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Join the ISfTeH
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Are you heading a national telemedicine/eHealth organization?
Do you offer telemedicine products and solutions?
Are you doing research on telemedicine and eHealth applications and technologies?
Does your organization provide (or wants to offer) care services by means of telemedicine/eHealth technologies?
Are you engaged in healthcare policy?
If so, you may be interested in joining the ISfTeH network to expand your global reach or to learn from existing experiences and best practices.
Or send an
e-mail with your question or membership request.
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Upcoming ISfTeH-Supported
Telemedicine Events
GSMA Mobile 360 Series-Europe
Brussels, Belgium
Sept 5, 2013
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mHealth Grand Tour
Brussels, Belgium
Sept 5-19, 2013
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4th International Conference on Transforming Healthcare with IT
Hyderabad, India
Sept 6-7, 2013
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18th ISfTeH International Conference
Takamatsu, Japan
Oct 18-19, 2013
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Carrefour de la Telesante
Paris, France
Oct 23-24, 2013
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SFT-13 Successes and Failures in Telehealth-4th Annual Meeting of the Australian Telehealth Society
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nov 11-12, 2013
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AfriHealth 2013
Nairobi, Kenya
Nov 20-21, 2013
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TELEMEDICON 2013 - 9th International Conference of the T.S.I.
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Nov 29-Dec 1, 2013
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EHTEL 2013 Symposium
Brussels, Belgium
Dec 2-3, 2013
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Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Information Systems, ICICIS 13
Cairo, Egypt
Dec 14-16, 2013
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Med-e-Tel 2014
Luxembourg
April 9-11, 2014
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Geneva Health Forum
Geneva, Switzerland
April 15-17, 2014
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For more information on Overall Telemedicine Conferences and Events, click here.
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ISfTeH Ambassadors
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Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Dr. Emilio Rui Vilar, President of the Gulbenkian Foundation
Peter Gabriel, Eminent Musician
Prof. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Former President of Brazil
Lord Nigel Crisp, Former CEO of the NHS, UK
Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and CEO of Econet Wireless Group
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ISfTeH Board Members
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President
Dr. Andy Fischer
Switzerland
Vice President
Mr. Steven Normandin
U.S.A.
Secretary and Treasurer
Mr. Frank Lievens
Belgium
Other Members
Prof. Rupert Gerzer
Prof. Yogesan Kanagasingam
Australia
Prof. Rifat Latifi
U.S.A.
Dr. Moretlo Lynette Molefi
South Africa
Prof. Oleg Orlov
Russia
Dr. Andre Petitet
France
Dr. Adolfo SparenbergBrazil
Executive Director
Prof. Yunkap Kwankam
Switzerland
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ISfTeH New Members
National
Indonesian eHealth and Telemedicine Society,
Corporate
T. Group,
Belgium
Individuals
Mohammed Shorab,
Australia
 Masatsugu Tsuji,Japan
Obinna Ezeji,
United Kingdom
Students
Neranga Liyanaarachchi,
Sri Lanka
Martha Hernandez,
U.S.A
Margaret Sales,
South Africa
Sara Abdelouahed,
Algeria
Nabila Hamlil,
Algeria
Mohammad Rashedul Islam,
Bangladesh
Joe Warren,
U.S.A
Arup Barua,
Bangladesh
Nurses
Haiping Tang,
Australia
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The ISfTeH Newsletter is published quarterly for members of the telemedicine community to provide up-to-date information regarding current happenings in the international telemedicine and e-Health industry.
Feel free to share this Newsletter with business colleagues by forwarding it to your associates.
If you would like to submit an article or be added to our email distribution list, please email Aliana at [email protected].
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Letter from the Executive Director
Dear Reader,
As many of you are probably already aware, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opened up bids for management of generic Top Level Domains gTLDs some time back and applications, including five for the .health gTLD are currently being considered. Several organizations including the ISfTeH expressed concerns about the attribution of this and health-related gTLDs in other languages. On March 8th, 2013, on behalf of our Society, I wrote to the At-Large New gTLD Review Group at ICANN, to support the objection to the five proposed .health global top-level domain (gTLD) applications by At-Large New gTLD Review Group. The letter said in part:
"It has come to our attention that you are considering filing an Objection to the 5 proposed .health gTLD applications (including the .health application in Chinese). We share the concerns of the International Medical Informatics Association as noted in their letter of 25 January 2013: -The ".health" TLD should be a trusted resource for health, in particular to counter current international challenges such as fraud, identity theft, illicit sale of pharmaceuticals, security, protection of minors and so on.- There is no guarantee that the new ".health" TLD will be operated in the interest of global public health and consumer protection. The ".health" TLD, without the adequate quality assurance and consumer protection mechanisms in place, will undermine credibility and harm the growth of the health online market place. An open and unrestricted TLD will help to bypass regulatory controls creating new risks for the whole industry sector. Developing countries will suffer the most in this scenario, due to their difficulties in enforcing national policies to regulate, monitor, and stop fraud and misuse. We hereby lend the voice of our membership in more than 80 countries to this Objection."
