Digital Pathology Blog

Use for eICUs Advancing

The use of eICU systems are moving forward and more and more military and civilian hospitals are finding that being able to electronically monitor intensive care patients can provide more efficient care. For example, the Tripler Army Medical Center located in Hawaii is the first military medical center to use telemedicine technology for long distance ICU care.

The system’s high resolution cameras feed data into a bank of computers using real-time transmissions. Critical Care specialists are then able to examine, diagnose, and monitor intensive care unit patients in conjunction with local doctors at U.S. military installations in Guam and Korea.

The critical patients at both the Naval Hospital in Guam and the Army Hospital Yongsan in Korea can be stabilized under the direction of intensivists at Tripler. Dr. Benjamin Berg , an intensivist at the University of Hawaii’s Telehealth Research Institute said, “patients can be treated and many times the need for air evacuation can be eliminated or delayed at a cost of more than $100,000. If they need to be, stabilized patients can be brought to Tripler on a regularly scheduled medical flight mission when they are in better condition to fly.

The fiber optic internet-based technology was used during a boiler room explosion on the Guam-based submarine tender USS Frank Cable in December 2006. The ability of surgical and critical care specialists to remotely examine and triage the sailors helped the initial stabilization and evacuation of the severely burned sailors from the hospital in Guam to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The program provides that physicians in the intensive care unit have immediate access to critical care specialists, such as cardiologists and pulmonologists available 24/7. The consulting doctors at Tripler are able to quickly view a patient’s chart, labs, and other data as well as directly see the patient using a video camera. In the future, the telemedicine technology may be used for patients aboard ships at sea, or in forward deployed locations such as field hospitals.

In the civilian sector, rural Maryland hospitals facing emergency room physician shortages now have doctors in Delaware electronically monitoring their ICU patients. The Christiana Care Health System in Delaware has been using the eICU program for emergency care since 2005 and was the first health system in the country to adapt the program to monitor critically ill patients in their emergency departments and post anesthesia care units.

The Christiana eCare services are now expanding to hospitals in rural communities in Maryland using the program known as “Maryland eCare”. The six rural Maryland hospitals collectively admit more than 66,000 patients per year.

Marc T. Zubrow, MD, Director, Critical Care Medicine at Christian Care serves as the medical director overseeing the “Maryland eCare” project along with a team of critical care nurses and physicians, said “using this technology in rural Maryland will mean that patients and families will have better care close to home.”

The system enables patients to be remotely monitored through video and audio technology combined with intelligent monitoring plus alarm systems. The eICUs remote center closely monitors patients for any physical change, and then immediately alerts local caregivers and recommends corrective action.

The system was developed at VISICU located in Baltimore by two former Johns Hopkins critical care physicians. More than 200 hospitals across the country are now using the system.

Patient Data, Images and Diagnostic Reports at a Glance - a Fully Integrated IT Solution within a Film- and Paperless Hospital

Press Release from GE (www.ge.com)

Digital data management and hospital-wide access to medical images of any type (DICOM; Non-DICOM) is a common standard in many hospitals today. Unfortunately, the major issue for clinical users is that on the one hand they have to deal with different information systems, depending on the information needed, and on the other, these IT systems are merely or not at all connected to each other. A result of this is that a considerable time effort is needed for the input of redundant data (e.g. patient data, passwords etc.).

This article describes a finalized project at the regional hospital `Ospidal d’Engiadina Bassa’ (OEB) in Scuol, Switzerland. From the very beginning the installation of a fully integrated IT environment was given top priority. The already existing HIS (Hospital Information System) was connected to the newly implemented Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). It provides fast and easy access to DICOM or Non-DICOM images and findings for all clinical users at all PC workstations. The result is a fast, automated, digital and filmless workflow with a significantly higher efficiency, a cost reduction and an improved use of resources.

