Updated: Apr 27, 1999
This is the most recent structured information on this project. Complementary data can be found on previous documents
InfoCARE   Interactive Information System for Health/Social Care

Overview

The general objective of the project is to identify, from real experience, the critical elements (client usability, legal, organisational and technological) that has to be taken into account to design and get into operation Information Services for the European Citizens, to allow them  the remote access, from their homes or other public information points, to information relevant to improve the access to and the use of the social and health resources available in their geographical area. This general aim will be approached to provide three different measurable outcomes: 1) the selection and integration of the appropriate technology and telecommunication services; 2) the installation (within the system) of procedures and tools to analyse service costs and to assess service quality from the points of view of the clients and the professional users involved; 3) the installation and evaluation of real applications (Pilots/Demonstrators) to achieve the two previous objectives.
A main application will be demonstrated:  citizens information centres, to facilitate the clients the knowledge on the available health/social resources and services offered in the area/region; to help them the assessment of the most appropriate choice to their individual problem; and to achieve the appointment of specific services and the recommendation on how to access the service; one of the Pilot will include also the support of preventive health programmes. These objectives will be approached with the hypothesis (strategy) that any system to provide information to the citizen has to give an efficient answer to two main questions: 1) how to take advantage as much as possible of the rapidly evolving telecom-munication services; 2) evaluation of the systems has to be structured as an operational evaluation/ optimisation tool that will be applied continuously along the project life (and product exploitation), to optimise user acceptability and cost-effectiveness of the service at all phases of the development cycle.

Purpose and objectives

The general objective of the proposal is to identify, from real experience, the critical elements (client usability, legal, organisational and technological) that has to be taken into account to design and get into operation Information Services for the European Citizens, to allow them  the remote access, from their homes or other public information points, to information relevant to improve the access to and the use of the social and health resources available in their geographical area.
This general aim will be approached to provide three different measurable outcomes:

1) the selection and integration of the appropriate technology and telecommunication services, to conform the system core on which the specific interactive-information-telematic-applications will be installed;
2) the installation (within the system) of procedures and tools to analyse service costs and to assess service quality from the points of view of the clients and the professional users involved. From which redesign the services, and review their supporting grounds: business prioritisation, organi-sational schemes and professional protocols and habits;
3) The installation and evaluation of real applications (Pilots/Demonstrators) to achieve the two previous objectives. Two main applications have been included in this proposal:

First, citizens information centres, to facilitate the clients the knowledge on the available health/social resources and services offered in the area/region; to help them the assessment of the most appropriate choice to their individual problem; and to achieve the appointment of specific services and the recommendation on how to access the service.

Second, the access to information concerning an specific health, social or related problem to perform consultation sessions.

Results

The expected results of the InfoCARE project in the current state of development have been achieved. These results consist mainly in the finishing the user requirement analysis phase including the description of all the scenarios and the definition of user needs. Definition of functional specifications (hierarchical task analysis, enabling States Method, User Interface Metaphor and Generalised transition net) The user interfaces of the systems have been developed and tested so as the design an development of all the final InfoCARE products. The installation of demonstrators in the three pilots (Madrid, Milan and Genoa) has been completed in September 1997..
At present the verification phase has been competed, once the preparation of methodology and tools for usability and cost-effectiveness has been achieved. The verification of the demonstrators running in the pilot sites has been completed now, remaining for the next months the publication of results.
At the end of the project life it will prepare a Exploitation Plan, which is one of the main objectives of our project, that will be based on the accumulated experience along de project development.
A special effort has been made regarding the dissemination activities of the project with the organisation of a workshop, presence in conferences, creation of supporting groups, publication of technical and scientific papers, participation in Standadisation bodies, contribution to the elaboration of new standards and integration of a Technology of Health Information Services course in a Post-graduate programme of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

List of deliverables

- Project Plan and Working Methodologies (T0 + 4 /R)

- Dissemination Plan (T0 + 8/P)

- User Requirements (T0 + 7/P)

- Functional Specifications (data and process models) consolidated across sites and detailed for each site (T0 + 8/  P)

- Information System and Services Architecture (T0 + 11/P)

- Services and applications Software developed: test results (T0 + 19/R)

- Integrated Demonstrators running and tested. Technical description of Demonstrators (T0 + 19/  P)

- Evaluation Methodology and Verification Plan for Demonstration Sites (P)

- Results and conclusions of the Verification Phase (R)

- Information System working at the Sites and Demonstration Report (R)

- Exploitation of results Plan (P)

List of participants

Ignacio Trueba
Prodimed S.A.
General Rodrigo, 6 Bajo
28003 Madrid
Spain
Tel: + 34 1 535 20 67
Fax: + 34 1 535 13 89
E-mail: prodim@ran.es
URL: http://www.prodim.sew.es

Ricardo Iglesias
Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Mayor, 69
28013 Madrid
Spain
Tel: + 34 1 588 25 97
Fax: + 34 1 588 29 26

Francisco del Pozo
UPM Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
ETSI Telecomunicación. Ciudad universitaria
28040 Madrid
Spain
Tel: + 34 1 549 57 00 ext. 332
Fax: + 34 1 336 78 28
E-mail: fpozo@teb.upm.es
URL: http://www.tep.upm.es

Francesco Beltrame
Dipartimento di informatica sistemistica e telematica Universita di Genoa
Viale Causa, 13
16145 Genoa
Italy
Tel: + 39 10 353 27 07
Fax: + 39 10 353 29 48
E-mail: francesc@dist.unige.it

Massimo Solari
Biotek s.r.l.
Via Pisa, 12/B
16146 Genoa
Italy
Tel: + 39 10 318 587
Fax: + 39 2 545 63 67

Marines Axerio
DIDOC s.r.l.
Via de Amicis, 53
20123 milano
Italy
Tel: + 39 2 894 00 307
Fax: + 39 2 541 04 518
E-mail: sogess@mbox.vol.it

Azienda USSL Territoriale n26
Melegnano

Pantelis Aggelidis
BIOTRAST
111 Mitropoleos Str
54622 Thesaloniki
Greece
Tel: + 30 31 27 79 04
E-mail: pantelis@rincewind.techpaht.gr

Beatriz Sousa
INESC
Rua Alves Redol, 9
1000 Lisboa
Portugal
Tel: + 35 1 34 37 05 17
Fax: + 35 1 34 37 05 45

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