Med-e-Tel :

The International Educational and Networking Forum for e-Health, Telemedicine and Health ICT

The Luxexpo Exhibition and Congress Centre at Luxembourg was, once again, host to the 5th Med-e-Tel conference (April 18-20), which attracted more that 400 participants and 40 exhibitors. One of its most popular sessions - “Mobile e-Health Solutions” - featured the World Health Organization’s “mHealth” strategy. This covers the use of mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), microcomputers, remote diagnostic and monitoring devices, and GPS/GIS mapping equipment to enhance the achievement of health care objectives. Patients with both infectious and chronic diseases are meant to find benefits from remote treatment and support (mobile telemedicine), health service delivery and coordination, as well as mLearning.

Other topics on the agenda included ageing and the maintenance of quality of life for the elderly, for the disabled and for people with special needs through the use of telemedicine and e-Health tools and services.

This year’s symposium focused on “How Information Technology can Improve Performance and Quality.” Featured here was an overview of IT solutions offered by the industry with presentations from Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Hippocad, IBM, IRIS, and real-life experiences from hospitals on subjects such as datawarehousing, electronic archiving of patient records, nurse planning, emergency services, call centres, mobile solutions, secure wireless networks and more.

Med-e-Tel also featured an exhibition on some practical developments in this area, with products and technologies on offer from companies such as A&D Medical, Aerotel Medical Systems, Alcatel-Lucent, AMD Telemedicine, Card Guard, Cisco, Hippocad, Honeywell HomMed, IBM, Impact Care, IRIS, ISIS, Omron, Robosoft, RTX Healthcare, t+ Medical, Vitaphone, Viterion TeleHealthcare etc.

Some companies presented cutting-edge innovations. RTX Healthcare showcased its new RTX3370 Telehealth Monitor – an interactive and easy to use device, designed specifically to improve the way of providing healthcare to patients outside hospitals suffering from chronic diseases such as heart failure, COPD, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Other products presented at Med-e-Tel were Estele (a robotics system for tele-ultrasound tests) from France’s Robosoft as well as a telehealth platform from Impact Care in the Netherlands which allows Dutch elderly care organizations to significantly reduce home visits via self-management services for patients with chronic diseases.

As Frederic Lievens, the Forum’s International Coordinator concluded: Med-e- Tel again offered “unique opportunities to discover telemedicine and e-Health products, services and innovative technologies, to gather updated information through the extensive conference programs, to network with contacts from around the world, and to establish new partnerships.”