Last update: August 15, 1996

The Observatory Users and Their Requirements There is a plethora of information available on a whole variety of health telematics issues, but much of it is difficult to find. It is scattered widely across different types of organisations, and may be known only to a limited number of experts in a particular country or health sector. Available evidence suggests that the potential clients for this type of information are heterogeneous. They include national and local health authorities, health service managers and health professionals, universities, scientific societies, professional associations,

health insurance organisations, European industry - including hardware and software manufacturers, system integrators, information system vendors (including SMEs), telecom operators and Value Added Network Service providers. Various other groups related to the European Union, including European Commissioners and Parliamentarians, Commission staff and participants in Commission programmes also require information on health informatics developments. However, it is plain that for the majority of potential users, not only is hard' information on most of these subjects difficult to find,

but in its raw state is somewhat indigestible and often difficult to use. The major objective of EHTO will be to respond to these requirements. Development of the Observatory and its Activities and Mechanisms: Health Telematics Reports One of the activities of the Observatory will be to produce regular reports giving a series of snapshots of the current health telematics environment and its likely evolution. This activity will build on work carried out already by a number of Third Framework Programme projects.

FIGURE 1.
STRATEGIC ACTIVITIES OF THE EUROPEAN HEALTH TELEMATICS OBSERVATORY (EHTO)

Market Innovation and Watch Activities This complex analytical activity has a number of key elements: the emergence of new informatics technologies including specific multimedia solutions, technical standards and interoperability; developments in telecommunications - the operators' infrastructures and the related solutions and complementary technologies;

regulation with regard to the telematics sector in the context of information super highways and how such regulation relates to public policy both at national and international level; industrial strategy in the telematics sector. The results of this market and innovation watch activity will serve as one of the primary inputs to the information/knowledge base.

Information/ Knowledge Base In parallel with the activities relating to the physical establishment of the Observatory, the partners have made the necessary arrangements to secure inputs to the knowledge base.

This involves setting up effective systems to ensure the regular supply of information in the sectors identified as relevant. Guidelines have been drafted for distribution to all identified information sources, so that the material presented will be relatively homogeneous, and suitably packaged, e.g. using HTML format and a predefined presentation standard, in order to reflect the needs of the different types of potential enquirers. Information handling will constitute an important part of the activity of the Observatory . As far as document analysis is concerned, a number of potentially useful analytical categories corresponding with a number of interested parties can readily be identified. To ensure that the information collected and disseminated by the European Health Telematics

Observatory corresponds to the real needs of the health care sector, three groups (health policy makers, end users and industry) will be constituted. These will give their views on issues concerning the organisation of the Observatory and on the type of information which they consider to be useful and relevant. The health policy group will consist of representatives of national/regional health authorities and social insurance organisations, while the end users will represent the health professions. The third group will bring together representatives of industry (including small and medium enterprises and the telecom operators). It is planned to assess EHTO users' requirements on a wider basis by carrying out surveys of their requirements. Here the objective is to find out directly from all types of potential EHTO

users what type of information, broken down into what categories, would be most useful to them, so as to orientate the information collection and analysis appropriately. The Observatory will use Internet tools to disseminate information to the users by means of a variety of channels, of which WWW (World Wide Web) will be the most advanced one. As part of the service, a health care telematics newsgroup may be established and individuals can be automatically mailed depending on their group profile. A system will be established to enable users to ask questions about the Observatory and about health care telematics in general. The questions will be logged and used to compile a FAQ-list (frequently asked questions). Questions, remarks and feedback mail addresses of experts appointed by EHTO will be provided.

FIGURE 2.

INTERACTION WITH THE E.H.T.O. - INTERNET / WWW SERVER

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