Med-e-Tel by ISfTeH 2010 logo 
 
 


The International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum
For Education, Networking and Business
Med-e-Tel Newsletter
August 3, 2010
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Med-e-Tel Newsletter
 
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.

 
In this issue of the Med-e-Tel newsletter you'll find a review of Med-e-Tel 2010 and a preview to Med-e-Tel 2011, incl. call for abstracts and announcement of Orange Healthcare's participation in next year's event.

Also included is an update of some recent news from the ISfTeH (International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth) and its members.

This newsletter also reports on interesting studies, experiences and developments from Med-e-Tel 2010 sponsors Aipermon, Anoto and Transinsight, and on a WHO/IHTSDO initiative to harmonize health information.
 
 
Your questions and comments are welcome at [email protected].

Organizer

International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth logo

 
Med-e-Tel is organized by the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH).

ISfTeH is the international federation of national telemedicine/eHealth associations, research institutions, care provider organizations, companies and individuals.

ISfTeH is an NGO in Official Relations with WHO (World Health Organizations).

Featured Partner

International Council of Nurses

 
Med-e-Tel is proud to be endorsed by ICN, the International Council of Nurses, federation of national nurses' associations, representing nurses in more than 128 countries.

ICN has set up a Telenursing Network which aims to seek, educate, support and collaborate with nurses and nurse supporters from across the globe who have an interest in telenursing and promote nursing involvement in the development and use of telehealth technologies, with the goal of improving the timeliness, quality and access of a broad range of health care services for individuals, their families, communities and countries.
 
The principal goal of ICN's Telenursing Network is to serve as a global resource for nurses working or interested in telenursing practice, technology development, policy, standards, education and research. By promoting effective networking and linkages, the Network enables the sharing of telenursing knowledge and expertise and stimulates reflection on the changing nature of nursing care delivery systems across the globe.

Read the latest Telenursing Network Bulletin here.



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.

Med-e-Tel thanks its 2010 exhibitors and sponsors:

 

A&D logo

Accenture logo


Aerotel logo

Aipermon logo

Anoto logo



BioRICS logo

Card Guard logo

Diatelic logo

DICSIT Informatique logo

DSM TCG logo

eHealth Business Services logo

Ericsson logo

European Commission logo
EC - Health & Consumer Protection Directorate General

European Commission logo
EC - Information Society & Media Directorate-General

ICT logo
ISfTeH logo

LMTC logo

Link Care Services logo

MEDGATE logo

medXchange logo

MIR logo

Dyna-Vision / RS TechMedic logo

Sensatys logo

THOR Medical Systems logo

Tiani Spirit logo

Transinsight logo

x-tention logo

Featured Media Partners
 

Telecare Aware logo

Telecare Aware has been providing a specialised, free news and information service since 2005 to people interested in telecare and telehealth. Its purpose is to help service providers and suppliers around the world keep up to date with what each other are doing. 

THIIS - The Homecare Industry Information Service logo

THIIS (The Homecare Industry Information Service) is used by all the pro-active companies in the UK homecare marketplace. A monthly magazine and a weekly email bulletin keeps members up to date with news and views. THIIS is used by dealers, retailers, manufacturers and suppliers and has members in most European countries as well as many other countries around the world. The THIIS website is used by professionals, UK companies and trade contacts throughout the world to keep in touch with new products and new developments.
 

E-HEALTH-COM logo

E-HEALTH-COM is an independent magazine for health telematics and telemedicine. It features current developments in the eHealth sector as well as technical specifications. E-HEALTH-COM keeps you up-to-date, covers important issues of the future, and offers an essential communications platform for the eHealth community.
 

Journal of Assistive Technologies logo

The Journal of Assistive Technologies is a peer-reviewed journal providing 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.
 
Infomedix International logo
 
Infomedix International is a B2B magazine for the medical industry. It is mailed to 15,000 medical manufacturers, distributors, dealers, importers, exporters, wholesalers and agents worldwide, and distributed at medical tradeshows around the world. Infomedix International is connecting medical businesses worldwide!


