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October 23, 2006

In this newsletter:

  • Med-e-Tel 2007: the international educational and networking forum for ehealth, telemedicine and health ICT
  • Med-e-Tel 2007 call for abstracts
  • Med-e-Tel adds new coordinator for North America
  • HealthSpan International brings telehealth solutions to developing countries
  • Swiss foundation seeks effective partnerships - any region, age, gender, ethnicity, religion
  • 'Funding' Round Table planned at Med-e-Tel 2007
  • Aerotel lands award, alliance and research project
  • RESPECT: telemedicine for concussion and stroke
  • News from ISfTeH
  • News from the Med-e-Tel media partners
  • Newsbriefs


The Med-e-Tel 2007 conference program is gradually taking shape and will again feature contributions from around the world on topics such as:

  • pro-active health monitoring
  • disease management and medication compliance
  • ehealth/telecare for independent or assisted living in the ageing society
  • standardization, interoperability
  • wireless/mobile technologies
  • ehealth/telemedicine for developing countries and underserved areas
  • project results and presentations
  • and more...

Some of the keynote presentations in the opening session will include:

  • Dr. Mark Blatt, Director Global Healthcare Strategies, Intel
  • Dr. Yunkap Kwankam, eHealth Coordinator, World Health Organization
  • Prof. Dr. Michael Nerlich, President, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
  • Dr. Giusepe Tritto, Acting President, World Academy of Biomedical Technologies (UATI/ICET/UNESCO)

A workshop on the topic of "User Experience Guidelines for eHealth Telecare Services (ETSI Industry Consensus Workshop)" will also be held at Med-e-Tel 2007 in the frame of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) Specialist Task Force 299.
Additional workshops and symposia are currently under preparation.
Med-e-Tel offers great networking opportunities. It is the perfect forum to share experiences and knowledge and a chance to gain new insights and establish new contacts and partnerships. Med-e-Tel also offers the opportunity to see and evaluate actual products, technologies and services and to find out how they can be beneficial for you, your organization, or your healthcare system.
More details will be communicated via the Med-e-Tel website and upcoming newsletters. If you are interested to take part in Med-e-Tel 2007 or if you have any questions, contact us at .


The call for abstracts for the Med-e-Tel 2007 conference program has been issued. Contributions on a wide range of ehealth and telemedicine topics are welcomed.
Abstracts should be submitted before January 12, 2007. Accepted abstracts will be published on the Med-e-Tel website and in the Med-e-Tel conference guide and full papers will be published in the Med-e-Tel proceedings which will be distributed among all Med-e-Tel participants.
For more information and abstract submission guidelines, please refer to www.medetel.lu/index.php?rub=educational_program&page=call_for_abstracts or contact us at .


Med-e-Tel has appointed Bob Pyke as new Med-e-Tel Coordinator for North America. Bob is taking over from Sheldon Prial who has done a wonderful job in coordinating the American marketing and PR efforts for the event over the past 4 years.
Bob Pyke is a RN, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and a technical consultant with experience in healthcare management. His interests include ambulatory care, chronic care, home health care and case management, managed care, pediatrics, health informatics, ehealth, distance education, international health, humanization relief and international pediatrics.
Bob is co-administrator of the Telehealth Professional Discussion List serve and the E-Health Professional Discussion List serve. He is also the assistant editor of the TelehealthNews Letter, and a constant observer and writer focused on the use of technology in health care today.
For anyone located in North America who is interested to attend Med-e-Tel 2007 or to receive more information about the event, feel free to contact Bob Pyke at .