Other organizations with whom we have expressed these concerns, through coordinated discussions hosted by WHO, include: International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA); Health on the Net; World Medical Association, and Medicus Mundi.
In a related move the 66th session of the World Health Assembly (WHA), a meeting of all 194 Member States of the World Health Organization, considered a report on eHealth and health Internet domain names. The report is available here.
The WHA passed a resolution that urges Member States, inter alia:
" ...to consider ways for ministries of health and public health authorities to work with their national representatives on the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee in order to coordinate national positions towards the delegation, governance and operation of health-related global top-level domain names in all languages, including ".health", in the interest of public health;..."
It also requests the WHO Director-General, within existing resources, inter alia:
"... to convey to the appropriate bodies, including the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and ICANN constituencies, the need for health-related global top-level domain names in all languages, including ".health", to be consistent with global public health objectives;
to continue working with the appropriate entities, including the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee and ICANN constituencies as well as intergovernmental organizations, towards the protection of the names and acronyms of intergovernmental organizations, including WHO, in the Internet domain name system; ..."
The full text of the resolution passed by the Assembly, WHA66.24, appears here.
The advocacy effort is far from over, as ICANN still needs to decide on the submitted applications. So, if you are in a position to intervene, please let your voice be heard by ICANN on this subject, so that we can collectively help protect the public interest on the health Internet.
Prof. S. Yunkap Kwankam
Executive Director
International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
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ISfTeH Meetings and Conferences
Takamatsu, Japan
October 18 - 19, 2013 The annual ISfTeH International Conference is held each Fall.________________
Luxembourg
April 9 - 11, 2014
For more information on Med-e-Tel 2014, please visit www.medetel.eu
Click here to read the report from Med-e-Tel 2013!
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The second Telemedicine/eHealth Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Professor Ronald MERRELL at Med-e-Tel 2013 in Luxembourg at the Opening Session on Wednesday, April 10th. Congratulations!
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Prof. Ronald Merrell
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Click here for more information.
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National Member Spotlight
 | | Australasian Telehealth Society |
Australia is the fifth largest land area of any country on earth (comparable to the 48 contiguous US states) but has a population of only 23 million, roughly half that of Spain or France. Many of the population live far from major hospitals, creating a strong need to deliver health care over a distance. Progress in telehealth in Australia has been slow compared with many other countries. Healthcare funding is split three ways between the states, the federal government and the private sector, with consequent fragmentation of health care delivery. The low population density has made the provision of high quality communications infrastructure expensive and far from universal. Health care provision in Australia's near neighbor New Zealand has been simplified by having a single level government structure and smaller distances, although New Zealand has many isolated populations, and is a hub for provision of health services to many South Pacific communities.
In 2008, following meetings at forums such as the highly successful Successes and Failures in Telehealth conference organised by the University of Queensland's Centre for online Health, the Australasian Telehealth Society (ATHS) was formed. The term "Australasian" refers to Australia and New Zealand, and the Australians who initiated the Society were delighted that our New Zealand colleagues were happy to join from day 1. We were also pleased to become national members of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (ISfTeH) on behalf of both countries.
The University of Queensland's Centre for Online Health in conjunction with the Australasian Telehealth Society is pleased to invite you to attend the 2013 International Conference on Successes and Failures in Telehealth (SFT-13). SFT-13 and the 4th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Telehealth Society will be held from 11-12 November 2013 at the Pullman Brisbane King George Square, Brisbane, Australia. The SFT conference provides an excellent program to learn from experts in the field. The scientific program will be informative and interactive and will be accompanied by a trade show featuring the latest products and technology available in telehealth and e-health. Our aim is to provide the opportunity for delegates to present their experience, the latest research and discuss the pros and cons of telemedicine, telehealth and e-health from a national and international perspective.
The conference is supported by the ISfTeH; and the American Telemedicine Association. For more information please visit www.sftconference.com or contact the event organisers, Iceberg Events at 07 3876 4988 or email [email protected]
To read the complete article on the ATHS, please click here.
