1 Third EHTEL Conference Brugge (Belgium), November 2002 by Prof. Leonid Androuchko Rapporteur Telemedicine Study Group of the Telecommunication Development Bureau/ International Telecommunication Union Professor of Telecommunication at the International University, Geneva How developing countries can benefit from e-health solutions

2 Who needs telemedicine ? Patient who does not have easy access to health care: - lack of doctors/specialists - distance - preparation/transportation - medical conditions - social conditions - emergency

3 Telemedicine applications for developing countries Primary health care Consultations with specialists Medical emergencies and disaster relief Access to specialized databases Provision of medical and health care information services Training Public health monitoring Etc.

4 Telemedicine or e-health, where distance is a critical factor, is the delivery of health care services by health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, and for continuing education of health care providers as well as research and evaluation.

5 During the past few years, the BDT/ITU implemented a number of pilot projects in developing countries in order to gain experience and to identify the suitable technologies and useful applications.

6 BDT telemedicine missions 1996:Cameroon Mozambique Tanzania Uganda 1997:Bhutan Viet Nam 1998:Georgia Mongolia Senegal 2000:Ethiopia Guinea Uzbekistan 2001: Nicaragua 2002:Zimbabwe Cameroon

7 BDT telemedicine projects Mozambique Phase I:Teleradiology link between hospitals in Maputo and Beira Phase II:Extension to Nampula and upgrading to ISDN connection (October 2002) Georgia Transtelephonic electro-cardiogram monitoring Malta Telemedicine link between hospitals in Malta and Gozo

8 Myanmar Medical information/communication system for the General Hospital in Yangon and a teleradiology link between this hospital and the University Medical School Uganda Telemedicine network between Memga and Mulago hospitals in Kampala Senegal Telemedicine network Ukraine Introduction of a PBX-based mobile personal handy- phone system in the Ukrainian central emergency and trauma hospital in Kiev Nicaragua Telemedicine network

9 Future potential projects Ethiopia:Telemedicine network Lebanon:Teleconsultation medical network for Ain Weizein Hospital Uzbekistan: Teleconsultation system for the Centre of Emergency Medicine Regional telemedicine project for teleconsultations for the Arab States Regional/Global telemedicine project for continuous medical education for developing countries Telemedicine Alliance project (WHO/ESA/ITU): funded by the European Commission, operational from August 02. Telemedicine projects in Guinea, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Kenya, Oman, Bulgaria

10 5 main islands 13,677 small islands Population 212 million Bandung Institute of Technology is a leader in promoting telemedicine Indonesia

11 WTDC-94 (Buenos Aires) Question 6/2 The Conference noted that the widespread use of telemedicine services could allow universal access to health and, consequently, facilitate the solution of the principal health problems, particularly in areas where medical services are non-existent.

12 RTDC-96 (Abidjan) Res.7 Telemedicine in Africa Telemedicine demonstration took place during the conference, in which doctors from Abidjan were consulting with medical specialists in Milan (Italy) and Toulouse (France) on cardiographic and dermatological cases.

13 RTDC-96 (Beirut) Recommendation on Telemedicine in the Arab States The recommendation invites all Arab countries to promote collaboration between health care officials and telecom operators in order to identify solutions to meet the health care needs.

14 July 1997 (Portugal): First World Telemedicine Symposium for developing countries. December 1997 (Geneva): World Health Organization convened an international consultation on telemedicine in relation to the development of their Health-for-All policy for the 21 st century.

15 WTDC-98 (Valetta) ITU-D Study Group 2 presented the report Telemedicine and developing countries. The conference approved a recommendation promoting telemedicine pilot projects and a new Question (14/2) on telemedicine.

16 June 1999 (Buenos Aires): Second World Telemedicine Symposium for developing countries December 1999 (Moscow): Sub-regional seminar on telemedicine for CIS and Baltic States, jointly organized by the Telemedicine Foundation (Russia) and ITU December 2001 (Cairo): Telemedicine workshop for the Arab States, jointly organized by UNIDO, WHO and ITU

17 WTDC-02 (Istanbul) ITU-D Study Group 2 presented the report Fostering the application of telecommunication in health care: Identifying and documenting success factors for implementing telemedicine Res.41 on E-Health (including Telehealth/ Telemedicine)

18 Resolution 41 requests ITU to continue its efforts to raise the awareness of decision-makers, health professionals, partners, beneficiaries and other key players about the benefit of telecommunications for e-health applications; to continue to support e-health projects in collaboration with government, public, private, national and international partners, in particular with the World Health Organization (WHO);

19 to encourage collaboration on e-health projects on regional level; to set up, within existing budgetary resources, a fund for telecommunication facilities for e-health, and introduce e-health training the the centres of excellence; to promote, facilitate and provide technical support and training in information and communication technologies for e-health;

20 to work with the health sector to identify models for sustainability of e-health applications, particularly in remote and rural areas of developing countries, exploring possibilities for sharing infrastructure with other services and applications.

21 The Resolution also requests the Member States of the ITU to consider the establishment of a national committee/task force comprising representatives from both the telecommunication and the health sector in order to assist with awareness-raising at national level, and with the formulation of feasible telemedicine projects.

22 Successful introduction of telemedicine services requires more than just the delivery of the right hardware to the users.

23 It is far more important in each case to find the right method of incorporating telemedicine services into the medical practice and routine clinical consultations, and to teach the local medical staff how to operate and maintain the equipment.

24 Forthcoming events in 2003 Luxembourg, April: Telemedicine and Telecare International Trade Fare Geneva, May: Workshop on “Standardization in E-Health”