The OEB in Scuol is a small regional hospital with 52 beds. For 2006, it planned extensive reconstruction measures with the first part to be finished in winter 2006/2007. Together with this modernization, the conventional radiology solution was replaced by a new one and an integrated system allowing to manage, archive and communicate images and reports (IBAKS) was acquired. The aim of IBAKS was to change analogue into digital processes. This included the handling of radiology images (DICOM/PACS functionality) as well as clinical images (DICOM and Non-DICOM). The final goal was a film- and paperless hospital environment, offering a fully integrated image review possibility in HIS (Hospital Information System) including all clinics (internal medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology/obstetrics, anaesthesia, palliative and complementary medicine etc.). Looking closer, it was claimed to retrieve all required image data including reports directly from the HIS without any indirections via separate software systems.

The OEB was looking for a tailored solution meeting the needs of limited financial and staff resources. As the hospital does not have it’s own radiology department, the solution needed to be integrated into the already existing tele-radiology and adjusted to new modalities (especially CT).

The biggest challenge was to seamlessly integrate HIS, RIS, PACS and clinical images, which needed a solution with special interfaces. In addition, the bridge between the new IT solution and already existing medical devices, no matter if DICOM compatible or not, had to be built. Only GE Healthcare was able to meet all expectations and it was decided to implement a Centricity RIS/PACS (Radiology Information System / Picture Archiving and Communication System) in combination with ViewPoint, an image and diagnostic documentation system by GE Healthcare.

Today all radiological and clinical images are managed, distributed and stored in RIS/PACS. The system not only meets the expectations of radiologist related to a state-of-the-art postprocessing (e.g. extended 3D review possibilities) but also those of the clinicians, who want easy and fast access, management, review and diagnosis of images and Cineloops at all workstations throughout the hospital. Images in an analogue format are scanned and right afterwards are available digitally for comparison purposes. Analogue video sequences are converted into DICOM multiframes and can also be displayed in Centricity PACS. Only minutes after the scan a radiologist can finalize his diagnosis based on the image either at his home-office 60 km from the OEB or also in the hospital directly. Having finalized the report it is submitted electronically to the radiology assistant in Scuol and integrated into the system. This considerably improves the diagnostic workflow and raises efficiency.

All clinical images and diagnoses at ‘Ospidal d’Engiadina Bassa’ pass through ViewPoint, an image and diagnostic documentation system. It is a solution for clinical specialties such as internal medicine, cardiology, angiology, gastroenterology or gynaecology thanks to many different system modules integrated in ViewPoint. The system supports images in non DICOM format as well as DICOM single- and multiframes (cine loops) and thus is an ideal addition to RIS/PACS. Via ViewPoint, for example, all sonography examinations such as echocardiography can be archived in Centricity PACS, too. Diagnostic reports can either be documented in HIS, RIS or in ViewPoint. Data coming from ultrasound scanners can also be integrated. Released diagnostic reports are archived in RIS/PACS and distributed to the users via Web.

All image and diagnostic data are available to clinicians in HIS. Images and diagnoses do not have to be searched for in various systems, but can be accessed directly and without password login in specific patient folders in HIS. Instant access is guaranteed internally by Windows-logins (SingleSignOn). For externally based specialists online access is possible via Citrix (security code). This allows to not only digitize the radiology workflow completely, but also to step by step introduce digitization in all images producing modalities.

This is what differentiates the solution in Scuol from others: the truly deep level of integration of all modalities in one centralized IT solution. Together with the electronic patient history and the WLAN functionality all components result in this overall solution that truly make it a user-friendly solution in the daily work routine of medical staff. The premise to make such a solution a reality is the involvement of all clinical users already during the evaluation and implementation phase. Unfortunately, many IT solutions are still installed as a special system for specific modalities, like e.g. radiology or cardiology. They exist next to each other without any integration into the clinician’s most relevant system, the HIS. The newly introduced solution at OEB revealed that the major challenge is to integrate all the different components and parties in a hospital.

The complete healthcare organization in Scuol is working filmless regarding images and paperless in terms of diagnostic reports. Patients receive DVDs when leaving the hospital, having all image data created during their stay at a glance. This DVD complies with standardized DICOM formats and includes the DICOM-Viewer software to enable image display. Worldwide any doctor in any hospital will be able to consult this data without any additional software.