HealthSpan is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care in emerging countries by creating lasting systems that use telehealth technologies. According to Jim Katzenstein (Executive Director), HealthSpan basically collaborates to create innovative practical solutions, develop implementation plans, and help identify resources that are needed, and if requested, they also provide help with implementation and fund raising. HealthSpan uses a unique consulting model that encourages solutions to emerge from within local organizations and as such making a difference in people's lives by giving them tools to make their lives better. Their model builds confidence and self sufficiency.
"Telehealth is necessary in developing countries in order to defeat the infrastructure problem," says Katzenstein. "It is much more difficult to transmit information, in any form, in a developing country because roads and telephone lines function sporadically. Political issues and cultural differences further complicate the problem. The technology that supports telemedicine provides a new more dependable and more ubiquitous infrastructure on which to communicate."
A complete interview with Jim Katzenstein, conducted by Bob Pyke, can be found at www.telehealth.net/interviews/james_katzenstein_md.html. Several other Bob Pyke telehealth interviews are available at www.telehealth.net/interviews/index.html.
As in previous years, Med-e-Tel 2007 will also again feature a session on the use and implementation of telemedicine and ehealth in developing countries. Also a special round table discussion on this topic is being planned to bring together representatives from the different stakeholders involved (users, providers, funders) to help make telemedicine and ehealth deployment in developing countries a reality.


The Rays of Hope Foundation (www.rays-of-hope.org) seeks to stimulate effective healthcare services by the use of ICT. User linkage for e-transmission of messages, images, patient data, etc., is enabled by fixed line and satellite broadband access. These 'hi-tech' tools are already at hand, their availability continuously expanding.
The developing world's health is severely impacted by the urban concentration of already scarce medical skills. The Internet via channels existing today makes possible the urban-to-rural extension needed to train/sustain basic diagnostic findings, symptom alleviation, and disease management skills. Regional healthcare facilities extended by the long reach of ICT can be further supplemented by distant 2nd opinion reference skills. Thus available resources can be cost-effectively employed, to bridge the 'have have not' divide, to the benefit of us all.
Motivated by a commitment to make a difference, RoH and you working together CAN narrow the delivery gap between available services and needy users through an effective application of ICT. Rays of Hope solicits a common contribution of WILL, which in turn will create the WAY.
To find out more information or to discuss cooperation opportunities, contact .


Med-e-Tel, together with Rays of Hope Foundation and HealthSpan, will be setting up a roundtable discussion at the next Med-e-Tel in April 2007 to place together those who have specific healthcare NEEDS (whether defined by geography, health challenge, age or national population), those who provide SOLUTIONS (to propose and perform effective sustainable solutions using ICT tools) and those who represent the necessary MATERIAL AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES (to enable the solutions for those in need).
It is a sincere effort to go beyond the talk, and to take action and get things actually implemented where they are needed the most.
It is fair to suggest that a needed appreciation for and understanding of the daily realities is often lacking between the above three parties. So it is reasonable to bring disparate viewpoints together, to approach a mutual understanding each for the challenges facing the others, thereby enabling achievement in the "identification-solution-enabling" process.
Representatives of the three categories will be brought together at a Med-e-Tel roundtable. Points of view as diverse as possible will be solicited from individuals or corporate/funder representatives already known for commitment to making a difference in healthcare.
The Med-e-Tel venue appears especially appropriate, for as a smaller health ICT focused conference, it enjoys an impressive participation from industry representatives, government officials and healthcare providers from 40-50 countries around the globe.
Individuals or organizations who wish to participate in this initiative can contact to obtain more information or to express their interest.


