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Med-e-Tel 2009: global telemedicine and ehealth network
This newsletter is your source for Med-e-Tel updates, news from the Med-e-Tel partners, sponsors, exhibitors and speakers, as well as other telemedicine and ehealth news from around the world.
Med-e-Tel is again set to host its annual meeting for healthcare providers, industry representatives, researchers and government officials from around Europe and the world. A wealth of practical experiences and solutions will be shared and discussed during the three-day conference and expo. More details about that can be found in the first article of this newsletter and on the Med-e-Tel website. One urgent reminder to anyone who is planning to attend and still needs to make a hotel reservation: deadline date for hotel reservations is February 27th. After this date, room availability and preferential rates cannot be guaranteed anymore. So make sure to submit your reservation this week. Click here for more info and reservation form. Also the Med-e-Tel early bird registration ends this week (March 1st). So if you want to take advantage of a discount on the regular registration rates, submit your registration here and now, and get access to all Med-e-Tel conference sessions, workshops, expo area, receptions, and more.
In this issue of the Med-e-Tel newsletter you will also find a preview of some of the topics that will be presented in the Med-e-Tel opening session on April 1st. Additional details are available on the Med-e-Tel website and will be communicated in upcoming newsletters.
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Featured Partner
Moving eHealth beyond the "e": EHTEL celebrates its 10th anniversary and looks ahead
The past decade has been witness of quite noticeable changes of health care by health ICT. Nowadays, eHealth symbolises the modernisation of healthcare in support of quality of care, empowerment of patients, higher efficiency and also increased health professional job satisfaction. This has not happened by itself, rather a synergy of strategic plans, political commitments and technical developments was needed. Founded in 1999, EHTEL, the European Health Telematics Association has been an integral part and often a moderator of these achievements. Today - based on its multistakeholder membership - EHTEL provides an important platform to reflect the current situation and to look ahead into the future. Thus EHTEL also hosts the continuing expert debate, e.g. on the question "When will citizens in Europe benefit from eHealth services in their daily life".
Since January 2009, EHTEL celebrates its 10th Anniversary.
For this occasion, the Board of Directors of the association has reviewed progress made over the last two decades and the prognoses for the coming one. Some of their conclusions will be presented at Med-e-Tel 2009 (see also article in this newsletter on "The three ages of ehealth").
Med-e-Tel works together with a distinguished academy of organizations, associations and institutions who are active in the fields of ehealth, telemedicine, and health ICT.
Click here for a full list of supporting organizations and partners. |
Featured Media Partners
eHEALTH is a niche monthly publication (print and online) focusing on healthcare ICTs technologies and applications. It is committed to provide rich and relevant content for healthcare stakeholders, medical professionals, researchers and policy makers across the world for global capacity building and knowledge exchange towards better eHealth adoption. The publication covers a wide array of issues around technology, policy, standards and best practices of eHealth through news, analysis, expert articles, case studies and interviews.
i4d (Information For Development) is a niche monthly publication (print and online) intended to provide a much-needed platform for exchange of information, ideas, opinions and experiences, both inside and outside the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) sector. i4d encompasses the role and relevance of ICT in various development sectors such as Rural Development, Gender, Governance, Micro-finance, Education, Health, Wireless Communication, ICT For Poor, Local Content, Culture, Heritage and more.
Federal Telemedicine News is published by Bloch Consulting Group and 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. Two reports are published annually Federal agencies: Activities in Telehealth, Telemedicine, and Informatics and a companion report University and State Activities: Telemedicine, Telehealth, Informatics, and Research.
Healthcare IT Management is the official voice of the European Association of Healthcare IT Managers. It connects CIOs, IT managers, specialists and practitioners in the healthcare IT sector (hospitals, private and public clinics, healthcare institutes) across Europe. The publication deals with the most pressing topics in the health IT such as digital diagnostics, eHealth, medical informatics, telemedicine, data security, etc., by promoting best practices and common management standards in the departments of IT, radiology, cardiology, laboratory, admistration amongst others and
combats the fragmentation that characterizes the European market of healthcare 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 of Assistive Technologies is a peer-reviewed journal, published by Pavilion, and provides a user focus on current and enabling technologies, telecare and e-inclusion in health and social care. Articles focus on how people use assistive and enabling technologies, rather than solely on the technology itself, and raise the awareness of available technologies. It debates definitions and concepts and addresses ethics, policy, legislation and issues for day-to-day practice. The journal brings together the people who use assistive technologies and the people who write about and research its use.
