scholarly journals Strategic Procedures and Revisions for implementing Telemedicine and Telecare in Greece

2012 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
pp. 14-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tsirintani

SummaryThe development of telemedicine and telecare has been changed all over the world the recent decades as practitioners and health care managers reached better understanding of the use of information and communication technologies to offer urgent and qualified medical services at a distance. Governments and health care providers have shown a large initial interest in the benefits of telemedicine services to reduce costs mostly for patient’s transfer to tertiary hospitals or for educational purposes but have been slow to provide strategic plans and procedures in order to proceed the projects into practice.The paper identifies the involvement of governments, healthcare management, healthcare professionals and IT suppliers in telemedicine policy development and reviews the experience of Greece in the specific field which seems that despite the enormous scientific interest for both medicine and health informatics, the practice until now has not gained the expected results. Furthermore, the analysis concerns the critical success factors that have to be revised simultaneously with the main managerial principles for the design and implementation of quality telemedicine and telecare services.

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Pablo Duran ◽  
Janine A. Sommer ◽  
Paula Otero ◽  
Mariana Daus ◽  
Sonia Benitez ◽  
...  

Objectives. To identify scientific evidence on the use and results of information and communication technologies for the improvement of neonatal health in general or specific health problems or interventions, and to describe the type of intervention and its results. Methods. A systematic review of the available evidence was performed. The search was carried out in peerreviewed journals between January 1, 2008 and April 30, 2018, in English and Spanish. The searched key terms were (health informatics OR telemedicine OR mHealth) AND (newborn OR newborn care OR neonatal care). Results. From a total of 305 articles initially identified, 10 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The main domains of eHealth identified as applied to neonatal health were telemedicine (3 studies), eLearning (1 study) and mHealth (7 studies). Target population were health care providers or parents. The studies aimed at diagnosis, provision of health care and training, promoting adherence to interventions in parents or improving quality of care. Conclusions. The use of eHealth in general and specifically focused on neonatal health shows important possibilities for development and expansion, given the advances and present needs, and should be considered a key tool for the reduction of inequalities.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leming Zhou ◽  
Bambang Parmanto ◽  
James Joshi

BACKGROUND The widespread application of technologies such as electronic health record systems, mobile health apps, and telemedicine platforms, has made it easy for health care providers to collect relevant data and deliver health care regimens. While efficacious, these new technologies also pose serious security and privacy challenges. OBJECTIVE The training program described here aims at preparing well-informed health information security and privacy professionals with enhanced course materials and various approaches. METHODS A new educational track has been built within a health informatics graduate program. Several existing graduate courses have been enhanced with new security and privacy modules. New labs and seminars have been created, and students are being encouraged to participate in research projects and obtain real-world experience from industry partners. Students in this track receive both theoretical education and hands-on practice. Evaluations have been performed on this new track by conducting multiple surveys on a sample of students. RESULTS We have succeeded in creating a new security track and developing a pertinent curriculum. The newly created security materials have been implemented in multiple courses. Our evaluation indicated that students (N=72) believed that receiving security and privacy training was important for health professionals, the provided security contents were interesting, and having the enhanced security and privacy training in this program was beneficial for their future career. CONCLUSIONS The security and privacy education for health information professionals in this new security track has been significantly enhanced.


1994 ◽  
Vol 33 (03) ◽  
pp. 299-301
Author(s):  
K. Thornton

Abstract:The social changes, and changes in perceptions of the effectiveness of health care in British Columbia have resulted in a large number of recommendations in the report of the British Columbia Royal Commission on Health Care and Costs. Many of these recommendations have implications for health informatics. The British Columbia Government, in outlining a response, foresees a major change in the emphases of health care, which will involve four major areas of health informatics: network evolution, automation of the patient record, outcome- and other quality-related databases, and consumer health education. These themes are discussed, in the light of the opinions of academics, health care providers, and the health-informatics industry. The themes must be intercalated into the health informatics curriculum, to equip graduates for the challenges of B.C.’s changing health care system.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deena Barakah

