The call for proposals for the Med-e-Tel 2017 conference program has just been extended until January 8, 2017. Submit your proposal about your experience or research in telemedicine, telehealth, eHealth and mHealth and make plans to attend Med-e-Tel next April (5-7 April 2017) in order to share your own knowledge on the subject, but also to hear from others and establish new working relationships.

Topics will include disease management, successful experiences of teleconsultation and telemedicine services, smart solutions and independent living, big data, artificial intelligence and decision support, pharmacy and m/eHealth, social media in healthcare, open source software, telecardiology, quality of mHealth apps, and more.

Presentation proposals can be submitted here. Or contact education@medetel.eu for more information.

A large number (200.000+) of mobile health applications (apps) are currently available with a variety of functionalities. The user ratings in the app stores seem not to be reliable to determine the quality of the apps. The traditional methods of evaluation are not suitable for fast paced nature of mobile technology.

French company dmd Santé has developed an mHealth Quality label, which is a collaborative multidimensional scale to assess the quality of mHealth apps. The app quality is assessed in various aspects including medical reliability, legal consistency, ethical consistency, usability aspects, personal data privacy and IT security.

The audit criteria have been implemented into a web-based self-administered questionnaire, with generation of automatic reports. This method is on the one hand specific to each app because it allows to assess each health app according to its offered functionalities. On the other hand, this method is automatic, transferable to all apps and adapted to the dynamic nature of mobile technology.

The certification is currently available for the French market, but internationalization of the tool is under preparation.

In collaboration with dmd Santé/mHealth Quality, Med-e-Tel 2017 will feature a panel discussion on the Quality of mHealth Apps, as well as a competition and award for mHealth app developers. A call for participation in the mHealth Awards will be launched soon. If you want to be kept informed or if you are interested to participate, contact info@medetel.eu.

A second edition of the Telecardiology Workshop is scheduled to be held in conjunction with Med-e-Tel 2017 (as a pre-conference event on the afternoon of April 4th).

The workshop will present and discuss practical and long-time experiences of telecardiology services, as well as new approaches and successful applications in cardiac monitoring and data analysis, and address issues related to the implementation, operation and (financial) sustainability of digital telecardiology networks.

The workshop is aimed at professionals from both the health sector (doctors, nurses) and IT areas, and at hospital administrators, medical centers or organizations providing or looking to expand their (tele)cardiology services or to introduce telecardiology services, as well as interested professionals coming from regions and institutions where there is a shortage or lack of cardiology assistance.

If you are a (tele)cardiology service or technology provider and would like to attend this workshop, contact us at info@medetel.eu. Speaking and sponsorship opportunities are also available.

The Luxembourg electronic health record ( DSP, dossier de soins partagé), developed and managed by the Luxembourg eHealth Agency ( Agence eSanté Luxembourg)  is playing an increasingly important role in cancer care. Cancer is a chronic disease with a high complexity with multiple interventions and multiple actors such as oncologists, radiation therapists, pathologists, home nursing and social care services. This pathology requires a very high level of coordinated care. It is therefore necessary to ensure that all actors have access to the patient's health and medical information. The DSP is that information hub. It allows healthcare professionals to have access to and share information in a secure way to ensure the coordination and follow-up of patient care.

The DSP also comes with a "business" application for professionals such as radiation therapists and oncologists on particular functions. This tool is intended for all those who enter the sphere of oncology and follow the patient. Its purpose is to organize the Multidisciplinary Consultation Meetings ( RCPs, réunions de concertation pluridisciplinaire). As a technical expert, the eHealth Agency, in collaboration with the National Cancer Platform and the National Cancer Institute, defines the best solution for the organization of these consultation meetings for all hospitals in Luxembourg.

The idea is to allow the actors to connect before or during the consultation meetings to a patient record and to participate in the meeting via videoconferencing, thus avoiding any physical travel and avoiding having to log in to multiple information sources or records.

New developments and additions are also being considered. Earlier this year, for example, the eHealth Agency started collaborating with the IBM Watson artificial intelligence project to assist oncologists and other health professionals in the diagnosis and to provide decision support in the selection of therapy and treatments.

The Luxembourg eHealth Agency and its partners will present more on these topics at Med-eTel 2017. For preliminary information, contact info@medetel.eu.

In Belgium, video consultations are about to become a reality. This form of telemedicine has many advantages, both for patients and doctors. Belgian startup ViViDoctor, which was introduced at Med-e-Tel earlier this year, combines this kind of consultations with yet another trend: that of (health) service on demand.

"With ViVidoctor, the founders want to bring healthcare to the people," says CEO Sidar Ok. "Many patients postpone a doctor's visit due to lack of time, often because they would have to travel quite a distance to get specialist care. And patients who do go to the doctor, need a lot of patience in the waiting room. Doctors, in turn, often have to deal with patients who don't show up."

