The HealthLine Project

SECURING THE SUCCESS OF HEALTH TELEMATICS PROJECTS
IMPLEMENTATION OF TELEHEALTH THROUGH INFORMATION
DISSEMINATION AND TRAINING

Prime Contractor: ATKOSoft SA
Budget: 1.500.000 EURO
EU Program: HEALTH TELEMATICS
Implementing Organizations: The HealthLine Consortium
Project Duration: 2 years

Project Mission

“To strengthen the possibility of a successful outcome of Telehealth implementation by specific projects in the European Union by providing the expert Training and Information dissemination services to providers, beneficiaries and the general public, using the Telehealth systems and infrastructure applied by those projects”

Subject

Although over the years the advent of technology and in particular of Telematics has been significant, elderly people continue to live in islands of isolation due to social and physical boundaries and limitations. Technology has nowadays evolved to such a degree, that it is capable and mature to be put to service the needs of this special group of people in an optimal way. It can be used effectively to brake these barriers and to allow elderly people to improve the quality of their everyday lives, forming social groups of common interests, irrespective of geographical locations.

Short Description

The EU initiative for Telematics in Health and the projects NIVEMES and RISE , as well as many other projects funded through this initiative, introduce a totally new way of offering Healthcare Services, combining:

A new “tool”, the Telehealth - Telematics session over a variety of communication links, carriers, protocols etc.
A new “context” in the HealthCare provision, where expertise is available virtually everywhere, and healthcare services may be available to people and areas where previously were under-served or not served at all.
A new “organisation model” of HealthCare provision, the “Telehealth Network of HealthCare Providers”, incorporating the legacy HelthCare providers as hospitals, clinics, doctors, HealthCare authorities etc., combined in a new whole, forming the “Virtual Hospital” that extends over countries and possibly continents.

This new HealthCare provision structure affects actually a very large number of people and organizations, either healthcare providers (Doctors, nurses, paramedics, administrators and Clinics, Hospitals, HeathCare centers, Elderly Homes etc) or healthcare beneficiaries (people in remote areas, sailors, elderly people).

No one doubts today the benefits of Telehealth and TeleCare, but their success depends almost completely (as far as the EU is concerned) on the success of these pioneer EU projects, which success depends on the acceptance of the new tools, context and organizations by the Providers (either people or Institutions) and Beneficiaries.

The most important ingredient of this acceptance is Knowledge, provided through Training and Information availability.

The use of Teletraining -Telesupport - TeleInformation methods, is implied by the location of the beneficiaries of this service, many of them living or working in remote areas. The best way to provide Training and Information for this, totally new structure, is by using the tools, context and the organization that this structure consists of, providing actually “on the job” training, as:

The infrastructure is there (already available in remote areas, HealthCare centers, HealthCare organizations, Elderly Homes and Institutions participating in NIVEMES and RISE and other EU Telematics projects.

The network is there (conceptual and physical one).

The medical experts are there (available regardless of their physical location)

The technical experts are there (technical, software providers of projects mentioned above).

The Know-How and the Knowledge to be dispersed or implemented , both Technical and Medical are there (either specific or general).

Finally, the Organization Structure is there, actually a pan-European network of HealthCare provision organizations, with tested common approach, methods and compatible technologies, already implemented by NIVEMES and RISE

All the above are parts of this new organization, tightly integrated in a whole, with proven ability to collaborate and implement new methods and ideas.

In phase 1, specific services will be offered related to the new tools, context, technologies used, benefits etc., and will include:

Training:

in the use of the new tools and services.

on the specifics of the new HealthCare provision methods.

Information provision:

“Roadmap” to the new service

Why, where, how, who and what

on methods, technologies, tools, both medical and technical

The above Services will be offered to:

HealthCare Providers (Doctors, nurses, paramedics, social workers etc)

HealthCare Beneficiaries, including people using and having benefits from the implementation of Telemedicine and Telecare.

These people will be available to use the service, as are already participants in these projects.

These services will be offered initially by the Country clusters of the Network of HealthCare Providers, formed by the NIVEMES and RISE Consortium members, and will be open for participants from other EU Projects of related activities and structure. This network will offer its Services through:

The equipment and communication means, network etc., already available to the above (and other) Projects.

The experts, both technical and medical, participating in the above mentioned consortia.

The knowledge and know-how, specific and broad, available to the above.

In phase 2, after know-how of the provision of services in Training and Information dispersion on specific to Telehealth-TeleCare issues would have been acquired, in each participating country, the Country cluster organization will undertake the responsibility to set up a help desk facility that will provide information and advices to citizens and health professionals on a large spectrum of subject directly or indirectly related to the Health Service provision. These services will be offered on-line and off-line .

Internet, Web Pages and the Public telephone infrastructure will be used. Doctors and citizens will use Telephone (Voice) and Internet connection to access the services.

Both providers and beneficiaries of the Telehealth network of NIVEMES and RISE may use the facilities available to get the public information service, especially in remote areas or in Elderly Houses, Hospitals and Institutions in general.

This scheme and these services are considered a supplement of the training - education and awareness of both the citizens and the health professionals.