Thanks to a perfect cooperation of all parties involved in this project, the challenging timeline could be met. Together with the inauguration of the new emergency department the venture could be finalized only six months after the decision was taken in favour of Centricity. The ambitious project already revolutionized the workflow at the OEB: no more manual administration and time consuming searching of films. Patient images and data are managed in a fully digitised format. Thanks to the elimination of film and development costs, a more efficient usage of financial and staff resources became a reality. Patient service has been improved significantly while costs have been decreased at the same time.

To summarize, such a project, even a small one as in Scuol, is extremely complex and time consuming. Without the dedicated engagement and support of external consultants and the provider, GE Healthcare, this innovative project could not have been finalized in such a short time frame.

For more information on this company:
GE Healthcare - Centricity IT Solutions for Radiology, Cardiology, Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and OR Management

India's foray into telemedicine faces difficulties

India's attempts to make a foray into the world of telemedicine has not made much headway, especially due to foreign data processing laws and difficulties in certification of qualifications of Indian telemedicine providers, the Planning Commission has said. Rising costs and dearth of medical personnel have created pressures for public health care providers in developed countries to explore the possibility of electronic delivery of services across the borders and they looking for opportunities to outsource diagnostic services to private health care providers. What is relevant is the emergence of opportunities for Indian service providers to supply telemedicine services to developed countries in such segments as diagnostics, dermatology, opthalmology and psychiatry, a high-level group of the Commission observed in a report. The group notes that a number of telemedicine centres are already operating in the country. In 2001, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched a pilot project that connects 78 hospitals in remote areas to super speciality hospitals in the cities. In a recent study it has been reported that supply of telemedicine services from India has not taken off in a big way, except to the United States and Singapore. The client base of telemedicine business in the US has increased in recent years to scores of hospitals and the National Healthcare Group of the Singapore has tied up with Indian telemedicine institutes for providing teleradiology services to designated hospitals in Singapore, the study said. The potential with respect to the European Union has not been translated into actual business as yet on account of a number of factors such as data protection laws of EU members states and difficulties in certification of qualifications and accreditation of Indian telemedicine providers by the authorities in EU member states. There are issues as well that come in the way such as malpractice policies, liability insurance and jurisdiction issues for settling disputes that might arise. One of the main problems impeding growth of supply of telemedicine services by Indian service providers is the large variation in the quality of medical professionals with graduate and post-graduate qualifications produced by institutions across the country, which is a major constraint in receiving recognition from oversees medical authorities, the report said. However, with the government's decision to recognise degrees from foreign universities of English speaking countries, the problem would be addressed to a large extent. Telemedicine has also opened up possibilities of professionals providing expert healthcare services in remote rural areas from their locations in cities, the report said.

Doors closed on cancer screenings

Uma Bingham/My Word/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 04/29/2008 01:27:18 AM PDT

I work at a local non-profit medical clinic as a nurse-practitioner. Most of our clients do not have health insurance, but if they income-qualify we offer them various programs that will enable them to receive their yearly cancer screenings, such as pap smears and mammograms.

One of these programs is called the Cancer Detection Program, funded by the state of California. It pays for screening mammograms and any recommended diagnostic procedures such as breast biopsies.

It is a wonderful program that has saved many women's lives, I am sure. In fact, I recently referred a woman in her 50s for a routine mammogram through this program, and when it showed some abnormalities, it covered the biopsy which led to a cancer diagnosis. She had a successful lumpectomy and is doing well.

Would she have been able to pay for that initial screening X-ray, or would she have put it off due to financial reasons without the assistance of CDP?

Unfortunately, we have just received a letter from the director of diagnostic imaging at St. Joseph Outpatient Imaging in Eureka informing us they (and Mad River Hospital imaging) “can no longer perform mammograms ... for patients that have the Cancer Detection Program.”

The stated reason is that they are not reimbursed for their mammograms because they use digital equipment and CDP does not reimburse for it.