Telemedicine and e-Health logo

Telemedicine and e-Health has expanded coverage, publishing 10 issues per year, providing readers with an understanding of new technology applications and evidence-based usage, and a new section on Medical Connectivity.  This new section includes roundtables, initiatives in industry, tutorials, webwatch, commentaries, new services, and people in the news. Telemedicine and e-Health covers all aspects of clinical telemedicine practice, technical advances, medical connectivity, enabling technologies, education, health policy and regulation and biomedical and health services research dealing with clinical effectiveness, efficacy and safety of telemedicine and its effects on quality, cost and accessibility of care, medical records and transmission of same.

 
eHealthNews.eu logo
 
The eHealthNews.eu portal is a leading eHealth news web based platform with core competence and innovative strength in advancing the European eHealth industrial and research sectors, promoting awareness of the latest trends, achievements and technology in the field.


MobiHealthNews logo

Mobihealthnews chronicles the healthcare sector's adoption of mobile technology: a convergence of two industries that is shaping the future of how healthcare is delivered to the patient on-the-go, at home and at their place of care.
MobiHealthNews offers a combination of breaking news, exclusive interviews, live event coverage and industry commentary to its growing readership of healthcare professionals and industry players designing, developing and deploying the wireless services that are transforming healthcare today.
MobiHealthNews is both a daily, online news portal and free, weekly newsletter (subscribe here).



 
 
 
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.
 
Click here for a full list of media partners.
Quick Links...

Med-e-Tel 2010 in images

Med-e-Tel 2011 preliminary general schedule

Med-e-Tel media partners

Med-e-Tel conference proceedings (2006-2010) order forms

Global Knowledge Resources for Telemedicine & eHealth (Med-e-Tel presentations 2002-2010)

Previous Med-e-Tel newsletters

Med-e-Tel newsletter subscription

In This Issue
Med-e-Tel 2010 review
Med-e-Tel 2011 preview
Med-e-Tel 2011 call for abstracts
Orange Healthcare to participate at Med-e-Tel 2011
International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth update
Type 2 diabetes and obesity: successful treatment with telemonitoring
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust saves �220,000 a year using digital pen and paper technology
Transinsight and antibodies-online develop software for semantic gene and protein identification
WHO and IHTSDO strive for harmonization of health information
Newsbriefs
Med-e-Tel 2010 review
Med-e-Tel picto
The 9th annual Med-e-Tel event took place at the Luxexpo Exhibition and Congress Center in Luxembourg on April 14-16, 2010. The event, organized by the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), attracted over 450 attendees from around the world (53 countries attending). This included many of the ISfTeH members, as well as a wide range of other telemedicine and eHealth providers and stakeholders. The European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) provided CME credits for Med-e-Tel attendees.

Med-e-Tel 2010 featured 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 eHealth and telemedicine opportunities and experiences.

Follow the links below to more information about the event:

Med-e-Tel 2010 in Images
Med-e-Tel 2011 preview
Med-e-Tel picto
Med-e-Tel 2011 is scheduled for 6-8 April 2011 in Luxembourg. The event will feature a variety of thematical sessions throughout the 3-day conference which will allow you to attend those presentations and workshops that matter most to your daily activities and interests. Topics will include:
  • biomedical technologies
  • chronic disease management
  • cybertherapy/telerehabilitation
  • eHealth integration into routine medical practice
  • eLearning
  • electronic health records
    environmental conditions and telehealth
  • home telehealth and independent living solutions
    how to implement eHealth solutions
  • mobile health solutions
  • open source solutions in healthcare
  • regional activities in telemedicine/eHealth
  • space technologies for healthcare
  • telecardiology
  • telenursing
  • telepsychology, mental health
  • venture capital/investment opportunities
  • and more...
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.
Companies interested in presenting their solutions at the event, consult the sponsorship/expo possibilities here.

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.

For more information, contact [email protected].

Med-e-Tel logo
Med-e-Tel 2011 call for abstracts
Med-e-Tel picto
The Med-e-Tel 2011 conference program will feature presentations of practical experiences, research initiatives and projects from health and social care providers, industry representatives, researchers and policy makers from around the world.

