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News  Satellite’s role in telemedicine
Telemedicine can potentially play an important role in improving health services. Ways in which satellites can help to improve these services was the subject of a symposium that took place in Italy last weekend. The symposium was organised by ESA at ESRIN, the European Space Research Institute just outside Rome. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds including central and local government, health services and hospitals, the military, academia and the space sector; all participants had one thing in common – an interest in encouraging the use of telemedicine. The benefits of expanding the use of telemedicine are threefold: it can improve the quality of healthcare services; permit the best use of often limited hospital resources such as beds, doctors, nurses and expensive medical equipment; and also help to resolve the problem of unequal access to good health care. Several working groups were organised to cover various aspects of telemedicine, including:
The symposium was co-chaired by ESA’s Director of Applications, Claudio Mastracci and Prof. Louis Lareng, Director of the European Institute of Telemedicine in Toulouse. Prof. Lareng helped to stimulate discussion by visiting each working group and asking them to consider whether satellites were used enough in telemedicine and if not, why not. The answer to the first question was a universal ’no’; answers to the second question were more diverse. Among the reasons given for not using satellites, several working groups mentioned lack of awareness as to the benefits. The advantages that satellite communications can bring to telemedicine include instant access to broadband services, particularly in remote areas where telecommunications are poor or non existent, and swift response in disaster situations where speed is vital. Satellites also provide a powerful and relatively inexpensive tool, particularly for video links between multiple users. Plus, costs are constantly decreasing and satellites are a tried, tested and extremely reliable means of telecommunication. In discussing telemedicine in general, participants agreed that although a promising start had been made in many areas, its expansion was hindered by a lack of universal standards; the availability, quality and speed of information transfer; legal and ethical concerns; security of data; funding; and a general lack of support, at European and national level, to encourage doctors and hospitals to set up telemedicine services.
Participants believed that ESA could encourage the improvement and use of telemedicine services by acting as an ‘honest broker’. That is, by bringing all those concerned together, pushing for standardisation and interoperability at European level, monitoring developments, and encouraging further research and development. There was general agreement that the symposium had been a positive exercise and ESA was asked to create a ‘permanent’ user-oriented working group on telemedicine with representatives mainly from the health sector. In his summing up, Claudio Mastracci said that ESA’s future objectives were, “to listen, encourage debate and understanding, and define future actions. It was the duty of governments to ensure good health services for all their citizens and ESA, together with the EU, will push for that”. Prof. Lareng aptly summed up the purpose of the meeting in his closing remarks, when he reminded participants that: “the reason for encouraging telemedicine services is to relieve the suffering of people, wherever they may be”. In the near future ESA will set up, via satellite, a user-driven telemedicine working group to define the actions needed to build up a European, telemedicine via satellite programme.
Intensive care for those who need it Centralisation of records plus remote access to health data will ensure the best use of limited resources such as intensive care units. On occasion patients are transferred to these units unnecessarily as doctors are unable to check all existing medical records before admitting a patient to hospital. With eHealth, all hospitals with intensive care units within a certain area can be grouped together and share remote access to patients’ data. In this way beds in intensive care units wwould be given to those most in need. Medical care wherever you are Even when away from home, on holiday or on business, it will still be possible to be treated by your local doctor by using communications technology. In cases of severe illness requiring hospital attention, medical records can be transferred immediately to the hospital responsible for carrying out treatment to enable them to check on previous treatment and medication. Prevention better than cure
Telecommunications are a good way of promoting health care. There are already many websites that help people to lose excess weight, which is a contributing factor in many serious illnesses. On these sites visitors can log in daily to record their weight and receive support, advice and encouragement. These, and similar services, can make an important contribution to preventing illness and reducing the cost of health care.
eHealth clearly benefits people and health care services, and indeed some of the above measures have already been put into practice. However, before these measures can be expanded to cover the whole of Europe some issues need to be resolved. These include: ensuring the privacy of digitally stored health data; facilitating and protecting the electronic exchange of health records; and harmonising health care services within Europe while respecting different cultures and systems. Over the next 18 months the Telemedicine Alliance, headed by ESA, will be looking into ways to resolve these problems.
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