Management & Krankenhaus, in German, speaks to 43,000 decision makers in German hospitals. The monthly broadsheet sports up-to-date information on new technologies and approaches in diagnostics and therapy, in healthcare IT and facility management. Management & Krankenhaus is the one source hospital decision makers in Germany require to keep informed on innovations with a cross-departmental impact.
The Med-e-Tel media partnerships provide you with a look at a wide range of healthcare and medical journals, magazines and on-line news and information services that will help you to stay abreast of what is going on in the field of ehealth, telemedicine and healthcare IT and to make better informed decisions in your daily business or healthcare practice.
Pick up your personal copy of these publications in the Media Corner at Med-e-Tel 2009! |
Quick Links to recent newsletter articles...
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Med-e-Tel 2009 conference program: a global telemedicine and ehealth update!  The Med-e-Tel 2009 conference program features presentations of successful business cases, research activities, pilot projects, practical experiences from health and social care providers, and panel discussions, offering both local and international perspectives on telemedicine and ehealth opportunities and experiences.
The Med-e-Tel 2009 opening session includes welcome addresses and keynote presentations by:
- Mars Di Bartolomeo, Minister of Health and Social Security, Luxembourg
- Gérard Comyn, Acting Director, Directorate H: ICT Addressing Societal Challenges, Head of Unit H1: ICT for Health, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission
- Marco Obiso, Advisor, ICT Applications and Cybersecurity Division, International Telecommunication Union
- Michael Nerlich, President, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
- Claudia Bartz, Coordinator, International Classification for Nursing Practice, International Council of Nurses
- Martin Denz, President, European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL)
- Yunkap Kwankam, Executive Director, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
- Valery Stolyar, Secretary, Russian Telemedicine Association
- Rudy Vansnick, President, Internet Society Belgium, Vice-chair, ISOC European Chapters Coordinating Council
During the rest of the three-day program, a variety of topics and thematical sessions allows participants to attend those presentations and workshops that matter most to their daily activities and interests. Topics include:
- A workshop on "Deploying eEHIC services for borderless care in Europe" organized by the NETC@RDS project. The workshop will address policy and legal aspects, potential market dimension and commercial features of the services, and effectiveness of the proposed ICT solution in view of the interoperability of the eEHIC (electronic European Health Insurance Card) as forthcoming challenge for borderless care in Europe.
- "Citizens Services for Borderless Healthcare in the European Union: Practical Solutions", a workshop by TEN4Health. TEN4Health focuses on access of citizens to healthcare in participating Member States' hospitals, based on a secure web service and its integration into developing European ehealth infrastructure networks.
- "Tele-enabled Health Care - The Voice from the Field" presented in cooperation with the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL) Task Force on Sustainable Telemedicine & Chronic Disease Management.
- An overview of "International Telemedicine & eHealth Initiatives and Developments" by members of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), focusing on the current state of telemedicine and ehealth use and deployment in countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Italy, Russia, South Africa, UK, Ukraine.
- A session on "Telenursing", a growing application, offering possibilities to reduce the use of expensive healthcare services, to reduce hospital admissions or length of stay, to perform regular check-ups on patients with chronic conditions, to spread limited resources over a large population, and to increase access to nurse education.
- Sessions on "eHealth for Developing Countries and Low Resource Settings", showing ICT's contributions to healthcare delivery and capacity building in the developing world.
- A special training session on "How to Implement eHealth Solutions?" presented by the expert group on Question 14 "Telecommunications for eHealth" within the International Telecommunication Union. The training will look at strategic planning issues for the development and implementation of ehealth services.
- A session on "Pan Asian Collaboration for Evidence-Based eHealth Adoption and Application", presented by the PANACeA initiative which aims to generate evidence in the field of ehealth.
- Various sessions on Chronic Disease Management, Home Care Solutions, Telecardiology, eHealth Informatics, eLearning, eHealth in Support of Routine Medical Practice, Mobile Health, Ethical Issues, eHealth in Support of Mental Health, Image Transfer.
