Med-e-Tel
The Med-e-Tel eHealth conference and trade show from 5 to 7 April 2006, Venue, Luxembourg, will again attrackt healthcare professionals.
The Med-e-Tel eHealth conference and trade show, attended annually by healthcare professionals, industry representatives, insurance providers and policy makers from almost 50 countries, will also include representatives from the European Commission, World Health Organisation, International Telecommunication Union, and the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth. ‘It brings all parties together to learn from each other and share experiences,’ explained Frank Lievens, Med-e-Tel’s International Coordinator. ‘This year’s event will again cover a wide variety of health ICT topics, ranging from broadband networks and mobile solutions, to standardisation and interoperability. ICT of course only remains a tool, but an important one that makes healthcare delivery more efficient and effective. These ICT tools can help to solve the predicted nursing shortage, tackle the challenge of a growing ageing population and the associated rise of chronic conditions, and overcome the current lack of specialist doctors in developing countries.’
Homecare is set to increase, so inevitably will e-health delivery (under supervision of healthcare professionals). The Med-e-Tel 2006 program includes several sessions to cover these developments. For example, the Luxembourg CRP-Santé (Institute for Research in Healthcare, Public Health & Biotechnology) will conduct a regional symposium, examining how IT services at a patient’s disposal (e.g. automated appointment booking, online consultation of electronic patient records, and e-prescribing) will lead to new solutions and strategies for all those involved in healthcare.
Among the many highlights will be a symposium on Global Healthcare Challenges and Opportunities: The Role of Advanced Technology, organised by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Centre (TATRC), which is part of the United States Army Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). This event will focus on the implementation of broadband networks, mobile solutions, operational standards, environmental sensors and telemedicine technologies.
The Doc@Hand project consortium will present Knowledge Sharing and Decision Support for Healthcare Professionals, focusing on IT tools that help reduce the time and associated costs of collecting information and knowledge.
The Luxembourg CRP-Santé (Public Institute for Research in Healthcare, Public Health and Biotechnology) will present a regional symposium (in French) titled IT at the Service of the Client-Patient: New Solutions and New Strategies for Hospitals, Mutualities and the Industry, with a focus on Automated Appointment Booking, Online Consultation of Electronic Patient Records, e-Learning, Telemonitoring, e-Prescribing, CRM in Mutualities, Image Transfer, Electronic Signature, Wireless and Mobile Solutions.
The International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH) will give an overview - International Telemedicine & eHealth Initiatives and Developments.
A session E-Health in Developing Countries: The Future of Healthcare will include contributions from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) representatives, showing ICT’s contributions to healthcare delivery in the developing world.
Satellites as a Basic eHealth Tool will review the practical and growing use of satellite communication in eHealth, with related posters of various South American projects, supported by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).
The Siberia, Information Technologies and Europe (SITE) project workshop will present the potential of Russia (particularly the Sibirsky region) for IST, and SITE’s support for collaboration between Europe and Siberia in IST projects.
The Standard and interoperable satellite solution to deploy HEALTH care services over Wide AREa (Healthware) is an Integrated Project co-financed by the European Commission and co-ordinated by Alcatel Alenia Space. The Healthware workshop will describe the value of a satellite platform in four promising telemedicine applications: services at home, second opinion, medical training, teleconsultation - initially involving cardiology, oncology and chronic respiratory diseases.
The Finnish-based provider of information and communication software for disease management Medixine, will present A Multichannel Communication Platform for Healthcare, which has been used in about 50 installations in Finland, Norway, United Kingdom, France and the USA. Case studies in medication management, treatment and medication follow-up, multiplayer e-booking, asthma self management solution, RFID communication, and a Parkinson’s Disease support network will be discussed.
Dr Bernard Vrijens, of Pharmionic Systems, Switzerland, will describe how Electronic Monitoring of Dosing Histories Allows Real Time Detection of Poor Adherers and Offers the Bases for a Successful Intervention. The company specialises in remote electronic monitoring of patients’ compliance with prescribed drug dosing, so that individual patients’ actual exposure to the prescribed drug is known and its clinical consequences analysed. Pharmionic has a database of such dosing histories and clinical consequences of over 16,000 patients in a dozen major fields.
Canadians increase remote monitoring
Aerotel Medical Systems (www.aerotel.com) produces a complete disease management package, including trans-telephonic portable devices designed for a variety of remote diagnostic, and monitoring applications; a hardware and software platform; plus phone and web-based software.
Since Health Canada recently announced its reimbursement plan for telehealth loop recorders, Aerotel has reported a surge of interest in its Heart 2005A trans-telephonic ECG loop event recorder, the Heart 2006 dual lead Tran telephonic ECG loop event recorder and its HeartLine Receiving Station (HRS) software. Aerotel products will be exhibited at Med-e-Tel.
This is a small taster of the very broad range of presentations at Med-e-Tel.
Full details: www.medetel.lu
01.03.2006
