November 2000
Introduction
Welcome to the third edition of the UKTA information exchange. We hope that
the newsletter is keeping you up to date with the rapid changes in telemedicine
and teleHealth and the projects in which many of our members are involved.
Remember, this is your newsletter. You can use it to share news about initiatives
in which you are involved or you can use it to request advice and information.
Although your contribution only needs to be short, it will have the effect
of encouraging a good communication network amongst members.
Don’t forget that the next members meeting is taking place
in London on Friday 8 December. A programme and some information about the
host, Viacode Royal Mail has been circulated. If you are able to attend and
have not yet confirmed please email monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk. We look
forward to meeting you there!
The accounts to 31 March 2000 have been audited and filed at
Companies House. Please contact Terry Dennis if you would like a copy: tdennis@healthcarealliances.co.uk
(please specify Word or pdf format)
And finally, Christmas is upon us! The UK eHealth Association
would like to thank all its members for their support over the past year.
We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year and we look
forward to meeting many more of you in 2001!
The UK eHealth Association welcomes the following new members:
University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust
De La Rue Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust
South East Belfast Health & Social Services Trust
Greater Manchester Ambulance Services Trust
Nestor Healthcare
Ortivus UK Ltd are working with the Welsh Ambulance Service
and the PERU unit in Cardiff to enable patients with heart attacks (AMI) to
be treated in the ambulance under medical supervision from the hospital. The
equipment is Mobimed which sends automatic diagnostic quality 12 lead ECG
data every 60 seconds from the moving ambulance along with the triage forms
and patient data to a dedicated hospital workstation in the Coronary Care
Unit in Carmarthen. The system is supported with bi-directional text messaging
and transmission is by a combination of GSM and low orbit satellites. For
more details contact stuart.manton@ortivus.co.uk
Biodata Information Technology, global leader in network and
communications security, is recommending an immediate and long-term solution
to protect internal networks. The announcement comes as hackers with an email
address based in St. Petersburg, Russia, masterminded an attack in order to
steal source code to Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office software
suite. The SPHINX firewall solution from Biodata is ideal for multi-nationals
to protect a personal computer from hackers and prying eyes. More information
on SPHINX can be obtained from www.pcfirewall.com.
Scientists at Leeds University have received funding to develop
a small hand-held device that will accurately predict the start of labour
up to two weeks in advance. A fully developed device would be an aid in the
management of premature labour, a problem affecting around 10% of pregnancies
in the UK http://www.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/home.html
A new computer model has been developed that enables blood flow
in the body to be tracked in 3D. The technique, developed by scientists at
Imperial College London, will give doctors insight into major circulatory
problems, such as heart attacks and strokes. The new computer model combines
information obtained through 3D magnetic resonance imaging as well as ultrasound
techniques, bringing together information about the rate and pattern of blood
flow with information about the geometry of vessels. http://www.ic.ac.uk/templates/front_index_3.asp?P=178
The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) http://www.pasa.doh.gov.uk
is establishing a new online 'community' dedicated to supporting health service
purchasing professionals. The new online service will include a personnel
database and dedicated online recruitment services for health purchasing staff.
Drug and device manufacturers will face far more searching technology
appraisals if draft guidelines published online by the National Institute
for Clinical Excellence (NICE) are adopted. The new draft guidelines are more
detailed and are intended to improve the quality of submissions and encourage
consistency of format and content.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has moved to
11 Strand, London WC2N 5HR Tel: 44 (0)207 766 9191, Fax: 44 (0)207 766 9123
www.nice.org.uk
The Treasury white paper, Service Delivery Agreements 2001-2004
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2000/sda/index.html,
published at the beginning of November, details four targets that will be
at the centre of the Information for Health update. The targets, to be achieved
by the end of 2003/2004, are based around connecting NHS staff to online information
networks and layering on a series of e-health services. A crucial requirement
will be desk top access to basic e-mail, browsing and systems facilities for
all clinical and other relevant staff in the NHS.
A new report has been launched by EURIM, a lobby group that
describes itself as a link between commerce and government. In A Shock to
the System - Joined up Electronic Government Eurim is calling for high profile
leadership from the Governments information age champions if it is serious
about delivering all services electronically by 2005. http://www.eurim.org/briefings/polstrat.htm
A circulation was sent out to members in October asking them
to give their views on what telemedicine might look like if there were NO
restrictions on bandwidth. Julie Reynolds, who made the request has collated
all the replies. If anyone would like a copy of the responses please email:
monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
The NHS National Electronic Library for Health has gone live
this week. Visit the site www.nhs.uk/nelh
Visit the NASA Telemedicine website to find out about their
telemedicine programme for their 2 operational flight programmes: the space
shuttle and the International space stations www.hq.nasa.gov/office/olmsg/aeromed/telemed/current/html/
BT Advanced Communication Technology Centre http://innovate.bt.com/adastralpark/index.htm
Distance Learning Website http://www.fae.plym.ac.uk/tele/tele.html
This contains over 250 links to relevant DE technologies, telemedicine, projects,
associations, institutes, conferences and on-line journals. There are papers
and articles to download and a gateway to the Educational Telematics discussion
list.
