This paper presents an overview of the state-of-the-art on decision support systems (DSS) in telecare. The main aspect examined is the use of smaller subsystems--components in an integrated DSS, with emphasis on two application areas: medical home unit monitoring and real-time prioritisation of the alerts generated by them, and drug interaction checking. The paper suggests the development of an integrated hybrid telecare DSS synthesizing most of the technologies reviewed. Implementation issues are also examined, with an emphasis on the international trend towards the development of platform-independent, component-based, distributed software.