UNSTRUCTURED Estimating the awareness levels of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) among health care providers is currently active area of research. This study main objective is to evaluate the medical staff awareness about Evidence-Based Practice and its constitutes , tools and resources at Saudi General Tertiary Hospitals. The study was carried out at King Saud Medical City (KSMC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The research main data were collected predominantly using a cross-sectional survey questionnaire. The research results showed that showed that majority of participants have a good understanding of the term EBP (59.7%) ,while having a vague idea (34.7%) and with No idea are only (5.6%). Although of a high percentage of the participants realize the concept of EBP , levels of knowledge about various EBP tools vary considerably The less known EBP tools were for: Confidence interval (34.2%) , and P- value tool , Odd ratio ,and Heterogeneity (31.9) followed by Absolute Risk (29.8 %) and Sensitivity tool (27.7%). Among the most known EBP tools with “Good Understanding” level were for: Meta Analysis (27.7%) followed by Systematic review and Publication Bias both at 25.3%) level . The Chi-Square tests for the correlation of specialty rank and awareness of EBP indicates that there is no statistically significant association between Profession specialty rank or gender with EBP awareness or its tool knowledge levels . Main results from this research showed that Evidence-Based Practice awareness at King Saud medical city hospitals is at acceptable level. Furthermore, more intensive education and training and enhancement of EBP resources IT medical education resources are needed to increase its knowledge and understanding , and to support the diffusion of Evidence-Based Practice in daily practice.


2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bev O O'Connell ◽  
Joan Ostaszkiewicz

As the number of people under the age of 65 declines, the number over 65 will double in the next half century. By 2031, it is estimated those over 65 will account for more than a quarter of the Australian population. The fastest rate of growth will be in the over-85-years category, projected to double over the next 20 years and to triple over 50 years to include 2.3 million people. Health care providers cannot afford to wait for the inevitable crises this vast demographic shift will provoke. To meet these future demands, educational and health care institutes should consider establishing interdisciplinary think-tanks for multidisciplinary research, policy development and innovations in aged care and health service delivery.


Author(s):  
Bruno José Nievas Soriano ◽  
Sonia García Duarte ◽  
Ana María Fernández Alonso ◽  
Antonio Bonillo Perales ◽  
Tesifón Parrón Carreño

BACKGROUND Information and communication technologies have changed the way we access, analyse and use health information. eHealth is a new concept that has been in use for almost two decades. Nevertheless, even today, there is little consensus on eHealth definitions, its main advantages or disadvantages and the future development of eHealth research. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to define the concept of eHealth, recognise its main advantages and potential harms or challenges and acknowledge the aspects of eHealth that need to be explored in future research. METHODS A literature review was conducted by searching all peer-reviewed articles published prior to February 2019 in PubMed. The search was conducted using the following keywords: «eHealth», «eHealth definition», «eHealth advantages», «eHealth problems» and «eHealth future». Of the numerous articles retrieved we analysed the titles, their abstracts, the language and if we could access full-text versions. We were able to select one hundred articles that included contents related to our objectives. RESULTS Of the one hundred articles reviewed, twenty studies contained eHealth definitions. The more mentioned aspects, within the definitions, were the information and communication technologies, health care delivery, the Internet and the importance of being user centred. Twenty nine articles mentioned advantages. The literature showed that the main advantage was that eHealth improved the accessibility to health information, followed by the chance of tailoring the health interventions. Other themes that emerged were user empowerment or the opportunity to reduce costs. Seventy three articles mentioned eHealth disadvantages. The most quoted was the poor quality of the information available, followed by the user’s difficulty to properly evaluate that quality, the existence of technical or not easily understandable information, or the risk of potential harms. Forty articles mentioned recommendations for future eHealth research. The most cited proposals were to improve user’s health and eHealth literacy, and health care providers implication in eHealth development and delivery. CONCLUSIONS Despite not finding consensus around the eHealth definition, we have found some features that can help to define eHealth as the delivery of user centred health care services through information and communication technologies, mainly Internet. The main advantages of using eHealth services are the improvement of accessibility to health, the opportunity to tailor the interventions, user empowerment and cost-effectiveness. Among the literature there are concerns about quality, information being intelligible, the digital divide or the risk of potential harms. Most mentioned guidelines for the future are to improve user’s health and eHealth literacy, health care providers implication in eHealth development and delivery, and the need of more research about the effectiveness of the eHealth interventions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Forbes ◽  
Pornpit Wongthongtham

