This briefing sets out brief definitions of the terms telehealth, telemedicine, telecare and mHealth. It describes current use of telecare and telehealth in the UK, looks at likely future developments in the technology and examines the regulatory and policy issues raised by its implementation.

It briefly describes three major demonstrator pilots to test whether telehealth and telecare could be used to redesign health systems:

• the Whole System Demonstrator
• the ‘3millionlives’ campaign
• the Assisted Living Innovation Platform.

It summarises learning on the challenges of implementing telehealth from both the UK and USA and conculdes that successful implementation of new technology will depend on the co-ordinated efforts of patients, clinicians and workers throughout the health and social care sectors.