IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Nevertheless, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan has decided doctors who counsel or diagnose Saskatchewan patients through video, telephone or the Internet are technically practising medicine in the province -- and should be licensed here.

On the weekend, the college's council passed a bylaw spelling out new rules governing the practice of so-called telemedicine in Saskatchewan, college lawyer and associate registrar Bryan Salte said.

The practice, called telemedicine, is currently unregulated in Saskatchewan despite a national recommendation nine years ago that provinces adopt consistent rules and regulations.

St. Joseph's Hospital/Foyer D'Youville went live with telehealth services — a two-way video-conferencing — on Monday.

"At the moment, it's mostly educational services for staff, but we plan on having public sessions down the road and physician referrals will happen in the future," said John Kelly, the hospital's CEO. "It depends on how the province moves the capacity of the system."

Cell phone diagnosis-which was initially applied in the field of dermatology (skin disorders) - has apparently come to the rescue of many patients in rural Tanzania - who could not be diagnosed due to lack of expertise necessitated by poor logistics and infrastructures.

The programme will see patients use interactive kiosks and remote health monitoring devices in villages and community hospitals across Shandong to record health information and have it instantly transmitted to their healthcare provider.

The project is a partnership between Canada-based Ideal Life, which provides mobile health and wellness systems, and China’s Shandong NovaTech Biological Pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical manufacturer and medical products distribution network in China.

Medical workers from the No. 425 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have participated in the Chinese Navy's escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia waters many times, and created many records in maritime medical support in the history of China's armed forces.

With the incident at a Tai Po nursing home where residents were left naked outside by staff, treatment of the elderly in Hong Kong reached a new low.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying rightly said that the city's shortage of land for building "was a key culprit in the poor treatment of residents at its homes for the elderly" ("CY blames elder abuse on city's land shortage", May 29).

What are we going to do when there are two million elderly citizens by 2041?

Imagine the following scenario in a doctor’s office in Hong Kong. “Doctor, you have seven online patients and two colonoscopies to perform today.”

The doctor logs onto the tele-console – three patients with their identities verified are already waiting. He clicks on the first patient and a Mr Chan appears on screen.

The Central Tibetan Administration’s Health Kalon-Dr Tsering Wangchuk- was in Bangalore to experience and inaugurate the telemedicine connection between Telerad RXDX in Whitefield, Bangalore and Mainpat, Chattisgarh.

The telemedicine setup has been deployed in Mainpat, a remote Tibetan settlement in Chattisgarh. The patient end is handled by a trained nurse equipped with a digital thermometer, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope and ECG. Using this technology a patient sitting in Mainpat can interactively discuss his condition with the physician sitting remotely in Bangalore and get treated. Cisco’s Healthpresence is integrated with TeleradTech’s teleradiology platform – RADSpa. So the physician can not only examine the patient but also view his diagnostic scans.

The initiative is set to be the largest healthcare information network in the United States and is an integral part of Gov. Bill Ritter's goal of expanding broadband communication in Colorado.

For the white paper -- titled, "Competitive Dynamics in the World Telehealth Market: 2011 to 2020" -- researchers analyzed the current telehealth market and developed projections for the market's future (Rodak, Becker's Hospital Review, 11/30).

Using what is known as mobile phone medicine, or telemedicine, clinicians across Botswana are consulting with medical specialists at Penn to get diagnoses and treatments for patients in rural areas quickly and easily.

Europas erstes Projekt zur medizinischen Versorgung auf hoher See wurde vor kurzem auf einem Kongress zur Telemedizin in Rom präsentiert: Dabei wurde die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Europas führender Kreuzfahrtreederei Costa Kreuzfahrten, dem Telekommunikationsdienstleister TELESAL, dem in Genua ansässigen Galliera Krankenhaus, dem Bauunternehmen D´Appolonia und der C.I.R.M. (International Radio Medical Center) vorgestellt.

The idea is to ease the healthcare burden on city hospitals.

About 18 percent of the region’s population is aged 65 and older, and many of the seniors have chronic conditions and reduced mobility. A centralized health platform focused on residents of Bilbao helps seniors gain healthcare access by phone, Internet and a patient monitoring system called TEKI, which Accenture helped develop.

The options to overcome the odds to bring about a revolutionary change in rural lifestyle in terms of internet use, telemedicine help and e-education are quite a few and some of them could be addressed through budgetary measures.

Starting next month, the Adult Congenital Heart Defects Association Cyprus (ACHDAC) will begin implementing the e-health project which will allow doctors at any given time, in any country to access their patients’ complete medical histories.

As a result, patients will receive telecare at home through tele-diagnosis. In Schleswig-Holstein, the mortality rate due to heart failure has been 36 % above the national average. Now, with the 'My Heart' project, a unique network of specialists should significantly improve the care of those affected; the medical experts of the clinic as well as their partners are available to provide support and advice to the participants.

Die erste deutsche Online-Praxis beruft sich juristisch auf die Anfang dieses Jahres beschlossene EU-Richtlinie zur Patientenmobilität und grenzüberschreitenden Gesundheitsversorgung. Nach dieser Richtlinie sind die Patienten berechtigt, medizinische Leistungserbringer aus dem europäischen Raum frei zu wählen. Die in London ansässige und vom britischen Gesundheitsdienst zertifizierte Online-Praxis behandelt in ihren "Sprechstunden"derzeit vor allem Krankheiten, die mit einer gewissen Scheu dem Arzt oder der Ärztin offenbart werden: Impotenz und Haarwuchs bei Männern, die Verhütung bei Frauen sowie die Diagnose und Behandlung von Geschlechtskrankheiten bei beiden Geschlechtern stehen im Mittelpunkt des Praxis-Angebotes, bei dem DrEd mit deutschen Labors kooperiert. Patienten müssen außerdem Selbstzahler sein, da die deutschen gesetzlichen Krankenkassen keine telemedizinische Leistungen übernehmen.

This first implementation of Cisco’s HealthPresence solution in Kenya demonstrated how technology can transform the delivery of healthcare to underserved, remote, and rural areas. Bandwidth connectivity was provided by Safaricom, the leading provider of converged communication solutions in Kenya.