In recognition of its contributions to the nascent area of telemonitoring and for its achievements in cardiac monitoring, Aerotel has been conferred the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Company of the Year in the European patient monitoring market. Within two decades of its inception, Aerotel has been able to establish itself as a global leader in mobile medical monitoring solutions for homecare and telemedicine. "A patient monitoring company with a strong focus on clinical telemonitoring, Aerotel's efforts towards technology development have been aimed at providing cost-effective, high-quality solutions that offer patients maximum flexibility, comfort and improved quality of life," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Aarati Ajay.
Aerotel also announced recently that it has formed an alliance with Italian leading telemedicine services provider Telbios for exclusive marketing and distribution of Aerotel products in the Italian market. The agreement expands the range of telemedicine and home care services offered by Telbios, which includes tele-assistance, tele-cardiology, and tele-radiology services. Health organizations such as hospitals, private and public healthcare institutions can now offer their patients a simple and efficient means to monitor the state of their health. "Thanks to this technology, chronically ill patients are offered the possibility to be monitored without leaving the comfort of their home or while travelling and still follow a tight treatment protocol that results in the benefit of their quality of life," said Leopold Genovesi, CEO of Telbios. Monitoring chronically ill patients can be considered as an emergency on a national level: in Italy there are over 2.5 million ! diabetic patients, over 4 million p atients suffering for respiratory dysfunction, one million patients suffering form chronic heart failure and the number of patients under anticoagulation treatment exceeds one million. Telemedicine is the most suitable remote follow up method for the cited pathologies. Telemedicine reduces the unnecessary hospitalizations and reduces waiting lists for medical treatment with a significant savings factor on economical resources.
Finally, Aerotel is also taking part in Georgetown University's diabetes research project on native Americans. Participants use Aerotel's TeleCliniQ modem to transmit blood glucose readings to the MyCareTeam diabetes management database at the university. "TeleCliniQ modems enable a fast, simple, direct and accurate method for sending blood glucose readings to a centralized database," explains Betty Levine, who heads the university's eHealth and Telemedicine Division. "Aerotel's TeleCliniQ modems are effective even for those without immediate access to a computer or the Internet. Its readings are essential if health care givers are to create a change in a diabetic patient's regimen and improve his/her glucose control," notes Levine.


After a one year trial, the Policlinico of Messina (Italy) recently presented the results of RESPECT, a telemedicine network focused on neurology applications, activated in the province of Messina, and reaching almost 700.000 people. It began with the purpose of improving diagnosis and therapy for patients hit by concussion but is actually also employed now to support stroke therapy.
The data are impressive: the time between admission in the peripheral hospital and the supply of specialis treatment from Policlinico in Messina dropped from 160 to around 40 minutes; improvement of health assistance respecting the guidelines of concussion treatment; improvement in admission management (more than 40% of transferred patients from peripheral centres are operated, compared with only 20% before the RESPECT implementation) and reduction of 52% of transfers to Policlinico of Messina from peripheral centres, with a considerable decrease in the inconvenience for patients and costs for the health system.
"It enables to evaluate in real time an emergency surgery intervention, while the patient is still in the peripheral emergency department," says Prof. Franceso Tommasello, Director of the Surgery Operation Unit of the Policlinico and Chancellor of the University of Messina. "It offers a real time reduction for access to the operation theatre, concentrating on patients with a real need for intervention. Moreover, the system supports knowledge and experience sharing between specialists."
"It is a technological system," says Antonio Stefani of Telbios, who have set up the network together with Telecom Italia," which enables high performace: a CAT image, 20/30 Mb in size, can be transmitted within just a few seconds with no loss in resolution. Provincial physicians and specialists of Messina can share data, view the patients' diagnostic images and express opinions from a distance, and finally take the best decision for the health of the patient."


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.
- At a recent ISfTeH Board Meeting, held at WHO headquarters in Geneva, ISfTeH's status of "organisation in special relationship with WHO" was discussed with WHO officials. More news about this should become available in the coming months. During the meeting, the Board also accepted three new national members from France (CATEL), India (Telemedicine Society of India) and Japan (Japanese Telemedicine and Telecare Association). Also IBM has joined ISfTeH as a corporate member, and an alliance partnership has been established with the World Academy of Biomedical Technologies (UATI-ICET/UNESCO).
- 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) and in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Complete conference program will be made available shortly at www.mrc.ac.za/conference/satelemedicine/index.htm. Registration can be done at www.mrc.ac.za/conference/satelemedicine/registrationinfo.htm.
- ISfTeH will moderate all presentations at the Global Health Care Expansion Congress in Dubai on December 4-5. See www.healthcareexpansion.com/index.html?pagecode=speakers for an agenda of the event.
- ISfTeH will also have a remarked presence again at Med-e-Tel 2007 (Luxembourg, 18-20 April 2007), with a special ISfTeH conference session and an ISfTeH exhibition stand. Presentation proposals and applications for a participation on the ISfTeH stand are welcome at [email protected].
- 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 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.