Purpose – There is an increasing interest in using information and communication technologies to support health services. But the adoption and development of even basic ICT communications services in many health services is limited, leaving enormous gaps in the broad understanding of its role in health care delivery. The purpose of this paper is to address a specific (intercultural) area of healthcare communications consumer disadvantage; and it examines the potential for ICT exploitation through the lens of a conceptual framework. The opportunity to pursue a new solutions pathway has been amplified in recent times through the development of computer-based ontologies and the resultant knowledge from ontologist activity and consequential research publishing. Design/methodology/approach – A specific intercultural area of patient disadvantage arises from variations in meaning and understanding of patient and clinician words, phrases and non-verbal expression. Collection and localization of data concepts, their attributes and individual instances were gathered from an Aboriginal trainee nurse focus group and from a qualitative gap analysis (QGA) of 130 criteria-selected sources of literature. These concepts, their relationships and semantic interpretations populate the computer ontology. The ontology mapping involves two domains, namely, Aboriginal English (AE) and Type II diabetes care guidelines. This is preparatory to development of the Patient Practitioner Assistive Communications (PPAC) system for Aboriginal rural and remote patient primary care. Findings – The combined QGA and focus group output reported has served to illustrate the call for three important drivers of change. First, there is no evidence to contradict the hypothesis that patient-practitioner interview encounters for many Australian Aboriginal patients and wellbeing outcomes are unsatisfactory at best. Second, there is a potent need for cultural competence knowledge and practice uptake on the part of health care providers; and third, the key contributory component to determine success or failures within healthcare for ethnic minorities is communication. Communication, however, can only be of value in health care if in practice it supports shared cognition; and mutual cognition is rarely achievable when biopsychosocial and other cultural worldview differences go unchallenged. Research limitations/implications – There has been no direct engagement with remote Aboriginal communities in this work to date. The authors have initially been able to rely upon a cohort of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people with relevant cultural expertise and extended family relationships. Among these advisers are health care practitioners, academics, trainers, Aboriginal education researchers and workshop attendees. It must therefore be acknowledged that as is the case with the QGA, the majority of the concept data is from third parties. The authors have also discovered that urban influences and cultural sensitivities tend to reduce the extent of, and opportunity to, witness AE usage, thereby limiting the ability to capture more examples of code-switching. Although the PPAC system concept is qualitatively well developed, pending future work planned for rural and remote community engagement the authors presently regard the work as mostly allied to a hypothesis on ontology-driven communications. The concept data population of the AE home talk/health talk ontology has not yet reached a quantitative critical mass to justify application design model engineering and real-world testing. Originality/value – Computer ontologies avail us of the opportunity to use assistive communications technology applications as a dynamic support system to elevate the pragmatic experience of health care consultations for both patients and practitioners. The human-machine interactive development and use of such applications is required just to keep pace with increasing demand for healthcare and the growing health knowledge transfer environment. In an age when the worldwide web, communications devices and social media avail us of opportunities to confront the barriers described the authors have begun the first construction of a merged schema for two domains that already have a seemingly intractable negative connection. Through the ontology discipline of building syntactically and semantically robust and accessible concepts; explicit conceptual relationships; and annotative context-oriented guidance; the authors are working towards addressing health literacy and wellbeing outcome deficiencies of benefit to the broader communities of disadvantage patients.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emre Sezgin ◽  
Garey Noritz ◽  
Simon Lin ◽  
Yungui Huang

UNSTRUCTURED Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) require more than the usual care management and coordination efforts from caregivers and health care providers (HCP). Health information and communication technologies can potentially facilitate these efforts in order to increase the quality of care received by CSHCN. In this study, we assessed the feasibility of a voice-enabled medical diary app (SpeakHealth). Following a mixed methods approach, caregivers of CSHCN were interviewed (n=10) and surveyed (n=86) about their care management and communication technology use. Only interviewed participants were introduced to SpeakHealth app prototype, and they tested the app during the interview session. In addition, we interviewed complex care HCPs (n=15) to understand their perception of the value of a home medical diary like SpeakHealth app. Overall, the findings demonstrated the needs and challenges for caregivers of CSHCN and opportunities of voice interactive medical diary apps in care management and coordination. We also reported the themes for enablers and barriers in care communication and communication technologies. We believe the perspectives of caregiver and providers suggested both benefits and challenges in using SpeakHealth app for medical note taking and health events tracking at home. We believe the findings could inform researchers and developers about development and use of a voice-enabled medical diary app.


Author(s):  
Rocci Luppicini ◽  
Victoria Aceti

Communication and information sharing is an important aspect of healthcare information technology and mHealth management. A main requirement in the quality of patient care is the ability of all health care participants to communicate. Research illustrates that the complexity of communicating within the health care system hinders the quality of health care service delivery. Health informatics have been touted as a way to improve communication deficiencies, which has led to the exponential growth of health informatics integration. However, research still lags in understanding how health informatics affects patient care, health professional work routines, and the overall health care system. This study investigates the extent to which mHealth technologies influence communication information sharing patterns between interdisciplinary health care providers in the delivery of health care services. This study was conducted at Hamilton Health Sciences and through a sociotechnical approach, focuses on both the end user’s experiences with mHealth in daily work communication scenarios, and the extent to which mHealth use affects interdisciplinary communication. Results indicate that there are several mitigating factors which influence communication patterns using mHealth technologies, including: information sharing, mobility, ergonomic and system design.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document