This is not a new development. CDP has never reimbursed for the higher digital fees. Before St. Joe's took over the Humboldt Radiology Center, we had no trouble referring clients there, even though the equipment was already digital.

I have also spoken with the billing services supervisor for MD Imaging in Redding, where the above-mentioned client had her screening and biopsy, and they stated they simply bill the old analog code for the CDP clients and accept the slightly lower reimbursement.

I do not want to have my clients miss out on essential cancer screening because they cannot afford it or cannot arrange to make the drive to Fortuna, where they still use the non-digital equipment.

I implore the administration of St. Joseph Health System to re-evaluate their priorities and ability to serve the needy in our area.

Uma Bingham is a nurse practitioner at Six Rivers Planned Parenthood. She lives in Eureka.

Cancer fears as X-rays increase

New Zealand's Medicare is investigating a sharp rise in digital imaging procedures such as X-rays and CT scans amid fears that some tests could be putting patients at risk of cancer.

Government figures show the number of digital imaging tests conducted over the past five years has increased by 1 million to 4.8 million, taking the cost to the health system from $1.1 billion in 2002 to $1.6 billion last year.

Medicare's fraud watchdog is concerned about practitioners rorting the system, but radiologists say unnecessary CT scans could also be exposing patients to cancer without good reason.

Some CT scans, including those of the chest and abdomen, carry a one-in-1000 risk of cancer per scan compared with a one-in-1 million risk for other X-ray procedures. The most common cancers associated with radiation are leukaemia, and thyroid and breast cancer.

Medicare's head of fraud and compliance, Colin Bridge, said doctors had been caught ordering imaging procedures in recent years when they were not required or were premature in the clinical process. He declined to comment on how many doctors had been forced to repay Medicare for such procedures but said strict laws that came into effect last month had made it easier to investigate and prosecute practitioners for such rorts.

Mr Bridge said Medicare was also closely monitoring the "corporatisation" of general practices amid fears they may be more profit driven. He said the clinics, which usually employed their own radiology and pathology services, could be more prone to ordering unnecessary tests to boost income from Medicare benefits.

"We're looking at the overall claiming patterns. Are there things that seem to be different in the way corporate practices work compared to other practices? If there is, we will be asking questions," he said.

Liaison radiologist for the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Radiologists, Catherine Mandel, said the profession was concerned about the increasing number of CT scans being conducted because of proven links between ionising radiation and cancer.

http://www.ranzcr.edu.au

This story by Julia Medew was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/04/11/1207856836855.html

Recent news from American Medical Association

Specialty hospitals measure rightly removed from farm bill
After vocal objection from the AMA, federal lawmakers abandoned a proposal to insert a provision into already-passed agriculture legislation that would ban physicians’ referrals to specialty hospitals in which they have invested.

The AMA has strong policy opposing limits on specialty hospitals because they offer an innovative way to provide patients with high-quality care, and because patients consistently report high satisfaction with the care provided at these hospitals. “Access to care for Medicare patients is already at risk because of looming Medicare physician payment cuts,” said AMA Immediate Past President William G. Plested III, MD. “Taking away a venue in which patients receive high-quality care is antithetical to the goal of improving seniors’ access to care. Keep the farm bill for the farmers—and let’s have an open discussion about access to health care and the importance of specialty hospitals in the light of day.”

Further attempts to enact limits on specialty hospitals are expected in this Congress, and the AMA will continue to oppose such limits.

AMA Web conference to cover financing EMR systems
In August 2006 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) passed federal rules making it possible for hospitals, health systems and health plans to donate health information technology (HIT) to physician practices. Given this recent trend, it’s important for physicians and practice managers to understand the details associated with HIT donation agreements and Stark law and anti-kickback statute requirements. That’s why the AMA is hosting the Web conference, “Financing electronic health record (EHR/EMR) systems: Should your practice accept a donation?”

All physicians and practice staff are invited to participate in this live, hour-long session from 1 to 2 p.m. CST on May 14. The program—featuring Heidi Echols of McDermott Will & Emery and Physician Health Partners’ Jay Want, MD, and Jeff Archambeau—is designed to help physicians comply with subsidized EHR and electronic prescribing technology regulations, recognize regular components of donation agreements and general information technology contracts, and prepare more effectively for any HIT selection. In addition, the program is open for all physicians and their staff and offers continuing medical education credit.

