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News: Newsletter 38

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June 20, 2006

In this newsletter:

  • Med-e-Tel 2006 brings once again a wealth of information to an international audience
  • Better Life Time: the future of elderly care and housing
  • Aerotel's website multi-lingual for a global reach
  • Viterion TeleHealthcare picks up marketing strategy leadership award
  • Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center brings excitement to Med-e-Tel
  • eHealth: connected health for Europe
  • Implementing users and citizens perspectives into Healthware
  • eHealth: added value for the care of chronic conditions
  • News from ISfTeH
  • News from the Med-e-Tel media partners
  • Newsbriefs


The Med-e-Tel conference and exhibition, which took place in Luxembourg last April, was once again host to some 400 international participants coming from nearly 50 countries around the world. The program consisted of presentations dealing with a variety of topics such as user experiences, business cases, technical issues, legal aspects, research results and projects, with excellent contributions from u-Health (Ubiquitous Healthcare Initiative), Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), World Health Organization (WHO), European Commission, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), and many other industry experts.
Program details are still available at www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=program where abstracts and presentations have also been added. List of exhibiting and sponsoring organizations and companies can still be found at www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=exhibitor&page=exhibitors_sponsors.
The Med-e-Tel 2006 Proceedings are now also available as a book or in electronic format. The Proceedings contain 109 papers from authors in 46 countries (391 pages). For anyone interested in obtaining the Proceedings please contact .
The call for abstracts for the 2007 edition of Med-e-Tel (scheduled for 18-20 April 2007) will be launched soon. More information about sponsorship and exhibiting opportunties will also become available at that time. For any questions or to express your interest to participate, please feel free to already contact us at .


At a recent study day called "Better Life Time", organized by the Brussels Confederation of Construction and Euromut (Mutual Health Insurance Organization), challenges and opportunities of the ageing society for the real estate sector, and (healthcare) service providers were examined. The one day conference was held as an extension to the first European summit of the IAHSA (International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing) which also took place in Brussels just before.
In an opening address, Brussels Minister Benoit Cerexhe highlighted the importance of telemedicine and domotics in the Brussels region and the various research programs that are currently being conducted in these areas. Among them the "BruCare" and "Diamant" projects, dealing with diabetes, monitoring of movement, and second opinion services for breast cancer patients. Minister Cerexhe pointed out that he had declared 2006 the year of "ICTs", in the frame of which a second call for ICT R&D projects has been launched, while next year will be dedicated to "health", thus forming the ideal environment for the further development of telemedicine and care domotics in the Brussels region.
One of the Better Life Time sessions, chaired by Med-e-Tel and ISfTeH (International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth), continued the focus on care domotics and telehealth, with a presentation of the U.S. Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), a catalyst for innovation and new technologies in elderly care and homecare. CAST is a coalition of technology companies, ageing services organizations, research universities, and government representatives, driving a vision of how technologies can improve the quality of life for seniors while reducing healthcare costs, and advocating to remove barriers to the rapid commercialization of proven solutions.
The session went on with a presentation by the Belgian Centre for Domotics and Immotics (BCDI), featuring various real-life domotic applications and opportunities in senior housing and healthcare.
And finally, the In-HAM living labs (Innovationcenter in Housing for Adapted Movement) were presented. In-HAM fosters the demonstration and design of specific building and living technology in order to strive for a maximal independence for elderly persons or persons with disabilities. In-HAM promotes a close cooperation and understanding among the disabled and the elderly (= DEMAND) and the industrial and academic sector (= OFFER), which will result in original innovations in function of an increasing quality of life, autonomy and social participation for the physically challenged and the elderly.


n order to meet different linguistic needs, Aerotel's new, multi-lingual website, www.aerotel.com, reaches out to markets across the globe by making texts available in 7 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and Turkish. In the near future also Portuguese will be added.
Aerotel Medical Systems is a world leader in cost-effective, high quality, user-friendly, medical diagnostic systems and devices for the homecare, ehealth and telemedicine markets. The company provides a complete disease management package, including transtelephonic devices designed for a variety of remote diagnostic, emergency services and monitoring applications; a hardware and software platform; plus phone and web-based software. Aerotel enables patients to comfortably conduct tests while leading normal, mobile lives.
In a presentation at Med-e-Tel 2006 (www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=program), entitled "Transtelephonic ECG, different approaches - The Aerotel experience", Aerotel showed how its worldwide client base have managed through the years to develop different applications and business models for the same type of monitors, thus making it one of the most flexible and cost effective solutions. The presentation provided a review of the various heart monitors and the different approaches that the different users have adopted, showing the various business models available in telemedicine.


