P, Lydick E, Silberman C et al; The Prevalence of COPD: Using smoking rates to estimate disease frequency in the general population. Chest (2000). Accessed May 2010. http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/117/5_suppl_2/354S.full

[5] British Lung Foundation; Lung Report III. (2003)

For more information contact:

Helena Bate

GlaxoSmithKline UK

t:0208 990 3601

m:0782 5116 087

e:Helena.L.Bate[at]gsk[dot]com

Joanna Dixon

Fleishman Europe

t:0207 395 7111

m:0754 000 2118

e:Joanna.dixon[at]fleishmaneurope[dot]com

Distributed on behalf of Fleishman-Hillard by NeonDrum news distribution service (http://www.neondrum.com)

The Big Lottery Fund has announced a grant of £248,866 to support a joint research project to be conducted by Self Help Nottingham and the Universities of Anglia Ruskin and Nottingham designed to improve the support available for self help groups in the UK.

Self help groups are run for and by peers who are facing a similar social or health related condition. There is now considerable evidence that peer-led self help groups offer an effective means for improving health and social care outcomes for people.

The three year project entitled ‘Developing effective support for community based self help groups’ has just started. It is designed to produce evidence based guidelines that would be widely available to health and social care practitioners so that they can provide the best support for local self help groups.

The project will be managed by the Director of Self Help Nottingham, Sarah Collis, with research carried out under the supervision of Professor Carol Munn-Giddings at Anglia Ruskin University and Professor Mark Avis at the University of Nottingham.

Speaking on behalf of the Faculty of Health & Social Care at Anglia Ruskin University, Professor Munn-Giddings said: ‘The team at Anglia Ruskin University is delighted and excited to have been awarded this grant which recognises the importance that self help groups make to people’s social well-being and the role that community practitioners have to play in supporting their development.’

Melanie Boyce from Anglia Ruskin University and Sarah Chaudhary from The University of Nottingham will be researchers for the project.

The project is a qualitative participatory action research study conducted in four stages developed with self help group members.

Stage one will describe the characteristics of self help groups and identify key issues for their development and maintenance. Stage two will involve in-depth case studies with selected self help groups and professionals in order to identify the development needs of self help group members and the professionals who are in contact with them. Stage three will develop an evidence based good practice resource pack for professionals working with self help groups. Stage four will be devoted to dissemination and communication with health and social care practitioners and experts nationally. The main output, the evidence based guidelines, will be available via Self Help Nottingham.

Self help group members in the UK will benefit from the availability of appropriate guidance on building resilience in self help groups, community based practitioners in the voluntary and public sector will have access to resources to work with self help groups, and health and social care commissioners will have the research evidence to include appropriate support for self help in their plans.

Vera Todorov, chair of Trustees of Self Help Nottingham, said: ‘Very many people benefit from involvement in self help groups, and yet the contribution that self help activity makes to social well-being is often not well understood by health and social care professionals. I welcome this opportunity to bring together self help members and community practitioners to promote good practice in support of self help.’

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Notes to Editors

Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University is passionate about the advancement of knowledge and the education of students, and we pride ourselves on taking university education in imaginative new directions. Our key contribution is to the enhancement of social, cultural and economic well being. We have two main campuses, in Cambridge and Chelmsford, with over 28,000 students and 1,000 academic staff.

Distributed on behalf of Madhouse PR by NeonDrum (http://www.neondrum.com)
Nicky Denovan
Tel: +44 7747 017654
nicky[at]neondrum[dot]com

Abingdon, United Kingdom, 16 April 2010 – Toumaz, the leading provider of ultra-low power wireless infrastructure for body monitoring solutions, has been named as a ‘Cool Vendor’ by leading analyst firm Gartner, Inc. The ‘Cool Vendors in Healthcare Providers 2010’ report profiles five vendors worldwide who, in Gartner’s assessment, exemplify innovative and potentially transformative solutions for global healthcare providers.