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A different National Member will be spotlighted each quarter.
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Board Member Spotlight | | Dr. Andre Petitet |
Dr. Andr� Petitet is a Medical Doctor (MD), and a graduate from the "Faculty of Medicine" - PARIS University (France). He is certified in Anesthesiology and in Space and Aeronautic Medicine. He was a successful Candidate in the "M�decin des H�pitaux" contest. Dr. Petitet has had a quite complete yet complex medical career:
- Anesthetist in several hospitals and private surgical centers: Cardiac Surgery Department in Broussais General Hospital (Paris), Poissy Regional Hospital (Paris area), Main Hospital Center (Bayonne), St.Roch Surgical Center (Cavaillon), North University Hospital (Marseille), Amboise Par� Hospital (Paris), Cochin Hospital (Paris)....
- Developed an original analgesic method by using opiates in sub-dural space
- Medical Director, then Head of R/D department in the pharmaceutical industry: Bristol-Myers, Synthelabo, Byk Gulden. He developed in France several original drugs: Urapidil (antihypertensive), Pantoprazole (proto-pump inhibitor),Theophyllin LP (bronchodilatator), Magaldrate (stomach anti-acid). He was the manager of a very high scientific international group and met a lot of scientific leaders worldwide.
- Co-manager as medical advisor of CardioGap, a company specialized in high technology level devices for cardiology and telemedicine.
Dr. Petitet has been involved in telemedicine and eHealth since 1997. He became an ISfT member back in 1999, then one of the re-founders of ISfTeH in 2002-2003. He is currently an ISfTeH board member (2012-2014), after having fulfilled already two mandates in the past. Dr. Petitet is very active in the telemedicine field, specialist of telemedicine mobile units (telemedicine suitcases). He is Head of the CATEL International Commission (CATEL is a French non for profit association dedicated to promote and disseminate telemedicine and eHealth in France and abroad. CATEL is the ISfTeH national member representing France). He is a member of several telemedicine and eHealth organizations, including: ATA, SETeS, and is considered as an International Telemedicine/eHealth Expert. Dr. Petitet was an active member of the French Red Cross medical instructors team and also served as a physician for Fire Brigades staff.
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A different Board Member will be spotlighted each quarter.
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Corporate Member Spotlight
 Are you or someone you know part of a commercial organization such as a manufacturer, distributor and/or service provider in the field of telemedicine/eHealth? You could be a Corporate Member of the ISfTeH!
To learn more about how to join and the benefits of being a Corporate Member - including a feature article in the ISfTeH quarterly Newsletter sent to over 20,000 recipients - click here to apply! |
Working GroupsTele-Ophthalmology Call for interest to join ITOWG We would like to take this opportunity to invite experts in tele-ophthalmology from around the world to join the ITOWG and share their experience with the members of ISfTeH. We are in the process of establishing a leadership committee and long term strategy for the group. We would like to welcome contributions from ISfTeH members about their tele-ophthalmology projects/experience to be included in our website.
Please send your contributions to Prof Yogesan at [email protected]
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Telenursing
eHealth, telehealth and telenursing were well-represented at the International Council of Nurses 25th Quadrennial Congress 18-23 May 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. All members of the ISfTeH Telenursing Working Group were included in the invitations to and information about the Congress.
A Main Plenary eHealth Session was held on May 19th, 2013 with talks on improving access and achieving equity through eHealth by Suzanne Bakken of Columbia University and Hyeoun-Ae Park of Seoul National University and Chair, Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group of the International Medical Informatics Association.
About 70 people attended the ICN Telenursing Network meeting on May 22nd, 2013. Four speakers addressed topics including [1] opportunities for data-based decision-making in Hong Kong or other areas that are served by telehealth that have data repositories, [2] costs of travel for people needing health care in a rural and remote region of Australia, [3] distance education between the U.S. and Haiti, and [4] telenurses' work and impact in underserved regions of Nigeria.
We are always looking for speakers for presentations to the ISfTeH nursing community. If you have a topic to address, please contact Claudia Bartz at [email protected] for possible inclusion in a virtual education session in July.