ViViDoctor does diagnosis, follow up of a complaint, provides advice, and prescribes medicine. "Of course we won't do surgeries at a distance, we only do what is possible remotely." Specialists in the database of ViVidoctor consult on diabetes, dermatology, stroke, oncology, pediatrics, psychiatry and wound care. An example of a dermatological consult is for instance the follow up after radio therapy. "How does a patient react to the treatment, does he not have too many side-effects?", explains Ok.
ViViDoctor also collaborates with family doctors. They consult about cold, flu, fatigue, diarrhea, nausea and other 'simple' complaints.

To demonstrate that the service will reduce the costs for patients and increase the quality of care, different pilot studies are running in collaboration with the Woundcare Centre, the University Hospital Saint-Luc (follow up for diabetes and cardiology), two psychiatric hospitals of the Broeders van Liefde, and with the CHU Liege (follow up for breast cancer).

More information is available here. Original article and interview with ViViDoctor CEO, Sidar Ok, appeared in the Artsenkrant (Flemish Journal for Doctors).

ViViDoctor was also just named among the top 50 startups in Belgium to invest in by Trends-Tendances, FundMe, Leansquare and Startups.be.

Earlier this year, Medgate Philippines started operations. The Philippines are already the third country outside Switzerland, where the successful telemedicine concept of Medgate takes root, after the opening of the Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Center in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 and the Telemedicine Center ReadyCare in Australia in 2015.

At Medgate Philippines, 25 doctors and 8 telemedical assistants currently provide advice and diagnosis around the clock, 365 days a year, for patients with acute and general medical questions. Patients are treated according to the high quality guidelines as developed and implemented by Medgate in Switzerland. Doctors at Medgate Philippines can also provide their patients with medication prescriptions and a certificate of inability to work, if necessary.

The Medgate concept has established itself over the last 16 years in Switzerland and is attracting a lot of interest abroad. A further expansion of Medgate International is therefore planned and negotiations for further countries are already underway. Medgate is convinced that through the exchange of experience at international level, new impulses can also be set in Switzerland.

For more information, see www.medgatephilippines.com and www.medgate.ch.

LindaCare (provider of a single integrated and unified vendor independent software platform, making patient telemonitoring significantly more efficient for healthcare professionals and hospitals), has been part of a study "The Data Revolution" published recently by Serena Capital, a European venture capital firm focused on IT startups financing.

The objective of Serena Capital was to understand the current data eco-system and to identify which fascinating things data start-ups are bringing to the world. To do this, the firm manually analyzed more than 3,000 funding rounds from tech companies in the EU over the past 2 years, looking for data on data startups. Having met the criteria set by Serena Capital, LindaCare is mentioned in the study as one of the 130 "Data Champions" in Europe!

Read the full report here or take a look at the slide show here. More information on LindaCare is available at www.lindacare.com.

At a time when healthcare data is becoming increasingly digital and people are able to move freely between the Member States of the European Union, the interoperability of healthcare systems is a critical issue for tomorrow's Europe. The major strategic project to develop a standardised and coherent system of eHealth in the 27 EU Member States began in 2012, when the European Commission set out its goal of developing an interoperability framework. Ensuring streamlined continuity of care for patients, providing access to healthcare information wherever and whenever required, complying with data security and confidentiality requirements: in order to address all these concerns at European level, the key players in eHealth must come up with common terminology and infrastructures and put together sustainable international standards and norms.

Developing European standards

One of the organisations working on the development of standards and profiles is Continua, an international organisation that seeks to establish interoperability standards for healthcare products and services. Its mission is to "put in place an ecosystem consisting of an interoperable healthcare system, which would enable organisations and individuals to manage their health more effectively, by establishing guidelines on healthcare system standards," explains Elinaz Mahdavy, Orange Healthcare's European representative and Secretary General of Continua Health Alliance Europe. "Our objective is to push for these guidelines to be adopted at European level, so as to achieve a standardised system."

Although some countries are currently doing better than others, with Denmark in the lead, there is still a long way to go on the road to effective interoperability. "Denmark has adopted the Continua guidelines and has put in place interoperable systems that work. This is a good example for the rest of Europe, and Norway and Sweden are following in the footsteps of the Danes in this respect. Our role now is to push for the Ministry of Health in France to adopt these guidelines," Elinaz Mahdavy points out.

Read more here.

The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) is the association representing community pharmacists in 32 European countries. In Europe over 400.000 community pharmacists provide services through a network of more than 160.000 pharmacies, to an estimated 46 million European citizens daily. 100% of pharmacies in Europe are computerised and have an internet connection (of which 95.8% is broadband). Many pharmacists use eHealth tools on a daily basis, whether it is dispensing electronic prescriptions (available in 17 European countries), checking for medication interactions when accessing electronic medication records, providing support for adherence via a mobile app or telephone call, or acting as the patient's entry point into the health system.