The report includes a recommendation to healthcare providers to “prepare for an explosion of innovations that use the potential of low-power, low-cost sensors combined with wireless networks. Since these technologies will generate large volumes of actionable data, executives will need to consolidate data and use decision support tools to enable deeper analysis of clinical processes, resources and outcomes.” The authors of the report include senior Gartner analysts Jonathan Edwards, Barry Runyon, Vi Shaffer, Thomas J. Handler, M.D., John-David Lovelock, and Wes Rishel.

Toumaz’s Sensium™ is the industry’s first complete system for the development of end-to-end wireless vital signs monitoring and Body Area Networks (BAN) solutions. The revolutionary Sensium system provides the ability to continuously monitor multiple vital signs in real-time and feedback high-quality information to health professionals. In November 2009, Toumaz began clinical trials of its ultra-low power, ultra-small size Sensium “digital plaster” wireless body monitor, in a study conducted by a specialist clinical research team at Imperial College London. The trial has been carried out at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and as expected, demonstrated that high quality physiological data can be continuously and wirelessly acquired by devices enabled by the Sensium platform.

Commenting on Toumaz’s inclusion in the ‘Cool Vendor’ report, Toumaz CEO Professor Chris Toumazou said: “We are delighted to have been selected as a ‘Cool Vendor’ by Gartner, and we are very pleased that the transformative potential of our Sensium platform has been acknowledged in this way.” He continued: “Sensium is a truly disruptive technology that provides a unique solution to addressing the medical management challenges now faced by healthcare providers across the globe. The benefits of more frequent and better structured patient monitoring have been well understood by hospital management teams for some time however, until Sensium, the costs and inconvenience have been prohibitive. Now, Sensium is providing a technology platform to create commercially-viable, clinically robust solutions and deliver a genuine revolution in wireless body monitoring – both in and out of hospital settings. We believe our ‘Cool Vendor’ designation from Gartner is a pleasing recognition of our solution and approach as we progress towards widespread commercial deployment of Sensium-enabled devices.”

About Gartner’s Cool Vendors Selection Process

Gartner’s listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

Members of the media interested in scheduling a briefing with Toumaz can do so by contacting Nicky Denovan at toumaz[at]evokedset[dot]com.

For the full Gartner report, please visit: http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1334413&ref=g_sitelink&ref=g_SiteLink

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About Sensium™

Toumaz’s Sensium™ technology platform enables the non-intrusive acquisition of real-time, continuous physiological data for a wide range of health and lifestyle management applications, including remote healthcare, wellness and wireless monitoring at the bedside.

Sensium provides an open platform to develop revolutionary wireless devices that can continuously monitor multiple vital signs in real-time, and feedback high-quality information to health professionals via PCs, PDAs and smart phones.

About Toumaz (www.toumaz.com)

Toumaz is the leading provider of ultra-low power wireless infrastructure for body monitoring solutions.

Toumaz’s ultra low-power smart sensor interface and transceiver platform – Sensium™ – enables non-intrusive, real-time wireless monitoring of multiple vital signs for a wide range of healthcare and lifestyle management applications. Based on Toumaz’s patented ultra-low power Advanced Mixed Signal (AMx)™ technology, the Sensium provides the enabling technology to connect the mobile individual to healthcare providers – simply, affordably and unobtrusively.

For healthcare professionals, this transforms the possibilities for pro-active monitoring and improved quality of care. For patients, it delivers new opportunities for lifestyle-compatible, personalised healthcare, as well as better therapeutic outcomes.

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Press contacts:

Toumaz
Nicky Denovan
EvokedSet PR
toumaz [at] evokedset [dot] com
Phone: +44 (0)7747 017654

Distributed on behalf of Toumaz by NeonDrum (http://www.neondrum.com)
Nicky Denovan
Tel: +44 7747 017654
nicky[at]neondrum[dot]com