Frost & Sullivan confers their 2006 Marketing Strategy Leadership Award for the European remote patient monitoring market on Viterion TeleHealthcare LLC. The company has demonstrated its superior marketing strategies by clinching the contract for the largest multicentric clinical trial study with the Kent County Council (United Kingdom) aimed at testing the efficacy of telehealth monitoring.
"Despite having a presence of just about two years in the field of telehealthcare, Viterion has been chosen by governing councils of the United Kingdom to test the efficacy of the telehealthcare system in reducing costs and improving the quality of life for chronically ill people," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Aarati Ajay. "The study undertaken by Viterion in Kent will be invaluable in helping the company make inroads into the European Union."
Viterion is among the very few telehealthcare companies that have strategically entered into pilot studies in collaboration with government agencies. Such strategic partnerships will allow the company to build on its clinical evidence base even while strengthening its European presence.
Product differentiation has been another key feature of Viterion's exceptional marketing strategies. Viterion positions its product offering for the homecare segment as a 'home appliance' rather than a medical product. This customer-friendly product is notable for its design simplicity and cost effectiveness.
The Kent TeleHealth Pilot project and Viterion TeleHealthcare's systems were presented at the Med-e-Tel 2006 exhibition. During the inaugural session of the Med-e-Tel 2006 conference program, Pramod Gaur, President and CEO of Viterion TeleHealthcare, also discussed the "Relationship between Public and Private Sector to Establish a Sustainable eHealth Program". The presentation focused on the cooperative role of the 4 Ps (Payors, Providers, Patients and Private Sector), whereby the payor provides the initial funding, the provider provides the organizational infrastructure and support for e-Health program, the patients actually learn to use this new technology to manage their chronic conditions and finally the private sector plays a key role in building the sustainable infrastructure and promotes local micro-economy to foster local business autonomy.


An exciting part of this year's Med-e-Tel meeting was the seminar sponsored by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center of the US Army (TATRC), entitled "Global Healthcare Challenges and Opporunities - The Role of Advanced Technology".
This excellent session provided an overview of many applications of advanced medical technology which are directly applicable to civil as well as to military objectives. These included new treatment modalities for psychiatric conditions using virtual reality, environmental monitoring to predict disease outbreaks, and the need for an increased level of standardisation in these products, as well as those discussing several new mechanisms for telemedicine and ehealth.
The greatest benefit of this seminar was the exposure of Med-e-Tel participants to some of the cutting-edge work being carried out by the TATRC, as well as to the TATRC desire for an increased level of partnerships with European research agencies and organisations. Both TATRC and other attendees commented favorably about the potential benefits of some of the personal and organisational contacts made.
Details of the session and presentations can be found under www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=program


n her opening speech at the eHealth Conference and Ministerial Meeting in Malaga last month, Viviane Reding, European Commissionner for Information Society, highlighted the Commission's main ehealth priorities for the coming years.
A first priority will be ICT for independent living, in order to cope with the challenge of our ageing society. "The figures are startling: the majority of people aged over 50 today are receiving medication for some form of long-term condition for example, high blood pressure or joint, muscle and bone disease. About four in ten over 50 year olds have some degree of activity limitation. One in three senior citizens consult a doctor more than once a month. eHealth can help in cutting costs and increasing the quality of life in our ageing society," according to Reding, who announced that she would be launching an i2010 flagship initiative on ICT for independent living, which will draw on research results, pilot projects and operational experience.
Second priority is proactive and personalized care, focusing on the shift from reactive healthcare to proactive healthcare which means enhanced prevention and putting the patient at the centre. Reding cited the MyHeart project as an example of how personalised health systems can help tackling major problems such as cardiovascular disease which is the leading cause of death in western countries. The project is developing wearable and portable systems to help sufferers to live a normal life with a low risk of heart attacks.
Third priority is interoperability because "We need a more joined up approach to eHealth deployment," Reding said. "Today in many parts of the world the question of interoperability is being tackled through similar action plans to the one we have here in Europe. For the benefit of our citizens and our industry it makes perfect sense to join forces on international level to learn from each other and hopefully come up with coherent approaches." The Commission will issue a recommendation on ehealth interoperability towards the end of 2007.
See also the Commission's new strategy brochure on "ICT for Health and i2010 - Transforming the European healthcare landscape" available here.
On a related subject, Ilias Iakovidis, Deputy Head of the ICT for Health Unit, European Commission, DG Information Society presented the "Contribution of the European Commission to Global Leadership of EU in eHealth Deployment" at the Med-e-Tel 2006 conference and pointed out some of the Commission's accomplishments in the ehealth area. He stated that since 1988, about 650 million Euros in EU contributions have been granted by the European Commission, ICT for Health Unit to approximately 450 R&D projects in ehealth. Many more projects were also supported by relevant programmes such as the eTen programme. Many of these research results have now been tested and put actively into practice. The European Commission was one of the first agencies to support on a large scale research and deployment of ehealth solutions. These solutions have over the last 10 years scientifically proven re! al benefits in access, quality and productivity.


