Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I.
INTRODUCTION
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2011,
24th-26th November, 2011, Iai, Romania
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
telecardiology,
teleradiology,
telepathology,
teleophthalmology, teledermatology, telesurgery, tele-nursing,
etc, while eHealth comprises of e-Sant, Information and
Communication Technologies in health (ICT-Health), all
types of health communication services, PACS, patient
information systems, e-education, e-prescription, etc.
Further in this paper the terms telemedicine and eHealth
will be used as synonyms.
III.
chronic heart failure [7-8], wound care [9], psychiatry [1013], psychology [14], surgery [15], chronic disease and care
for elderly and house bound patients [16-17], electronic
health records [18], mobile eHealth solutions [19], etc.
Cost effectiveness of telemedicine, which is its major
promise, is also confirmed. Especially interesting and
convincing are long duration studies performed in countries
with large territories such as Russia and Brazil. According to
the estimates of West Siberian physicians, the patient paid
approximately 40 times smaller fee for the virtual
consultations rendered by a Moscow expert, than it would
have taken to make a trip to Moscow to consult this same
expert. The quality of the service is the same [20-21].
Another brilliant example is the tele-cardiology service at
the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil (territory equivalent to
France, population 19 M inhabitants living in 853 cities). It
has been operating since June 2006 in 82 remote and isolated
villages in the state. Preliminary results of the evaluation of
economical feasibility of telehealth systems have shown that
the savings resulting from a 1.5% reduction on the number of
treatments outside the village are sufficient to cover the
operational cost of the system [22-24].
Wisely chosen eHealth applications are beneficial
everywhere. Lets cite one more study from a comparatively
smaller region in Italy. In 2001 24-hrs 7-day-a-week tollfree telephone hotline service for children and adolescents
with Type 1 diabetes was organized in Parma region. An
extensive survey, study carried out from 1st January 2001 to
31 December 2006, showed that the total number of children
receiving help was 421 (mean age 10.83.8, mean duration of
diabetes 4.53.5 years). Within the 5 years period 20 075
calls were recorded, or an average of 11 calls per day! 52% of
the calls were emergency calls. Thanks to the available
service, the admittance to hospital for a Diabetic ketoacidosis
fell from an average of 10 cases per 100 children per year to 3
cases per 100 children per year. Thus the costs for admission
decreased of 60% [25]. A more detailed analysis of costeffectiveness is provided by [26] for those that are interested.
It is already proven that telemedicine/eHealth is able of:
Optimizing healthcare delivery and making it quicker,
timely, high quality and affordable for all, everywhere,
at any time;
Decreasing the difference in healthcare services between
developed and developing countries;
Optimizing the work of healthcare staff;
Closing the gaps between healthcare demand and
available services due to shortage of healthcare funds
and staff;
Reduction of healthcare budgets;
Enhancing education to empowered citizens and many
more. (For more evidence based results the reader may
refer to the Knowledge Resource section of Med-eTel. This free of charge virtual library is available at
http://www.medetel.eu/index.php?rub=knowledge_reso
urces&page=info and summarizes over 2000 abstracts,
papers, books and Power Points on various
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2011,
24th-26th November, 2011, Iai, Romania
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
telemedicine/eHealth topics. The database is searchable
by year, topic and country and is updated on an annual
basis.)
Despite of undoubted telemedicine/eHealth advantages
humanity is still far away from the world of cyber healthcare,
from extensive application of telemedicine/eHealth for the
benefit of all. Experts admit that telemedicine/eHealth has a
vast and still unrealized potential. The question is what are
the obstacles hindering the wide application of telemedicine.
IV.
OBSTACLES
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2011,
24th-26th November, 2011, Iai, Romania
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2011,
24th-26th November, 2011, Iai, Romania
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The mission of this Committee chaired by Prof. M. Mars
from South Africa is:
Listing existing programs on eHealth;
Establishing basic eHealth templates for fundamental
training programs;
Coordinating eHealth educational efforts around the
Globe;
Assisting the set up of new courses in eHealth;
Defining the needs of universities and specialists for
basic and continuous education.
eHealth science, practice and market need a meeting place.
Such a place is Med-e-Tel (The International eHealth,
Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum for Education,
Networking and Business, www.medetel.elu). Med-e-Tel is a
highly specialized event that brings suppliers of specific
equipments and service providers together with buyers,
healthcare professionals, decision makers and policy makers
from many countries around the globe and provides them
with hands-on experience and knowledge about currently
available products, technologies and applications. Med-e-Tel
is a forum where state-of-the-art products, ideas, projects, etc
are presented and discussed. Year after year it becomes a
nesting place for new co-operation and partnerships between
scientific groups and institutions, small, medium and large
size enterprises, etc from all over the world. Annual editions
called together participant from over 50 countries. WHO, EC,
ESA, ITU, UNOOSA, are only part of the major players that
took part in the event.