Presentation proposals on relevant topics (see www.medetel.eu) for inclusion into the Med-e-Tel conference program are welcome. We encourage contributions on practical experiences, business cases, projects, pilots, and research activities.

Click here to go to the online abstract submission form (note: text of the abstract should be limited to max. 2500 characters; plain text only, no images or tables, no bullets, etc.). All abstracts should be submitted using this online form. Abstract submission deadline is Friday 10 December 2010.

For more information, contact Malina Jordanova, Educational Program Coordinator, at [email protected].
Orange Healthcare to participate at Med-e-Tel 2011
Orange Healthcare logo
Orange Healthcare, the health care division within the France Telecom group, has announced it will participate at Med-e-Tel 2011. "We were very pleased with our presence at this year's Med-e-Tel and have found that the event attracts the right target audience for us," said Elinaz Mahdavy, European Affairs and Strategic Partnership Manager. "Orange Healthcare will now actively participate and contribute to the Med-e-Tel 2011 conference program and exposition."

The company offers a range of services that play an essential role in the modernization and improvement of health devices. The Orange Connected Hospital solution simplifies the work of medical teams and allows access to medical records in the hospital. This service platform provides better activity monitoring, control and continuous improvement of quality of care and patient comfort. Orange Healthcare also has extensive experience in developing telemonitoring solutions of chronic diseases like diabetes or kidney failure.

Extensive information and practical applications of Orange Healthcare's telemedicine and eHealth solutions can be found on www.orange-innovation.tv.

See also Mobile Health - Orange Healthcare Innovative Approach, for an overview of some of Orange Healthcare's mHealth solutions and initiatives, presented at Med-e-Tel 2010 by Patrice Cristofini, VP Alliance and Strategic Partnerships.

In recent news, Orange Healthcare and Intel also announced a cooperation for the development of telehealth solutions. This cooperation will start with the deployment of a pilot project using the Intel� Health Guide for monitoring patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at the Moulins-Yzeure Hospital in Auvergne, from hospitalization to extended follow-up at home. Thierry Zylberberg, Executive Director of Orange Healthcare said: "As operator integrator we want to play with our industry partners a key role in monitoring and improving patient comfort, in a totally safe way, by assisting healthcare professionals in the exercise of their profession. We are confident that this agreement with Intel in the area of healthcare will allow us to capitalize on our expertise in developing solutions for telemonitoring of chronic diseases and hospitalization at home."
International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth update
ISfTeH logo
The International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH) is the international federation of national Telemedicine/eHealth associations, research institutions, care provider organizations, companies and individuals. ISfTeH is the organizer of the Med-e-Tel conference.

New Members
ISfTeH is proud to welcome a new institutional member in its international network: the Institute of Clinical Medicine at Tallinn University of Technology.
The national membership for Canada within the ISfTeH is now assumed by COACH, Canada's Health Informatics Association, which includes the Canadian Telehealth Forum (CTF), successor of the Canadian Society of Telehealth.
Info about all member organizations can be found through the ISfTeH member directory.
 
Member news
Volunteers began earlier this year the "Mars500" isolation, simulating a mission to Mars. Six would-be cosmonauts have entered a sealed facility where they will spend 18 months with no windows and only e-mail contact with the outside world.
The Mars500 experiment is being conducted by Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP), with extensive participation by ESA as part of its European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences (ELIPS). IBMP's Deputy Director, Dr. Oleg Orlov, is also president of the Russian Telemedicine Foundation, the national member for Russia in the ISfTeH.
Scientific investigations during the experiment will assess the effect that isolation has on various psychological and physiological aspects such as stress, hormone levels, sleep quality, mood and the benefits of dietary supplements. Dr. Berna van Baarsen, from the Free University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Holland, is a principal investigator on Mars500.
"We expect Mars500 to have Earth applications, in understanding group dynamics connected to isolation and loneliness, for example," she said. "I hope it will also help us understand better some groups, such as those elderly people who are isolated in their homes. It should tell us about coping behaviours."
"Everything will be done in a telemedicine environment, where the crew has to do the analysis and we receive the data by telemetry," said Dr. Zell, who heads up Europe's space station utilisation programme.
For more info, read this BBC News article, or see mars500.imbp.ru or www.esa.int.

