TV New Focus in GP Waiting Rooms

TV New Focus in GP Waiting Rooms
Media Release MedTV - 4 May 2007

Visuals available online at http://www.communiquenz.co.nz/MedTV/.
Additional information attached.

People waiting to see the doctor will now be able to catch up on the latest health news by watching TV. The new digital TV service is being provided free to some GP waiting rooms with the funding coming from programme sponsorship and advertising.

Patients will be able to watch short programmes about health issues on a large LCD screen. Programming will include stories about child health and safety, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and strokes, mental health, healthy eating, fitness and lifestyle.

Most of the content is original, produced in association with organisations like Meningitis Trust, Diabetes Auckland, Age Concern, ALAC, Health Sponsorship Council, District Health Boards, other government agencies and charitable trusts. Some content is adapted from existing video material. No direct-to-consumer prescription medicine advertising is shown.

Later in the year a touch screen computer will be connected to the network and people will be able to use the computer to investigate health topics that interest them. Much of this information will be available in a range of languages.

The service, which has been introduced by MedTV, will be installed in at least 160 clinics over the next year. The roll-out is the culmination of a six-year development process.

The new digital service was launched on 30 April at Te Puna Hauora o Te Raki Paewhenua, a leading Maori health provider in Auckland. General Manager John Marsden is proud of the history of service innovation at Te Puna Hauora and adds: "If that is the technology in front of us, we certainly want to be part of it". He particularly likes the opportunity for the local multi-cultural patient base to share information from other communities. "It fits in with our philosophy," he said. "We are traditionally known as sharers of what we have - 'with your food basket and my food basket we are able to survive'."

ENDS

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