INTRODUCTION
The end of February marks the completion of my first year with the UK eHealth Association. What an exciting year this has been; working closely with some of our members, presenting to the House of Commons Select Committee for Health, changing our name to better reflect the sector, setting up of the Technical Special Interest Group and of course the build-up to our first annual conference and exhibition, are just a few of the activities with which I have been involved. I believe this has been a crucial year for the Association and hope that you, the members, have noticed an improvement in the services on offer.
Thank you for your support and remember that the Association is in existence for you, so please let us know what other improvements you would like to see.
The Technical Special Interest Group is now established and has met several times. After much consideration the group has defined its mission to enable people to adopt and adapt working practices and systems which will improve, enhance and enable data flows so as to improve health outcomes”. The group intends to approach the wider membership for input on specific areas shortly.
And finally – remember it is only a few months to June and our annual conference / exhibition. If you wish to be involved and have not yet made contact please do so as a matter of urgency so you are not disappointed.
Kind regards and many thanks for a great first year.
David Greenaway
Chief Executive
SmartSensor Telemed, winner of the Global Pharmaceutical Awards 2001 has been selected by the DTI as one of 15 companies to represent the UK in the Showcase of British Enterprise, at the EC and European Parliament on 20 - 22 February 2002 jj@smartsensortelemed.com
The Royal Brompton Adult Congenital Heart Programme are the clinical arm of a European consortium to develop an interactive digital TV platform for distance patient communication and management. The project has attracted European Union funding. The system will be based on DVB-MHP technology for the development of interactive TV applications and communication of a set box with monitoring micro devices using infrared technology, giving patients the ability to transmit data regarding body weight, heart rate, blood pressure, finger oxygen saturation and electrocardiogram. Patients will have teleconference sessions with their physician, his team and the clinical nurse specialist to report symptoms, baseline observations and seek advice on treatment and life style modification. B.habibi@rbh.nthames.nhs.uk
TDS (Dermatology) Ltd has signed a contract with E-Ceptionist and has begun using its Internet-based appointment booking service. The system allows tds' users to book dermatology appointments and manage the e-health process between the general practitioners, nurses, dermatology consultant and patients, helping to reduce the waiting period for consultations. www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID=113
TeleMedic Systems have recently been short listed for an Aerospace Industry Award. These awards are recognized throughout the international aviation community as the ultimate industry accolade. There are 10 categories Awards and VitalLink 1200 was submitted for the Training and Safety Category. This category was open to organizations who contribute to improving safety and training standards in the aerospace industry. The winners will be announced at the Asian Aerospace Awards Gala in Singapore on 27 February. For further information contact Chris Turner: 020 8874 2115 http://www.telemedicsystems.com
The Queen Mother's Hospital Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow has selected the Axsys Excelicare as their electronic record keeping system for the Ultrasound and Fetal Medicine Departments. Seven client terminals will be installed throughout the department and the system will interface to the hospital's existing PAS system, using the Exceliport interface engine.www.axsys.co.uk/
CLEFTSiS, Cleft Services in Scotland, has chosen Axsys’ Excelicare as their EPR and collaborative care system for the cleft lip and palate national managed clinical network. Excelicare will initially be installed at five pilot sites in Scotland. Following a period of evaluation, it will be rolled out to at least twenty additional centres www.axsys.co.uk/
The Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel
University
is announcing an MSc in Telemedicine and eHealth that is planned to
commence in September 2002. This course will look at aspects of telemedicine
including technology, managing telemedicine programme applications. For further
information or contact malcolm.clarke@brunel.ac.uk
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/cs/postgraduate/index.shtml
Three new reports by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) provide a series of snapshots of how NHS trusts are tackling IM&T modernisation. Common themes that emerge from the reports include: data quality problems, ensuring clinician involvement, aligning strategy and developments at the operational level, and implementation of major systems. All three of the CHI reports identify staff training on IM&T as a priority. http://www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID=110
Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust will be a key Customer Advisor in the development of a web-based, patient-centred healthcare information system based on its leading e-business suite http://www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID=103
An online network that gives health librarians the extra resources they need to support their development as 'infomediaries' has been launched on the National Electronic Library for Health. The new portal encourages the sharing of best practice on topical issues such as evidence-based librarianship and knowledge management. www.nelh.nhs.uk/librarian
Inspectors with the Health & Safety Authority of Ireland now have faster access to essential health and safety information, regardless of their location, thanks to a high-speed Gigabit Ethernet network based on 3Com switching technology. The new infrastructure, up to 100 times faster than the previous network, has resolved the bandwidth issues and eliminated network jams which had threatened to undermine the efficiency of on-site workplace assessments. Source: VMW February 2002
Patients in South West London have become some of the first to benefit from encrypted clinical messaging to link together out of hours services, NHS Direct and GP practices. The new system enables a record of the details of an NHS Direct out of hours consultation to be securely e-mailed to the patient's GP, and added to the patient master record held in the practice. A further encrypted e-mail is sent back to NHS Direct to tell the nurse who dealt with the patient what has happened to her patient, meaning that NHS Direct nurses for the first time can routinely find out what happened to patients they advised http://www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID=106
Centre for Health Information Quality (C-H-I-Q) is a UK development agency, working to raise standards in health information for the public. This is achieved through appraisals, consultancy, training and continuous quality monitoring. C-H-I-Q runs workshops on producing good quality information and developing patient advice and liaison services (PALS). http://www.chiq.org/chiq/index.htm
The Department of Information Systems at the University of Portsmouth
is
about to offer bursaries to students who wish to study full-time for a
PhD. The Department's research interests cover a wide range of topics,
but within the health informatics field there is a particular interest in
applicants who would like to do work in the areas of telemedicine and telecare,
security and confidentiality, electronic patient records, novel applications
of the Internet to healthcare, novel applications of smart cards to healthcare.
