HealthManagement, Volume 1 / Issue 1 2005
The
turnover in the European healthcare industry will more than double over the
next five years and mobile phone based medical services could even become the
cornerstone of healthcare in future.
Responding to this development, (E-)Hospital has decided to continue its IT supplement, which appeared for the first time in 2005. We would like to thank Philips (The Netherlands) for their financial support that has made this supplement possible.
For this issue, we lined up a variety of topics: a recent evaluation of clinical treatment of information including the implementation of hospital information systems of the future; IT Steering Committee; dense networks, healthcare telemedicine platforms, standards, continuous integration and data protection as a challenge for the hospital sector.
Moreover, the implementing mobile monitoring systems would lead to an increase in productivity and cost savings as treated patient could be released earlier from hospital. The European Union views telemonitoring as an effective way of dealing with the ageing population, as illustrated during a conference organised by the European Commission. In the coming years, EU leaders will actively promote this development.
Apart from a mobile connection to the patient, mobile users – such as outpatient healthcare workers – would be able to connect to the hospital’s information system.
The Mainkofen Regional Hospital successfully implemented such a system, as described by Prof. Kunhardt, for whichthey won the German Award for the most innovative IT concept of 2006.
In some cases, however, the quickest possible treatment is all that is needed. Two examples from Austria and Greece illustrate how data can be made available immediately during a rescue operation and how a rescue vehicle with specialists can be connected to the system. Due to the development of extensive networks, many challenges and opportunities have arisen.
Advisors, IT-specialists and many more, who have been active in healthcare for a long time, are aligning themselves to meet these new requirements.
