EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Tele Medicine project: towards better self-management of chronically-ill patients in urban areas

Tele Medicine project: towards better self-management of chronically-ill patients in urban areas

Introduction

Europe’s primary health care is under pressure. With a growing number of chronically-ill people and an ageing population the demand for health and medical services is increasing. The Tele Medicine project aims to foster the self-management of chronically-ill patients in urban areas by means of telemedicine. It brings together seven European partners, who all have experience with using information and communication technology (ICT) for domestic health and medical care. Each of the partner cities and regions is currently testing one or more telemedicine applications for people with COPD, chronic heart failure and/or diabetes. Their innovative work can serve as an example to other towns and cities facing the same challenges.

Problem

Many cities in Europe are confronted with an increasing health care demand because of an ageing population and a growing number of people with chronic diseases. The pressure of this increasing demand will be felt foremost in the primary health care sector, which includes family doctors, pharmacists, home care services, hospitals and ambulances. Cities need to take these developments into account when planning health care services.

Description

Telemedicine is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to improve health care services and patient self management. The European Tele Medicine project focuses on the implementation of telemedicine applications to foster the self management of people with chronic diseases, such as COPD, chronic heart failure and/or diabetes. The seven project partners are:

city of Eindhoven, lead partner (NL)
city of The Hague (NL)
city of Bologna (IT)
region of Genoa (IT)
Southampton City Primary Care Trust (UK)
city of Viladecans (ES)
Regional Public Health Service of the Balearic Islands (ES)

Approach

The project is implemented in four phases:

overview: during this phase an inventory was made of all partners’ views and expertise on telemedicine applications. This served as input for the testing phase.
testing: on the basis of the results of the first phase, seven innovative testing projects are currently carried out in each of the partner regions and cities in cooperation with commercial parties. In Eindhoven, for example, a web-based application is being tested for distance monitoring of diabetes patients.
analysis: a team of experts will analyse the results of the telemedicine pilots, which will be compounded in a good practice guide on telemedicine.
regional planning impact: the good practice guide will serve as input in the discussion on the role of telemedicine in the local planning of health and medical services. Policy recommendations will be developed for planners and policy makers. Local implementation groups (LIGs) comprised of representatives of all relevant policy sectors will be set up to assist the local implementation of the project’s findings.

Results

The outputs of the Tele Medicine project will be made available via the project website. So far, the partners have made an inventory of existing telemedicine technologies and their success factors in the participating cities and regions.

Other expected outcomes are:

fully tested systems and models for innovative health and medical care in urban areas
a good practice guide on telemedicine based on the results of the pilot projects
recommendations for urban planners

EU involvement

The Tele Medicine project is co-financed by the INTERREG IIIC programme.

Contact info

Personal Approach Consulting
Olof-Jan Smits (Project manager), tel. +31 6 53372474

Project start date

17/01/2005

Links

Visit the Tele Medicine project website

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Quality of life

Keywords

Health