The Virtual Medical Worlds Monthly website http://www.hoise.com/vmw
contains a monthly telemedicine digest for high performance computing and
networking for readers interested in computer applications in medical environments.
Future Health Forum www.futureHealthforum.com is a virtual think
tank to debate the use of the internet and other new technologies to improve
healthcare. As well as a private debating forum of 115 members there is also
a public debating area which non members are encouraged to use
The UK Virtual Reality Forum is part of the DTI’s initiative
to improve awareness and take up of virtual reality in the UK www.ukvrforum.org.uk
DIARY DATES
* denotes the first appearance of the date of conferences and
meetings
Telecon 2000 Conference 5-8 December 2000, Exposition, 6-8 December
2000, Anaheim Convention Centre, Anaheim, California. For further information
visit the website: www.teleconexpos.com/telecon2000
*BMiS / NeLH one day meeting Using XML in the UK Health Services
15th December 2000 at The British Library http://www.nelh.nhs.uk.
BMiS Website http://www.bmis.org/.
This event is designed to bring together a set of contributions by key national
experts and people in key NHS projects and related activity.
Telemedicine and Image Transmission - 3rd Annual Moscow International
Symposium on Telemedicine 14-15 December 2000 Moscow, Russia at the Medical
Center of Management Department of the President of Russian Federation, 2,
Romanov per., Moscow. e-mail: seminar@telemed.ru www.telemed.ru
British Computer Society Nursing Specialist Group and The Foundation
of Nursing Studies Nurses and Therapists Informatics Conference, on 13 February
2001 in London. Sharing the Experience: Informatics and Research in Healthcare
Practice www.fons.org/conf.htm
For further information email. admin@fons.org Deadline for receipt of abstracts
is 16 November 2000
* 2001 Making Medical Informatics Work Conference will take
place in Manchester on 15 and 16 February 2001. The call for papers is out
now http://www.it-p.co.uk/mmiw
HC2001 Conference and Exhibition, organised by the Health Informatics
Committee of the British Computer Society will take place in Harrogate, 19-21
March 2001. For an information pack on how to submit proposals for papers,
satellite sessions and poster presentations email: hc2001-judy@amiconf.demon.co.uk
Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair 3-5 April
2001 – Foires Internationales de Luxembourg, Luxembourg. For more information
www.telemedicine.lu
or email: info@telemedicine.lu
*American Telemedicine Association 6th Annual Meeting will be
held at Ft Lauderdale, Florida from 3 – 6 June 2001 www.atmeda.org
6th international conference on the Medical Aspects of Telemedicine
Uppsala, Sweden on 18-21 June 2001. For further information email: telemedicine2001@slu.se
www.service.slu.se/conference/telemedicine2001
Medinfo2001 – the informatics route to knowledge –
towards global health. ExCel Congress Centre, London 2-5 September 2-5 2001.
Call for papers now out on the website
www.medinfo2001.org
Request for information on ISDN6 videoconferencing in Manchester
6th International Conference on the Medical Aspects of TelemedicineConference
on Privacy in an Electronic NHS, 30th November 2000
Details of event about e-business, exports and the euro on 7
December 2000
Request for information of initiatives using telecommunication
technology to reduce accidents and injury
DTI EU Health Programme Co-operation Meeting: e health technology
and the market 1 December 2000
Details of the DTI Telemedicine conference on 15 December 2000
'Virtual Environments in Medicine and Psychiatry' VVECC meeting
at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on Tuesday 12th December 2000
Queensland videoconferencing women's health
University of Queensland Press announces the EBOOK release of
"Your Guide to E-Health: Third Millenium Medicine on the Internet"
by Professor Peter Yellowlees
The success of the newsletter depends very much on you! We want
the newsletter to be a tool for you to raise awareness to other members of
the work in which you are involved. This might be the development of new clinical
services, telecare products or new initiatives.
If you would like to contribute to the next circulation please
email monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
with your information
Please forward this e-mail to other colleagues who may find
it of interest.
Monica Dennis
Administration Officer
UK eHealth Association
Britannia House,
11 High Street,
Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan
CF71 7AD
Tel and fax: 01446 775189
Mobile: 0780 844 2079
Email: monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk