IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

The 2.3 million project, entitled ‘Implementing Transnational Telemedicine Solutions’ (ITTS), aims to deliver a range of projects on mobile self management, video consultation and home-based health services to the rural and remote communities of northern Europe.

This week, research partner teams from Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Finland will gather at NUI Galway for a two-day meeting. The ITTS teams and their respective clinicians, speech therapists, researchers, engineers and technologists work in a variety of fields including psychiatry, emergency services, diabetes, rehabilitation and care of the elderly.

eHealth and telemedicine are certainly emerging as possible tools to provide high quality, affordable care in an ageing Europe, agreed the participants.

Unlike its fellow affixees, e-health is rather difficult to define. It refers not to a thing or a single practice, but to a series of trends in healthcare that owe their existence to the emergence of new communication technologies, in particular the Internet.

One is telemedicine - the provision of clinical healthcare from a distance.

Because options for telemedicine technology can vary from 7,800 euros ($10,000 U.S.) for a desktop system to 25,000 and 40,000 euros ($32,000 U.S. and $51,000 U.S.) for an entire conference room configuration, making wise investment decisions for patient care is imperative, according to the study presented at ECR 2013.

The European Commission telemedicine communication aims to increase and broaden telemedicine services, including diagnosis, treatment and monitoring at a distance across Europe.

The communication, which has been adopted by the Commission after two years of consultation, sets out ten proposed actions to promote telemedicine, including harmonization of standards and the removal of regulatory and legal barriers. Despite the potential benefits that telemedicine can provide, its use is still limited in most parts of the EU.

The aim of the eHealth Network is to ensure EU wide interoperability of electronic health systems and wider use of eHealth as well as coordination, coherence and consistency of work on eHealth at EU level.

The ‘Sustainable telemedicine: paradigms for future-proof healthcare’ report highlights the successes of introducing telemedicine to date in Europe, and offers guidance as to how the EU vision for integrated telemedicine services can be achieved buy its 2020 target.

Ronald Leach and colleagues describe a highly asynchronous service model for healthcare delivery. The approach is much cheaper to implement than direct medicine and even less expensive than other approaches to telemedicine that have been suggested for rural and developing parts of the world. The approach to rolling out their solution is entirely incremental and would provide improved health service even in the initial stages before the system is fully implemented, the team says. "Our proposed service model provides relatively comprehensive, but not universal, healthcare coverage," says Leach. "The application of current thinking in systems service engineering, when coupled with economic models of costs (in both monetary and resource areas), can help provide an extremely useful healthcare environment," he adds.

Growing applications and availability led the firm to predict that the industry will grow from a 2011 valuation of $13.2 billion to $32.5 billion by 2018.

According to GlobalData, the key factors driving the industry include the need to increase the reach of quality medical care to remote locations, reduce healthcare expenditure and enable the optimal usage of limited provider resources. The accelerated growth of robust telecommunication technologies, the increased adoption of related healthcare IT solutions and the readiness of companies and governments to invest also are contributing to the market’s double-digit growth.

“Most of the hospitals in Qatar are under one system, which is the HMC system, so we can be a really good example of the application of telemedicine through an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. Telemedicine and eHealth are of great importance as we continue to develop tremendously from all the other elements,” internationally renowned telemedicine expert and Hamad Medical Corporation Trauma Services director Dr Rifat Latifi has said.

“From faster wireless networks to mobile imaging applications to biosensors, the technologies for delivering telemedicine services are certainly there,” said Dr. Yongmin Kim, IEEE Fellow and professor of bioengineering and electrical engineering at the University of Washington. “But advancing telemedicine through technology innovation alone is not enough. We now need to make it easier for the healthcare providers to embrace and apply these technologies in diverse medical environments.”

At the CyberPress Forum held recently at the iAcademy auditorium in Makati City, experts from the industry said ICT is transforming the way health care is provided in the country for both the under-funded public health facilities and state-of-the-art private medical centers and hospitals.

'Next year we hope to start construction of the telecommunication network for medical institutions and connect (them – CNews) to the internet through HS leased lines', - Leonid Reiman, RF Minister of Communications, reported at the Exhibition and Forum 'InfoCom-2007'. He says corresponding proposals will be used in the implementation plan 'Development Strategy of E-society in Russia till 2015'.

Dieses Thema stellt nun auch die Fachhochschule Brandenburg in den Mittelpunkt einer Tagung, zu der zahlreiche Experten eingeladen sind. Vorrangig geht es um den Informationsaustausch zwischen den Patienten und Ärzten sowie um die Kommunikation zwischen den Partnern der medizinischen Versorgung von den Krankenhäusern bis hin zu den Spezialisten der Informationstechnologie.

Anyone who is interested can express their opinions and comments via a governmental public consultation website (Otakantaa.fi), on the following questions:

• Tell us about your experience with electronic health and social care services, or your lack of such experience
• What electronic services would you wish to see addressed / developed in particular?
• Can you easily find online all the health information you need, and do you find it easy to assess their reliability?

Computer scientist Juha Puustjärvi of Aalto University in Finland and pharmacist Leena Puustjärvi of The Pharmacy of Kaivopuisto in Helsinki explain how there is a growing desire to build on the patient's strengths, values and experiences in healthcare requires that the patient can obtain and understand available health information and make informed decisions about treatment in conjunction with healthcare workers. But, there is a problem. Although e-health applications provide patients and consumers with access to health information, each application is essentially a standalone system with its own internal systems for handling information.

Premier Berisha attended last week the opening ceremony of Albanian Telemedicine Center. Also present at the activity were U.S. Ambassador to Tirana, Alexander Arvizu, Minister of Health, Petrit Vasili, Director of ‘Mother Teresa’ University Hospital Center (QSUT), Saimir Ivziku, representatives of USAID, who have supported this project, physicians, etc.

Can I have my ‘tech’ please? Imagine that technology was distributed based on an assessment of need, rather than marketed directly for sale through retailers. Even when the need is acute, the distributor may withhold the gadget and instead provide an ‘equivalent’ service in person. So rather than give you a Kindle, they will send someone to your home to read books to you.

Sounds absurd? Consider then, the situation with telecare. This low cost equipment can be installed in the home of someone who is prone to falls, or whose dementia means they leave the cooker on or the bath running. Wireless monitors are triggered when an untoward event occurs, alerting a 24-hour monitoring centre. The centre communicates instantly with the individual through a loudspeaker in the home. If there is no satisfactory response, they contact a neighbour, relative or care worker to have them check that all is well. If needed, the emergency services can be called.

What is connected healthcare?

The concept behind connected healthcare is to create a large network of medical systems that use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to communicate with one another. At the centre of the network is the patient. Using remote sensors (such as your mobile phone), a connected healthcare system can keep abreast of a person’s health in a way that has never been achieved before.