Posted on: Sunday, May 23, 2004

Dutch nurses on Web cam allow patients to stay home

By Anthony Deutsch
Associated Press Writer

ZUTPHEN, Netherlands — Bert Ooms raised his 80-year-old body in bed, adjusted his catheter, and clicked his television remote control to set up a Web cam connection.

That put him face to face with Clemence Ross-Van Dorp, the Dutch junior minister for health who was inaugurating a new health care tool.

Now, if needed, a nurse will be on the other end of the live audio and video link, which is part of a trial involving 700 home-care patients.

Confronted by a rapidly aging population and soaring health care costs, the Netherlands' government set aside subsidies last year to stimulate innovations in the health sector and find ways to cut spending.

The CamCare pilot project is intended to provide people confined to their homes by ailments to get medical advice without the expense of having a health worker visit them in person.

The test will run for three years in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland and cost around $6 million, split between the government and two Dutch healthcare providers, Amicon and Sensire.

The CamCare service, designed for patients who can no longer care for themselves and need professional medical attention, will be free during the trial. It is unclear how much it will cost later, but Sensire hopes to provide the service for under $24 a month.

"It's easy to use. I'm just going a little deaf," Ooms says.

Ooms can connect to a clinic whenever he feels unwell with a push of a single button. His medical records appear on the nurse's screen at the same time. After a series of questions, the nurse decides whether to dispatch help or tell him what he needs to do.

"This will make it easier to decide if a nurse is needed onsite," says Rolf Striekwold, head of research and development at Sensire, which operates the online call center. "Hopefully this will lead to a reduction in the number of home visits and the costs."