Intel Study Reveals Telehealth Will Dramatically Transform Health Care: Experts See Telehealth as Essential to Managing Aging Population, Voice Need for Improving Reimbursement --- 89% of health care decision makers believe telehealth will transform health care in the next 10 years, according to Intel-sponsored survey. Study reveals reimbursement and fear of technology as the top perceived barriers to telehealth implementation. Clinical decision makers believe that the adoption of technology and telehealth solutions will cut costs and improve patient outcomes.

NHS Central Lancashire's community matrons have introduced an innovative remote patient care management tool (Intel� Health Guide) to help chronically ill patients in Preston monitor and manage their health at home and remain independent for longer.
The technology is currently being piloted with 40 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - a serious and incapacitating condition which affects over 3.7 million people in the UK and typically causes acute shortness of breath and susceptibility to lung infections. If successful, NHS Central Lancashire aims to expand the programme to help patients with other chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and heart failure across central Lancashire.

AMD Global Telemedicine is Leading the Charge in Web 2.0 Telemedicine. AMD's Aggregated Network Services (AGNES) Medical Gateway provides Web 2.0 telemedicine solution --- Telemedicine technology, until now, has exclusively used videoconferencing equipment to enable doctors to see and hear patient diagnostic information generated by telemedical instruments. A Web 2.0 based medical gateway provides an alternative that can bring telemedicine users together in a more dynamic and interactive way.

The Society for Telemedicine and eHealth in Nigeria in strategic partnership with Sphinx health services Abuja, Nigeria commenced the operation of a 24hr Medical Call Center (MCC) called "CALDOC". The MCC is operated by licensed medical doctors that provide wide range of health information and phone consultation services. CALDOC services available include benefits to discuss symptoms with qualified health personnel and get professional advice; learn simple home therapies for non-emergency health problems; know more about a disease or health problem; talk to a health professional at the convenience of your home or office; find out about drug dosages and side effects; receive health tips and SMS alerts during epidemic outbreaks and get general medical advice. CALDOC is a telemedicine system that uses mobile telephone to provide the above services with a software algorithm developed locally to support decision making by the doctors. The service is targeting 75 million mobile telephony subscribers in Nigeria.

Events
In the past weeks, the ISfTeH and/or its members have also actively contributed to, organized or supported many conferences and meetings around the world. To follow are links to just a few of these international events:
eHealth 2010 (Austria)
ATA Annual Meeting (USA)
Health Executive Summit (France)
e-Health 2010 (Canada)
Telemedicine/e-health in resource-limited settings (Norway)
ICANN Meeting (Belgium)
EuroPACS 2010 (Switzerland)

Global Telehealth 2010
The Global Telehealth 2010 conference (incorporating the 15th International ISfTeH Conference and the 1st National Conference of the Australasian Telehealth Society) will take place on November 10-12 in Perth, Australia.
Theme of the conference is "Telehealth for every nation, community and home" and will look at how telehealth is increasingly considered as a means of facilitating health care delivery, and how the telecommunications revolution of the last few years now makes it possible to consider health care delivery on many scales, from the home all the way to global initiatives.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Desmond Tutu, Elizabeth Krupinski, Malcolm Fisk, Richard Scott, Shuji Shimizu, Fiona Wood. More information and registration are available at www.aths.org.au/GT2010.

Med-e-Tel 2011
Med-e-Tel 2011, scheduled for 6-8 April 2011 in Luxembourg, will feature a meeting of the ISfTeH Board of Directors, an ISfTeH member breakfast meeting, and various conference sessions presented by ISfTeH members.
Several national member societies will also set up national pavilions on the Med-e-Tel expo and present local companies, initiatives and projects. To become a part of this, contact the ISfTeH.