PGEU recently approved a Statement on eHealth recommending (1) to engage with pharmacists as experienced users to develop eHealth policies and services at local, regional or national levels; (2) to integrate eHealth into health systems so it complements and supports existing practice; (3) link electronic health records with ePrescribing systems; (4) and improve communication and collaboration between patients, healthcare professionals and ICT developers to obtain the full potential of eHealth technologies and build confidence and trust.

The PGEU Statement on eHealth, and an annex providing detailed descriptions of various eHealth initiatives pharmacists are providing across Europe, are available here.

PGEU and several of its members will also present a session on "Pharmacy and m/eHealth" at Med-e-Tel 2017.

The Journal of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (JISfTeH), the peer reviewed, open access journal of the ISfTeH, has just published new papers in its current issue (available at www.jisfteh.org)

New papers include a special focus on The Philippines (with papers on eHealth Governance in the Philippines, Implementation of Telemedicine Services in Lower-Middle Income Countries, Webinars as a Knowledge Sharing Platform, Physician User Perspectives, Development of a Low-Cost Electronic Data Collection Tool), as well as papers on The Evidence for the Economic Value of eHealth, Changes in Physicians' Practice Using a Cardiologic Tele-expertise Network, A Holistic Competence Model for Telenursing Practice, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on eHealth Among Doctors, and more. The current issue also already included a special focus on Brazil.

The full articles are freely accessible at www.jisfteh.org (registration required). Paper submissions for future editions of the journal are also welcome and can be submitted online.

To follow are links to some interesting and recently published articles, books, studies, interviews and reports (if you would like to suggest an article for inclusion into a following newsletter, feel free to send details to info@medetel.eu):

• Cardiac Patients' Walking Activity Determined by a Step Counter in Cardiac Telerehabilitation: Data From the Intervention Arm of a Randomized Controlled Trial (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• The Future of Home Health (HomeCare)
• Telehealth technologies could improve suboptimal rates of participation in cardiac rehabilitation (Heart)
• Telemedicine Chemotherapy Program Sees Success Down Under (mHealthIntelligence)
• Bringing Technology Home (HomeCare)
• Telstra Health partners with Pharmacy Guild for in-pharmacy telehealth service (Pulse+IT)
• Four trends shaping the pharmacy of 2025 (Australian Journal of Pharmacy)
• Telemedicine by Design (HomeCare)
• Chronic Care Management - The Next Step in Patient Engagement (HomeCare)
• OCFP and OTN partner to help physicians leverage virtual care solutions (Longwoods.com)
• 'Telemental' Health is Trending Upward (Human Resource Executive Online)
• The Personal Emergency Response System as a Technology Innovation in Primary Health Care Services: An Integrative Review (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• The Modern Evolution of Aging-in-Place (HomeCare)
• State of Telehealth (The New England Journal of Medicine)
• Survey: No Reimbursement, No Telehealth (mHealthIntelligence)
• Telehealth trial highlights potential to save lives, billions in health costs (Australian Ageing Agenda)
• How two new services are changing the face of telehealth in pharmacy (The Pharmacy Guild of Australia)
• Telemedicine rolls into local pharmacy (Victoria News)
• UPMC's Andrew Watson: Telemedicine a natural evolution of care (FierceHealthcare)
• Clinician behaviors in telehealth care delivery: a systematic review (Advances in Health Sciences Education)
• Laura's digital disruptors: GP video consultations (digitalhealth.net)
• How Professionals Share an E-Care Plan for the Elderly in Primary Care: Evaluating the Use of an E-Communication Tool by Different Combinations of Professionals (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• Mobile Apps in Oncology: A Survey on Health Care Professionals' Attitude Toward Telemedicine, mHealth, and Oncological Apps (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• Clinical Relevance of the First Domomedicine Platform Securing Multidrug Chronotherapy Delivery in Metastatic Cancer Patients at Home: The inCASA European Project (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• Impact of Information Technology-Based Interventions for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Glycemic Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• Enhancing Patient Care via a Pharmacist-Managed Rural Anticoagulation Clinic (Longwoods.com)
• eHealth Advances in Support of People with Complex Care Needs: Case Examples from Canada, Scotland and the US (Longwoods.com)
• The Digital (R)Evolution of Healthcare: How 2016 Trends will Evolve in the Year Ahead (DTC Perspectives)
• Simple Digital Technologies Can Reduce Health Care Costs (Harvard Business Review)
• IBM's Watson supercomputer brought to Finnish healthcare (ComputerWeekly.com)
• The Effectiveness of Web-Based Asthma Self-Management System, My Asthma Portal (MAP): A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Journal of Medical Internet Research)
• Treatment of Acute Coronary Syndrome by Telemedically Supported Paramedics Compared With Physician-Based Treatment: A Prospective, Interventional, Multicenter Trial (Journal of Medical Internet Research)