Projects Related to Health and Telemedicine
in the TEN-TELECOM Initiative

The aim is to validate, according to the results of Telematics projects for patient management, the use of satellite network services to support tele-medicine in small remote communities. The feasibility study addresses virtual consultation systems, from design to test, in use on a small-scale network. Communication protocol models, effectiveness and performances for scaling up deployment will be studied.

CITRON explores synergies derived from the implementation and integration of three technology lines in the Health Care environment: Users’ Identification (especially through smart cards), Access to information (through a specialised Health Call Centre) and Registry of Information (in the Electronic Medical Record).

Validation of a satellite communications network able to support a wide range of applications and generic services employing dynamic management of resources and pay-per-use accounting. Application-specific technologies, which would restrict the potential end users base, will be avoided. The market research and business planning will be based on a telemedicine demonstrator including sites in the following countries: France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Austria, Tunisia, Bulgaria.

MEDICATE is an innovative telemedicine project for monitoring asthma patients in their own homes. Asthma sufferers will use a portable monitoring device to record their breathing patterns and send the data via a modem and their normal telephone line to a central Disease Management System. The data is processed and results sent to the patient’s consultant using a secure Internet connection.

The project objective is to establish a Euro-ISDN value added network and to define an interoperability standard to enhance tele-collaboration among Mediterranean healthcare professionals and centres. From a reference Observatory, tele-Consultation, tele-Education and Tele-Information services are provided to and through Mediterranean countries, addressing health care information demand resources and diminishing inequalities. Feasibility and validation should verify in detail project assumptions, market demand and technical solutions to complete an overall business plan.

The MELIC project develops and implements multimedia telematic services providing European citizens with information on healthy lifestyles, disease prevention, self-care and healthcare services and devices. Installation in several scenarios is considered to investigate the design of feasible business models for the commercial deployment of the project.

The goal of the project is the realisation of a feasibility study, commercial validation and large-scale deployment of trans-European telematics healthcare services based on real time, interactive Euro-ISDN technology for remote diagnosis, management, and education concerning congenital heart disease (CHD) . The services will be validated in 5 hospital centres in Greece, United Kingdom and Portugal. Complimentary to the above services, as an aid to decision making in the comprehensive management of CHD, a central registry for CHD will be established for the long term study of the physical history of CHD

The overall objective of the mature project is to launch services supporting continuity of healthcare and home telecare. The current phase addresses issues of market acceptability and profits with large-scale trials involving major healthcare and telecommunications service providers in Europe, supported by leading consulting and research groups experienced in state-of –the-art telemedicine services.

The TEN-HMS project is a large scale health technology assessment study comparing telecare concepts with conventional care. The telecare system is designed to enable chronically ill patients to take an active role in their care, reduce the number of hospital admissions, and improve the patients quality of life. The study will be conducted using a novel telecare solution focusing on disease management of patients with chronic heart failure.

The project consists of setting up a commercial TEN-TELEMED Service Organisation (TSO), linking European Centres of Excellence in various domains of medicine and providing services to hospitals, GPs, insurance companies and citizens. Main commercial and social objectives will foster: collaboration between medical centres, one-stop-shopping, access to European medical expertise within Europe with cross-border continuity of care also in less populated areas, EU expertise outside Europe to attract new customers for telemedicine services. The project focuses on a pilot demonstration of the services (available on the web site) and the definition of a business plan for the operation of the network.