- A regional (BeLux) hospital administrator seminar organized in cooperation with the Luxembourg CRP-Santé (Public Research Centre for Health) about "Priorities, benefits and budgets for health IT in the 21st century".
- Several sessions focusing on "Extreme Environmental Conditions and eHealth" presented in cooperation with the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. The sessions focus on the very current topic of the rapid degradation of our natural environment and recent evidence of climate change which has brought new interest in monitoring interactions between humans and the environment.
Overall, Med-e-Tel offers great networking opportunities. It is the perfect forum to share experiences and knowledge, a chance to gain new insights and to 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 health system.
Click here to access the online registration form and take two minutes to confirm your presence at The International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum. You can review the registration fees and conditions here.
Register now to benefit from the early bird fees which give you up to 25% discount on the regular registration fees. Registration will give you access to all conference sessions and workshops, expo area, receptions and unprecedented networking and learning opportunities.
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A European Commission policy initiative on telemedicine  Why is the European Commission now supporting large scale deployment of telemedicine? Is telemedicine a part of the solution to the main challenges facing our healthcare systems? Dr. Gérard Comyn, Acting Director of the Directorate for ICT Addressing Societal Challenges and Head of ICT for Health Unit at the DG Information Society and Media of the European Commission, will provide answers to these questions during the Med-e-Tel 2009 opening session on April 1st.
This will be done in the light of the current Commission initiatives such as the Communication on telemedicine, recent results of a number of integrated projects and current studies. An action plan to ensure deployment of telemedicine services for the benefits of EU patients will also be presented.
Meet European Commission representatives at Med-e-Tel and pick up information on the above mentioned Telemedicine Communication, projects and studies in the Med-e-Tel expo area. |
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The three ages of ehealth  Martin Denz, MD, President of EHTEL (European Health Telematics Association), will address the Med-e-Tel opening session on the occasion of the association's 10th anniversary. Dr. Denz will provide background from the early days before labels such as "tele" and "e" arose to capture the integration of ICT into healthcare (age of discovery), look at where we are today with ehealth (age of acceptance - successes and failures, gaps in understanding and in the value business case, strategic acceptance and lessons learned) and then take a view forward to the next decade (age of deployment...and finally integration) looking at how ehealth can be made to happen, why it is important, and what the critical success factors are. There is still much to do to really make it happen. But perhaps what is required most of all are some changes in perception. eHealth is about delivering quality care locally to the people who need it in an effective and efficient way addressing the challenges that are taking place in society, utilising advances in medical science, and the capabilities of IT to support this. "Citizens perceptions are changing. These plus economic and political developments are driving the way forward but this is not enough. We must have the professionals on our side, actively incorporating new models and means of care. We have to reorient care to become a citizen oriented service with the other stakeholders alongside - clinical professionals, managers, ministries, insurance companies, communities, ICT, medical and pharmaceutical industries and its experts, and the people who need our care now or in the future," according to Denz. EHTEL will also present some practical examples and experiences from the field in one of the Med-e-Tel conference sessions entitled "Tele-enabled Health Care - The Voice from the Field". More details about this session will be available soon at www.medetel.eu. |
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Telenursing and global health  The ICN is a Geneva-based federation of national nurses' associations, representing millions of nurses in 133 member countries and aims to advance nursing and influence health globally. The standards, guidelines and policies for nursing promulgated by ICN are widely accepted and used by the global nursing community. ICN strongly supports leveraging information and communication technologies in delivery systems to address the challenges of 21st century healthcare. The increased visibility, activism, and capability of telenursing will be of mutual benefit to ICN programmes and areas of emphasis. Telenursing has great potential for ICT synergistic collaboration with the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP®), an ICN programme since 1989. ICNP® represents the nursing domain and is a unified nursing language system for use globally. Nurses are well-prepared to give comprehensive care and can, using telenursing principles and strategies, support the health needs of people who may have barriers to care. Claudia C. Bartz, PhD, RN, FAAN, who is Coordinator for International
Classification for Nursing Practice within the International Council of
Nurses, will speak in the Med-e-Tel 2009 opening session on how a growing body of research is contributing to the
validation of
telenursing effectiveness through the identification of data-based
outcomes for care recipients. Additional "telenursing" experience and research will also be presented in a special session on Telenursing that will be part of the Med-e-Tel conference program. |
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Standard "operating" procedures in ehealth? Individualized care or health mass production?  According to a recent WHO report "inequities are killing people on a grand scale", commenting on how much life expectancy differs between the so called developed and developing world. WHO states that "a toxic combination of bad policies, economics and politics is responsible", which leads to social injustice and health inequity.
