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November 9, 2005

In this newsletter:

• Med-e-Tel 2006 program taking shape
  
• Call for abstracts
  
• Register now to benefit from the early bird rates
  
• Exhibition and sponsorship opportunities
  
• Special "home telehealth" and "disease/health management" focus session
  
• News from ISfTeH
  
• Med-e-Tel Matchmaker
  
• News from the Med-e-Tel media partners
  
• Newsbriefs
  

Med-e-Tel 2006 program taking shape
Planned events at Med-e-Tel 2006 include conference sessions and meetings by:
- International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH)
- European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL)
- Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC)
- Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE-EUR)
- European Commission & European eHealth Projects
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- International Telecommunications Society (ITS)
- United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
- CRP-Santé
Topics covered by these organizations will be a.o.:
- standardization/interoperability
- national and international projects and initiatives
- ehealth for developing countries
- implications of ehealth on ICT industry
- implications of ehealth on ICT regulation and policy
- space-based technology and satellite applications in ehealth and telemedicine
- new ehealth strategies for healthcare providers
More details will be communicated in upcoming newsletters and on the Med-e-Tel website (www.medetel.lu).
If you are interested in already learning more about these sessions and the contents covered, contact us at .

Call for abstracts
In addition to the above focus sessions and workshops, there will also be a number of other sessions dedicated to various telemedicine and ehealth topics:
- bio-informatics
- broadband and wireless networks
- cost-benefit studies
- current ehealth realizations and experiences
- distance education
- ehealth and psychological impact
- ehealth and telemedicine integration into routine medical practice
- ehealth/telemedicine and transport systems (air, rail, road, sea, space)
- ehealth/telemedicine applications in cardiology, radiology, wound care and other medical disciplines
- electronic health cards
- electronic medical records
- eprescription
- homecare applications
- legal and ethical aspects
- reimbursement issues
- secure data transmission
- vital signs telemonitoring
Abstract submissions are still welcome. You can review the call for abstracts and abstract submission guidelines at www.medetel.lu/education/call.html.

Register now to benefit from the early bird rates
Med-e-Tel 2006 is dozens of new products, technologies and services, 100 thought-provoking and practice-oriented presentations, hundreds of participants from nearly 50 countries, and great networking, meeting, learning, buying and selling opportunities.
If you register now, you will get it all for only EUR 175 (or EUR 120 for a one day participation). Registration includes access to exhibition and conference programs, a copy of the exhibition and conference guide with conference abstracts, and access to the social events. New this year is that registration now also includes coffee breaks, lunch buffet and a copy of the proceedings.
To submit your registration, go to www.medetel.lu/visitor/visitorall.html. Hotel reservations can be made via the Luxembourg Convention Bureau (see www.medetel.lu/h_t/hotel.html).

Exhibition and sponsorship opportunities
To promote your own products or services and activities, there are a wide number of exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities available at Med-e-Tel. You can review these opportunities at www.medetel.lu/exhibitor/exhibitorall.html.
To create even more exposure for your company or organization, you may want to consider making a presentation in the conference program (see above) or organizing your own meeting or workshop in conjunction with Med-e-Tel. We can provide complimentary meeting facilities for exhibitors and sponsors (on a first come, first served basis).
For more information or if you have questions, contact us at .

Special "home telehealth" and "disease/health management" focus session
One of the major health challenges facing our society in the next decades will be the ageing of the population and an increase in people with chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, asthma and other respiratory problems, and patients with depression, Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
One of the solutions to cope with these phenomena is home telehealth and disease management, which means monitoring and controlling the disease/condition, taking preventive actions, timely adjustment of medication, medication compliance, shortening hospitalizations, wandering protection for dementia patients, online support groups and tools, etc. Taking it a step further is "health management" which is the actual prevention of developing a specific condition, promoting healthy lifestyle, avoiding hospitalizations; in short, keeping people at risk or even healthy people, healthy!
All this leads to lower healthcare costs, increased well-being, overcoming nursing shortages, while maintaining high quality care for those who need it.
A special focus session on these issues is planned at Med-e-Tel 2006 to address the existing challenges and to provide an overview of available solutions (products and services). What works and what not? What are the practical experiences from (home) healthcare providers? What are the future perspectives? How can these services be integrated into current care models?
If you are involved in home telehealth and disease/health management programs, contact us at to discuss opportunities to present your findings.
If you are a supplier or provider of services, products, or technologies in this market segment, we would also like to hear from you and discuss possibilities of presenting your experiences in this session.