Join the ISfTeH
If you are heading a national telemedicine/eHealth organization, if you offer telemedicine products and solutions, if you are doing research on eHealth applications and technologies, if your organization provides (or wants to offer) care services by means of telemedicine/eHealth technologies, or if you are engaged in healthcare policy, join the ISfTeH network to expand your global reach or to learn from existing experiences and best practices. Membership information is available here. Or send an e-mail with your question or membership request.
Type 2 diabetes and obesity: successful treatment with telemonitoring
Aipermon logoObese type 2 diabetes patients lost considerable weight in the new "ABC program" (Active Body Control program) of the University Clinic of Magdeburg. HbA1c and glucose levels dropped, and the anti-diabetic medication was reduced in four out of five patients. Core elements of the program are telemonitoring with activity sensors, motivating feedback letters and an innovative diet combination.

This multi-element ABC-program is comprised of activity monitoring via telemonitoring, a combination diet and a regular feedback to patients. This program was applied in two studies:
The first study was accomplished in 2009 with 28 "healthy" obese individuals (BMI=34.5kg/m2) during 3 months. The second study was carried out for a period of 6 months from 2009-2010 with 87 patients (BMI=35.3 kg/m2) suffering from diabetes mellitus type 2.

With the AiperMotion 440 activity sensor it is possible to measure the intensity of physical activities with and without steps during the whole day. In addition, the activity sensor allows a digital nutrition protocol, the calculation of basal metabolic rate and input of personal data (sex, age, height and current weight). From measured activities combined with calculated values the user receives current information on the little device-screen about his energy consumption, nutrition intake and energy balance.

The "healthy" obese individuals reduced their mean weight by 9.9 kg. Their blood pressure fell by 11/7 mmHg which reduced the proportion of individuals with values above 130/80 mmHg from 57% to 36%.

The diabetic patients (mean age 59 years) had a mean weight loss of 10.3 kg. Concomitantly, their glucose and HbA1c fell by 1.6 mmol/l and 0.9% points, respectively. The proportion of patients with HbA1c > 7% was reduced from 66% to 27%. Anti-diabetic drugs were discontinued in 26 patients and reduced in 33 patients, which resulted in a reduction of treatment costs by 117 Euro per patient and 6 months.

With regard to weight, metabolism, medication consumption and patient compliance, the ABC program has shown to be highly effective in both "normal" obese and in obese type 2 diabetes patients.

Find out more about this study from Michael Bruhnke's presentation on "Telemonitoring of Weight and Physical Activity: Efficacy in Obese Humans and in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2", presented at Med-e-Tel 2010.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust saves �220,000 a year using digital pen and paper technology
Anoto logoPortsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has recently been rewarded for its innovative use of digital pen technology, winning BlackBerry's annual Wireless Leadership Awards. Portsmouth has projected estimated annual savings of �220,000 from using the Anoto digital pens and BlackBerry smartphones in combination with the PaperIQ platform from Anoto Platinum partner, DevelopIQ.

The technology has been whole-heartedly embraced by the midwifery team, the first department at the Trust to complete a roll out. Midwives are using the Anoto digital pens to take notes during consultations with pregnant women in the community, which are then transferred to the encrypted BlackBerry smartphone via Bluetooth, and then onto the PaperIQ platform installed at the Trust. The solution has been deployed to 130 midwives who work across four hospitals and is integrated with the maternity unit's patient records system.

Bill Flatman, Director of ICT at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said; "We took great care to evaluate the benefits and savings that BlackBerry and PaperIQ could bring the maternity department, and our roll-out of Anoto digital pens is well on the way to realising these. We see huge potential for digital pen technology across not only our Trust, but also throughout the NHS."

Following the wider roll out to the midwifery department, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust is planning to extend the use of PaperIQ and Anoto digital pens to the hospital's accident and emergency department and community nursing later this year.

Find out more about Anoto's digital pen and paper solutions from the various case studies presented at Med-e-Tel 2010.
Transinsight and antibodies-online develop software for semantic gene and protein identification
Transinsight pictoTransinsight GmbH and antibodies-online GmbH partner together with TU Dresden and RESprotect GmbH to develop and deploy new semantic search technologies for the life sciences industry. With only a few months into the project, the partnering companies are now able to demonstrate a first outcome of their research to the public: research antibodies that semantically fit to genes and proteins discussed within a certain biomedical publication are automatically suggested to the reader on Transinsight's search engine www.GoPubMed.com.

