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News: Newsletter 6

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March 21, 2002

In this newsletter:

  • OMRON Healthcare introducing telemedicine systems in cooperation with Microsoft
  • TeleMEDiana: open educational forum for healthcare professionals
  • Helping brain damaged patients with the software-based Visual Restitution Training (VRT) by NovaVision
  • Health-ICT and telemedicine applications of the Instituto ITACA
  • ASTRA: broadcast and IP broadband satellite services for medical and healthcare education
  • The Africa ONE solution: new opportunities for telemedicine
  • ITU Telemedicine Expert Training Course at Tokai University
  • African-Arab Telemedicine Network (ArtNet)
  • UK Telemedicine Information Service
  • Evaluate products & services, learn and network at the Telemedicine Trade Fair


Omron Healthcare Europe is proud to be participating in the Telemedicine Trade Fair in Luxembourg. Although Omron Healthcare is relatively new to the telemedicine market, they are coming on board with interesting systems for the medical professional as well as the consumer. Omron is working in cooperation with Microsoft to produce the new Window CE prototypes. During Medica 2001, Omron introduced their business partners to these new concepts and they were regarded as state-of-the-art units. At the Telemedicine Trade Fair, the following four systems will be presented:

  1. A simple system where a person can take his/her blood pressure and then can be downloaded into the computer.
  2. Nurses or caregivers unit - This is a small unit that looks like a Palm Pilot. The nurse hooks up the BPM/computer to the patient, the blood pressure and other information is automatically in the unit. The information can then be downloaded directly into the main computer system at the hospital or medical centre.
  3. Total Healthcare system - This is a unit which is also hooked up to the doctor’s system. It can ask the patient questions about how they are feeling, it will be able to take blood pressure, temperature, glucose and other at home monitoring needs. This will enable the doctor to ‘visit’ many patients without having to leave their office. Also, an excellent tool for the patient who is unable to physically go to their doctor’s office.
  4. Hospital Unit - This PC connected blood pressure monitor has a bar code reader to keep track of the patients. This information will then be transmitted to the main hospital terminal. Instant update of records!

During the Telemedicine Trade Fair, Omron is looking forward to meet with delegates as well as receiving other companies reactions to these prototypes.


TeleMEDiana is an Open Educational Forum for Healthcare Professionals delivering Continuing Medical Education programs via satellite and the Internet directly to PCs and screens in universities, hospitals and homes in order to assist physicians and fellows during education and training. The International Scientific Committee composed of 18 renowned experts sets the criteria of excellence for the scientific content. Twenty recognized European university hospitals representing the initial Telemedia Scientific Network (TSN) have agreed to supply educational video material on a regular basis and contribute to the success of the distance education project. TeleMEDiana will be presenting their services at the Telemedicine Trade Fair in Luxembourg!


Traditionally, partial blindness due to damage of the optic nerve or primary visual cortex has been considered absolute, permanent and untreatable. But by taking advantage of scientific knowledge on „brain plasticity“ a new telemedicine product has been developed: the Visual Restitution Training (VRT).
NovaVision AG • Center of excellence for visual therapy in Magdeburg offers this software-based visual training to treat patients suffering from visual field defects after brain damage (such as stroke, head injury or a brain tumour). Regular training with VRT for about six months helps to restore some of the lost visual functions and leads to a noticeable enlargement of the intact visual field. The patient sees more and better than before.
For further information about the principles of VRT and the training itself click here.
At the Telemedicine Trade Fair, NovaVision will demonstrate the Visual Restitution Training. Furthermore two lectures will be held during the educational programs, by Prof. Dr. Sabel and Dr. Gereon Boos (MD).
NovaVision would like to meet healthcare professionals like doctors, psychologists and representatives of rehabilitation clinics as well as health authorities and policy makers to discuss business opportunities for these products in foreign markets. Visit NovaVision at their stand at the Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair in Luxembourg, April 10-12, 2002!


