e-Health

On the 13-14 September SPIDER and Karolinska University Hospital organized an E-health Workshop in Stockholm. The workshop gathered a variety of e-health researchers and practitioners to share experiences and future partnerships.

Today cardiologists operate on patients from a distance through remote controls and a video screen. E-Health, the use of information and communication technology in health care, is steadily changing our health system as it has changed our way of communicating with each other. But are countries really using IT in the best way to improve access and efficiency in our health care?

With a mix of a spirituality, ICT and MacDonald's the Aravind Eye Center has become one the best eye hospitals in the world. Located in south of India it has delivered specialist eye care to rich and poor since 1976. With E-health they bring specialist eye care to 2.5 million patients every year.

Thanks to support from SPIDER initiated in 2006, the Biomedical Engineering Department (MTA) at Karolinska University Hospital has taken a major step to internationalize telemedicine and e-health activities, and to establish collaboration with emerging regions. Based on the financial support obtained from SPIDER for the "ICT in rural healthcare in Tajikistan" called the TeleMedISTAN project, MTA together with ShifoCom Center in Tajikistan have established a telemedicine testbed and communication links between two rural hospitals and a city hospital in northern Tajikistan. The scope was to provide people-centered communication and exchange of second opinion between rural and city doctors, in order to increase rural knowledge capacity building, and to increase the quality of healthcare services to rural patients. Telemedicine testbed environment established in Tajikistan will further allow evaluation and implementation of new healthcare processes and services provided to rural areas.