What future role will information technology play in the medical care of patients in hospitals and general practices? How can information technology help to reduce costs in the healthcare sector? Visitors to this year's CeBIT can find answers to these and other questions at TeleHealth 2008, which for the first time this year is being staged as an integral part of CeBIT, the world's biggest trade fair for the digital industry. On 7 and 8 March visitors to Hall 8 can get an overview of the broad range of telemedicine processes that are now used by healthcare professionals. And for the first hospital IT systems and other eHealth solutions for capturing, processing and distributing medical data will be on display at TeleHealth. The TeleHealth display area is located right next to the special presentation Public Sector Parc, which has been looking at eHealth issues for a number of years now - so visitors will be able to find all the relevant solutions conveniently grouped together in one place.
As well as a large exhibition area and the popular Networking Night on the Friday of the show (7 March), visitors to TeleHealth will also have access to an extensive program of lectures on theoretical and practical aspects, panel discussions, symposia, workshops and corporate presentations based around specific themes. There will be two chaired congress forums, open to anyone holding a standard CeBIT admission ticket.
TeleHealth will be formally opened on 7 March by Dr. Klaus Theo Schröder, secretary of state at the German Federal Ministry of Health. In an opening debate he will sit down with Prof. Dr. Claus E. Heinrich, a member of the executive board of IT/telecoms industry association BITKOM, and Dr. Clemens Martin Auer, from the Austrian Ministry of Health, Family and Youth Affairs, to discuss a range of health policy issues affecting Germany and the rest of Europe.
The program over the next two days includes talks by leading experts, who will be reporting on the latest research findings and presenting case studies drawn from current medical practice. Prominent themes range from the integration of hardware solutions in existing hospital-based and practice-based information systems to the improvement of medical care and the timely documentation of medical data with the aid of electronic patient files. The latter is designed to facilitate a reliable, controlled, time- and place-dependent flow of information for health-relevant data. The use of mobile assistants to access electronic patient files will be keenly debated, as will various questions relating to the acceptance of patient care delivered by telemedicine or the financing and affordability of telemedicine services.
The symposium "Ambient Assisted Living" will feature telemedicine modules for everything from disease prevention to the treatment of the chronically ill in the home environment. This year's official CeBIT Partner Country France is also bringing its own symposium to TeleHealth. As well as the latest advances and options in home medical monitoring through telemedicine, France will also be presenting eHealth solutions for the remote treatment of patients.
The participation of the national telemedicine associations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, along with the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL), both in the exhibition area and in the various forums, ensures that visitors get a proper European perspective. The congress is recognized and certified by the Regional Medical Council of Lower Saxony, and qualifying participants will earn 6 training credits (CME points) for each day's attendance.
For further information, please visit:
http://www.telehealth.de
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