For further details contact steve.hand@port.ac.uk
The European Union has unveiled proposals to introduce a Europe-wide health card, which would make it easier for EU citizens to get medical treatment in all 15 member states. According to a BBC Online report the electronic card, would replace the E111 form, which EU citizens fill out before travelling. The European Commission wants to bring in the new electronic card by 2005. www.e-health-media.com/news/item.cfm?ID-114
A new online marketplace aims to promote under-exploited technology opportunities generated by the European Union's €30 billion Research & Development spend. The site lists 82 research offerings in medicine and biology including a medical decision support tool and a telematic support system for image-guided surgery. http://www.cordis.lu/marketplace
The University of Pittsburgh Health System and the U.S. Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) are working together to develop sophisticated telemedicine technologies that will link specialists in pathology, radiology, and dermatology with outposts at distant locations around the globe. Over the next year, a multi-specialty teleconsultation system with a common platform which will support dermatology, pathology and radiology clinical services will be developed. This system will allow clinicians to have access to and view various types of medical information, from pathology slides to CT scans, as well also consult with specialists at distant locations. http://www.federaltelemedicine.com/n020502.htm
Erasmus University Rotterdam in collaboration with CHIRAD in the United Kingdom and Carelink in Sweden will start a new masters degree course of health information management in March 2002, as announced by Professor Jos Aarts from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Erasmus University. This course is aimed at busy health care professionals, managers and ICT-specialists who wish to design, introduce and evaluate information systems in complex health care organisations. Source VMW February 2002
The University of Maryland Medical Center has been awarded a $2.5 million grant to develop a futuristic operating room for military hospitals. The funding is part of the Department of Defense appropriations bill for FY 2002. The medical center will partner with the Telemedicine and Advanced Research Center (TATRC) at Fort Detrick MD to develop new operating room technology, and study the impact that this technology will have on patient care and safety http://www.orofthefuture.org or contact Bill Seiler at bseiler@umm.edu
Electronic monitoring improves control in asthma
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7330/0/b
The Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) has published a report " Networking the Land: Rural America in the Information Age". For more information visit http://www.federaltelemedicine.com/n020502.htm
A website has been launched to support the Criminal Records Bureau's new Disclosure service, due to start on 1 March. The service will aim to broaden access to criminal records with the intention of helping employers, including those in healthcare, to identify people who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involving contact with children or other vulnerable members of society http://www.disclosure.gov.uk
*Denotes the first appearance of the date of conferences and meetings
2002 UK Conferences
HC2002 18-20 March 2002, Harrogate. www.healthcare computing.co.uk/hc2002/conference/callparticipate.htm
Southern Institute for Health Informatics 2002 Conference. Tuesday 26th March 2002, Portland Building, University of Portsmouth. SIHI@port.ac.uk
Partnerships in Healthcare:Telemedicine Forum . Queen Elizabeth
II Conference Centre 30 May 2002.For further information visit: http://www.partnershipsinhealthcare.co.uk/telemedicine/
UKeHA Annual Conference: Delivering Care Earlier 11-13 June 2002, Cardiff
City Hall, Wales, UK: monica@denwales.freeserve.co.uk
e-Health 2002. The International e-Health Associations 2nd Annual Conference,
18-20 September 2002 London. Ehealth2002@cs.com
www.eHealth2002.org
Healthcare Meets Medical Informatics and Innovation: The Future is Here 20-22 October 2002. Edinburgh International Conference www.hemmii.com
2002 Overseas Conferences
Telemedicine & Telecare International Trade Fair April 10-12, 2002. www.telemedicine.lu or email: info@telemedicine.lu
*Mobile-Health Europe MECC, 14-16 April 2002. Maastricht, the Netherlands PaulCAEHR@cs.com www.e-health-europe.com
New Models of Patient Care and Information, 18th-20th April 2002 Barcelona ers.info@ersnet.org
TEPR 2002 Proving the Electronic Healthcare Advantage. 11-16 May 2002 Washington State Convention Center, Seattle WA www.medrecinst.com
ATA 7th Annual Meeting 2-5 June 2002 LA Convention Center, Los Angeles, California. www.atmeda.org/news/newres.htm
Telemedicine in Care Delivery: Technology and Application 13-15 June 2002 Pisa, Italy : http://www.ticd.iss.it
EuroPACS2002. 5-7 September 2002 at the Medical Faculty, University of Oulu, Finland. www.mirg.oulu.fi/europacs/general.html
7th International Conference on Telemedicine 22-25 September 2002, Regensburg, Germany http://www.ict2002.org
*Nortelemed Conference 30 September – 2 October 2002. University Hospital of Tromso, Norway Torill Berg, Tel: +47 77 754160 or email: torill.berg@telemed.no
Request for high quality authors to contribute to teleHealth in the psychological therapies for a Palgrave/Macmillan publication. stephen_goss@bacresearch.freeserve.co.uk
Request for information regarding the use of video conferencing
or using telemedicine to further the education of junior doctors.
Barbara.Bolton@dudleygoh-tr.wmids.nhs.uk
Request for information to set up a Telemedicine service in Bangladesh mohammedullah@spctnet.com
Please forward this e-mail to other colleagues who may find it of interest.
Monica Dennis
Administrator
UK eHealth Association
Britannia House, 11 High Street, Cowbridge
Vale of Glamorgan CF71 7AD
Tel and fax: 01446 775189
Mobile: 07811 159800
Email: mdennis@ukeha.org.uk
www.ukeha.org.uk