Initial Project Information: REMEDES
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REMEDES

Reseaux multimedia europeens pour docteurs et etablissements de sante

[ Coordinator(s) ] [ Participants ] [ Project Objectives, ... ] [ Other Characteristics ]

Project Nr: HC 1043 Group: IV Project Duration: 30 months
Key words:
Category:Comprehensive Commercialised Health Care Network
Summary: Value added services for General Practitioners and primary care
Mission:REMEDESTM is pioneering already-established technologies to demonstrate the technical and commercial benefits of network and added value services in European health care. It will initially target general practitioners and other health professionals outside hospitals as the first contact points for most patients. The project will involve live user-friendly telematics contact between widely separated or remotely located staff, and flexible data manipulation based on international standards. Applications will include test requests and results reporting, the issuing and dispensing of prescriptions and several added-value services.
URL: www.sema.es/projects/REMEDES/

Coordinator(s)

  • Mr. Marco D'Angelantonio
    Olivetti & C.
    S.p.A.
    Place Madou, 1, Bte 8
    B-1030 Brussels
    Belgium     		tel: 32 2 229 90 21
    fax: 32 2 229 90 54
    mdangel@pophost.innet.be
    url:

Participants:

Name of InstitutionCity+Postal CodeCountryRegion
Azienda USSL Ambito Territoriale nº 12 di Bergamo Bergamo - 24121 Italy IT2
Scuola Europea di Medicina Generale Firenze - 50123 Italy IT51
Azienda USSL Ambito Territoriale nº 3 di Foligno-Spoleto-Valnerina Foligno - 06034 Italy IT52
Azienda USSL Ambito Territoriale di Cesena Cesena 47023 Italy IT4
Azienda USSL Ambito Territoriale nº 10 di Firenze Firenze - 50123 Italy IT51
Lombardia Informatica Milano - 20126 Italy IT2
Sema Group UK London - WC2 8BT GB UK55
Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority Cambridge - CB1 5EF GB UK4
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority London SE1 7NT GB UK55
Sema Group Sae Madrid 28037 Spain ES3
Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS Trust Cambridge CB2 2QQ GB UK4
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust Huntingdon PE18 8NT GB UK4
General Practitioners (various) Cambridge/ Huntingdon GB UK4
Consorci Hospitalari de Catalunya Barcelona 08007 Spain ES51
Hospital de Móstoles Madrid - 28935 Spain ES3
Hospital Universitari de Sant Joan de Reus Reus - 43201 Spain ES51
Medibridge Brussels - 1070 Belgium BE1
Datasoft Management Oostende - 8400 Belgium BE25

Project Objectives, Summary Description and Anticipated Results

REMEDES is a project to demonstrate, through a real trial, the technical and commercial viability of an operational service which provides to a community of health care players network and value added services, and their impact on the quality of care. The initial effort will be concentrated on GPs and primary care, because of the increasing role that they have to play in most health care Systems as gatekeepers to the whole of the health care System itself.

REMEDES capitalises on the results of the Study on Telemedicine Using Euro-ISDN, for which the final draft deliverables were delivered to the Commission in Jul 1996.

The project will provide the application services (primary services) set out below:

  • Laboratory test request & results reporting
  • Diagnostic procedure request & results reporting
  • Referral/Outpatient booking
  • Hospitalisation request
  • Hospital discharge summary
  • Clinical balance (Shared care).

As part of the REMEDES service, in addition to the primary services described above, the application services will include a number of additional, value added services (secondary services). The scope of these has been determined as part of the Study into Telemedicine Using Euro-ISDN, and varies from service to service. However, they include some or all of the following:

  • reminders of outstanding clinical service requests
  • checklists (paper or electronic) of clinical services provided to either initiate or check the invoicing for the services
  • analysis of elapsed time between requests for clinical services, and completion of the service
  • comparative analysis between clinical service providers, to highlight areas of best practice, and areas for improvement, for use by either the providers themselves, or the requesters
  • comparative analysis of services requested
  • provide (anonymous) data for epidemiological analysis, for example by geographic area, against demographic markers, etc.

REMEDES uses mainly existing and consolidated state-of-the-art technologies applied to the transfer of and remote access to multimedia medical information.

The benefits of REMEDES are expected to be twofold:

  • the project is expected to deliver significant clinical benefits to both GPs and others, both through the main primary services described above, and also through the secondary services
  • the project aims to prove the commercial viability of the service, based on the concept that the service helps to reduce the total cost to the community of providing health care to a given set of citizens. Savings released from the service are used to pay for the service itself through mechanisms that the Study on Telemedicine Using Euro-ISDN has identified.

A set of indicators has been defined to measure the expected economic and social impact of the project.

REMEDES is innovative because of the following aspects:

  • Real involvement of users: in REMEDES, users are involved throughout the entire life cycle of the project, they are represented on the Project Board, and are always seen as peer. Their support for the service and willingness to use it in the exploitation phase is the key to the success of the project;
  • European scope and vision: unlike many co-operative projects, REMEDES is steered centrally and all the partners share the same vision of what the service should offer to users and Health Authorities. Central management guarantees a uniform and consistent way of approaching the service in each of the participating countries;
  • Scale: REMEDES aims at a significant population of users in each of the pilot sites to guarantee the general validity of the results. In total more than to 200 GPs caring for more than 250,000 citizens will participate in the demonstration phase;
  • Geographical scope: the three members countries participating in the validation phase account for 41.6% of the total population of the EU and are representative of both Southern and Northern Europe;
  • Selection criteria for pilot sites: all the pilots have been selected because they are seen as opinion makers in their countries and their participation in the trials will create emulation among other health structures in their respective countries;
  • Long-term commitment: the two main industrial partners of REMEDES have publicly stated their commitment to develop and provide application services for health care throughout the EU, in partnership with local players.

    • Other Characteristics of the Project:

    Users involved
    The users involved in the different phases of the project are the Health Authorities responsible for health care, the hospitals and the GPs in the regions selected for the validation. Pharmacists in those same regions could also be involved along with other medical professionals offering primary care.
    Technologies and/or approach used
    The focus of REMEDES is not technology but satisfaction of expressed and unexpressed user needs through self-sustainable telematic services. Different technologies will be used according to availability, cost-effectiveness and quality/performance constraints.
    Expected benefits for the citizen
    Citizens should benefit from REMEDES both as patients and tax payers. The integration between Primary and secondary care that REMEDES introduces, and the subsequent improvement in the continuity of care through shared care protocols, should increase the quality of care while reducing its cost for the community.
    Expected benefits for the users of the application
    The users of the application are to be found among medical professionals and Health Authorities. Medical professionals will benefit mainly from the improved service they will be able to offer to their patients/clients and from better information about health care provision and cost. Health Authorities will benefit mainly in terms of improved ratio of spending and quality of care, availability of epidemiological data and better support to their planning activities.
    Expected benefits for the European Industries
    The industrial partners of REMEDES and the European industries at large could achieve a leading position in the development, implementation and provision of information services to health care, an area where Europe is second to none and where European industries could become net exporters of know-how and technologies.
    Contribution to EU-policies
    REMEDES service will reduce gaps between member countries in the areas of quality of care. In doing that, it will help to increase cohesion inside the European Union and foster the development of regions showing a delay in their development compared to the most favoured regions. In addition to that it will contribute to increase the quality of life of European citizens.

    Validation Sites

    Azienda USSL 12 Bergamo Lombardia IT
    Cambridge and Huntingdon, Health Commission Cambridge East Anglia UK
    Hospital de Mostoles Mostoles Com. de Madrid ES

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