A feasibility study for the provision of electronic healthcare tools and services in areas of Greece, Cyprus and Italy.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2011-07-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
BACKGROUND Through this paper we present the initial steps for the creation of an integrated platform for the provision of a series of eHealth tools and services to both citizens and travelers in isolated areas of the southeast Mediterranean and on board ships travelling across it The platform was created through an INTERREG IIIB ARCHIMED project called INTERMED METHODS The support of primary healthcare home care and the continuous education of physicians are the three major issues that the proposed platform is trying to facilitate The proposed system is based on state of the art telemedicine systems and is able to provide the following healthcare services i Telecollaboration and teleconsultation services between remotely located healthcare providers ii telemedicine services in emergencies iii home telecare services for at risk citizens such as the elderly and patients with chronic diseases and iv eLearning services for the continuous training through seminars of both healthcare personnel physicians nurses etc and persons supporting at risk citizens These systems support data transmission over simple phone lines internet connections integrated services digital network digital subscriber lines satellite links mobile networks GPRS 3G and wireless local area networks The data corresponds among others to voice vital biosignals still medical images video and data used by eLearning applications The proposed platform comprises several systems each supporting different services These were integrated using a common data storage and exchange scheme in order to achieve system interoperability in terms of software language and national characteristics RESULTS The platform has been installed and evaluated in different rural and urban sites in Greece Cyprus and Italy The evaluation was mainly related to technical issues and user satisfaction The selected sites are among others rural health centers ambulances homes of at risk citizens and a ferry CONCLUSIONS The results proved the functionality and utilization of the platform in various rural places in Greece Cyprus and Italy However further actions are needed to enable the local healthcare systems and the different population groups to be familiarized with and use in their everyday lives mature technological solutions for the provision of healthcare services