"The scientist, who keeps himself up-to-date on recent biomedical publications with our knowledge-based search engine GoPubMed.com is now further supported by suggestions of semantically fitting research products for his/her specific research needs" says Dr. Michael R. Alvers, founder and CEO of Transinsight GmbH. The time consuming search for the right research antibody to a specific research question is one of the key pains in proteomics and genomics laboratories. Any simplification of this search problem, which delivers correct information instead of unhelpful, generic advertising, is welcome within the scientific community. Searching, finding and ordering the right research antibody from within a global offer of 500.000 products from more than 500 suppliers worldwide is normally a tedious work. To apply semantic, knowledge driven product recommendations to biomedical publications and thus to allow to significantly reduce the workload for the scientist always in need of research products is a truly innovative approach.

"Once the scientist has chosen a product of interest, antibodies-online GmbH takes care of all the rest, i.e. procurement of the desired products from anywhere around the world", adds Dr. Andreas Kessell, founder and managing director of antibodies-online GmbH. "Our customer is not bound to the portfolio of a single supplier but can chose from a neutral portfolio of research antibodies, that are suggested with the biomedical publications" says Dr. Kessell.

Find out more about Transinsight and GoPubMed from Dr. Liliana Barrio-Alvers' (CTO, Transinsight) presentation on Semantic Search Technologies at Med-e-Tel 2010.
WHO and IHTSDO strive for harmonization of health information
Ministry of Economy - Luxembourg The International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) recently announced a collaborative arrangement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to harmonize WHO classifications and SNOMED CT for the benefit of citizens around the world.

"IHTSDO sees this collaboration as a way to make it easier for patients, clinicians, and health authorities to get and use accurate and trusted information," says Martin Severs, Chair of the IHTSDO Management Board. "We share the goal of having WHO classifications and SNOMED CT work effectively together in order to allow users of the standards from around the world to develop better information and to focus efforts on improving health and healthcare for individuals and populations."

WHO Classifications and SNOMED CT are complementary tools. When used together appropriately, they make it easier to summarize information from individual patients' health records into aggregate results needed for health policy, health services management, and research.

"The road to health passes through information," says Tim Evans, WHO's Assistant Director General for Information, Evidence, and Research. "WHO and IHTSDO aim to increase collaboration to create and maintain jointly usable and integrated classification and terminology systems to make efficient and effective use of public resources and avoid duplication of effort. This is essential to create health information standards as a common language worldwide."

WHO Classifications are used to capture key information on diseases, disability and interventions and other indicators of population health. Main classifications such as the ICD (International Classification of Diseases), in use for more than 100 years worldwide, provide data on life expectancy, causes of death, and inform the plans and decisions of health authorities in many countries. The detailed information that is aggregated for public health purposes using WHO classifications often comes from health records, which are increasingly being held in electronic form.

Electronic health records (EHRs) contain information that is important for the care of individuals, such as health problems, and care plans. Summaries of information in EHRs, extracted in a way that respects privacy of patients, are also crucial for management, health financing and general health system administration. As a result, the accuracy and consistency of EHRs is crucial for both patient care and to ensure sound management of health systems resources. SNOMED CT, a standardized health terminology, can help to represent clinically relevant information in a consistent, reliable, and comprehensive way in EHRs. The terminology is used to help patients and their care providers capture more detailed key information on disease, disability, and
interventions in patients' health records. Managed by the IHTSDO, it is used for this purpose and others in countries around the world.

This new agreement supports the aims of WHO and IHTSDO to enhance health through better health information. Synergies between WHO classifications and SNOMED CT have the potential, through better information, to improve the accuracy, reliability, and quality of health and health care; to eliminate gaps in information; and to control costs.

Read another recent Med-e-Tel news article about the ICN (International Council of Nurses) and IHTSDO collaboration to advance terminology harmonization and foster interoperability in health information systems.
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 [email protected]):