Group predicts shortage in medical lab technicians

Minnesota's NBC affiliate KARE-TV (4/24) reported that on Thursday, "local college and university medical instructors gathered with representatives from the Allina health system to let it be known [that] there is a shortage in lab technicians and it will soon be dire." The conference attendees attributed the impending decline to the fact that "many schools [are] not offering the program due to budget cuts in recent years, and, the decline in overall interest because it's in many ways a hidden field in healthcare." But "[l]ab professionals provide 70 to 80 percent of the objective data that physicians use to diagnose disease and treat their patients," said "St. Paul College instructor Michelle Brinski." Nevertheless, the "announcement of a 3.2 million dollar federal grant to boost the program at local colleges and universities" in Minnesota "was good news."

        College set to expand medical, clinical laboratory program. The St. Paul Business Journal (4/24) reported that "Saint Paul College will use a $3.2 million federal grant to expand its program for workers in the medical and clinical laboratory fields." Collaborating "with Allina Hospitals & Clinics, other providers and its partners in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system," the school aims "to help increase the number of trained clinical lab workers." Throughout the nation, "43 percent of the schools that trained such workers have closed, either due to the expense of the programs or the lack of industry partners willing and able to provide students with the required 720 hours of clinical training." Jane Renken, "manager of Workforce Planning/Sourcing for Allina Hospitals & Clinics," said, "It is truly a workforce crisis."

iCAD’s Computer-Aided Detection Mammography System with Fuji’s Computed Radiography gets FDA Nod

April 24th, 2008 by The MediNEWS Team

iCAD, Inc. has received the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marketing approval for its SecondLook® Digital, to be used in combination with Fujifilm Computed Radiography for Mammography (FCRm) systems.

In July 2006, Fujifilm got the approval for its FCRm from FDA, and since then, nearly 500 conventional analog examination rooms for mammography in US, were converted to digital. This advanced digital combination approach helps in detecting potentially malignant masses and calcifications, thereby assisting in the detection of unnoticed breast cancers.

The unique features of SecondLook Digital Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) mammography system include:

• Unique productivity to handle high case volumes
• Maximum sensitivity and optimal performance for improved patient care
• Seamless integration of patented algorithm of iCAD with existing systems from leading vendors like GE Healthcare, IMS Giotto, Hologic, Agfa Healthcare Direct Mammography Solutions and Siemens Medical Solutions, for improving the workflow
• Detects up to 72% of actionable missed cancers by an average of 15 months earlier than mammography alone
• Clearly marks the region suspected to be cancerous for exact reading without obscuring the view
• Generates CAD results to be viewed either on digital review stations or sent to a network printer
• Conforms with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) interface standards
• Enables clinical efficiency by priority queuing of studies
• Analyzes images in an average speed of up to 30 seconds.

Fuji FCRm system, a four-cassette slot Computed Radiography (CR) mammography reader, acquires images of the breast using imaging plates in combination with mammography x-ray machine. The image reader reads the images that are viewed either with an FDA approved display system or by using a film printer. FCRm is a solution offering high performance with a unique combination of image quality, versatility and practicality. With its capacity to perform both general x-ray and digital mammography, this system helps in the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer.

Breast cancer, in the United States, is the second most common cause for mortality in women with cancer, and according to the American Cancer Society, the estimated 2008 statistics show approximately 182,460 new cases and 40,480 deaths due to breast cancer in women. Mammography is a sensitive technique used for the early detection of breast cancer due to its ability to detect minute cancerous changes, 2 years prior to being noticed by visual or physical examination. However, the mammographic image is not clear around implants, and patients experience discomfort due to the compression of the breast tissue. According to the US National Cancer Institute, mammography is recommended every 1 to 2 years, in women from the age of 40 years onwards.