News from ISfTeH
In this section of the Med-e-Tel newsletter, we report news from the ISfTeH (International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth), supporting partner of the Med-e-Tel event.
- The 10th ISfTeH International Conference took place two weeks ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil in conjunction with the meeting of the Conselho Brasileiro de Telemedicina e Telesaude (www.cbtms.com.br). The program can still be found at www.cbtms.com.br/congresso/2005/programaeng.asp.
- The next important ISfTeH rendez-vous will be Med-e-Tel 2006, where ISfTeH will again host a session featuring presentations by several of its national members on the state of current telemedicine and ehealth use and implementation in their countries. Also an ISfTeH Board Meeting is scheduled, making Med-e-Tel the ideal opportunity to meet with ISfTeH representatives and learn more about ISfTeH activities and cooperation possibilities.
- Immediately after Med-e-Tel 2006, ISfTeH, in cooperation with the International Space University (ISU) and with the participation of WHO, will conduct the Intensive, Interdisciplinary Telemedicine and eHealth Course 2006 (IITEC 2006) . This one week course will be held at the ISU premises in Strasbourg, France on April 8-12, 2006. The course will be taught by leading experts and provide a comprehensive overview of enabling technologies and their applications, of telemedicine system architectures, design and management, and relevant business and legal issues, leaving participants with an integrated knowledge set that will help them to understand the needs and limitations of IT technology in healthcare, to design, implement and use appropriate telemedicine/ehealth systems in specific situations, and to communicate more effectively with their colleagues in the ehealth environment. More information is available at www.iitec.org.
- The 11th ISfTeH International Conference is scheduled for November 26-29, 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa.
- For more information or to contact ISfTeH, see www.isft.net or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Med-e-Tel Matchmaker
The Med-e-Tel matchmaker aims to facilitate contacts and links between various telemedicine and ehealth professionals and providers around the world. To obtain more details about the request(s) below or to provide your services, contact us at and we will put you in touch with the source of these requests. If you would like to submit a request of your own, and we will publish it in a next newsletter.
- Ukraine: looking for home telemedicine/wireless decision support systems and equipment for skeletal trauma and orthopedics patients.
- Luxembourg: consortium of public retirement and care homes looking for information and products in the fields of telemonitoring of vital signs (ECG, BP, weight, SpO2, etc.) teleconsultation, and defibrillators.
- India: research centre looking for an existing (or opportunities to develop a) continuous body temperature measuring device with possibilities to plot graphs and data transmission to physician's handheld devices.
- USA/Europe: American telemedicine hardware and software solution provider looking for company to market their products into the European market.

News from the Med-e-Tel media partners
For information on publications, journals, magazines, reports and on-line information services that will help you to stay abreast of what is going on in the field of ehealth and to make better informed decisions in your daily business or healthcare practice, check out the list of Media Partners on www.medetel.lu. To follow is a review of just some of the publications that were featured at the Med-e-Tel Media Corner during Med-e-Tel 2005 or that will be featured at Med-e-Tel 2006:

- IHE (International Hospital Equipment & Solutions) is Med-e-Tel's main international media partner. To learn more about IHE as well as about the markets and areas served by IHE with its regular 27,000+ high quality BPA audited circulation, check out the newly launched IHE website at www.ihe-online.com.

- European Hospital - a bi-monthly medical journal, BPA audited - points at trends and developments in the European healthcare market. From business strategies and hi-end development in medical technology; IT solutions or innovative approaches in logistics, personnel, finance and management. Hospital administrators, medical directors and senior staff in 34 European countries turn to European Hospital for in-depth coverage of the healthcare market. Since we consider the personal exchange between the different players in the healthcare business is extremely important, we are pleased to announce that also in 2006 we will organize the "Hospital Administrator Forum" in cooperation with the European Congress of Radiology. For more information, please contact: Daniela Zimmermann, phone +49 211 7357 531 or e-mail: or go to www.european-hospital.com.

- 'i4d' is the first monthly publication on ICT4D. It is intended for those interested and involved in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the development of the underserved communities. It is hoped that 'i4d' will serve to foster a growing network by keeping the community up to date on many activities in this wide and exciting field. The i4d magazine has entered into its third year of publication. Thematic issues of the magazine have been published focusing on Microfinance, Education, Health, Poverty, Gender, FOSS, e-Culture, e-Governance etc. SDC, UNDP, HIVOS, UNESCO and National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) are some of the key partners in this initiative. A recent issue of i4d (www.i4donline.net/may05/contentimg.asp) contains several articles on ICT for Health.

- Hospital Post is GIT VERLAG's bi-monthly publication for decision makers in European hospitals - with a circulation of 25,000 copies, from Lisbon to Minsk, and from Oslo to Palermo. It provides a forum to opinion leaders in all healthcare-related fields and covers the major hot issues in medical technology, IT, general management, facility management, and clinical diagnostics. Ask for your free sample at www.hospital-post.com.

- In its 24th year, Management & Krankenhaus addresses 43,000 decison makers in German hospitals each month. Themes covered range from medical technology, IT, general management, facility management, to clinical diagnostics. Readers include leading medics, IT, technical, and facility managers, head administrative staff, and laboratory directors. Free sample upon request at www.management-krankenhaus.de.