"Implementing Users and Citizens perspectives into Healthware" is the title of a workshop organised by the Healthware project in the context of the Med-e-Tel 2006 conference. This workshop was particularly well attended since it gathered more than 80 participants from European and non-European countries belonging to different ehealth stakeholder groups such as doctors and other health professionals, patient representatives as well as the ehealth industry.
The theme of this first Healthware Workshop was telemedicine with the support of satellite communication as tool for improving social cohesion and access to high quality healthcare, and its objectives were to:
- present the first achievements of the project with pilot sites under implementation or already running in Crete, in Bristol, Cardiff, Ashford, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Belfast (United Kingdom), Toulouse and the department of Hautes-Pyrenees (France) and Brno and its surrounding area (Czech Republic);
- launch a dialogue, in the context of a User and Citizens Open Group (UCOG), with external ehealth experts and patients representatives, on the conditions of a beneficial and sustainable deployment of telemedicine services, supported as far as necessary by satellite communication.
Several representatives of patients held a preparatory meeting on the day before in order to prepare an initial statement on their views about telemedicine and homecare in particular. Their main message was: "We are all citizens and, in one way or another, we can become patients! What we think as healthy citizens we will want as patient may be different when we become a patient. Therefore, do not assume that professional/technical views of patient benefits are always recognised by the patients themselves!"
The workshop also offered opportunities to look beyond Healthware thanks to a presentation of:
- the telemedicine value chain as defined by ESA in its Telemedicine Study (www.telecom.esa.int);
- insight and experience of clinical telemedicine applications in the North of Norway and the South of Germany, in the last two decades;
- the findings of the ehealth impact study demonstrating evidence on economic impact of ehealth and telemedicine applications (www.ehealth-impact.org).
More information about the workshop presentations is available on the Healthware project website at http://healthware.alcasat.net/publications/publications.html.


Recognised medical and ICT-experts confirmed the significant role of ehealth at a recent EHTEL conference titled "Improving Care for Chronic Conditions - the added value of eHealth".
While ICT experts were informed about the tremendous raise of chronic conditions foreseen for the upcoming decade, health professionals understood that the ehealth services being recently implemented across Europe will be a useful tool to cope with their growing burdens of demands for cure and care. Some key findings of the conference were:
- Chronic diseases will highly increase the burden on European Health Systems, e.g. the number of diabetic patients is about to double until the year 2015.
- Primary care will have to tackle most of the increasing demands for care.
- eHealth tools may and must contribute to avoid that primary care professionals are burned out by the expected increase in demand for care.
- Hospitalisation of chronically ill patients is a "failure" for the health system.
- eHealth improves the quality of life of the chronically ill by enabling home care.
- Disease management programmes cannot be efficient without electronic documentation.
- Chronic diseases are becoming the use case for the large scale deployment of electronic health records (EHR).
More information is available at www.ehtel.org.
The topic of chronic conditions (associated a.o. with the ageing of the population) and the remote monitoring and electronic documenting of such conditions is gaining importance as also evidenced by several other articles in this newsletter and the many studies and articles that are appearing in the international press on these topics (see "newsbriefs" section below for a number of these articles).


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.
- Presentations from ISfTeH members that were made in the "International Telemedicine and eHealth Initiatives and Developments" session during Med-e-Tel 2006 in Luxembourg can be found at www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=program. Various members of the ISfTeH also presented their projects and activities on the ISfTeH exhibition stand during Med-e-Tel. For a list of all Med-e-Tel exhibitors, including ISfTeH members, go to www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=exhibitor&page=exhibitors_sponsors.
- The Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria (SFTeHIN), Nigeria's National Member within the ISfTeH, is organizing the PACTe conference (Pan African Conference on Telemedicine & eHealth) on June 19-20 in Abuja. The Conference is the official annual meeting of the SFTeHIN to promote the use of health ICT, ehealth and telemedicine in Nigeria and Africa to improve quality of healthcare services and extension to the rural areas. More info at www.sftehin.org.
- An ISfTeH Board Meeting is scheduled during the annual meeting of the Polish Telemedicine Society (PTS), taking place in Warsaw on June 22nd. Program of the PTS meeting can be found at www.telemedycyna.edu.pl.
- The 11th ISfTeH International Conference, under the theme of "e-Health for All Developed and Developing Countries; Common Issues - Universal Solutions?" is taking place on November 26-29 in Cape Town, South Africa, co-organized by ISfTeH, the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), the South African Department of Health and the Presidential National Commission (PNC). Abstracts for the conference can still be submitted (deadline is August 18). More information is available at www.mrc.ac.za/conference/satelemedicine/index.htm.
- Student and Faculty applications for the IITEC (Intensive, Interdisciplinary Telemedicine and eHealth Course) can still be submitted via www.iitec.org. The course is scheduled for January 22-26, 2007 in Strasbourg France and is organized by ISfTeH in collaboration with the International Space University (ISU).
- For more information or to contact ISfTeH, see www.isft.net or send an e-mail to .


