EU-G7-CARDIO

• Mr. Attilio Maseri
  

  UniversitÇ Cattolica SC
  Largo Francesco Vito Nù1 I - 00168 Rome Italy	tel: 39.6.305.11.66 fax: 39.6.305.55.35 cianflone@sci.uniroma1.it
  url:

All 4 of the participating partners will be involved in the specification of the clinical, technical and informatical aspects in order to construct a prototype. Communication will be maintained with the non-European G7 countries (USA, Canada and Japan) with a view to a possible future extension of the project to involve these countries also.

The quality of care and its cost effectiveness could be greatly enhanced by a telematics based stratified systems of care capable of: 1) providing on-line expert advice; 2) coordinating patient referrals; and 3) establishing specific data bases for updating computer aided decision support tools and for monitoring the cost/benefits of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

The development of such telematics based stratified systems of care cannot be left to the initiative of isolated institutions because this will lead to duplication of work and expenses and because of lack of standardization will delay its modular application across borders. The G-7 Information Society Project for Health represents the ideal framework within which to co-ordinate supranational planning in order to standardize clinical definitions and descriptors, telecommunications links and database organisation.

Among G-7 nations the four European countries represent the ideal ground for a feasibility study because their health care systems and practice of care are similar, compared to those of the U.S.A., Canada and Japan and they can be more efficiently co-ordinated by the European Commission.