The INSTITUTE FOR THE APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ITACA) is a non profit R&D organisation constituted as an Association between the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), enterprises of the ICT, Industrial and Services sectors, and Public Administrations. ITACA consists of seven Research & Development Divisions. Two of those divisions focus their work on the Health-ICT sector: the Bioengineering, Electronic and Telemedicine Division (BET) & the High Performance Networking and Computing Division (GRyCAP).
BET is working since 1997 in development of technology and applications for a wide range of health care and social care needs. Applications are oriented to the remote interaction between practitioner and patients and between health care professionals using communication networks. A number of products can be mentioned: Tele-home care platform over high bandwidth networks, Teleassistance System for distributed campus wide environments, Personal Telemonitoring System device for biomedical signal capture, processing and transmission over wireless networks, ASP platform for teleconsultancy and telemonitoring over internet/intranet, and other peripherals and tools. Technology and generic services are videoconference over IP (H.323) and ISDN (H.320); Cable Modem, DSL and ISDN communication networks, GPRS and Bluetooth wireless communication, EJ2EE and MS .NET web-internet technology. The BET division is currently being involved in knowledge management and data mining technology domains applied in the health care sector. The users groups targeted by the BET are those involved in the care of chronic and acute ill people, disabled and elderly, including professionals, social carers, therapist, patients, relatives and professionals and informal assistants.
GRyCAP started its activity in 1986 at the Valencia University of Technology. Its main interest is the study, development and application of parallel algorithms and HPNC (High Performance Networking and Computing) technologies.
GRyCAP has an important experience in the health care area. It has developed several projects addressed to technology transfer. The division was involved in the High Performance Computing and Networking Technology Transfer Network (HPCN-TTN, HIPERTTN ESPRIT 24003) of the European Commission, not only but especially in the Medical Sector Group, and currently the group is coordinating the cluster of IST projects EUTIST-M (IST-1999-20226) “European Take-up of Essential Information Society Technologies - Technologies for Medical Applications”, where 11 activities are being developed.
For more detailed information about the ITACA products and services (Telemedicine Platform Accessible from a Web Environment, Telecardio Service, Telegyna Service, Telerehabilitation Service, Advanced Image Diagnosis) click here and visit ITACA at the Telemedicine Trade Fair!


ASTRA is Europe's leading broadcast and IP broadband satellite system serving over 91 million homes. As part of the SES GLOBAL satellite network, ASTRA provides outstanding satellite communications solutions that improve efficient access to healthcare, medical information and resources virtually anywhere on the planet. ASTRA-NET technology enables the high-speed delivery of IP-based content-rich data to PCs in businesses, medical centers and homes across Europe. Moreover, the two-way ASTRA Broadband Interactive System's data contribution and exchange capabilities are extending the scope of satellite communications. ASTRA will feature two specialist health applications on their stand at the Telemedicine Trade Fair:
Medlive, a European channel specializing in medical education for dentists.
Healthsat, a public channel for health education, funded by the European Commission, giving European citizens PC or TV access to health programming.


It is a well known fact that the level of international telephone traffic per main line in sub-Saharan Africa is over 250 minutes/year. This is the highest of any region in the world, and bears evidence of considerable unsatisfied demand. In addition there is quite non-existing direct connectivity among African countries. Most intra-African traffic is still switched through centers outside of Africa, at great expense to African countries. It is estimated that about $ 600 million per year flows out of Africa in this fashion. Given the current deficiencies in African Telecommunications, the need for a Fiber Optic Undersea cable is crucial. Fortunately, the confluence of a number of key important developments, political, economical and technological, is making this cable an affordable solution available for countries in Africa.
Africa ONE is a fully integrated multi-technology network. The main component is approx. 32.000 km of undersea cable that will link the countries of Africa to each other and to the rest of the world. The concept initiated by the ITU in 1993 has been developed through the collaborative efforts of many experts in this field.
Africa ONE will form a ring around the African continent and will connect 29 coastal countries. Interior countries will use terrestrial links or satellite facilities to connect to coastal landing points. Africa ONE will link African operators directly to Europe, USA, and to the rest of the world via existing and planned submarine cables. It is anticipated that the volume of traffic will grow to about 25 billion minutes by the year 2015.
Africa ONE will bring state of the art communications capabilities to Africa, the most advanced cable technology providing self-restoration. It will dramatically improve the telecommunication’s ability in Africa, stimulate foreign investments, new services that will stimulate new business opportunities including Telemedecine. Meet with the Africa ONE team at the Telemedicine Trade Fair in Luxembourg to find out more about this exciting project and the opportunities for telemedicine applications!