In most cases, the unequal health situation follows the social gradient. On the other hand: wealth alone does not have to determine the health of a nation's population, as a number of low-income countries have achieved levels of good health. In these countries, political, social and economic forces have worked together to reach a health care system, where universal coverage, equity of distribution and especially affordable healthcare are possible. WHO sees the "implementation of personal health" as a key to mastering the healthcare problems of today, meaning suitable health solutions, fitted to all layers of society.
In this environment, the costly gap between individualized care and "health mass production" is an important issue. Can standard operating procedures in ehealth help mitigate this gap?
Prof. Dr. Michael Nerlich, Head of the Department of Trauma Surgery at the University of Regensburg Academic Medical Center (Germany) and President of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (an NGO in Official Relations with WHO), will attempt to provide some answers and insights into the above challenge.
According to Nerlich, the work in medicine everywhere in the world can be (and often is) mere stress and chaos, which favors errors and is costly. The only way out of this chaos is order and organization. Algorithms, standard operating procedures, evidence based medicine, medical guidelines and specialization can be instruments to bring order into the chaos, as they save time, money and of course - patients. Today's medicine certainly tends to be a "medical assembly line", which is not per se negative, as specialization brings expertise, efficiency and top quality medicine. But then again, individualized care is more important than ever to encounter frustration on both sides (i.e. patients and doctors).
So, how can this Gordian knot be cut?. "The car industry has solved this problem already" says Nerlich. "It nowadays offers individual assembly line mass production, which combines industrial methods with the possibility of individual adaptation. That is the way medicine can go. eHealth certainly is the enabling tool for the drafted development and it will save medicine on its way towards the future."
The International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth is working with WHO to promote these thoughts. Make sure to meet ISfTeH officials and members at the ISfTeH expo stand at Med-e-Tel and in the various ISfTeH supported sessions in the Med-e-Tel conference program. |
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Activity monitoring and nutritional coaching for sustained weight control
 Conscious nutrition and sufficient activity - two major factors in sustainable weight reduction and control are combined in the AiperMotion 440 device (Energy Balance Coach) by Aipermon. For the first time, an activity sensor measures any physical activity, rendering the so far laborious task of taking nutrition notes simpler then ever before. Thanks to this device, people wanting to reduce weight sustainably just have to take two basic points at heart: conscious nutrition plus sufficient activity. Sports and special diets are not even a must. AiperMotion 440's unique innovation: it is the first device that supports and motivates its user by displaying their current energy balance. The energy balance results from the difference of ingestion and energy consumption. Those wanting to lose weight should raise their energy consumption by more activity and reduce their energy input by conscious, healthy eating. The device records any motion using a three dimensional acceleration sensor. In doing so, it is irrelevant if the user covers a distance by foot, is gardening or prepares breakfast - all physical activities are recorded. Users can also enter their meals in a few simple clicks, either via a menu according to type and size or put in the food's exact amount of calories directly. With the device and corresponding client software, users receive utilities which stimulate a change in behaviour which is necessary for sustainable weight reduction. The AiperMotion 440 and other activity monitoring and telemonitoring products from Aipermon will be presented at the Med-e-Tel 2009 expo. Aipermon will also present on "Telemonitoring for Obesity Therapy" as part of the Med-e-Tel 2009 conference program. |
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Last call for Med-e-Tel 2009 hotel reservations If you are attending Med-e-Tel and still need to make a hotel reservation, do so this week before Friday February 27th. After this date, room availability and the listed rates cannot be guaranteed anymore.
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Newsbriefs To follow are links to some interesting and recently published articles, studies, interviews and reports (if you would like to suggest an article for inclusion into a following newsletter, feel free to send details to info@medetel.eu):
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