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Medical and Bio-Informatics
This new ISfTeH Working Group has been created under the coordination of
Prof. Abdel-Badeeh Salem, Professor of Computer Science
Head of BioMedical Informatics and Knowledge Engineering Research Lab,
Faculty of Computer and Information sciences
Ain Shams University, Abbasia, Cairo, Egypt
Individual member of the ISfTeH
Announcements - June 2013
14-16 December, 2013 - Cairo, Egypt
2) Tutorial on Elements and Methods of Artificial Intelligence in BioMedical Informatics, July 7th - Desio, Italy
in the frame of e-Government & e-Health, eGeH'13
July 7-10, 2013 - Desio, Italy
Polo Tecnologico Universitario Desio / Desio Technological University Center
Villa Tittoni- Traversi, Via Lampugnani 66, Desio/Monza e Brianza (Italy)
October 21-23, 2013 - Nador, Morocco
Tutorial on Knowledge Engineering in Medicine and Health Care
Further information about the Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics and eHealth can be found at:
http://www.warse.org/ijbmieh-editorial-board.html
We are pleased to announce the first issue of a new journal: "International Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics and e-Health" (IJBMIeH). The IJBMIeH is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. IJBMIeH publishes high-quality articles, in English, in all areas of Bio-informatics, Medical Informatics, Neuro-informatics, eHealth and Telemedicine. All articles published in IJBMIeH will be peer-reviewed.
The manuscripts should sent to:
Prof. Abdel-Badeeh Salem, Editor of IJBMIeH
[email protected]
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WoW
The Working Group on Women (WoW) has been recently created after the Women and eHealth Special Session at Medetel 2013.
The objective is to catalyze the interest of the ISfTeH members on gender issues in eHealth and Telemedicine. Yet, gender balance is not common in this area, in healthcare facilities, IT Industry, engineering companies, telecom and Internet providers. One of the recommendations of the Women and eHealth session indicates that Education for girls and Women in IT and engineering is key to ensure better gender balance in the future.
The WoW will also contribute to motivate organizers of international events in eHealth and Telemedicine, publishers, scientific editors to ensure that women are equally represented. The ISfTeH is very supportive as to integrate more women in the board and in the ambassadors programme.
New members (female and male) who are interested in eHealth and Telemedicine are welcome to register at ISfTeH and join the group WoW.
The WoW website will display regular information, articles, success stories and interviews of women and girls from various origins and sources at wow.isfteh.org
The WoW Team
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eHealth Economics
This Working Group aims to discuss e-Health or telemedicine from the viewpoint of economics, which includes theoretical and empirical studies, legal issues such as license or credentiality to practice e-Health and telemedicine, and policy such as deregulation and reimbursement from medical insurance for further diffusion of e-Health and telemedicine. In order to activate these academics as well as policy research and discussions, the eHealth Economics Working Group kicked off the mailing list of Google group which is aimed to be an essential platform to share ideas, opinions, contemporary information on cutting-edge technologies, and policies of different countries among those who are interested in promoting e-Health and telemedicine. Anyone interested in e-Health economics is welcome to participate in this Google group, just send an email to: [email protected]. If you know anyone who wants to join, please let me know.
At the Med-e-Tel conference in Luxembourg in April, a small number of the group had a lunch meeting and discussion on how to activate the activity. We agreed with the mailing list to share information and promote the Working Group. One outcome is to begin the above Google Group.
The annual meeting of the ISfTeH will be held later this year in Takamatsu, Japan on October 18 and 19. Takamatsu is a beautiful local city facing the Inland See, and has lots of local favorites such as noodle and sweets. I will surely participate in the meeting and find a time to have a Working Group meeting. I am a member of the organizing committee, and can set up one Session of "e-Health Economics," if there is one or two possible presentations, in addition to my presentation. If you plan to present a paper related to this topic, please let me know. Please be sure that the deadline of submission is the end of June.
Masatsugu Tsuji, Coordinator
eHealth Economics Working Group
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Students
"Cooperation Agreement ISfTeH-IFMSA"
The ISfTeH, through its Students Working Group, is pleased to announce the recent establishment of an important cooperation agreement with the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA), whose formal signature has occurred during the Congress Med-e-Tel 2013, in Luxembourg. The main objective of the ISfTeH and IFMSA partnership is to disseminate knowledge and the best practice of telehealth internationally, expanding new concepts among medical students who live in different continents. The great challenge of this new partnership, from now on, is to effectively contribute so that future professionals take contact and acquire skills on the huge opportunity regarding the utilization of technological tools in the health sector - telehealth - thus providing better health care to the world population.
This work, to be jointly developed between the ISfTeH and the IFMSA, is expected to allow that students from all countries can work to rebuild the knowledge in the field of telehealth, opening the opportunity for the establishment of innovative initiatives, which can contemplate the needs and welfare of the population living in distant and developing regions of the globe. The established partnership has the advantage of the labor force and "digital" motivation of a new generation of health professionals, clearly favoring the establishment of new boundaries for the prevention and treatment of diseases in the 21st century.
