Med-e-Tel 2008 Program Details

• Mars Di Bartolomeo, Minister of Health and Social Security, Luxembourg
• Dr. Yunkap Kwankam, eHealth Coordinator, World Health Organization
• Prof. Dr. Michael Nerlich, President, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
• Prof. Giuseppe Tritto, President, World Academy of Biomedical Technologies (UATI/UNESCO)
• Michael Palmer, ICT for Health Unit, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission
• Artur Furtado, Health Information Unit, DG Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission
• David Whitlinger, President and Chairman, Continua Health Alliance
• Dr. Bill Crounse, Senior Director, Worldwide Health, Microsoft
• Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Director, Center for Connected Health, Partners HealthCare
• Prof. Dr. Harald Korb, Medical Director, Vitaphone

Program highlights

A session on"Product Interoperability Architecture" presented by the Continua Health Alliance, focusing on the how and why of product interoperability in a telehealth ecosystem.

Extensive focus on "personal telehealth" applications, experiences and research in various sessions dealing with "Telehealth for Chronic Disease Management", "Telehealth, Telecare and Services for the Ageing", "Telehealth in Support of Self Care", "Messaging in Healthcare".

A workshop on the topic of "Living Labs" with presentation of some existing initiatives in various European countries, user feedback, transition from 'lab' to 'reality', and roadmaps ahead.

An overview of "International Telemedicine & eHealth Initiatives and Developments" by members of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), focusing on the current state of telemedicine and ehealth in a.o. Austria, Brazil, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland and Ukraine.

A mini symposium on "Telenursing", a growing application, offering possibilities to reduce the use of expensive healthcare services, to reduce hospital admissions or length of stay, to perform regular check-ups on patients with chronic conditions, to spread limited resources over a large population, and to increase access to nurse education. The telenursing session will include an introduction to telenursing, results from a global telenursing survey, and some real life experiences from the United States.

Also a session on "Nursing Informatics: Past, Present and Future", looking at the support of nursing by information systems in delivery, documentation, administration and evaluation of patient care and prevention of diseases.

A session on "eHealth for Developing Countries and Low Resource Settings", presided by the World Health Organization's eHealth Coordinator and showing ICT's contributions to healthcare delivery and capacity building in the developing world.

On a related subject, there will also be a special training session on "eHealth Master Plan Development" presented by the expert group on Question 14 "Telecommunications for eHealth" within the International Telecommunication Union. The training looks at strategic planning issues for the development and implementation of ehealth services in the various areas of health sectors and the required coordination between healthcare and telecommunications authorities in the implementation of national ehealth programs (which have been recommended to all countries by the World Health Organization in its Resolution WHA58.28).

A workshop on "Realizing the Potential of Open Source Software - Considerations to Ensure Successful Telemed Projects", focusing on effective collaboration among 'projects' and existing technologies to create an accessible, cost-effective healthcare information system.

Various sessions Telecardiology, Health Informatics, eLearning, eHealth in Support of Routine Medical Practice, Efficiency in eHealth, Telepsychiatry, Teledermatology and Image Transfer, Mobile Health, New Trends in eHealth showing what works and what doesn't, as well as what exists or what is under development in telemedicine, ehealth and health ICT systems and solutions.

A regional (BeLux) seminar organized by the Luxembourg CRP-Santé (Public Institute for Research in Healthcare, Public Health and Biotechnology) about "Clinical Strategy and the Use of Balanced Scorecards", showing how to create and successfully use balanced scorecards to improve clinical outcomes and overall management. The seminar provides a look at experiences from some of the leading hospitals and organizations in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg.

Meeting of the ISfTeH Board of Directors and an ISfTeH Member Breakfast Meeting.

CME credits for medical professionals have been applied for through the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME), an institution of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS).

Overall, Med-e-Tel offers great networking opportunities. It is the perfect forum to share experiences and knowledge and a chance to gain new insights and to establish new contacts and partnerships. Med-e-Tel also offers the opportunity to see and evaluate actual products, technologies and services and to find out how they can be beneficial for you, your organization, or your health system.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.medetel.lu

Related news articles:

• Med-e-Tel's Profile

About Med-e-Tel
Med-e-Tel focuses on ehealth and telemedicine applications and a wide range of other medical ICT applications and on the convergence of information and communication technology with medical applications, which lead to higher quality of care, cost reductions, workflow efficiency, and widespread availability of healthcare services.

The "Med" in Med-e-Tel stands for healthcare services (institutional and home based care, prevention and education) and for medical products and equipment (medical imaging equipment, monitoring devices, electronic health records, etc.).
The "e" stands for the electronic and IT industry and services (hard- & software, internet, e-mail, etc.).
The "Tel" stands for telecommunications (whether it is POTS, ISDN, wireless, satellite, videoconferencing, VoIP, or other).

For further information, please visit www.medetel.lu.