- MiHome Journal is the first business-to-business publication exclusively focused on the development, distribution and adoption of home-based, technology-enabled healthcare products and services. Published monthly by Intuitive Care Advisors, MiHome Journal provides independent, multi-disciplined perspectives and analysis on market opportunity, business models and practices around the design and installation of integrated home healthcare systems. For more information, and to subscribe to MiHome Journal, visit www.icareadvisors.com, or contact Rob Scheschareg at +1 508 663 1500 x242, .

- Telecare Aware is a free news service for anyone interested in telecare and telehealth developments. Sign up at www.telecareaware.com to be alerted by email each time that the news is updated, usually once or twice a week.

- "Telepalliative Home Care: Introducing the next wave of needed telehealthcare" is a featured topic on the Home Telehealth Community of Care page which is available from Information for Tomorrow at:www.informationfortomorrow.com/community/telepalliative.htm. Learn how home "telepalliative" care (palliative care services delivered in part through telehealth tools) has been tried and what's working in this new, developing field. It's care that is delivered (or that should be delivered) somewhere between home telehealth and home telehospice admissions, with much potential for improved care and happier lives for patients and their caregivers in this sometimes very long interim of living with chronic diseases and conditions. The page provides background on those using (or planning to use) the technology and what's working so far.

- IST Results is a free online news service (www.cordis.lu/ist/results) which provides up to date information on research developed by leading European companies, specialist SME's and their research partners. Click here for news on e-health.

- Federal Telemedicine News, published by Bloch Consulting Group, is an online publication that goes to healthcare professionals, corporate executives, college and university directors, academic medical centers, researchers, hospital administrators, and others in the field that need up to the minute data on telemedicine, telehealth, and health information technology activities in the U.S. Federal Government, Universities, and State governments. More info at www.federaltelemedicine.com.

- The eHealthNews.EU Portal (www.ehealthnews.eu) is announcing a new service named eHealthNews.EU Portal Group. It represents a free service which helps to communicate European eHealth related news effectively using e-mail and the web.
Currently eHealhtNews.EU Portal covers several major eHealth news topics and more specifically in the categories of:
- Industry News
- Research News
- Conferences News
- Open Calls
eHealthNews.EU Portal Group is based on the new Google Groups interface. Google Groups is a simple, reliable service for managing and archiving mailing lists; it offers both basic mailing list functionality and the ability to store and search mailing list content on the web.
As an eHealthNews.EU Portal Group member you can choose how you would like to be notified. You may choose to receive an email message every time a news article is posted to the group, to receive a summary email or simply read the group on the web.
For further information and in special for seeing eHealthNews.EU Portal Group in action, please visit http://groups.google.com/group/eHealthNewsEU/.


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 ):

