Editorial
Letter from the Executive Director, HITM
Dear Reader, There has always been a reflexive association between the words ‘medicine’ and ‘emergency’. Modern technology, especially at the cutting-edge of IT and communications, have brought wholly new meanings to the ability of the medical profession to manage and respond to emergencies. Our cover story looks at CANIS, a project by a combined physicianuniversity- private sector-government...
HITM News
The European Association of Healthcare IT Managers
The European Association of Healthcare IT Managers (HITM) is a non-profit pan-European umbrella association of all relevant national healthcare IT associations in Europe. Believing in the fundamental importance of unifying healthcare IT professionals at European and global levels, HITM is committed to increasing the professional authority and responsibility of healthcare IT managers and representing...
Austria
Austrian Hospital to Implement Radiation IT The newly-constructed Vöcklabruck Hospital in Upper Austria will implement a digital radio-oncology suite provided by a Swedish healthcare IT firm, Elekta. The implementation cost is estimated at Û5 million and is part of a 10-year contract between the hospital and vendor. At Vöcklabruck, considered one of Europe’s most modern healthcare facilities,...
Bulgaria
Electronic Health Cards Implemented in Bulgaria Bulgaria’s first national electronic health cards were issued in September 2007, under a pilot program of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). InterComponentWare AG, Cisco Systems Inc. and Kontrax Consulting, a U.S.-based contract management firm, have helped develop and deliver the cards. The cards contain a microchip tha...
Croatia
Resolution Plan for e-Croatia Available 1.237 billions of kunas were allocated by the Croatian Government to the Operational Plan for implementation of the e-Croatia program. This program carries out all current IT projects in administration as well as the review of 130 related activities such as e-Index, free access to high-speed Internet in student dormitories (StuDOM), an information system for higher...
Republic of Moldova
National Survey for Health Information Systems Available Following publication in 2007 of”The Evaluation of the Health Information Systems in the Republic of Moldova”, the Ministry of Health of the Republic has decided to push further the modernisation of the health information systems. The above-mentioned study, from Health Metrics Network, includes an assessment for HIS institutions, human re...
Health and Migration in the EU – Better Health for all in an Inclusive Society
One of the main initiatives of the Portuguese EU Council Presidency in the field of Health was to organise a European Conference at Lisbon in late September on “Health and Migration in the EU - Better Health for All in an Inclusive Society”. Member States, national and international institutions as well as NGOs were invited to present strategies and intervention policies to increase access of migrants...
“Reaping the Benefits of EGovernment”
To mark the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, the European Commission and the Government of Portugal jointly organised the fourth Ministerial eGovernment Conference on “Reaping the Benefits of eGovernment”. The conference, held on 20-21 September, focused on four main ICT and Public Services related areas, namely: î Better public services for growth and jobs î Participation and...
EU Section
Portuguese Council Presidency
On July 1, Portugal took over the EU’s rotating presidency from Germany. Portugal is now responsible for the EU presidency for the third time, after 1992 and 2000. In turn, it will hand over the presidency to Slovenia on January 1, 2008. The Portuguese presidency has set up several priorities for its six-month mandate. The most important one includes continuation of the Lisbon Agenda of 2000, when...
Cover Story
Mobile Communications in Emergency Situations
Authors Simon Grasser works for Carinthian Tech Research AG, an Austrian RC&aDr fmirme. n Hafner aJnüd rgen Thierry are researchers at the Department of Medical Information Technologies of the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences. “The objectives of emergency medicine are to rescue lives and to limit the extent of injuries to accident victims. Emergency physicians analyse the...
The US Healthcare System
In June 2003, a landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that American adults received appropriate medical treatment only 55% of the time (or just about once on every two occasions). In the years since, a private organisation called The Commonwealth Fund has routinely conducted an X-Ray of expert perspectives about the US healthcare system. In the form of a survey of a cross-secti...
The Legacy Systems Challenge
Over the past decades, European e-Health projects have principally focused on research and development. Some have also been demonstrated on a large scale through programmes like eTEN. However, many are now close to real-life deployment and use, and the European Union’s e-Health Action Plan has become a central plank of its broader i2010 strategy. According to interviews and briefings conducted by...
