First ERCIM Health and Information Technology Workshop

by Vesa Pakarinen

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The first workshop of ERCIM Working Group Helath and Information Technology (HIT) was held on 26 May during the ERCIM-week at GMD in Sankt Augustin, Germany. The participants came from six different ERCIM member organisations: CLRC, FORTH, GDM, INRIA, SGFI and VTT. In addition, INESC had sent their written contribution.

Invited speaker, Peter Fatelnig from European Commission (Directorate-General XIII: Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research:Telematics application for health) gave information about the Background & Status of the activities on the preparation of the 5th Framework Programme. The introductions and discussions at the workshop took also note on the Report of the Strategic Requirements Board (Health Telematics) that is available at http://www.ehto.be/ht_projects/report_board/index.html

The purpose of the workshop was to exchange ideas for possible co-operation for the future project proposals among ERCIM members. It was also decided that ERCIM members may contact each other directly about mutual interest areas. However, the chairman should be informed also to avoid overlapping proposals. All the introductions and the program itself are linked through ERCIM-pages and can be seen at http://www.vtt.fi/tte/tre/projects/ercim/workshop.htm

In the planned Thematic Program Creating a User-Friendly Information society (TP2) one of the key actions is Systems and Services for the Citizen. The aim of this key action is to provide users with easier access at the lowest cost to quality general-interest services and boost the industry providing these services. Concerning the priorities of Health and ageing, disability and other special needs, the objectives are:

• new generation computerised clinical systems
• advanced telemedicine services
• health network applications to support health professionals, continuity of care and health service management
• intelligent systems and services allowing citizens to assume greater participation and responsibility for their own health.

RTD priorities for professional health care contain:

systems enhancing the ability of health care professionals for prevention, diagnosis, care and rehabilitation, eg intelligent systems for non-invasive diagnosis and therapy, intelligent medical assistants, advanced medical imaging, advanced telemedicine applications, 'virtual hospitals' offering single point-of-entry services, high-speed secure networks and applications for linking hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, primary care and social centres for continuity of care, health service workflow management and re-engineering, new generation electronic health records and cards for sophisticated health data objects:

• systems for personal health monitoring and fixed or portable prevention systems, including advanced sensors, transducers and micro-systems
• personal medical advisors for supervision of prevention and treatment
• tele-systems and applications for supporting care in all contexts
• user-friendly and certified information systems for supporting health education and health awareness of citizens.

Information is available at http://www.ehto.be and at http://www.cordis.lu/fifth/src/docs.htm

The chairman wishes to invite more ERCIM colleagues to the work, please spread the word and kindly ask people to subscribe on emails.

Please contact:

Vesa Pakarinen - VTT
Tel: +358 3 316 3358
E-mail: vesa.pakarinen@vtt.fi