The next and 10th edition of Med-e-Tel will take place at
Luxexpo in Luxembourg, April 18-20, 2012 and will follow
the standard format including exhibition, scientific program,
media corner.
Med-e-Tel provides lots of educational opportunities
through its extensive program of presentations, panel
discussions, workshops and satellite symposia. It is accredited
by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing
Medical Education (EACCME) to provide European external
CME credits for medical specialists. EACCME credits are
recognized by the American Medical Association as well as
by some countries in Asia and Middle East. This is the
highest possible recognition of the extreme value of Med-eTels Education program.
ISfTeH and Med-e-Tel are working together. They are as
the two sides of a coin. They both lead the way from needs to
practical applications, highlights quantitative numbers and
results, serve networking meeting real people, real business,
real achievements, real products, discussing real problems,
and education for business, science, practitioners and citizens.
ISfTeH and especially Med-e-Tel are the perfect
organizations for following what globally is going on and
what are the new trends in the area of eHealth.
Of course there are many other events covering this field.
In fact, there are hundreds of them each year! For the purpose
of this paper, we are concentrating specifically on Med-e-Tel.
One can find references to other events, supported by ISfTeH,
CONCLUSION
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Health and Bioengineering - EHB 2011,
24th-26th November, 2011, Iai, Romania
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[15] M. Nayeemuddin, M. A. Majeed, A. Muneer and A. Misra. An outpatient survey of plastic surgery patients, paper presented at Med-eTel 2007, Luxembourg, G.D. of Luxembourg, Retrieved January 21,
2009,
from
http://www.medetel.lu/download/2007/parallel_sessions/presentation/0
418/An_Out-Patient_Survey.pdf
[16] B. von Niman. User experience guidelines for eHealth telecare
services - ETSI Industry consensus workshop, Paper presented at
Med-e-Tel 2007, Luxembourg, G.D. of Luxembourg, Retrieved
January
21,
2009,
from
http://www.medetel.lu/download/2007/parallel_sessions/presentation/
0418/ETSI.pdf
[17] G. Bestente, A. Frisiello, F. Scullino et al. Affordable location based
services (LBS) to assist Alzheimers disease patients, in Global
telemedicine/eHealth Updates: Knowledge Resources, Luxembourg,
Publ. ISfTeH, vol. 4, M. Jordanova and F. Lievens, (Eds.), 2011, pp.
120-125.
[18] Electronic Health Records, Chapter in Global Telemedicine and
eHealth Updates: Knowledge Resources, Vol. 4, Publ. ISfTeH,
Luxembourg, M. Jordanova and F. Lievens (Eds), 2011, pp. 269-297.
[19] Mobile eHealth Solutions for Developing Countries, ITU-D, Study
Group 2, 4th Study Period, International Telecommunication Union
Telecommunication Development Bureau, Switzerland, Retrieved May
29, 2011 from http://www.itu.int/publ/D-STG-SG02.14.2-2010/en
[20] A. I. Sel`kov, V. L. Stolyar, O. U. Atkov, E. A. Sel`kova and N. V.
Chueva. Development conception of E-diagnosis departments of small
towns and villages clinics for developing regions and countries, in
Med-e-Tel: The International Educational and Networking Forum for
eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT, Electronic Proceedings, Publ.
Luxexpo, Luxembourg, M. Jordanova and F. Lievens (Edts.), 2008, pp.
395-414.
[21] A. I. Sel`kov, V. L. Stolyar, O. U. Atkov, E. A. Sel`kova and N. V.
Chueva. Telemedicine experience to serve e-clinics, in Electronic
proceedings Med-e-Tel 2007: The International Educational and
Networking Forum for eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT,
Luxembourg, Publ. Luxexpo, M. Jordanova & F. Lievens (Eds.), 2007,
pp. 211-217.
[22] R. M. Figueira, M. B. M. Alkmim, A. L. P. Ribeiro, M. Pena and F. E.
Campos. Implementation and maintenance costs for a telehealth
system in Brazil, in Global Telemedicine/eHealth Updates:
Knowledge Resources, Vol. 1, Publ. Luxexpo, M. Jordanova and F.
Lievens F. (Eds.), 2008, pp. 354 -359.
[23] R. M. Figueira, M. B. M. Alkmim, M. P. Abreu et al. Operational
costs in a large scale telehealth service, in Global Telemedicine and
eHealth Updates: Knowledge Resources, Vol. 4, Publ. ISfTeH,
Luxembourg, M. Jordanova and F. Lievens (Eds), 2011, pp. 97-101.