These Services to the public and to all HealthCare providers will strengthen the financial status of the organizations offering these services, helping to implement also their primary goal, as financing will be available through:

Sponsorships of Drug/Pharmaceutical Industries

Advertisements in Internet Sites of the Providers

Direct subscriptions of persons, organizations, institutions to the service.

Project Characteristics

Users involved

The HealthLine users are the Health Professionals, piloting the NIVEMES and RISE test sites of the TeleHealth service provision, and the general public that can access the services via a variety of networking mechanisms.

Technologies and/or approach used

The technologies that will be used are the existing TeleHealth networks of the running projects NIVEMES and RISE, as well as Internet and computer telephony (support to voice operators). On-the-job training modules will be developed and all the elements will be integrated via a thematic relational database and a back-office automation - administration support module

Expected benefits for the citizens (up to 3 lines)

The citizens will be benefited directly by receiving the international Health related information services offered by the HealthLine providers and indirectly by enjoying the improved TeleHealth services by more informed and better trained providers.

Expected benefits for the users of the application (up to 3 lines)

The TeleHealth service providers, particularly those located in remote and isolated areas, will enjoy information of high quality as well as on-the-job teletraining session and therefore the gap with the experts in the urban areas will be narrowed.

Expected benefits for the European Industries (up to 3 lines)

The TeleHealth service provision networks that various project and activities are trying to set-up will be strengthened with the HealthLine homogeneous service provision. Also the international HealthLine service provision network will become a point of reference for information dissemination in the Health Industry

Contribution to EU-policies (up to 3 lines)

The international HealthLine network will provide information and teletraining services to Health Professionals and to general public in a consistent manner reflecting different EU-member regulations, structures and embracing both the private and public sector of the Health Service Provision.

The HealthLine Consortium:

Name of Institution/Organization	City + Postal Code	Region1	Country 2
ATKOSoft SA	ATHENS 152 31	GR3	GR

Contact person from the Coordinating Contractor:

Title, First Name, Name	Mr. YIANNIS SAMIOTAKIS	Address:	15, Aitolias str., Athens 15231- GREECE
Tel:	(30) 210 6772500	Fax:	(30 ) 210 6772501
E-mail:	yiannis@atkosoft.com

Other Contractors:

Participants Code3	Name of Institution/Organization	City + Postal Code	Region1	Country 2
C 2	Agia Eleni Hospital	Piraeus 185 32	GR3	GR
C 3	ATM Group Europe AB	Malmo 211 34	SE04	SE
C 4	Southern Health Board	Wilton Cork	IE007	IE
C 5	Consorzio Pisa Ricerche	Pisa 56127	IT51	IT
C6	University of Athens	Athens 115 27	GR3	GR
A1	Computer Peripherals International	Athens 153 41	GR3	GR

Participants Roles

ATKOSoft acts as the Software provider. They will enhance and extend the existing Telemedicine software and the Multimedia Electronic Health Record, will create the necessary software for Computer Telephony and service provision through the Internet, the existing networks of the NIVEMES and RISE professionals, and the HealthLine Intranet. They will also provide the information services to both citizens and Health Professionals on behalf of AEH using their infrastructure. ATKOSoft have gained large experience in the aspects of HealthLine through its long involvement in four relevant projects, “SOCRATES”, “Telemedicine coverage of Ship Vessels”, “OKA” “NIVEMES” and RISE [see Appendix: Short profiles].

Agia Eleni Hospital is the provider of the Telehealth services. They will be also providers of the voice telephony services, information services to the Health Professionals and the citizens through their network of Telehealth service provision network in Greece. They will provide the information for the information service provision to both citizens and Health Professionals. They will act as the central, physical reference point for the Greek cluster.

ATM group is the technology provider of the telematics infrastructure for the Scandinavian cluster. They will also provide the full range of HealthLine services to the Swedish country cluster by utilizing the RISE Swedish network.

Southern Health Board. They will provide the full range of HealthLine services to the Irish country cluster by utilizing both the RISE and NIVEMES networks they set-up in Ireland.

CPR. They will provide the full range of HealthLine services to the Italian country cluster by utilizing the RISE network they set-up in Italy.

UOA. They will co-ordinate the teletraining course provision to the various country clusters and they will provide their expertise as well as some on-line and off-line training courses. These courses will be designed in an on-the-job training approach. One of the first priorities will be in the disease prevention targeting the not very well informed health professionals.

Related Projects

TITLE	ORGANIZATIONS	YEAR	EU PROGRAM
NIVEMES	ATKOSoft, AEH, SHB	1996	1998
RISE	ATKOSoft, AEH, CPR, ATM, SHB	1997	1999
Nightingale	UOA	1996	1998
Telehealth Coverage of Ship Vessels	ATKO SA Agia Eleni clinic ELKCO Marine Consultants	1993-94	Telematics-II
OKA	ATKO SA	1992-93	STAR
BIRD (Better Infrastructure for Rural Development)	PT Portugal, INTRACOM, NOKIA etc.	1994	ORA-EU Telematics
SOCRATES	ATKO, Athens Medical Centre	1993-94	Telematics-II
EPIC (European prototype for Integrated Care)	Univ.Polytechnica de Madrid etc.	1992-94	AIM
FEST (Framework for European Services in Telematics)	Database Informative etc.	1992-94	AIM
GEHR (Good European Health record)	Croix Rouge etc.	1992-94	AIM

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