The combination of the computer-aided detection system and computer radiography helps in improving the existing mammography system for screening and diagnosing overlooked cancers, thereby increasing the level of patient care.

About iCAD, Inc. - Headquartered at Nashua, New Hampshire, iCAD is a leading Computer-Aided Detection solution provider for early detection and identification of cancer pathology. It provides high-performance systems for mammography markets (high, mid and low volume), and is being used for the detection of cancer in more than 2000 women healthcare centers worldwide.

About Fujifilm Medical Systems USA, Inc. - A subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation, Tokyo, with headquarters at Stamford, Connecticut, Fujifilm Medical Systems USA provides diagnostic imaging products and network systems, which help in meeting the medical needs of the people worldwide. Digital x-ray, dry imagers, conventional x-ray equipment, women’s healthcare imaging and FCRm systems are some of the different imaging applications offered by Fujifilm.

Reference

1. Press Releases. iCAD receives FDA Approval for its SecondLook Digital for use with Fuji’s Digital Mammography System. iCAD Inc. Last accessed on 9 April, 2008.

2. SecondLook Digital. Digital CAD. iCAD Inc. Last accessed on 9 April, 2008.

Discovering Biology in a Digital World : The Personal Genome discussion

Bill Gates, Eric Lander, Maynard Olson, Leena Peltonen, and George Church fielded questions recently at a fascinating panel discussion on personal genomics at the University of Washington.

Beware the flood!!
Eric Lander started the night by bringing everyone up to speed on the state of genomics. I’m going to paraphrase his introduction here:

Eric pointed out that even after the region containing the cystic fibrosis gene had been found, it still took 5 years to clone and sequence it and figure out the most frequent mutation. Many biologists agreed that was too long a time and too much money.

The Human Genome Project changed all that. Biology has been industrialized.

Before the Human Genome project, only 70 simple Mendelian disease genes had been found, we know of 2600 genes that code for rare, unusual diseases.

But what about things that lots of people get? Multigenic disorders? How do we find those?

To find those, we need to look at genetic variation. We know now that there are about 12 million common variants in the entire population. We also know that many of these are found in blocks and we’ve mapped many of them through the HapMap project.
By looking at genetic variation we’ve been able to find more genetic information about common diseases. We can use microarrays and new sequencing technologies to look at lots of information and do genome wide studies where we see how often certain genetic changes appear and whether or not their presence is tied to disease, and the rate of the discovery is increasing rapidly.

In 2001, we found 1. This was the same for 2002 and 2004. In 2007 found 5 associations. In 2007 we found 8 (I think). And, in 2007, we found 160 associations between genetic variants and common diseases. The rate of discovery is phenomenal.

He said the key lessons from these studies were:

• Need large samples, 1000’s of samples and stringent thresholds for reproducible results
• Only looked at some types of variants for certain diseases
• Many variants only increase risk by small effects 10-30% higher
• These genes are important for understanding the biology of the disease
• The genes have small implications for risk prediction -
• Beware the flood!!
• Watch out for small dubious studies

And he pointed out that it seems easier to sequence a human genome than it is to get legislation to protect people from having their genetic information against them. [Congress votes on GINA today, it will be interesting to see what happens.]

Questions from the audience

Naturally, the panelists were asked if they had had their genomes sequenced. Only George Church answered yes. It was interesting though, even though Leena Peltonen and Eric Lander said that they weren’t interested in having this done, both of them said they had been tested for certain genetic diseases, Eric, for Tay Sachs, and Leena for 40 diseases common in Finns. Bill Gates said that if the top 20 infectious diseases were to be cured, he would be happy to have his genome sequenced and make it public.

If you could test 1000 genetic traits, what boxes would you check?
Bill Gates said the most important box would be to avoid being born in a poor country.

Should people be given information about genes that are related to diseases if there’s nothing that can be done?
Eric Lander: People should have the information if they want it. Our greatest challenge is to provide them the education to make an informed choice.

George Church: You can always do something. Lorenzo’s oil is a movie about taking action. It shows what people can do.

