HealthManagement, Volume 1 / Issue 2 Summer 2006
Dear
Reader,
Telemedicine is rapidly spreading across Europe and the rest of the world as an integrated part of healthcare networks and systems. This development brings with it opportunities to improve healthcare across vast geographic areas, provides remote training for healthcare professionals and offers new technologies and possibilities for improving healthcare information systems on a global scale.
In this issue of Healthcare IT Management, we consider ways inwhich telemedicine and mobiletechnologies are used to connectphysicians and patients, how theEuropean Space Agency is usingtelemedicine to build interoperableeHealth networks across Europe,and we look at the development of atelecardiological monitoring systemsuccessfully being used to improveambulatory care and disease management.
In our Features Section, we introduce Artemis, a European Commission-funded project aimed at achieving interoperability
between medical information systems, examine how the healthcare sector can achieve long-termstability in its smart card programmes, and present part 2 of our 3-part series on designing a high-performance telemedicine system.
As a management and best practices based journal, this issue’s Management Section covers the issue of outsourcing. Looking beyond purely economic issues, we explore when to consider the outsourcing of IT functions and the benefits that can be realistically achieved through doing so. In our Best Practices Section, you will find the second part of the Boario Home Care Project series. In this follow-up, an economic evaluation (recently presented at the eHealth 2006 High- Level Conference) of the project’s success is analysed. Finally, in our regular Country Focus Section, we will be looking at telemedicine and medical informatics developments in Italy.
We hope that you will enjoy this issue of Healthcare IT Management and would like to encourage you once again to join the European Association of Healthcare IT Managers. Please visit our website at www.hitm.eu for an application form.
Your opinions and suggestions are always welcome – we invite you to send a message to our Managing Editor at [email protected] and let us know what you think!
Yours faithfully,
Christian Marolt