On February 7, 2002, Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the Director of Tokai University Institute of Medical Sciences announced the opening of the ITU Telemedicine Expert Training Course at Shonan Campus located in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, just 60 kilometers away from Tokyo.
Tokai University Medical Research Institute has been an active promoter of telemedicine in developing countries, as well as a developer of advanced telemedicine technologies based on satellite and wireless telecommunications. It has successfully implemented a number of pilot telemedicine projects across Asia and the Pacific region. At the moment, the Tokai University is one of the partners for a pilot telemedicine project in Ethiopia led by the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU.
Currently, the training course will offer the following two programmes: post-doctoral training programme with a research study for 6-12 months and short term intensive programme for about two weeks. Each time the content of the training will be tailored to the needs and background of trainees. The Director of Telemedicine Training Course is Dr. Isao Nakajima. He is also the co-rapporteur of Telemedicine Question (Q14/2) in the ITU-D Study Group 2. The information about this training course can be found at www.tsj.gr.jp.


The ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau has been asked to lead a project to link African/Arab national telemedicine projects into the African-Arab Telemedicine Network (ArtNet), following a workshop jointly organized in Cairo by ITU, WHO and UNIDO.
A joint proposal by the Egyptian Ministries of Communication and Information Technology and of Health and Population to the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Istanbul (which is currently taking place - March 18-27, 2002), aims at establishing a multi-country telemedicine network to share resources and knowledge to prevent and treat common diseases in the sub-region, thus extending medical services to a greater number of citizens.
Egypt itself has established a national telemedicine network with seven locations connected to a diagnostic node at the Nasser Bone Marrow Institute in Cairo. Besides Egypt, the countries in the first phase of the ArtNet telemedicine network are expected to include Ethiopia, Jordan, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda. "Through its various pilot telemedicine projects in developing countries, ITU is helping countries applying telecommunication technologies to remote health care practice," said Hamadoun I. Toure, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU. For more information, please contact Petko Kantchev at BDT/ITU ().


The Telemedicine Information Service (TIS) is provided by The University of Portsmouth and The British Library and sponsored by the UK home health departments. TIS aims to bring together those working in the field of telemedicine and telecare in the UK; to encourage them to share information and experience; and to provide an information resource on telemedicine activity in the UK.
The components of TIS are:

  • An award winning website, incorporating the National Database of Telemedicine. Fully searchable and includes categories for projects, companies, people, publications and equipment.
  • Electronic or print current awareness updates from the Medline database (subscription service free samples available).
  • E-mail discussion list.
  • Phone service for those without internet access.

TIS gives access to information about all aspects of telemedicine including:

  • Organisations involved in telemedicine whether as hosts for projects, information facilities, publishers or suppliers of equipment.
  • People involved in telemedicine as contacts for organisations and projects.
  • Publications about telemedicine including articles, chapters, books, reports, surveys, theses and videos.
  • Equipment used for telemedicine.

More information about the TIS services and activities will be provided in the Telemedicine Trade Fair's Media Corner.


Make your plans to attend the Telemedicine Trade Fair as it will offer you opportunities to see and evaluate a broad range of telemedicine products and services, to obtain useful and interesting information in the educational programs and to network with important and valuable contacts in the field of telemedicine, all under one roof! Whether you are in business, whether you are working in a hospital, whether you provide homecare services, whether you are an insurer, whether you are a policy maker, whether you provide technical advice or consultation for the use and implementation of telemedicine related installations, you will find new products, new ideas and come to with new insights by attending this event. Getting away from your day-to-day activities for just a day, or two or three, and opening your mind to new possibilities and opportunities, often can make a big difference in the future development of your business or activities, making them more efficient and effective! So register yourself and your colleagues as a visitor for the Telemedicine Trade Fair today! Registration fee is just EUR 25,00 and includes access to the exhibition for 3 days, access to all the parallel and plenary educational sessions, and invitation to the receptions scheduled on the first and second evening of the event. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at or check out www.telemedicine.lu for more information, including details of special hotel and travel deals.

 
 

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