Product Comparison Chart
Patient ID and Security Systems
ECRI Institute Weltech Centre Ridgeway Welwyn Garden City Herts AL7 2AA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1707 871511 Fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 [email protected] www.ecri.org.uk ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organisation, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research in healthcare to uncover the best approaches to improving patient care. As pioneers in this science fo...
Features
Transiting Hospitals from Past to Future
Author Rainer Harpf aHnderwig Wetzlinger. Like other countries in Europe, the Austrian hospital and healthcare system faces a period of rapid change, accompanied by a host of new and sometimes-unfamiliar challenges. Managers are being compelled to rethink strategy and policies as a result of changes in the healthcare environment. These, in turn, have been catalysed by market and technological dev...
Lizards, Dust and Vaccinations
Author John Rigstad Director of Information Services, Medair. ICT is vital to the success of disaster relief operations. However, its implementation is fraught with some unusual challenges, especially for Medair, one of the world’s handful of ISO 9001-certified humanitarian aid organisations. Alongside the banks of the Nile in southern Sudan, Medair’s Mattias Liesch carefully aims his...
The RFID Oppurtunity for Healthcare
Author TCoatsahli nSah eCsihoalabnalaya, RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) devices have been visibly gaining acceptance across a variety of industries, principally for supply chain management in fast-moving areas such as retailing. As a relatively later entrant, the healthcare sector has benefited from more maturity in the technology gained from real-world application, the emergence of se...
TELMES
Author SFloorriinn SPeursbcaoncei,scu, BFloagviduasn B Daijoannisie, Telemedicine is part of the expanding use of information and communications technology in health care for prevention, disease management, home health care, long-term care, emergency medicine, and other applications. In Romania, the diversification of telecommunication networks and advances in communications technologies, inc...
Management
Of Disaster and Data Managment
As computers become ubiquitous, the issue of vital data loss due to disaster, is a growing concern for all computer users – from individuals and small firms, to large organisations in sensitive areas such as the military, banks or hospitals and, of course, healthcare facilities. Such security concerns sweep across a vast range of possibilities: the theft or loss of physical assets such as computers...
Growing Complexity of Healthcare IT Will Drive Outsourcing
Technology in general, and IT specifically, have become one of the most pervasive aspects of healthcare delivery, touching nearly all its aspects. Today, a whole new universe of possibilities is being opened up in the shape of e-Health programmes. Most hospitals, however, lack the resources or skills to go it alone in building new IT infrastructures for such e-Health programmes. Many also lack the capacity...
The Data Challenge for E-Health
Author Patrice Blemont Questions about healthcare data access and sharing on the one side, and security and privacy on the other, are integral to debates about European e-Health. In technical terms, there is also a need for data management, issues of data entry, access and storage, and this at a multitude of levels – from patients through doctors through hospital administrators to parastatal o...
Country Focus: Austria
Healthcare in Austria
The roots of the Welfare State in Austria date back to the Middle Ages, in the shape of the Ausgedinge, a flat-rate income paid to free farmers in rural areas after they retired and transferred their holdings. Miners too had their own health insurance and pension scheme. Indeed, some believe that Austria’s mining law cooperatives are the world’s oldest form of welfare organisation. The Austrian h...
IT and Austrian Healthcare
Healthcare IT has an unusually high official profile in Austria. The Federation Board, which manages the Austrian social insurance system has four Advisory Committees. Three of these are typical in much of the EU – on work and accident insurance, on old age, and health insurance. But alongside, one committee is dedicated wholly to IT. Drivers of Change Overall, healthcare IT in Austria is driven...
Healthcare IT Policy in Austria
Interview Stefan Sauermann To obtain an overview of policymaker’s perspectives on healthcare and IT in Austria, HITM’s Catalina Ciolan interviewed Stefan Sauermann from the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Stefan Sauermann lectures at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna (www.technikum-wien.at) and is Associate Director of Studies of its Biomed...