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 in the Med-e-Tel 2006 Media Corner or that will be featured at Med-e-Tel 2007:

  • 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 new IHE website at www.ihe-online.com.
     
  • The April 2006 issue of i4d (Information for Development) is fully dedicated to eHealth. The entire issue can be read at www.i4donline.net/april06/content.asp. Additional healthcare related articles are available at www.i4donline.net/news/news.asp?catid=4.
     
  • Future Healthcare provides an invaluable service to the physicians and healthcare professionals by evaluating the new and emerging technologies and therapies, whilst examining how these innovations will impact the end-users who are committed to increasing levels of patient care. The quarterly journal combines the resources of Analysts in Media, with the leading medical associations, and world-class editorial from the key opinion leaders who are shaping the future of the medical industry, to deliver an informed and concise guide on purchasing choices to the healthcare decision-maker. Future Healthcare is essential reading for its 35,000 physicians, senior executives, hospitals, and clinics throughout the US, that are at the forefront of purchasing decisions in healthcare. More information can be found at www.futurehealthcareus.com.
     
  • The new eHealthNews.eu portal is collecting and spreading European eHealth news and offering informational services/support for those interested in collaboration on European eHealth Research and Industry Healthcare IT communities. More info at www.ehealthnews.eu.


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 ):

  • What Is eHealth (6): Perspectives on the Evolution of eHealth Research (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
  • Wanless calls for telecare to move to mainstream (E-Health Insider)
  • Securing Good Care for Older People. Taking a long-term view (King's Fund)
  • Older People - Implementing Telecare: Strategic Analysis and Guidelines for Policy Makers, Commissioners and Providers (Audit Commission)
  • Developing Technology for People with Dementia (Psychiatric Times)
  • New study forecasts increased use of remote patient monitoring (Healthcare IT News)
  • Aging in Place: The Role of Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions (Health-IT World)
  • eHealth For Europes Elderly (Wireless Healthcare)
  • Europe telemedicine projects "looking up" (Healthcare IT News)
  • A Virtual Healthcare Assistant For A Healthier Lifestyle (Medical News Today)
  • Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
  • Remote Monitoring to Provide Cost-effective Healthcare for Ageing, Chronically Ill Populations (Frost & Sullivan)
  • Health Care Consumers, Security and Electronic Health Records (Health Care and Informatics Review Online)
  • Telemonitoring To Reduce Hospitalizations Among Heart Failure Patients (Medical News Today)
  • e-Book on e-Health released (i4d)
  • Supporting self care a practical option: Diagnostic, monitoring and assistive tools, devices, technologies and equipment to support self care (UK Dept. of Health)
  • RFID and tracking systems - the high-tech future of old age? (silicon.com)
  • MobilAlarm, an easy to use emergency mobile device for people at risk (Virtual Medical Worlds)
  • Telemedicine in the home improves patient outcomes and saves health care dollars (Virtual Medical Worlds)
  • Telehospice Support for Elder Caregivers of Hospice Patients: Two Case Studies (Journal of Palliative Medicine)
  • U.S. Agencies Use Telemedicine in Foreign Assistance Efforts; Information technology delivers medical help to remote populations (The Washington File)
  • Keeping Track of Seniors Home Alone; New technology makes it easier to make sure aging parents are safe (ABCNews)
  • More NHS beds must go' in boost for home care (Guardian Unlimited)
  • Telehealth: Cost-Effective Care at Home (HHNMostWired)
  • Virgin Atlantic Introduces Life-Saving Technology Onboard (Nieuwsbank)
  • Fit And Healthy With Bluetooth (Wireless Healthcare)
  • Tele check-ups (The Star)
  • VA Conducting a Study on the Effectiveness of Home Telehealth Care (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Technology Delivering Home Care to Central Indiana Heart Patients (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • E-health Governance Model and Strategy in India (Journal of Health Management)
  • Impact of Baby Boomers Anticipated (Home Health Products)
  • Will e-health offer care providers a lifeline? (itbusiness.ca)
  • Patient Management Systems to Benefit from a Rising Wireless Healthcare Spend of $2.7bn by 2010 (Juniper Research)
  • Telemedicine solutions to optimise healthcare (IST Results)
  • Remote diagnosis for sick babies (BBC News)
  • A dose of telemedicine saves lives, cuts costs; Partners Healthcare extends treatment to homebound patients, remote stroke victims (Network World)
  • Continua Health Alliance: A New Coalition to Standardize Remote Monitoring (Health-IT World)

 
 

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