All IFMSA student members - 1.2 million members in around 110 countries - are quite welcome to the ISfTeH (International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth) Students Working Group and, since now, are invited to take part of important activities organized towards its student members!
We acknowledge with special thanks the strong sense of cooperation of both Dr. Andy Fischer (ISfTeH President), Mr. Frank Lievens (ISfTeH Secretary and Treasurer) and Mrs. Maria Aroca (IFMSA LORMSA), whose active contributions were key components for the success of the establishment of this important partnership.
See you at the IFMSA General Assembly!
Santiago, Chile - July 29th to August 07th, 2013
Dr. Adolfo Sparenberg - ISfTeH board member
ISfTeH Students Working Group Coordinators:
Frank Lievens - [email protected]
Adolfo Sparenberg - [email protected]
Thais Russomano - [email protected]
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"Student's Webconferencing Session at Med-e-Tel 2013"
LIST OF PRESENTATIONS/PARTICIPANTS
- Patient or client? Who decides in the context of e-Health?
Andreea Sufaru, Romania [email protected]; [email protected] - Telepharmacy - Pharmaceutical Care - An Assistance Project
Renata Mondini, Brazil, [email protected] - Telepulseoximetry assessment for elderly patients during physical therapy - preliminary study
Agnieszka Zukowska, Poland, [email protected] - Ubiquit maternal care using information communication technologies with meshing approach
Hafiz Imtiaz Ahmed, South Africa, [email protected] - Validation of Photo-ECG for remote ECG analysis
Ingrid G. Lamadrid, Brazil, [email protected]
AWARD WINNER 2013
RENATA MONDINI, Brazil
Presentation: "TELEPHARMACY- Pharmaceutical Care -An Assistance Project"
Institution: PUC RS, Brazil (Microgravity Centre)
e-mail: [email protected]
SPECIAL THANKS
* MEDGATE (Switzerland): Official Sponsor for the 2013 Award and prize of U$ 1.500
* SESSION CHAIRMAN
Prof. Yunkap Kwankan
* JURY MEMBERS
Claudia Barz - ICN
Marco Capizzi - EJD
Steve Normandin - ISfTeH- AMD Telemedicine
* WEBCONFERENCING VROOM:
Blackboard Collaborate - Multiseat Vroom.
The ISfTeH Students Webconferencing Session has been supported annually since 2008 by Blackboard Inc.
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PBTL: Problem Based Tele-Learning in Open Source
a joint project between ISfTeH Working Groups
- Tele-Training for healthcare professionals, as medical students, junior doctors, nurses, etc... making health education available and affordable in remote regions.
- Focus on rigorous work methodology, problem based and sharing well documented records, paying much attention to priorities: "given what is known up to now, what to do next?"
- Applied research about how to work as a collaborative team across internet. Nowadays the care of one patient require several healthcare professional, who may be at remote locations. New paradigms for healthcare, taking advantage of new informatics technologies shared as Free and Open Source. More than a simple simulation of old paper era work methods.
- Support of remote health centers where there are no specialists, or even no doctors on site, but where support is possible by means of telemedicine. Support of meaningful data acquisition with the expected most relevant information in function of presumed problems, is mandatory before a case can be presented to a remote expert.
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Announcements
ISfTeH Discussion Forum
A discussion forum is open on the ISfTeH website, and is accessible to all duly registered members. Login with your username and password and you will see the "Discussion Forum" appearing on the top menu toolbar. In the Discussion Forum you will find the list of ongoing discussions or messages.
We encourage all members to use regularly this communication tool and to participate as such in dissemination of available experiences and information.
Should you have any additional questions, please send in via
[email protected]
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"Atlas of the Telemedicine History" 
On behalf of authors' team I would like to present you a new bilingual issue: "Atlas of the Telemedicine History". This unique book includes illustrations of the telemedicine development main stages. The history starts from XIX century telegraph and phone, goes with the medical television and the biotelemetry, coming into the Internet age. There are pictures and unique photos from a lot of countries in Europe, America, Australia, and Antarctica since 1860s till 2001. The main motive factor for the telemedicine development is a man thinking; so, there is information about efforts of many generations of doctors, engineers and scientists which were directed on creation of the modern system of eHealth. The Atlas is available in hard copy and electronically. Click here to download for FREE on the ISfTeH website.
Prof. Anton Vladzymyrskyy
(President of Association for Ukrainian Telemedicine and eHealth Development, National member of ISfTeH)
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