The idea of education returned later in the talk. George Church suggested that the personal genomics companies may be the most effective at education, since they get people directly involved with their genomes.

What are options for the personal genome to benefit third world populations?
Bill - whenever you divert $1000 away from spending on poor, you lose lives, but if you define the genome as making information free for scientists to gather and use, then the benefit could be much greater.

How will personal genomics affect privacy?
George: We can’t be complacent, but we can’t be overconfident. There may be people who voluntarily decide to give up some of their privacy.
Maynard - if we set the bar for informed consent too high, we will only sequence the genomes of geneticists.
George - Two genomes have been sequenced from Africans and one Chinese person.
Bill: Are relatives asked to sign informed consent forms?
George - they did exclude some people because of relatives.

Then, Eric Lander playfully asked the other panelists if they thought presidential candidates disclose their genomes. He reminded us that we had a president with Alzheimer’s disease and we would have found that potential if we had tested him. In the future, will we ask the older candidates to get tested for Alzheimer’s?

Are we going to make designer babies?
All the panelists agreed this would be too risky, even though they could imagine people wanting better options for their children.

George Church pointed out that people can be proactive now and use preimplantation diagnosis and in vitro fertilization to prevent having children with some kinds of serious genetic diseases. Eric and Maynard countered that they felt it likely that sex would remain the most popular method for creating babies.

eHealth and Telemedicine Associations of Germany, Austria and Switzerland Join Forces

Friday, 11 April 2008

Across Europe and worldwide, telemedicine and telehealth services respond to today's health and social demands, i.e. treatment of chronic patients, support for the quality of life of elderly people living at home and the empowerment of citizens/patients to make healthcare choices. With the evolving European-wide availability of eHealth infrastructures, new opportunities for highly interconnected telemedicine services emerge. Given the ubiquity of networks and the mobility of patients in Europe it is impossible to deploy sustainable telemedicine services without international, European and worldwide dimensions. To accomplish this joint vision, the three National eHealth and Telemedicine Associations of Germany (DGG), Austria (ASSTeH) and Switzerland (SATMeH) have recently joined forces and enforced their cooperation by a formal agreement. The agreement was signed at the "1st D-A-CH Cooperation Meeting" held in Mannheim, Germany, in the premises of Vitaphone, one of the pioneers in the provision of telemedicine services supported by a highly professional Telemedicine Service Centre. The cooperation agreement foresees close, cross-border collaboration for various subjects of eHealth and telemedicine supported by regular consultations and joint meetings of the associations. Foreseen results are joint publications, conferences and exhibitions at medical and eHealth fairs. Even more important will be the development of agreed guidelines for various aspects of telemedicine, educational curricula and providing harmonised advice to model and pilot projects. As Günter Steyer, President of the DGG states "The significance of telemedicine in practice is vastly increasing throughout Europe. Following the introduction of health telematics infrastructures like e.g. the German eHealth card, clinical teleservices become increasingly important. Also the European Commission has prioritised telemedicine in its 2008 action planning. Especially for chronic diseases and patients at risk, telemedicine is an essential module to cope with the challenges of the European Healthcare systems, particularly those induced by the demographic changes. The cooperation of the European Associations for eHealth and telemedicine is hence of utmost importance to pave the way for a coherent European eHealth infrastructure, which has to be build on international standardisation while still recognising National developments and regulations." These three national associations are also the national member organizations for their country within the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), an international umbrella organization of telemedicine and ehealth associations and institutions, currently covering about 45 countries around the world. DGG, ASSTeH and SATMeH representatives will also be available for meetings on the ISfTeH exhibition stand at Med-e-Tel 2008, and they have various presentations scheduled in the Med-e-Tel conference program. For further information, please visit: http://www.medetel.lu Related news articles: Med-e-Tel 2008 Program Details Telenursing Symposium Scheduled at Med-e-Tel 2008 Med-e-Tel Well Underway Towards Sixth Edition Call for Abstracts: Med-e-Tel 2008 Med-e-Tel 2007 program highlights The International Educational and Networking Forum for eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Med-e-Tel 2007 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 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.