Med-e-Tel 2011 Conference Program Details Announced

A variety of thematical sessions throughout the 3-day conference allows participants to attend those presentations and workshops that matter most to their daily activities and interests.

The Med-e-Tel 2011 Opening Session includes welcome addresses and keynote presentations by:

• Mars Di Bartolomeo, Minister of Health and Social Security, Luxembourg
• Michael Nerlich, President, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth
• Frank Lievens, Director, Med-e-Tel
• Ilias Iakovidis, Deputy Head of Unit, ICT for Health, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission
• Chris Bailey, eHealth Coordinator, Department of Knowledge Management and Sharing, World Health Organization (invited)
• David Benton, CEO, International Council of Nurses
• Laurent Tréluyer, Ministry of Health, France
• Clive Smith, Director of Global Operations, mHealth Alliance (invited)
• Jan Van Emelen, Head, Working Group on Disease Management, Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM) and Director of Innovation, Independent Health Insurance Funds (MLOZ), Belgium
• Viktor Kotelnikov, Scientific Affairs Officer, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
• Luis Falcon, CEO & Founder, Thymbra and GNU Solidario

Topics and thematical sessions of the Med-e-Tel 2011 program include:

• A regional (francophone) seminar and training session, aimed at local care providers and industry representatives, presenting gerontechnologies, technologies for independent living and social participation at the service of older people or people with loss of autonomy.
• A Global eHealth Strategy Symposium, hosted by the European Commission and the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth, that will provide a policy dialogue on global eHealth as well as a look at evidence and good practice from the field.
• The 3rd IWEEE Workshop (International Workshop on eHealth in Emerging Economies) hosted by GNU Solidario.
• A comprehensive track on Benefits of Open Source Software in Health Care (FLOSS-HC) with contributions from experienced users and developers of open source solutions, and also including a specific focus on Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions.
• A consultation meeting of the TeleSCoPE project that is working on the development of a Telehealth Services Code of Practice for Europe. By setting service standards, TeleSCoPE will help establish relationships of trust between users, patients and providers and contribute to overall health and well-being. The standards will also provide a quality benchmark for service regulation.
• A currently hot debate is the one on Evidence of Telehealth Outcomes: what does telehealth do in terms of clinical and economic outcomes? Many of the Med-e-Tel presentations will provide such evidence, but some have been brought together in a specific session and will present outcomes of various (ongoing) trials or mainstream applications.
• A focus on Regional Initiatives in Telemedicine and eHealth. The regional level is often where health and social policy is determined. Med-e-Tel will feature a look at some regional initiatives in telemedicine, both from an economic development point of view (industry support, etc.) as well as from a regional care organization point of view (care networks, etc.).
• A session looking at Ethical and Legal Issues in eHealth and Telemedicine, presented in cooperation with the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
• A review of the aims and activities of the European project RENEWING HEALTH - Regions of Europe Working Together for Health which will support implementation of large-scale real-life test beds for the validation and subsequent evaluation of innovative telemedicine services.
• Special focus on Virtual Reality, Mental Health, Stress-Related Disorders and Rehabilitation providing background on virtual reality applications and telerehabilitation in health and psychological care, presented in cooperation with the International Association for CyberPsychology, Training and Rehabilitation.
• The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) will present some insights into Satellite Applications to Health and how telehealth and telemedicine applications can use satellite communication technologies to bring medical experts into contact with patients and health practitioners in remote and rural areas or in disaster situations.
• Various sessions on Mobile Health, Telecardiology, Telemonitoring, Distance Consultations, Electronic Health Records, eLearning, and more, showing what works and what doesn't, as well as what exists or what is under development in telemedicine, ehealth and health ICT systems and solutions.

Overall, Med-e-Tel offers great networking opportunities. It is an excellent forum to share experiences and knowledge, a chance to gain new insights and to establish new contacts and partnerships. Med-e-Tel also offers the opportunity to see and evaluate actual products, technologies and services and to find out how they can be beneficial for you, your organization, or your health system.

For further information, please visit:
http://www.medetel.eu

Related news articles:

• Med-e-Tel's Profile

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.eu.