A remote medical care system will not only enable patients to receive medical attention without traveling long distance, thus saving time and money, but also allow hospitals to collect a wide array of patient information through the system, an executive at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said Thursday. At a seminar on remote health care applications and technology standardization, Shau Yio-wha, director of the ITRI Medical Electronics and Device Technology Center, said that when patients seek medical help in hospital, about 45 percent of their time was spent on getting medical checks and waiting for doctors to make medical records. However, if patients can send their medical records to hospitals before receiving medical care through a long distance care system, plenty of time can be saved. Such a system will also help improve outpatient registration accuracy, Shau added. The value of long distance home medical care not only lies in the costs savings, but in improving the quality of medical care for patients, particularly those with chronic illnesses and who need long term care, according ot Shau. Lyn McFarlane, general manager of business operations from U.K.-based Tunstall, a leading provider of telecare and telehealth solutions, said that using a remote health care system will help boost patients' self-confidence, alleviate their anxiety, increase their peace of mind and sense of security, as well as promote greater patient self-management. For example, McFarlane said that Tunstall used a telehealth system to monitor 30 high-risk patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in their own homes in Sheffield, Scotland. Five month later, results showed that telecare in the 30 patients' homes helped reduce the rate of hospital visits by them by 50 percent and the number of home visits by medical personnel by 80 percent. The system was estimated to have saved UKG1.2 million in medical costs a year for hospitals, according to McFarlane. The patients also showed improvement in scores on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), she added. Over the past three years, a number of companies in Taiwan have ventured into the telecare arena, but the pace of development of this type of service was still slow, McFarlane said. She urged Taiwan's government to pioneer a trial system and conduct related evaluation for the launch of remote medical care services. 