- Infomedix is a contact magazine for the medical industry. It is sent free of charge in about 13.500 copies only to manufacturers, distributors, dealers, importers, exporters, wholesalers and agents in over 140 countries worldwide. To gain visibility or to enquire about Infomedix's services, please contact or visit www.infomedix.it.

- Informatics in Primary Care aims to provide information, help and guidance to all those concerned with information technology and information management in primary care, both nationally and internationally. Informatics is a new and exciting discipline, cutting across medicine, nursing, computing, technology, communications, education, statistics, psychology and sociology, but its primary purpose is the application of information and communications technology to support health care. The journal seeks high-quality material for both researchers and practitioners in the field of primary care informatics, ranging from scientific research papers, through editorials and case studies, to websites, useful tools, reviews and conferences. For more information on the journal, visit www.radcliffe-oxford.com.

Newsbriefs
To follow are links to some interesting and recently published articles and studies (if you would like to suggest an article for inclusion into a following newsletter, feel free to send details to ):

• Evaluation of the benefits for the patient arising from an inter-hospital teleradiology network in a French administrative area (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• SA pilots biometrics in healthcare (ITWeb)
  
• Health goes digital (i4d)
  
• 'Digital plaster' monitors health (BBC News)
  
• PACS sidesteps busy signals in hospital telecommunications (Diagnostic Imaging)
  
• Bridging the Gap : An Integration Solution for the Healthcare Continuum (Healthcare Information Management and Communications Canada)
  
• Choosing a Health Information Technology Vendor: Guidelines for Success (Health Informatics Europe)
  
• Pilot Study of an Internet Patient-Physician Communication Tool for Heart Failure Disease Management (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
  
• RFID in Healthcare (Healthcare Informatics)
  
• Systems Integration: The Electronic Records Linchpin (Health Data Management)
  
• Telemedicine Reduces Absence Resulting From Illness in Urban Child Care : Evaluation of an Innovation (Pediatrics)
  
• E-mail and oncology: a survey of radiation oncology patients and their attitudes to a new generation of health communication (Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases)
  
• A Comprehensive Portrait of Teleradiology in Radiology Practices: Results from the American College of Radiology's 1999 Survey (American Journal of Roentgenology)
  
• Implementing electronic medical record systems in developing countries (Informatics in Primary Care)
  
• Implementing the National Programme for IT: what can we learn from the Scottish experience? (Informatics in Primary Care)
  
• Surgeons Raise the Bar With Telemedicine (Advanced Imaging Magazine)
  
• Excitin g Times for the Healthcare IT Hardware Industry (Frost & Sullivan)
  
• A community model for care of elderly people with diabetes via telemedicine (Applied Nursing Research)
  
• Clever toilet checks on your health (CNN.com)
  
• Video phones ring the changes in health care (Scotsman.com)
  
• Heal with a deal: Public-private partnerships bring substance to India's telemedicine projects (The Financial Express)
  
• Heart Institute connects with patients at home (Canadian Healthcare Technology)
  
• Patient and provider perspectives on home telecare: preliminary results from a randomized controlled trial (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• Introducing assistive technology into the existing homes of older people: feasibility, acceptability, costs and outcomes (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• Experience-based guidelines for the implementation of telemedicine services (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• Evaluation of a realtime, remote monitoring telemedicine system using the Bluetooth protocol and a mobile phone network (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• Europe-wide heart monitoring trial shows promise (E-Health Insider)
  
• Telemedicine in radiotherapy: a study exploring remote treatment planning, supervision and economics (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• E-health and the Universitas 21 organization: 1. Global e-health through synergy (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• E-health and the Universitas 21 organization: 2. Telemedicine and underserved populations (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• E-health and the Universitas 21 organization: 3. Global policy (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• E-health and the Universitas 21 organization: 4. Professional portability (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• Telemonitoring of multiple vital parameters in chronic heart failure (EurekAlert)
  
• Teleradiology and emerging business models (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  
• The Use of Telemedicine in Combination With a New Stroke-Code-Box Significantly Increases t-PA Use in Rural Communities (Neurocritical Care)
  
• IHE reaches for the electronic health record (Diagnostic Imaging)
  
• India and Sweden to cooperate in e-governance, telemedicine (The Hindu)
  
• An Evaluation Framework for a Rural Home-Based Telerehabilitation Network (Journal of Medical Systems)
  
• Tele-radiology, a medical boon in Mali (i4d)
  
• Toward personal eHealth in cardiology. Results from the EPI-MEDICS telemedicine project (Journal of Electrocardiology)
  
• A real-time, mobile phone-based telemedicine system to support young adults with type 1 diabetes (Informatics in Primary Care)
  
• Designing and implementing an electronic health record system in primary care practice in sub-Saharan Africa: a case study from Cameroon (Informatics in Primary Care)
  

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