TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA QATAR Science & Technology Park (QSTP), developer of the Rasad remote monitoring technology, signed an agreement with UK’s health services provider to help enhance National Health System (NHS) service to millions of patients across England.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday with Harmoni and Corinium Technologies Limited — two companies that will deploy the technology in the UK on behalf of the NHS.

Rasad, the first ‘Made in Qatar’ technology exported abroad, allows for large-scale real time remote monitoring of patients and will support the NHS in providing preventive medicine and better treatment and follow up of patients through the use of tele-health technologies. The ceremony was held at the Royal Society at Carton House Terrace in London.

Dr Tidu Maini, QSTP executive chairman and science & technology advisor, at the London event said, “Rasad is an essential tele-health tool to monitor patients who suffer from a variety of long term conditions. We are proud to be bringing this technology to the UK. Rasad is a direct realisation of Qatar National Vision to develop innovative technologies in Qatar that not only benefit the country, but can also be shared with the world.” Rasad is an ICT tele-health platform developed and owned by QSTP and Aspetar.

It enables real time remote monitoring using wireless sensors to transmit data, allowing doctors and caregivers the ability to monitor a patient’s physiological status and health conditions and can significantly improve an individual’s health and quality of life.

In Qatar, the Rasad platform is currently in operation at Al Ahli Hospital and Aspetar, where subjects are being monitored for cardiovascular and lifestyle studies respectively.

Under the agreement, Harmoni will use Rasad to remotely monitor patients with conditions that require regular medical observation, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (non-asthma related), heart disease, diabetes and hypertension.

Andrew Gardner, chief executive officer of Harmoni, said, “Harmoni sees the provision of tele-health as a fundamental element of the new look NHS under the government’s strategy, which has now placed integrated care at the very top of its agenda. Our use of Rasad will result in considerable financial savings to the NHS, but of equal importance will improve the quality of lives of millions of people in the community.” Rasad will be used to enhance Harmoni’s delivery of patient care on behalf of the NHS, which reaches over eight million patients across England. The care provider’s out-of-hours services, elderly care, and emergency services in particular will benefit from the Qatari technology.

Corinium Technologies Limited, an innovative information and communication technologies company focused on vertical markets with an emphasis on the healthcare sector, will integrate the Rasad platform into Harmoni’s existing state-ofthe- art healthcare application and information management system. The company’s Chief Executive Officer Massimo Migliuolo said, “We see this as a great example of seamlessly aggregating best of breed partners to deliver a better and more efficient patient experience that can contribute to improving the quality of life of chronic disease sufferers.”