Health Business

As a catalyst between all stakeholders involved, Med-e-Tel brings together industry representatives, healthcare providers, policy makers, researchers and association executives from over 50 countries around the world. Telemedicine and ehealth are all about making healthcare delivery more efficient and effective and to cope with some of the challenges that lie ahead, such as the ageing of the population, the rise in chronic conditions, the shortage of healthcare professionals, and the healthcare budgets.
    
The development and implementation of telemedicine and ehealth tools – because that is what they ultimately are – requires good coordination and mutual understanding between all parties involved (patients/citizens, care providers, government, health insurers, industry, research), so that they can be used in the most optimal way.
    
This is where Med-e-Tel serves a great networking purpose, and an opportunity to share experiences, demonstrate technologies, and convey user needs among people with many different backgrounds and from many different places.
    
The Med-e-Tel opening session on April 16th will present and discuss some key activities from leading organisations in the field of telemedicine and ehealth in the world today, such as: The World Health Organization; Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission; Continua Health Alliance; Microsoft; International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth and the World Academy for Biomedical Technologies.
    
eHealth scenario for 2020
Also during the opening session, the Health and Consumer Directorate-General (DG Sanco) of the European Commission will shed some light on its 'eHealth scenario for 2020', a vision of what they would like to see operational in health ICT, from a public health and medical content point of view, in the EU context. The scenario will provide helpful input for DG Sanco's regulatory framework, financial envelopes and workplan, highlighting existing gaps and providing a clearer picture for coordination with the member states.
    
Dr. Joseph Kvedar, Director of the Center for Connected Health at Partners HealthCare (Boston, USA), and Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School will talk about how telehealth in the developing world can effectively address a range of health issues, including those affecting people with chronic diseases. The use of widespread, low-cost technology, such as cell-phones, creates opportunities for improved patient education and adherence to care plans, and better access to care providers. He will also discuss the vision of "connected health", which provides opportunities for more innovative programs to address chronic disease management.
    
Economic burdens
The changes in the demographic structure, the increasing multimorbidity in connection with a rise in the number of chronic illnesses and the absence of an effective coordination of the different levels of healthcare services with its discontinuous processes and redundancies will lead to intolerable economic burdens in Western healthcare systems, affecting medical, health-political and economic dimensions alike. In this context, Prof. Dr. Harald Korb, Medical Director at German-based telemedicine provider Vitaphone, sees telemedicine as a central service and information tool, which guides and coordinates the flow of information and data between the patient, the private practitioner and the hospital. Only with such a platform is the optimal care of patients independent of professional borders possible through a consistent line of care starting with out-patient treatment and encompassing hospital as well as rehab therapy. According to Prof. Korb, a pivotal requirement for acceptance of these necessary structural changes is through open, cooperative and goal-oriented discussions and the willingness to question and reassess familiar pathways. In a presentation at the Med-e-Tel 2008 opening session, Prof. Korb will draw from experience with thousands of cardiovascular and diabetic patients, to show that a number of favourable effects can be guaranteed when modern telemedical devices with appropriate treatment pathways according to national and international guidelines are used in integrated care models.
    
Nursing shortage
Dr. Loretta Schlachta-Fairchild, President & CEO of iTeleHealth (USA) will share some thoughts and visions in the opening session for the creation of an International Telenursing Working Group within the frame of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth, with the goal of aligning with the International Council of Nurses (ICN),  a federation of national nurses’ associations representing nurses in more than 128 countries. Given the worldwide nursing shortage and the global shift in demographics to ageing and chronic illness, it is paramount that nurses embrace technology as a resource multiplier. The envisioned working group would provide information and strategies to those interested in advancing their practice in this arena.
    
Conference programme
Med-e-Tel will feature an extensive conference program with an additional 150 presentations and workshops on a wide variety of telemedicine and ehealth topics. Some of the program highlights are:
    
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 and Telehealth in Support of Self Care.
    
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.
    
Training sessions
On a related subject, there will also be a special training session on How to Develop and Implement eHealth and Telemedicine Solutions 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 Realising 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, taking into account the IT, medical, nursing and financial requirements and limitations. The seminar provides a look at experiences from some of the leading hospitals and organisations in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain.
    
Hands on experience
Through these conference sessions and also the exhibition that is part of the Med-e-Tel event, participants are provided with hands-on experience and an opportunity to discover and evaluate new systems and technologies and to hear about the latest ehealth and telemedicine news, trends and developments, from organisations around the world. The exhibition will feature companies and organisations such as Aerotel Medical Systems, Aipermon, Alcatel-Lucent, Computerized Screening, Continua Health Alliance, eHIT, European Commission, GFI, Goodit, Honeywell HomMed, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth, Management Cockpit, RS TechMedic, SAS, Vitalsys, Vitaphone Telemedicine, YUSE, and several others.

For more information
More details and registration information are available on the event's website at www.medetel.lu .