  • Impact of Telehealth on Healthcare Utilization by Congestive Heart Failure Patients (Disease Management & Health Outcomes)
  • Patients: Healthier at home (Buffalo Business First)
  • Remote detection of incessant slow VT with an ICD capable of home monitoring (Europace)
  • Canadian telehealth project aims to build capacity in Middle East (itbusiness.ca)
  • Telemedicine initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (EurekAlert)
  • Boomers Embrace Healthcare Technology for Senior Care But With Definite Requirements (MiHome Jounal)
  • Nursing homes seen deficient on basic care; Movement grows to cut unneeded hospitalizations (The Boston Globe)
  • Telemedicine: Supporting health care anywhere, everywhere (Nigerian Tribune)
  • Heart patients monitored at home (The Indianapolis Star)
  • Cancer diagnosis and telemedicine: a case study from Cambodia (Annals of Oncology)
  • Report: Digital Health Coming to Grandma's House (eWeek.com)
  • Heart patient with wireless device stays in touch with the pros (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
  • 'E-Health' Project Taking Shape (BruneiDirect.Com)
  • Digital Home Health_A Primer; A Parks Associates White Paper (Parks Associates)
  • A Study Will Look at How Communication Technologies Can Treat Hypertension (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • A Psychiatrist is Using Telemedicine to Help Patients in Rural Areas (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Palm Pilots Help COPD Patients (Home Health Products)
  • Desire to Age-in-Place Drives Senior Home Services Industry (PRWeb)
  • IT Tools for Chronic Disease Management: How Do They Measure Up? (California HealthCare Foundation)
  • Telehealth Technology in Case/Disease Management (Lippincott's Case Management)
  • Assisted-living facility gets technology assist (USA Today)
  • Intel Brings Medical Records to Seniors (eWeek.com)
  • Study Shows 20 Percent of Senior Citizens at Risk for Heat-Related Illness (Senior Journal.com)
  • High Technology Improves Alzheimer's Care and Diagnosis (U.S. Newswire)
  • Wireless Based Remote Monitoring And Diagnostics (Wireless Healthcare)
  • 'Telehealth' systems slowly gaining; Devices help curb visits to hospital (The Boston Globe)
  • User Needs in ICT Research for Independent Living, with a Focus on Health Aspects (IPTS - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies)
  • Telemedicine providers attempt to connect the dots for employers (BenefitNews.com)
  • Home telehealth_Current state and future trends (International Journal of Medical Informatics)
  • Effective Health and Social Care Services to Promote Growth of European Social Alarms Market (Yahoo! News)
  • Scheme will let 75,000 old people stay at home (The Herald)
  • National Telehealth Value Study Conducted by Honeywell HomMed (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Information and communication technology in supporting people with serious chronic illness living at home - an intervention study (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  • Telemedical support to improve glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (European Journal of Pediatrics)
  • Wireless Personal Monitoring of Patient Movement and Vital Signs (PDF Version) (CIMED2005 Proceedings)
  • Rhythm of daily living and detection of atypical days for elderly people living alone as determined with a monitoring system (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  • Baby Boomers Open to Using Technology to Deliver Healthcare (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Mobile phone-based surveillance of cardiac patients at home (Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare)
  • Advantages of Greater Speed and Accuracy to Promote Adoption of Smart Card Applications by Healthcare Sector (Yahoo! News)
  • Remote Control for Health Care (The New York Times)
  • Sacred Heart Hospital Uses Telemedicine to Help in High Risk Pregnancies (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Two Universities Awarded $15 Million to Develop a Center to Help Quality of Life (Federal Telemedicine News)
  • Connected Health: Quality and Safety for European Citizens report (PDF Version) (European Commission, Information Society and Media DG)
  • The Trans-European Network - Home-Care Management System (TEN-HMS) Study: An Investigation of the Effect of Telemedicine on Outcomes in Europe (Disease Management & Health Outcomes)
  • Coordinated Care, Telemonitoring, and the Therapeutic Relationship: Heart Failure Management in the United States (Disease Management & Health Outcomes)
  • Telecare solutions for elderly and disabled residents (eGov monitor)
  • Carleton varsity project aims to keep aged healthy at home (ITworldcanada.com)
  • Telemedicine project improving health in rural Cambodia (Medical Technology Business Europe)
  • Cheshire tests telehealth vital signs monitor (E-Health Insider Primary Care)
  • Telehealth saves patients time, travel (News-Leader.com)
  • Clinic to use Web to check patients; Nemours and JEA team up for pilot monitoring project (The Florida Times-Union)
  • eHealth is Worth it - The economic benefits of implemented eHealth solutions at ten European sites (PDF Version) (European Commission, Information Society and Media DG)
  • Telemonitoring of Patients with Chronic Heart Failure (Disease Management & Health Outcomes)

 
 

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